China (Part II - Xi'an)

DAY 4 - BEIJING 北京/XI'AN 西安 (In Xi'an: Bell Tower, City Wall, Shaanxi Museum, and Christmas in Xi'an's city centre!)

Tour guide: Tracy (aka Anime)
Driver: Mr. Li

We had to get up at 4:30am in order to catch our early morning flight from Beijing to Xi'an. Omg, talk about lack of sleep! Lynn and Mr. Du picked us up and drove us to the airport. Lynn gave us each a box of Beijing dried fruits as a sort of Christmas present. Aww! We were sad to leave Cheeky Panda and Mr. Du! It's really interesting how you could feel close to complete strangers after spending only 3 days with them, especially since Mr. Du and I only exchanged a couple of greetings throughout the entire tour! Haha. Seriously tho, Jeff and I really became comfortable with these two. The four of us together in Mr. Du's car just seemed like a good fit! Haha. Sad that we had to move on to our next destination! Couldn't we just have had them as our tour guide and driver throughout? Aww.

Anyway, we arrived in Xi'an before noon. We were picked up at the airport by our new tour guide, Tracy. Tracy was born and raised in Xi'an. She is a college student and this is only her part-time job. We named her "Anime" because to this day, we still don't know what she meant when she kept repeating this word, which she pronounced, "animay," throughout the tour. She seriously said "anime" more than a dozen times throughout the tour, but we never figured out what she was referring to! It still bothers us to this day! Our driver, Mr. Li, was quite the talker in the car, which was a complete 180 from Mr. Du. He seemed nice enough tho.

Info. Xi'an is one of the most important cities in Chinese history, as it was the capital of 13 dynasties. The city has more than 3,100 years of history! Xi'an also marked the beginning of the Silk Road. Today, it is known as one of the major academic centers of China, as there are numerous universities there, second only to Beijing and Shanghai. Thus, there are many young people who live there, and the guys are hot! They all look like Rain's brothers! Mm mmm!

Back to our tour. We were first taken to our hotel to check-in. Then, we went across the street to a really nice Chinese hotel restaurant for lunch, which also happened to be owned by Tracy's parents! Um, Tracy's rich! We had some really yummy dishes while we were there...mm....so good!

Next, Tracy took us to the Bell Tower, which stands in the center of Xi'an, and inadvertently, the center of Northwestern China. It was cool to see how the four main roads facing north, east, south and west, all met at the point of the Bell Tower. Right away we noticed how Xi'an had a small town feel to it, even though it has a population of almost 8 million people. Wherever we went, people made small talk with Tracy, asking how she knew English, etc. I also noticed how much I enjoyed listening to the Xi'an accent. It was so cute every time Tracy spoke in Mandarin! The Beijing accent was amusing, but difficult to understand, as everything sounded like, "Zai JaRRRRR! Zai NaRRRRR??" I'm not kidding, you should really hear it for yourself!

Next, we walked along the City Wall, which was much wider than I had imagined. You could totally drive a car on it! We were walking along as people were making party preparations, as it was Christmas Eve that day!

The last stop of the tour for the day was at the Shaanxi Museum. It is a museum which displays the many relics of various Chinese dynasties in chronological order. It was definitely helpful to have Tracy there to explain Chinese history to us while we walked along, or else it would've just been us saying, "Oooo...pretty!" Hehe. We made a couple of amusing observations about Tracy's English. She was pretty decent for the most part, except that she kept saying "hire" instead of "hair." Though I think the most perplexing part was how she kept saying "wears" instead of "clothes." Hahahaha. Seriously! How does she not know the word "clothes" if she's giving English tours about Chinese history?? Hehe. Very interesting. Tracy seems like the sweetest girl, but the Chinese definitely came out in her at the museum, as she talked over many people as we scooted along, and she didn't seem to care that others were on tours/taking pictures as well. Hehe. Chinese people rock! My take on the Chinese is that they are very proud people....proud about being Chinese, w/o being arrogant. They are very confident and knowledgeable, and I'm not just referring to our tour guides.

I've decided that after learning about the many dynasties that ruled China, my favorite has to be the Tang Dynasty, as it was the most prosperous and progressive era in Chinese history. It was more of a peaceful era, as few wars were fought. The Tang capital in Chang'an (now known as Xi'an) was the most cosmopolitan city in the world at its time, whereby the Silk Road reached its golden age. Also, it was the only time in Chinese history where a woman, Empress Wu Hou, assumed the title of Emperor! That was over 1,300 years ago! And to think we still haven't had a woman serve as US President yet! Sad!

After the museum, Jeff and I got driven back to our hotel and we took a much-needed nap. We were happy that we got BBC World on our TV, but soon realized that although BBC World rocks, they play the same stuff over and over again!

