Auntie and Mun came early the next morning to take the four of us and Kathy to the airport. We were going to fly to Xi’an today. This is where the history major in me takes over… Xi’an has a long historic past; it was the capital for a number of different dynasties in Chinese History, including the Qin, Han and Tang Dynasties. The Qin Dynasty was the first dynasty where all of China was ruled by one Emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, he is the guy that decided he needed company after he died and had a whole terra cotta army made. The Tang Dynasty is extremely significant in Chinese History; so much that Chinese people still call themselves Tong Yun (Tang Ren in mandarin) meaning person of Tang. Technology, literature, medicine and science flourished during the Tang Dynasty and were way ahead of other countries at the time.
I was extremely surprised at the differences in security and procedures at the airports in China. First, we HAD to check-in at the counter because there are discounted tickets for children and since they discount the tickets, they must see the children to make sure they are children. At check-in everyone had to show their IDs. We checked one of our suitcases, the rest were left behind in Guangzhou at Auntie’s house. We were allowed and it is actually recommended that you lock all suitcases. Again we had to show ID and boarding passes at a security check point. Our bags were put through an x-ray machine, we kept our shoes on and walked through a metal detector and we were then checked again with wands. We then walked to our gate, which turned out to be a bus stop. We waited at the gate, as we had some time before our flight was to board. Smoking is still allowed everywhere in China and cigarettes are all over the place, including the airport. As lighters are not allowed through security, they have cigarette lighting machines/water machines at the gates. Soon, the buses started arriving to take us to the boarding area for our place. We waited for the crowds to thin out and ended up on the 3rd bus out. The ride to the plane took almost five minutes.
A little while after the plane took off, we were offered beverages. I thought that all we were getting during the flight was the drink, so to my surprise, the food cart came out next and we were offered noodles or sweet dim sum. The noodles and dim sum came in little aluminum trays and we were also given cardboard boxes. Inside the cardboard box, I found a plastic bag with a spoon, fork and napkin, a tangerine and a package of cookies. We were offered a second round of beverages after the all the food was handed out.
We arrived in Xi’an after a 2½ hour plane ride and it was pouring out. The Xi’an airport was extremely small compared to the other airports that we had visited during this trip. There were less than 30 gates and we quickly got to the baggage claim and collected our luggage. The first thing we saw upon walking out the exit was the Airport Shuttle; the bus ride was $25 per adult (kids under a certain height were free) for the trip into the center of Xi’an, which has THE Bell Tower as a landmark. My research told me that I could get a cab for around 150RMB ($22US) to 200RMB ($30). However, the cabs were located across the road and it would be easier to just get on the bus, so, on the bus we went and we would just catch a cab when we got into the city. The bus ride took about 45 minutes. We were standing by the bus stop when we pulled out the hotel information to get an address for a cab, when I looked up to see that the street we were looking for was right there. So, we walked in the rain about 1,000 feet to the Citadines Hotel. Citadines is a hotel with a bunch of suites, kitchen and all. I reserved a studio, which actually had a sliding door to separate the living room with a pull out couch and the bedroom with a queen size bed.
Check-in was relatively painless, the guy at the front desk did try to sell a car on us for the next day to go see the Terra Cotta Warriors, and we were quoted a fee of 350RMB ($52US). We decided to wait until we had a chance to see what our options were, so we told the guy at the desk we would let him know. Another front desk clerk took us up to our room on the 12th Floor (room 1206), the hotel elevator was glass and we could see the center of the hotel from the 3rd floor up. The front desk clerk not only took us and our luggage up to the room, but he set up the pullout couch, brought us extra towels, soaps and pillows and explained how to use everything in the room. FYI – tipping is not required in most of China, as a tip is considered to be a bribe.
We then headed downstairs to find some food, after looking at a map; it looked like KFC was quite close to the hotel and we just wanted something quick. We went downstairs and asked the front desk where KFC was and were told down the street, to the left. We walked out of the hotel when one of the other front desk clerks was talking to a man outside. The front desk clerk told us that the man was available for hire for the next day for 350RMB ($52US) to take us to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. We told them we would think about it and started to walk off. As we got to the corner, the guy caught up with us and told us that if we wanted, he could take us for 260RMB ($39US) the next day, if we met him at that location instead because he wouldn’t have to give the hotel a commission. In the end, we agreed to pay him 240RMB ($35US) and he would meet us at 8:00 AM the next morning at that corner.
