China (Part 3) - Xian to Beijing

It's now our last day in China (Tracy writing again). We leave (very early, too early) tomorrow morning to fly to Tokyo where we'll be for the next 17 days.

Xi'an

So we arrived late afternoon (day 19) into Xi'an after the very uncomfortable 6 hour train journey from Louyang. Xi'an was the city, according to John (our leader), with the most 'the best in the world' foods. He seemed to be determined to get us to try them all that day, so we spent the next 6 hours pretty much eating! Once we checked into our hotel (very central right by the bell tower in the walled city), we headed to east street to try 'the best noodles in the world'. They were actually pretty good. Handmade noodles with beef, in a very chilli, mouth numbing sauce, and all for less than a pound (we actually went back on our last day in Xi'an to have them again).

Next we headed to the Muslim quarter behind the drum tower (surrounding the Great Mosque) for 'the best sticky rice in the world'! Now normally when we hear sticky rice we think of the stuff that comes wrapped in banana leaf. Apparently that is only actually eaten on special festivals. The Muslim quarter was full of stalls selling sticky rice in loads of different forms. The first we tried was a big 'cake' with layers of sticky rice and then dates, served hot. Again dead cheap. It wasn't my favourite but the rest of the group seem to like it. Next were these sticky rice balls that had different fillings in the middle served in a soup. Then a few days later we also tried the sticky rice patties, and also another form of 'cake' with dates in the middle. Basically there were loads of things you could do with sticky rice apparently! We weren't over yet.

After the Muslim quarter we then headed back down south street to try 'the best sweet and sour pork in the world'. At this point there was only 5 of us left (from 13), having stuffed out many of the others. Obviously the hard core eaters stuck it out. Now I have been maintaining for quite a few years that sweet and sour is not really Chinese but a westernised dish. I completely and utterly have to backtrack on this statement and admit I was wrong. We have probably had sweet and sour pork at every single meal in China, and it tastes pretty much the same as the stuff we get at home. I'm not a big fan of it myself but can't use the excuse that 'it's not real chinese' when Patrick wants to have some anymore. The sweet and sour pork in Xi'an was a bit crispier version. Best in the world? Not sure, but apparently it was pretty good. We went to bed that night with more food in our bellies than should have been allowed.

The next day was a free day (day 20). The weather wasn't great but we decided to go do the cycle on the Xi'an city wall. The city walls were built in 1374, on the foundations of the former Imperial compound. The circumference is 13.7km, and is one of the few city walls still in existence (most notably Beijing's city wall was torn down to build the city's metro system?!). We hired some cycles at the south gate and had 100 minutes to get round. We dawdled for most of the beginning section, taking pictures of the wall. The views from the walls itself were a bit disappointing. There's little left of the old city, instead you're looking at modern tower blocks and big hotels. Nevertheless, the cycle ride was quite fun. For the last quarter of the ride, to get the bikes back on time, we decided to have a bit of a race. Obviously I won, although just, and it probably wasn't the best idea in the world given we were then knackered! The remainder of the day was spent wandering round the shops looking for some warmer clothes, as we were told our next stop would be much colder. We did however go visit the Great Mosque in the Muslim quarter. Although the current buildings in the mosque only date back to the 18th century, the mosque has been there since the 14th century. The place is still a practising mosque, with 5 prayer times a day, so we weren't allowed in the main prayer rooms, but it was a lovely serene place in the middle of the chaos of the Muslim quarter (lots of shops and stalls selling things to tourists). That night we went back again to 'the best sweet and sour in the world' restaurant for the celebration of one of our group, Mahesh's, birthday. Another fantastic meal ending with a massive cake bought by John. Not a bad way to celebrate your birthday!

The next day (Day 21) was our trip to the Terracotta Warriors. Everyone was quite excited by the prospect of this day, given how famous this site was, so the first part of the morning was a little marred by the realisation of having to take a public bus to the train station, where we had to pick up another public bus. Maybe we had been a little spoilt with private buses during the last few weeks, but given it was such a big trip it was just kind of expected. Anyway, it actually wasn't too bad a journey, only taking about 2 hours in the end. I have to admit that when the public bus was mentioned I almost didn't go! I had seen the Terracotta Warriors quite a few years ago when I did a trip through China with my family (probably more than 15 years ago now?), and although it was a while ago it wouldn't have been tough to remember with a few pictures. Anyway, I did go, and was kind of a bit underwhelmed with the site. Yes it's an amazing discovery, and the place is huge. The warriors were created and buried in 200 odd BC, so quite a feat for those times. But all the same, somewhat underwhelming. Needless to say, something that we had to do, but not the most memorable day on our trip.