We had a free night and it was Christmas Eve, so we decided to walk to the city centre and see how the Chinese celebrate Christmas. It was INSANE. Aside from the deafening fireworks, there were tons of people everywhere, many wearing blinking Santa hats, Mardi Gras masks, devil horns and some even had spray-painted hair?? Christmas in China is like Halloween, Mardi Gras, New Year's and Christmas all in one! Haha. Definitely a memorable Christmas Eve! We searched and searched, and finally ended up at a dai pai dong (open-air food stall....tho we ate inside...hehe). It was cool, b/c we got to eat mutton with these bready thingys and drink beer....it was all yummy! Xi'an has a huge muslim quarter, so the food options are more varied, so I assume. After our Christmas dinner, we walked around and ended up on a street vendor alley! Woot, more food! We got a fried red thingy with kurogoma (black sesame paste), poot zai gou (that's Cantonese, for these gou-like round thingys which I can't really describe, but just know that it was good!), and a mochi thing with red bean inside. Mmm.....I love street food!

We also bought 2 mini Christmas cakes (which we bought at the beginning and had to lug around with us for hours!) to take back to our hotel, b/c hello, we had to celebrate Christmas even tho we were in China! The two mini cakes from the bakery cost us less than $7! We ended up in our pjs, eating our Christmas cakes while blasting Christmas music from my awesome iPod headphones! Haha. What a memorable way to spend Christmas!

DAY 5 - XI'AN 西安 (Wild Goose Pagoda, Huaqing Hot Springs, Terracotta Army Museum, Xi'an Dumpling Dinner, and the Tang Dynasty Show)

We started our day by going the visit the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. The pagoda was built during the Tang dynasty and stands at 5 stories tall. It was pretty, as it didn't look like a pagoda that I'd expect to see in China, mainly b/c of its simplicity. I liked it a lot.

After that, Mr. Li attempted to drive us to the Huaqing Hot Springs. However, we were in the traffic jam of traffic jams due to the main highway being closed b/c of the fog. Xi'an must be the foggiest city in the world! Seriously...you can never see anything there! We were immobile in our car when Mr. Li had the great idea of telling Tracy to walk with us toward the Hot Springs and to hail a cab if we see one. Tracy then gave him this, "WHAAA...??" look that was just priceless. But since we really weren't moving an inch in our car, the three of us (Tracy, Jeff and I) got out and started walking towards our destination. I must say, it REALLY felt like we were in China during that 15-minute walk. It was awesome. We were already outside the city at that point, so there were just dirt roads with very modest homes along the way. We walked past some local Chinese people, who seemed to be very amused by Jeff. Chinese people, unlike Japanese people, are NOT discreet about staring! Haha. Along the way, Tracy decided to ask for directions from a 5-year-old boy on a bike! Hahahaha. He was, as you'd expect, clueless and unresponsive. Then, she asked for directions from a 7-year-old girl, who may have been the boy's sister! Hahaha. Luckily tho, the girl actually knew where the place was! Woot! We ended up only walking for about 15 minutes when we found a cab that took us directly to the Hot Springs. That whole experience was just great. Wouldn't have traded it for anything! Hehe.

The Huaqing Hot Springs served as a sort of winter palace for various emperors of China and their concubines. The most famous being Emperor Xuanzong, who had a notorious love affair with his then daughter-in-law, Yang Guifei! Chinese people often compare their love story to that of Romeo and Juliet. In a nut shell, Emperor Xuanzong fell in love Yang Guifei, thus the need to decreed his son and her divorce, in order to have her all to himself. He spent a lot of money rennovating the Hot Springs for her. Because of his excessive frolicking with her, he paid less and less attention to running his empire, thus allowing rebels to gain ground. In the end, he watched her kill herself b/c that was only way he could regain control of his empire. Um, I dunno about you, but that IS NOT like Romeo and Juliet!

Anyhoo, the Huaqing Hot Springs was beautiful! It was sooo peaceful and relaxing. It must've been so nice to spend the winter there back in the day!

We headed to lunch after the Hot Springs. At lunch, we were served these yummy honey-glazed potatoes, and Jeff broke his chopsticks while trying to separate them! Hahahahaha. It wasn't his fault tho; it was as if the potatoes were super-glued together! Really!

Next up, the Terracotta Army Museum. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but either way, this was definitely the highlight for me out of all the famous attractions we visited in China. (I had visited the Great Wall once before, whereas this was my first time to see the Terracotta Army.) Anyway, I was astonished by the amount of detail and work that it must've taken to accomplish this project! Here is some more info for ya. The Terracotta Army is a collection of 8,099 life-size terra cotta warriors and horses made over 2,200 years ago, for China's first Emperor of Qin. They were built to protect him in his after-life, and thus were buried with him. The figures were discovered in 1974 by local Chinese farmers, digging for a well. Each warrior's face is distinct! All had color painted on them, but due to time and exposure, only a couple are still left with a tint of visible color. It is believed to have taken 700,000 workers over 38 years to complete! Truly magnificient. Also, there are many still left undiscovered! They won't open the Emperor's tomb b/c technology isn't advanced enough whereby they can protect the area from exposure! How exciting would it be to open up the tomb?!

