Flight to the Warrior City

Thursday 17 August

Our luggage was collected by 06.30 – good job we did some packing yesterday or our cases may not have made it – too horrible to contemplate. We had to say goodbye to Laura who had been an excellent guide, very clued up on the history, politics and culture of Beijing (some of which has ended up in the blog). Our transit through Beijing Domestic Airport was without incident and soon we were up and away from this easy-going city sprawling city and the eighth wonder of the world - ?, heading for Xian. (Apparently Lei, our tour leader, would probably say that the Terracotta Army was number eight as he comes from Xian – but Laura definitely thought the Great Wall was number eight – it reminded me of the infighting for which city was the third in Russia).

Beijing really is a friendly, exciting city, the traffic is definitely not so manic as St Petersburg or Ulan Bataar, although crossing the road has similar characteristics – make up your mind when to go and just GO. Although tonight we might have cracked it – just cross one lane at a time, wait in between speeding cars for a gap and cross to the next lane, praying all the time – and this is on zebra crossing with the lights showing the green man!

We collected our luggage safely, but guess what – Lei’s was missing this time and would apparently be delivered later in the day! Before we set off to see Xian’s ancient Wall, we all watched carefully as our cases were loaded on to a van - surely we couldn’t lose any more items!

Xian was the capital of China for thirteen dynasties from 2100 BC until the 1600’s. 75 Emperors are buried here in 74 burial chambers – they are not sure who is in the double tomb or why. One of the last Emperors of the Ming dynasty decided to move his capital to Beijing and built The Forbidden City. So there are many ancient bits to Xian, and although not all the Wall round the city dates back to the early 1300’s when it was originally built, some of it does – where it has been repaired they have used new bricks with the date and name of the brick company engraved on them so that you can distinguish the old bricks from the new. Today this is the only city in China where the wall is complete all the way round and when we got up on the battlements there were cycles and golf buggies!!! that you could hire to ride around the entire Wall. Once a year they have a marathon which runs three times round the 8+ mile walkway. But today was very hot again, at least top 30’s, and due to the pollution and heat haze the vista was very misty. So we contented ourselves with taking piccys and wandering around the souvenir shop, which was only too pleased to haggle with us (reminiscent of Thailand and Morocco).

From here we went to see Xian’s answer to Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa – the Big Goose Pagoda in an ancient temple in south of the city – so called because in olden times the monks were running short of meat and prayed to God to provide some; a flock of geese flew overhead and the leading goose fell to earth – dead – while the rest of the flock flew on; the monks interpreted this as a sign that they should not kill things to eat and became vegetarian – which they still are today; and the monk persuaded the Emperor to build a pagoda on the site where the goose fell to earth to commemorate the death. It leans just one metre to the west – only a little lean really. But there were lovely gardens and some interesting Buddhas, although the whole temple now only takes up a fraction of the area it used to. We were persuaded not to climb up the seven floors of the Pagoda, as this would accelerate the decline of this monument! The tickets were not only stamped with the ‘chop’ of the Pagoda, but you could have your own horoscope sign ‘chop’ stamped on the ticket – so we have one ‘pig chop’ and one ‘dog chop’.

It was then time to retreat to the hotel – supposedly 5*, but owned by the same person who runs a chain of motels in the US – Howard Johnson. The hotel is tall – 21 floors – we are on the 11th – and the building is round. We have a good view of the south side of the city (or will when the smog lifts). The lobby has a white piano inside a large glass sphere that rotates, and is linked to some electronic device that makes it play by itself – the keys actually go up and down to the music (later a lady was playing). There’s also a large pond area with fish and water lilies (and large round stepping stones which the management won’t let the children use). The room is OK, but nowhere near as posh as the Kempinski or Metropol in Russia. And there’s no pool!

We had just got to our room when Hotel Services called and asked if we had any extra luggage in our room as someone’s case had disappeared - although they were sure it had arrived at the hotel – they just didn’t know where it was now. We didn’t, and when we went down later, we found it was Avril and John whose luggage had gone missing again – once is a mistake, but twice is getting suspicious. But the “case” was later resolved – it had been put in one of the children’s rooms, whose parents hadn’t actually checked as they had all their luggage in their room. And Lei had finally got his case back too. The final couple arrived at the hotel just as we were gathering to go out – 5 days late and missed Beijing entirely – and no compensation as the delay was due to terrorism – a get-out clause in all insurance polices!

Tonight we should have been on our own again, but Lei (bless him) took us all to a restaurant in the city for more Chinese food –its still delicious - and we had a few different flavours (aubergine/egg plant and angel hair noodles with wasabi - used a lot in Japanese food I understand – tasted a bit like horseradish). Lei then walked us down to a Square just outside the Wall, across the road from our hotel, where locals gather for folk evenings. There was lots of loud music from beating drums and clashing cymbals and lines of people were dancing in long lines – conga style – to the beat which got faster as more actions were added. This is a form of social exercise – semi walking, semi cha-chaing and swinging arms - I joined in for about ten minutes and felt quite exhausted by the time the music stopped.

Xian has a very different feel to Beijing – it is much more westernized, with many recognizable shops and all seem to speak English. There is a huge American style shopping mall. This is a medium sized city in China – only 7 ½ million people.

Tomorrow we visit the Terracotta Army, with noodle making, reflexology in the afternoon and another show in the evening. The itinerary here definitely keeps us busy. My muscles are still aching, but I am just hoping to walk it off. The bed at the last hotel was very hard – almost floor-like – so I hope this hotel’s bed has a little more spring.

PS – Can you believe it – we can’t connect again. There is a strong signal, but for some reason its not linking us up. Will have to try again tomorrow.