KFC ended up being further than we thought it was and it took us a while to get there. We quickly ate lunch and decided it was too late to go to the Shaanxi History Museum and we opted to go to the Little Wild Goose Pagoda instead. We tried to flag down a taxi in front of KFC, but we were told to go across the street because taxi drivers did not like to circle around the city. HUH? We soon found out why taxi drivers did not want to circle around, it was because taxis start at 6RMB (90¢ US) and each time the meter goes up, it went up by 1.50 RMB (22¢ US) and the meter barely moves. We went about 3 kilometers and the meter went up once. So, for a taxi driver to make more money, it is just easier for them to get as many fares as they can instead of driving around.
The Small Wild Goose Pagoda is not quite as famous as it’s big brother the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. The Small Wild Goose pagoda was built in the early 700s and is 15 stories high. We paid the 30 RMB admission, thinking it was pretty expensive for the smaller of the two pagodas, then found that the ticket included admission to the Xi’an Museum. We got to the pagoda and my mom saw the steps and decided she did not want to climb up it. Kathy, the kids and I started climbing up and after the first flight of steps, the kids decided they wanted to head back down. After taking the kids down the stairs, Kathy and I started back up again and Izz decided she was up for the trek, so she came along. As we started up the stairs, we noted that the windows to the outside as well as the ceiling got lower and lower. By the time we got to the top level, the window was about half the size of Izz. We trekked back down after looking at the view from the top, however because of the rain, we couldn’t really see too far.
We then headed to the museum, which had this really cool tile map of the area in the atrium. Additionally, there were some really amazing scale models of old cities. We also saw some historic pottery and models of carts from the Qin Dynasty. The museum was OK, but not overly interesting.
As we left the museum, it was still raining and we decided it would be easiest to take a cab again, since it was so cheap. We stood on the street for about 15 minutes trying to flag down a cab and people in front of us would either get to it before us or someone would be in the cab. We finally decided to walk down to the bus stop to see if we could figure out where the bus went. As we approached to the bus stop, a cab drove up and the passenger got off, so we quickly go on. The cab took us back to our hotel and my mom and the kids decided they had enough, so Kathy and I went out in search for food to bring back to them.
We headed to the main drag, as the guy at check-in told us we could find some authentic Xi’an food across the road. We went in and were told that they did not have any take out. We them walked further down to find what is supposed to be a very famous dumpling restaurant a little further down. We went in and they had on display a number of very pretty looking dumpling dishes. There were dumplings in the shape of frogs, turtles and flowers. However, we figured that these dumplings would not be good if we took them back to the hotel. We saw a busy street back the way we came, so we headed over to see what they had. The street was located right behind this huge imposing drum tower. The Bell Tower and the Drum Tower were both previously used for defensive purposes. This street was full of vendors making all sorts of kabobs. There were noodle kabobs, I asked for one that was no spicy and my mouth was burning when I tried it. We also saw lamb and beef kabobs, as well as chicken kabobs and all sorts of giblet kabobs. Note that I did not mention any pork, it turns out this street was in the Muslim Quarter of Xi’an, so pork was forbidden. We finally walked into a somewhat clean looking restaurant and ordered what is called Pow Mor. Pow Mor is rice noodles in broth with slices of beef or lamb, additionally, a piece of flat bread comes with it and you rip the flat bread into pieces and put it into the soup to soak up the fat from the broth. I enjoyed the noodles and the meat, but did not care for the bread. These two dishes were a little spicy, so I ordered some wings to bring back to the kids. The wings came out and there were hot chili peppers everywhere! I tried a piece of what looked like french fries from the top of the dish and my mouth was on fire from just biting into it.
I was pretty much done with my meal at this time and it was getting late, so Kathy continued to stay behind and finish eating while I went to get McD’s for my mom and the kids. I went to the McD’s and tried with my broken Mandarin to order two Happy Meals and two McChickens (which I was told was not spicy). Order kids’ meals seemed to always cause confusion, I don’t know why, I was even pointing to the English/Chinese menu at the time. I was finally able to get my order and begged for four extra packets of ketchup (getting ketchup from these people is like pulling teeth). I brought the food back to my mom and the kids and my mom promptly told me that the McChicken was spicy.