We got the fast train from Beijing. It still takes 9 hours but was better for us
as all of the other options are sleepers and we wanted to see a bit of China on the
way. It wasn’t that fast (up to 100mph) until we got to Zhengzhou. At that point
we all swivelled our chairs round and got up to 150mph at times on the second half
of the journey. We checked where our hotel was before we left Beijing. Unfortunately
we found out that there are two hotels with the same name in Xi’an and we thought
we may have been looking at reviews for the other one.
We were right. We should have known - the word ‘alley’ in the hotel’s address should
have rang alarm bells. The taxi driver didn’t have a clue where the hotel is but
we’re getting used to that now. Even after he rang the hotel he still didn’t know.
The good news is that he didn’t rip us off (hurrah). Unlike all of the taxi drivers
in Beijing, his meter wasn’t ‘broken’. The hotel isn’t great. The aircon is ‘under
maintenance’ and our room is on the south side of the building so it is always a
bit too hot. It would be fine if there was a ceiling fan but ‘why fit a fan when
you have aircon?’
All of the tourist sites in Xi’an have been closed since we got here because of fear
of protests related to the diplomatic spat between China and Japan over a few uninhabited
islands. The whole thing goes back decades but the main thrust is that Japan was
awarded the islands in the 70’s by the west as part of a thank-you for being good
after the war. China wasn’t involved in the talks that led up to this and doesn’t
recognise Japan’s ownership. As long as no one mentioned the islands everything was
fine. Japan has stirred things up by buying some of the islands off their private
owner. Now life has become very difficult for Japanese people in China with embassies
and hotels attacked (not our hotel obviously - no one know where it is). All very
last century - I thought we did things differently now. Sirens just like your classic
WWII air raid sirens went off the other morning. It was probably just a test but
what threat is it to warn of? The smog is particularly thick today stay indoors?
(We later found out it was a reminder, lest anyone forget, of the day that Japan
invaded China in 1931)
We have spent the last couple of days pounding the streets trying to find something
that wasn’t closed. Yesterday we succeeded when we found the Great Mosque. This is
unlike any mosque we’ve seen before - the Chinese influence is very strong, even
the minaret looks like a pagoda. Walking the streets has meant we’ve passed a lot
of street food vendors so we’ve been trying a few new things: nice looking round
‘pitta breads’ stuffed with vegetables - ok but bread disappointing; mini open-ended
‘spring rolls’ - very nice except only the spinach(?) one didn’t have tiny bits of
meat chopped up in it; pizza sized flatbread with spicy sauce and spring onions on
it chopped up into bite-sized pieces and put into a paper bag - recommended.
The money in China can be frustrating. There are few coins in circulation and there
are banknotes that go down to 1p in value. Every transaction results in you stuffing
another 15 notes into your pocket to join the hundreds already in there. It does
give the impression that you have plenty of money to hand while, in reality, you
may only have a couple of quid (still enough for a night out if you hang out with
the locals).
Today we’ve been to see the Terracotta Warriors, or the Terracotta Worriers as one
shop had it. We even met the guy who discovered them while digging a well in the
1970s - he was in signing books. They are as impressive as you might imagine, the
scale of the pits they were found in is staggering. When they were dug out of the
clay they still had the colour that they had been painted with although that has
faded rapidly once they were exposed to the light. Very sensibly the areas that haven’t
been excavated yet (more than half the site) are being left until they can be sure
that they can stop the colours fading.
The Terracotta Warriors were the army that China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang,
had created to protect him in the afterlife. He did a lot during his 36 years of
rule (starting when he was 13), paraphrasing Lonely Planet: A classic overachiever,
he standardised measurements, currency and writing; built over 6400km of new roads
and canals and conquered six major kingdoms before he turned 40. At the same time
he did so many bad things that he’s the sort of tyrant who gives tyrants a bad name.
We were due to visit his tomb as well today but it is closed. After years of reluctance
to go anywhere near a tomb that is supposed to have all sorts of Indiana Jones style
booby traps plus ‘rivers of mercury’ the tomb is being excavated (very carefully)
in a process that will take years.
Last night we went down Xi’an’s bar and club street, Defu Xiang, for something to
eat. Everywhere was quiet when we arrived so we picked somewhere and watched the
place across the street fill up rapidly while no one else came to our bar. One reason
may be that, while our bar had a menu, if you ordered anything off it the staff disappeared
down the street to reappear 10 minutes later with your meal on a tray. Having said
that the food was great - we just don’t know where it came from. We had a bottle
of Chinese ‘Great Wall’ dry red wine. A bit rough to start with but gets better as
you acclimatise.