That night we went down to the square in front of the Great Wild Goose Pagoda to see the fountains synchronized to music. Much like the fountain in front of the Bellagio in Vegas, although it was much bigger and actually better we thought. Great with the backdrop of the Pagoda as well (which was built in AD 652).

On our last day in Xi'an we just pottered around, until a transfer to the train station for our last overnight train to Zhongwei. This time back in the soft sleepers (Yay!) it still wasn't the most comfortable journey, especially with a 5.30am arrival.

Zhongwei

On day 23 we arrived in Zhongwei, had a little sleep and still were out at 8.30am for our orientation walk. After some great dumplings for breakfast we started down the road to go see the Yellow River. The Yellow River is he second longest in China (after the Yangzi), and a very important river throughout Chinese history, although claiming the highest death tolls in world history through flooding (a flood in 1931 killed estimated 1-4m people). So, you see we had to go see it. About 2 miles down a very boring road, we came across the yellow river. So above I said about the trip to the Terracotta being underwhelming. I guess this bit probably surpassed that! Patrick wasn't particularly impressed with the 2 mile walk to see a silty, very boring river! But, we did see the Yellow River!! After yet another great lunch, we had a bit of a rest, and then met up for dinner in the night market. This consisted of sitting at some stalls and watching while they made our, very good, noodles, this time for 50p! This seemed very labour intensive with one guy rolling out dough, and cutting it into very thin slices, for the other 2 women to cook in a very tasty chilli based sauce. On the other stalls we also saw ladies making dumplings, again seemingly very labour intensive. Loads of locals around though so must be worth it! These were probably the number 2 noodles we've had (after Xi'an).

The next morning (day 24) was our camel trip! We travelled about an hour into the country and were met by the sight of 15 camels waiting for arrival. Unfortunately this part was marred by an accident involving one of our group. Karyn was getting on a camel when very quickly it decided to stand up, not giving her much of a chance to hang on. We thought she managed to land quite well on the sand, having fallen off, but unfortunately not. Although amazingly there wasn't much screaming going on, after being transported back into Zhongwei to the local hospital, it transpired she had broken her ankle in 3 places. Ouch. Poor Karyn had to wait for our return, before our flight to Beijing, and her stay in the western hospital, to wait for transportation back to Australia. Hope you're now better Karyn!

So, anyway, the rest of us carried on into the desert on our camels. 4 or 5 camels were tied up in a row, following one of our 3 guides. Very quickly we realised this wasn't going to be the most comfortable ride! But the experience and trip was fantastic. We rode for about 2 hours before stopping for a spot of lunch near some sand dunes in the Tengger desert, which borders Inner Mongolia. Whilst we played around in the sand, the camels wandered off to grab some much deserved leaves. We didn't quite understand this part though, as for about an hour and a half the guides had to go round up all these camels that had wandered far and wide. Why would they let them go??! At one point, with no view of camel or guides, we thought we had been abandoned in the desert, never to be seen again! Anyway, they did finally collect them all up, and off we went for another couple of hours. The scenery in the desert was really cool. Although there were signs of civilization around the place, it did feel like we were in the middle of nowhere. Especially when we finally stopped in our camp area. Once we stopped we had a bit of a rest while our guides went to fetch some food, and all important beer, from....well who knows, somewhere! Back they came about an hour later with the food, beer and our tents and sleeping bags. Now I forgot to mention that it was now freezing. Having left Xi'an at about 20 ish centigrade, we arrived in Zhongwei at 0, with a max in the day of about 15. So you know that it was going to be freezing in the desert overnight. I had all the clothes on possible, and I was still cold. However, we went collecting firewood so that we could build a bonfire for the evening, and then watched the sunset with some beer, before putting up the tents. Our bonfire actually lasted a good 3 hours before we went to bed, under our sleeping bags, duvets and blankets!! However, it was unfortunately a really crap nights sleep given it was freezing and also some loud people snoring!!

