Xian - Looking Up An Old Friend

Trip Start Mar 03, 2005
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15
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Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of China  , Shaanxi,
Tuesday, April 19, 2005

After a final stretch of the legs in Chengdu, FSQ and I headed to the airport for the flight to Xian. The luxurious surrounds of the Bell Tower Hotel are, not surprisingly, right next to the Xian Bell Tower. The Bell Tower is smack in the middle of the city, acting as a chinese-style Arc de Triomphe for the Xiannesse (or is that Xiannites, or Xianwegians). Location, location, location means that our view is sensational, especially at night as we look right up the trouser leg of the Bell Tower.

Given that I was actually in Xian two years ago, it is indeed like looking up an old friend....

FSQ and I were treated to a religious experience on our first night here - the Xian Roast Duck Restaurant. Copious numbers of Daffy Pancakes an the trimmings are served up for around a tenner, and it is by far the best Beijing Duck in all of China.

Outside of the duck, the other reason to visit Xian is to view the Terracotta Warriors - the Binmayong. Its a one hour public bus ride to the Warriors site, and FSQ and I sat facing a child who was threatening to throw-up, for most of the trip. Mum had a plastic bag at the ready but given its small size, and kids' potential projectile vomiting capacities, I was not sitting comfortably. It reminded me too much of the time on a Southern Italian train when a woman threw up on my backpack, and I wasn't keen to discover whether my theory of no matter where you're from it always looks like carrots and spaghetti, was true or not for China.

The Binmayong are an amazing sight. The patience of painstakingly removing them from the ground after hundreds of years is remarkable. Almost as amazing is the persistance of the tour guides who remind you that they "speak vely good Engrish" in order to get a deal. We declined.

It has taken them thirty years to remove, clean and put back together around a couple of thousand of the Binmayong, so the work while continue for decades to come.

They say you are what you eat. Hence FSQ and I may start clucking and quacking any second now, because the draw of the crispy feathered friend was too much for us for the second night. They also say that you can have too much of a good thing. They are wrong when it comes to Roast Duck in Xian.
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