Xi'an, China

Thursday, June 19, 2008--Xi'an

I checked out of the guesthouse after sleeping late and cleaning up. It wasn't a bad place to be. But because it is a Chinese-style courtyard complex, there are no exterior windows. All windows face into the walkways of the courtyard. I like to have light from outside coming into my room. Otherwise, it was clean, attractive, and with new furnishings since it is only one year old.

I walked about two blocks and checked into a business class hotel--3 stars. The room is a bit bigger and has a huge window letting light enter. The best way to describe it is that it seems like any major chain hotel room in the U.S. It also inclues a buffet breakfast each morning. (The guesthouse didn't, but it had free internet.) I got a good rate on the hotel room by using www.chinahotels.org. All hotels post their regular rates here, and the room I am paying 228 yuan per night to occupy would have rented for 450 yuan if I had just walked into the lobby to get a room.

I did as the guidebook suggested and went to get my outbound train ticket as my first outing in Xi'an. To get sleeper berths is difficult in China, so it means that tickets must be bought in advance by at least 3 days. Fortunately, the advance ticket purchase window for train tickets was only about 3 blocks from my hotel and there was only 1 person in line when I got there. He spoke English and helped make sure I got what I wanted. I got my ticket to depart here at 17:20 Sunday for Chengdu with an arrival 18 hours later! (I have decided to skip one of the places where I had planned to stop because it is out of the way. Neither a train nor a bus goes there directly. That's why I bought my ticket to go all the way through to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, the province where they had the earthquake a little over a month ago. I can backtrack to the village I wanted to visit if I decide I want to, but it is a 5 hour trip into the mountains from Chengdu, so I probably will just skip it. There are other villages ahead to visit.)

I explored the area near where I am staying after that. It's the center of Xi'an. I am about 3 blocks south of the Bell Tower. The area right around the guesthouse (and about 1 1/2 blocks from my present hotel is really nice. It is low-rise buildings along narrow, tree-lined streets that have bars and restaurants. It reminds me a bit of Greenwich Village in New York. And north of the Bell Tower is the Muslim Quarter, another area of narrow streets that is filled with activity--food vendors, shops, meat markets, etc. I like Xi'an. It feels like a sophisticated city--at least the part within the old city walls does. But the traffic situation is bad. There is no metro here yet, so everyone has to take buses and cars on the streets to get anywhere.

While walking through the Muslim Quarter, I bought a shawarma sandwhich and ate it. Then I bought some middle-eastern cookies soaked in honey and had them. Later in the evening, I returned to the same area and snacked again. I had a filled pancake made of two thin, flat disks of dough pressed together around the edges, filled with a fried egg and green vegetable mixture, and fried on a griddle. Then I bought some nut candies (peanut and cashew) at another stall and ate them while walking. I guess I went off my diet for the day.

Friday, June 20, 2008--Xi'an

The buffet breakfast at my hotel is much nicer than the breakfast I got at the hotel in Beijing. But it is still a Chinese breakfast. There were lots of pickled vegetables, there were some sprout items, there was a noodle dish and a rice dish, there were steamed buns and rolls, and there were slices of watermellon and two kinds of cookies. Oh, and there was steaming hot milk to drink. I had a little of almost everything. My favorite pickled dish from Beijing was a LOT more spicy here, but it was good. I was just surprised at first. Neither of the cookies was very sweet; in fact, one was more salty than it was sweet.

I decided today should be the day for my big outing here. I took a local bus to the train station where I caught an express bus for the site with the Terracotta Warriors exhibit outside of town. I'm sure almost everyone who is reading this already knows about the tomb of the emporer that was uncovered in the 1970s that had thousands of life-size warriors made out of clay to guard it. It is now one of the major tourist sites in the world. Everyone who comes to China usually stops here to see it. Of course, I had read so much and seen so many photos that nothing was really a surprise. But it is still a fascinating place. I was unaware that the tomb had been burned and that many of the warriors had been damaged. But what is whole is just fantastic. There was only one negative aspect to the visit: The signage pushes people to exit so they are forced to walk a gauntlet of vendors and shops instead of walking back through the pleasant park they have developed between the parking lot and the location of the exhibits. It somewhat spoils the experience. For me, it just made me resentful of the Chinese government for ruining the end of the experience.

After about two hours there, I caught the bus back into town and started searching for an Internet cafe. My guidebook only shows one such place within the walls of the city. When I got there, it was gone. I started asking people. One person indicated I should go to the end of the street and turn right. Then two students indicated I should keep going and it would be on my right. Sure enough, I eventually saw the symbol for "net" which is a 3-sided box (open on the bottom) with a slight inward curve at the bottom of the right side and two X's within the box. I started up the stairs. On the 3rd floor, I had to push back a heavy black curtain to continue. Then there it was. Why are all the internet cafes here hidden like they are prostitute dens? Anyway, it is not too far from my hotel, so I can come here regularly. It's good to know there is a place and that I don't have to search anymore.