The next morning we got back on our camels (after again taking the guides who knows how long to collect them up again!) and rode back towards civilization and our bus back to Zhongwei. The camel trip was probably one of our highlights of the trip. Although most of the time being uncomfortable and cold, the camels were really cool (and very tame) and scenery something amazing. All in all a great experience.

Back to Zhongwei we went, and had a few hours before our flight to Beijing. Patrick and I went to walk around the Gao Miao temple. A very confused temple, it is used for Buddhist, Confucian, and Taoist ceremonies. The place was a bit of a labyrinth of different temples and eaves, after lots of different stages of reconstruction. The weirdest thing about this place was the newly constructed 'hell' in the basement. It was a load of corridors leading to areas activated by trip switches when you approach, showing different scenes from being boiled to sawn in half. Weird.

We then transferred to the airport, which is one of the smallest I've ever seen, for our 1.5 hour flight to Beijing, arriving late on day 25.

Beijing

On the morning of day 26 we met for our tour of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. This morning was also freezing cold, so it was a little tough concentrating on the sights. Although the square itself is pretty cool to see given the historical events that have gone on, the Forbidden City itself was a little disappointing. The Forbidden City was built in the 15th century, being the heart of the Chinese empire, and housing 980 buildings and 9,000 rooms. Unfortunately all you get to visit these days are the halls down the middle axle of the compound. That also means having to fight with the 50 million Chinese tourists in there who are really mini kung fu masters fighting to get a picture of the chair in the middle of the massive halls that look the same as all the others. Again, something you have to see, but overall not very exciting. We spent the rest of the afternoon going to outdoor shops to buy yet more warm clothing before we freezed more!!

The next day was another highlight of the tour, the Great Wall. We had a private bus take us the 3 hours to the Jingshanling stretch of the wall. This part, being further from Beijing, was a lot quieter than the usual spots that tourists go to. We started our 10.5km trek to the Simatai section, where the bus would be waiting to take us back. I was a bit worried after the first bit up a load of steps to the wall itself, and especially when I saw the rest of the wall that you could see was up and down the mountain range. Absolutely stunning scenery though all along. We were really lucky with the weather too. Having been cloudy the previous day it had changed to bright blue skies. Well worth the trek, although it was a bit harder than I expected it to be, and most of the time I resembled a little old lady, well worn before her time!! We stopped half way, after passing 15 towers, for our packed lunch. The section before this had been pretty original (having being rebuilt in each dynasty), with crumbling sections and steep steps. After lunch the going got better, as most of it had been reconstructed, although no less dramatic. We were all pretty knackered at the end, and quite happy to sit in the bus for 3 hours and sleep!

So, for our last night on the tour we went for Peking Duck. The original peking duck, it consists of wrapping the duck in pancakes with hoi sin sauce, cucumber and spring onions. Very similar to back in the UK, however the duck isn't as crispy. Although the food on this trip has been the best Chinese food I've ever had, I have to say that I do actually prefer the aromatic duck in pancakes we get at home!! Has to be the only thing though I think is better. Afterwards we went for a drink and said our goodbyes to most of the group and John, our tour leader.

In a way, it was kind of sad to say goodbye to everyone. However 28 days is a long time to be with one group of people, and in very close quarters. So onwards we go.

This tour was a great experience. Although the travel days were tough (including the 4 overnight train journeys), and sometimes all you wanted to do was stay in bed, we have experienced so much, and travelled so far, in a relatively short space of time, and would never have done so much on our own. The meals, thanks to John, have been fantastic, with very few exceptions. We have seen so many great sights, from the limestone karsts in Yangshou, to the great wall in Beijing, from visiting pandas in Chengdu, to riding camels in Zhongwei. I would totally recommend this trip to anyone.

So, only 2 days left in Beijing and we woke up yesterday, to.......snow??!! November 1st and it was pelting down with snow. Told you it was cold! So we didn't venture far, just going down to a shopping centre for lunch, and then venturing to the Houhai lakes for dinner (bar and restaurant area).

Today it was a little warmer (high of 4 degrees!) so we walked around the hutong area (small alleys of residential courtyard houses) before returning to our hotel to warm up, and to finish the blog. Tonight we plan to go back to the hutong area where we found a little Sichuan restaurant, with an early night to prepare for our 5.30am departure for the airport.

So bye bye to China. It's been great. We could have spent another few months here, although without John that might have been a little difficult with our complete lack of Mandarin speaking skills! Hopefully we'll do a little better with Japanese?!

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