23rd September - Xi’an
We’re staying for a couple of nights at the apartment for panda volunteers in Xi’an.
Lots of tourist sites are still closed because of protests. This time it is Muslims
protesting about the amateur film from YouTube and apparently Americans are being
targeted. While we were comfortable we wouldn’t be mistaken for Japanese we’re less
sure about being mistaken for American. As it is primarily sights up to and including
the city wall that are affected we have been visiting some places outside the walls
including:
The Big Wild Goose Pagoda - This large, seven tier, brick-built pagoda was constructed
to store Buddhist relics brought back from India in 652. We hadn’t realised that
pagodas are ornate stupas. The stupas in Sri-lanka are much simpler hemi-spherical
structures. In the pagoda there was a display showing how the shape had evolved over
time. Unfortunately the smog has returned so the view from the top of the pagoda
was restricted. Went to First Noodle Under the Sun for tea which we had looked for
but not found on a couple of occasions but which we stumbled upon on our way from
the Pagoda. Karen opted for their speciality, a single 3.8m long noodle about 50mm
wide that comes with two bowls of different flavoured soup and instructions on how
to eat it. We hired bikes to get to the pagoda and managed ok with the traffic although
we did get expelled from a park at one point.
The Tang Paradise - This just looks like a large park on the map but is half way
to being a Disney-Land style theme park. There are electric buggies to whisk you
around from one themed area to another. Barely audible speech in English and Chinese
is piped through speakers disguised as rocks spread throughout the park and there
are signs suggesting that they are pumping air-freshener into the park - the first
external air freshener we’ve ever come across. There are events scattered throughout
the park, we saw people dancing and doing acrobatics on stilts, a play and a promenade
play. We would have seen more if we had been given one of the schedules that we saw
the locals checking (and if, more importantly, we could read Chinese). We stopped
at a western style cafe on the way home from the paradise and walked past the pagoda
again on the way to catch our first local Chinese bus home. There was an ad hoc drumming
group playing in a pavilion and some older Chinese guys cracking whips - all very
atmospheric We were fully prepared to get on our a bus when a taxi dropped someone
off just beside us which we took as a sign and hopped in.
8th October - Back in Xi’an
Back in Xi'an with three important tasks to complete:
1. Phil needs a haircut!
2. Get rid of the terracotta warrior by whatever means necessary
3. Fill out Vietnam visa forms
Phil got his hair cut over the course of what seemed like two hours but was probably
much shorter. After much discussion he has ended up with a style that would probably
be more appropriate on a much younger Chinese man. His hair’s definitely shorter
though and that was the main requirement. At £1.50 it came in under budget as well.
We asked the hotel for the closing time of post office, rather than telling us they
say someone is coming to collect parcel. Man turns up, says it will cost £70 (to
post a £20 terracotta warrior figure). We query this, price drops to £64. In the
meantime he removes and discards all of the crumpled newspaper that has been carefully
packed around the figure. We say the price still too high and don't send it. Why
did we ever buy the thing!!
Try again two days later - this time we go straight to the post office. We had checked
how much it should have cost and, for the express service the hotel guy was offering,
it should have been £42. The £64/70 he was charging included a significant margin
for his trouble. We found that in Shanghai they use crumpled newspaper to pack boxes
so we started collecting old papers to use (again). Get to the post office - can't
use newspaper - the risks of the local horoscopes being read outside China are too
high (haven't they heard of the internet?). Spend an hour walking round local streets
looking in bins for discarded bubble wrap which the locals found quite amusing. Returned
to the post office with small amount of bubble wrap and two English-language Chinese
papers (surely they will be ok?). Sadly no, but after scavenging around the post
office for scrap paper we manage to get enough to protect the terracotta warrior
from minor collisions. We opt for surface mail and it costs £16, less than one quarter
of the price we were originally quoted. All of the staff in the (strangely quiet)
post office joined in and we got the parcel wrapped in official China Post tape and
had GB written in Chinese characters on the address label so there would be no doubt.
Went to see the film 'Looper' but arrived when the dubbed version was about to be
shown rather than the subtitled one. Chose to watch 'Taken 2' instead. We had watched
the original, Taken, only two days before (thanks Dick) so we knew the score. Without
wanting to spoil the film for anyone it does look like they've left the way clear
for a 'Taken 3' if number 2 does well enough. We wouldn't recommend Taken 2, if you've
seen Taken the two film’s scenes can be swapped between films without affecting the
plot. The Chinese cinema wasn't as good as the Russian and Japanese ones (sticky
floor, people making and receiving phone calls) but we're still managing to see a
film in every country.
