Xian - The journey continues
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2007
1
9
54
Trip End
Dec 20, 2007
Xi'an,
China
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Xian. There were four bunks in our cabin - the top two were
occupied by a french couple. We all had flat screen TV's and a
European toilet to share! It was a smooth ride so we woke up
feeling very enthusiastic - until we put on our back packs. It
was raining again so on went the ponchos before exiting the building
into a crowd of Chinese. Weeble spotted two girls
with signs saying Jessica and Mike so we made our way over to
enquirer. It turns out Gale had sent over one of her students
sister called Sophie, who was accompanied by her friend from
university
Very Romantic
. They helped us make our way to the Bell Tower YouthHostel. Once again the restaurant was fantastic and the room was
great - lovely hot shower and the bathroom didn't flood. Only
down side was there was no lift and our room was on the fifth floor!
Sophie and co had disappeared whilst we settled in and returned with
medicine for Bob's cold and train tickets to Zhengzhou. With all
that sorted we ventured out with our new guides to the Muslim quarter
(still dressed in ponchos). Its a large market area dedicated to
selling the same old tat to tourists, plenty of cheap street food and
of course lots of mosques. We sampled several unidentifiable foods
and Bob spent most of her time haggling but not buying what ever was
pointed out to her.
We all caught the bus to get out side the city walls and made our way
to the Goose Pagoda. None of us went inside but explored the
countless fountains, waterfalls and the park - woodland full of bronze
statues representing the way of life the Chinese adopted during the
dynasties
Big White Poganda
.Sophie's friend had to go to lectures so the three of us went to Tang
Paradise Park. Its a large replica of what the city used to look
like during the Tang dynasty. Due to the end of their
national holiday and the fact that it was raining, there wasn't many
visitors and we were the only foreigners in the park. We wondered
around the grounds admiring the oriental carvings and gardens.
There was a show with a few acrobats dressed as monkeys. They did
a bit of kung fu and a magic show but it wasn't that great. There
was an area dedicated to the outfits the different members of the Tang
dynasty would wear that was of particular interest. However, the
cock fight in the courtyard was the most striking to watch. A
crowd of Chinese businessmen surrounded a fenced off circle containing
two cocks: puffed up feathers, pecking and scratching each other.
Sophie explained that the men couldn't place bets as this was a public
place and it was just for fun. I found it quite disturbing
personally
Tang Paradise Park
. After the buffet where Sophie did her best to get usto sample every local cuisine, we headed for the lake to watch the
evening show. This was definitely worth the entrance fee
alone! They projected a film onto a curtain of water, assisted by
fireworks, lasers and lights. Combined with several of the
characters dressed up in amongst the crowd. Even though it was
all in Chinese, we still managed to follow the 'manger like'
film. Weeble liked the dragon which sounded like papa smirf on
helium and Bob was traumatized by a green goblin that creeped up of
her. Normally you would pay extra for the show but we got in for
free as not many peolpe were in the park.
Sophie walked with us down a long road to get to the bus stop and
accompanied us to the hostel to make sure we got back OK. She had
lectures so we would not meet again until the morning of our departure.