The Terracotta Army Museum area is HUGE, just like a college campus! With all the trees surrounding us, I thought I was at UCSD again! There are 3 pits open for viewing to the public. Pit 1 is the biggest, and houses the Emperor's main army. It was during this time that Tracy kept saying "anime." It definitely has to be a figure of some sort, as she said it like, "The anime were standing in front of/protecting? the general....." OMG....omg...omg! Could she have meant, "animals?!" Jeff, could this be?? Or had we ruled this out already?? Omg...I need to know what "anime" means!

Remember how I said Jeff and I hardly appeared to be the most enthused tourists throughout our tour? Well, that was certainly not the case when we arrived at the Terracotta Army Museum. We were just in awe of the thousands of figures and the grandeur of it all!! We were VERY intrigued by this part of the tour, to say the least. What a way to spend Christmas day!

Apparently, last year a German student put on a terra cotta costume and jumped in the pit with the other warriors! Security had trouble finding him b/c he was so well-hidden! They finally found him after a few minutes and took him away. The truly amazing thing is that he didn't really get into any trouble!

You MUST MUST visit the Terracotta Army if you ever get a chance. I think that this tourist site is right up there with the Great Wall and Angkor in Cambodia. Seriously.

After the Terracotta Army, we drove back to our hotel and took a nap. Hehe. That night, we had various Chinese dumplings for dinner, something that Xi'an is famous for. According to Jeff's blog, there are over 800 kinds of dumplings in Xi'an! We only had around 15 kinds tho. We had ones with fillings such as, walnuts, cabbage, almonds, red bean, spicy mushrooms, duck, pork, chicken, seafood, etc. It was soooooooooo good! I want some right now!! After dinner, we stayed at our table b/c that was where we saw the Tang Dynasty Show. I guess it was a sort of after-dinner theater? Anyway, while I was looking for the ladies' room, this random guy told me that it was on the other side....and he said it in Cantonese!! How the heck did he know I speak Cantonese?! RANDOM. Anyhoo, unlike the Peking Opera Show, the Tang Dynasty Show was really good! Haha. The background, dancing and choreography were all very impressive! I ended up taking a million pictures for no reason.

Just a quick note on tour guides and drivers in China. At first it felt really strange, but all of our tour guides and drivers opened and closed our car doors for us wherever we went. They were very attentive! (Well, there was an exception, which shall be written about later!) Anyhoo, I guess they were all working towards a good tip? It was unnecessary, but very nice of them! I also found the whole situation with the tour guides and drivers very intriguing. The tour guides were all petite Chinese women in their 20s and the drivers were all men in their late 30s to late 40s. (I'm just referring to our tours, btw.) It's just very strange, b/c they literally have to spend a big part of the day with one another, ie) during meals, waiting for us at the factories, etc. But yeah, the whole dynamic of the age gap and was just fascinating to me and Jeff. Um, anyhoo!

OK, that sorta ends our time in Xi'an, but not really, as we were about to run into some MAJOR airport drama the next day.........

DAY 6 - XI'AN 西安/GUILIN 桂林 (Xi'an Airport)

Seriously. That's where we spent our ENTIRE 6th day. Our flight was supposed to depart from Xi'an to Guilin at noon, but we left the hotel at 9am, just to be cautious b/c of the heavy fog. When we got to Xi'an Airport, we saw that almost every flight was either canceled or delayed due to the fog. Things were not looking good. Fortunately, our flight wasn't canceled. Tracy helped us check-in, thinking our flight might be delayed for an hour or so, but oh, if only. It turned out that instead of departing at noon, our flight was now scheduled for departure at 18:55!! BAAH.

We were then taken to an airport restaurant on the first floor, where we literally sat for hours. Then, we went upstairs again, and sat for many more hours. Tracy had another tour she had to pick up, and their flight to Xi'an had also been delayed, so she was at the airport the entire time we were. However, she managed to find every which way to hide from us. Hmm. Hahaha. She was still her polite-tour-guide-self whenever we saw her tho; we just found her allergic reaction to us very amusing. Hehe.

We finally went thru the departure gate, where no one seemed to know anything about our flight! It was ridiculous; we literally thought we were going to live in the Xi'an Airport for good! Finally finally, at 8pm, we boarded our flight. Woot.

We arrived in Guilin late at night, and we got picked up by our new tour guide, Ping. We actually didn't know her name was Ping that first night, b/c she never introduced herself! From the time she picked us up to the time we got dropped off at our hotel, she never stopped talking. It's true! She is like the MOST ADD person EVER! It was hilarious! She was soo full of energy; it was cute! She quizzed us about China, and by this time, we knew most of the answers! Yaay! It was quite amazing to see how much we learned from our first two tour guides. It was nice to actually know things for once! Hehe. Anyhoo, we arrived at our hotel in Guilin finally, and pretty much passed out. More about Guilin and Ping later, as this post is getting longer by the second!