We were a little worried that the 'visa on arrival' Vietnamese visa we had arranged
may just be an internet scam (especially as we couldn't access the website from China)
so there was a chance they wouldn't allow us on to the plane to Vietnam. In the event
it didn't matter as they only checked us on to the first leg of our flight (Xi'an
- Guangzhou - Hanoi) leaving someone else to sort out the visa issue. This meant
that we would have to collect our bags and check in for the next leg of the flight
ourselves. Doesn't sound too bad when we're due to have 2 hours in Guangzhou. Less
appealing when we've sat in a stationary plane for 40 minutes at Xi'an. We sprinted
through Guangzhou airport on a cocktail of anxiety and adrenalin. You've probably
seen something similar at an airport before: two people, eyes wide open, heads turning
as they scan continuously and fruitlessly for useful information, the characteristic
smell of burning trolley wheel rubber as they take another corner too fast to try
to shave a second off the time before they arrive at the check-in desk too late.
Luckily our bags were some of the first off the plane, we found the right check-in
desk straight away (they told us we were very late) and they were happy with our
internet-scam visa letter.
'Visa on arrival' turns out not to be a scam after all as the large desk titled 'Visa
on Arrival' at Hanoi airport testified. We interrupt someone's computer game for
a short time while we are looked up and, yes, we are on the list. Got some money
out at the airport. Unfortunately the upper limit on the machine is only 2,000,000
Dong (about £60) and this comes as 4 500,000 dong notes - not ideal for taxi fares.
Not as inappropriate as the ATM in Russia that gave me 10,000 rubles (£200) in two
5,000 ruble (£100) notes - very handy down the convenience store. Conversely an ATM
here in Hanoi gave me 3,000,000 Dong (£100) as 30 100,000 Dong (£3) notes. The last
thing I thought this trip would do was give me a new respect for the no-nonsense
cash machines (£10 and £20 only, thank you very much) of the UK.
A reader has suggested a similarity between the pandas we have been looking after
(Zhuzhu: clever and dextrous; Yangyang: Active but not particularly bright) and the
Liverpool pandas Juju and Gazgaz. We have found some library pictures of Juju (left)
and Gazgaz (right).
It may be tempting to think that, while Juju is holding both her apples, she is planning
the afternoon's activities and what she will have for dinner while Gazgaz has already
forgotten about the second apple’s arrival and will get a pleasant surprise to find
it on the floor after finishing the first apple (each day holds many surprises).
This would, of course, be baseless conjecture.
Have a look at a feature-length movie of Gazgaz’s latest antics by clicking here.
We got the fast train from Beijing. It still takes 9 hours but was better for us
as all of the other options are sleepers and we wanted to see a bit of China on the
way. It wasn’t that fast (up to 100mph) until we got to Zhengzhou. At that point
we all swivelled our chairs round and got up to 150mph at times on the second half
of the journey. We checked where our hotel was before we left Beijing. Unfortunately
we found out that there are two hotels with the same name in Xi’an and we thought
we may have been looking at reviews for the other one.
We have spent the last couple of days pounding the streets trying to find something
that wasn’t closed. Yesterday we succeeded when we found the Great Mosque. This is
unlike any mosque we’ve seen before -
Today we’ve been to see the Terracotta Warriors, or the Terracotta Worriers as one
shop had it. We even met the guy who discovered them while digging a well in the
1970s -
Last night we went down Xi’an’s bar and club street, Defu Xiang, for something to
eat. Everywhere was quiet when we arrived so we picked somewhere and watched the
place across the street fill up rapidly while no one else came to our bar. One reason
may be that, while our bar had a menu, if you ordered anything off it the staff disappeared
down the street to reappear 10 minutes later with your meal on a tray. Having said
that the food was great -
We’re staying for a couple of nights at the apartment for panda volunteers in Xi’an.
Lots of tourist sites are still closed because of protests. This time it is Muslims
protesting about the amateur film from YouTube and apparently Americans are being
targeted. While we were comfortable we wouldn’t be mistaken for Japanese we’re less
sure about being mistaken for American. As it is primarily sights up to and including
the city wall that are affected we have been visiting some places outside the walls
including:
The Big Wild Goose Pagoda -
The Tang Paradise -
Back in Xi'an with three important tasks to complete: 
It may be tempting to think that, while Juju is holding both her apples, she is planning
the afternoon's activities and what she will have for dinner while Gazgaz has already
forgotten about the second apple’s arrival and will get a pleasant surprise to find
it on the floor after finishing the first apple (each day holds many surprises).
This would, of course, be baseless conjecture.