#22 Rainy Day In Xi’an

June 5

Doesn’t quite conjure up that melancholy mood that Brook Benton gave, “Rainy Night In Georgia”.

Gray, steady rain as we exit the train station. Taxi touts try to get our attention but I’m ahead of the game and see the legitimate taxi queue; we scurry to get a spot in line. A Chinese lady is lured by a tout - then shouts at him because she is taken to a taxi that is about 10th in line. And she thought she was getting the royal treatment!

The overnight “Z” train was pretty nice, but still had a sour smell. Cabins were nicer in this newer one, built in TV screens, and it was much cleaner than the “T” train to Beijing, but still no privacy curtains. Excellent deal for only Y417 ($50US).

Why is it that early risers think it’s OK to wake up sleepers? The professor (the chaperone for the college guys) knocked on our cabin door at 6:30am, waking not only his students, but Zoe and me also. Whadda jerk.

Oh well, sleeping was too difficult anyway; bed too hard, jerky train motion again. The boys continued sleeping till I hollered up at them - wake up, we need some privacy here! OK, so I didn’t say it, but they got the drift.

Anyway, we are moving up in the taxi queue quickly, hop in the next one and hand the driver a pre-written card, “take us to Jian Yuan Hotel”; the clerk at the Hao Yuan did that for us - they were nice to the last! We have no idea where this place is in relation to anything in Xi’an. We got the tip on it from Lisa in Beijing - she said we wouldn’t need reservations; in fact they got a much better rate without one.

Driver pulls up in front of a plush-looking hotel, sweeping stairs and all; a doorman rushes to help us with our bags. This can’t be the right one, it’s supposed to be only a 3 star. No way to know, but the driver insists it’s correct. Bedraggled and wet we have to go in - decide if it’s way out of our range we’ll park our bags somewhere and go looking. Still not believing it, we show our card to the clerk and she nods that we are in the right hotel. She quotes us Y260 ($31US) for a standard/twin. Heck, I’m all over it. As it stands it is the normal rate for a double, but not bad & did not feel the need to haggle, however, if Tony were along he certainly would have.

Seems nice enough - elaborate, chandeliered lobby, two restaurants, bar, travel service. Then we start to see what is wrong with the picture. You know it’s too good to be true when: the toilet doesn’t flush, there is no toilet paper, the carpets are dirty, the elevator door has no sensor and slams shut on you, and there are belly side up fish in the restaurant’s fish tank. We should have gotten a clue when they asked for cash for the room - no credit cards here. But, hey, we get a free breakfast - we just won’t order fish. The breakfast buffet is all Chinese fare, and no coffee, but we’re able to find a few items to tide us over. Rice and veggies in the morning? Naw.

Decide to freshen up, and then take care of our tourist plans. We stop at the travel service office. The travel agent is very sweet, she calls her boss to come in and help. The boss arrives, we think he’s calling for someone to translate English, well he does, but all he’s asked the other end is how to say “You are very beautiful” - which he promptly says to Zoe. Through various communication methods, pointing to the phrases in the phrase book, waving one of their brochures, sign language, calendars, and calculators we purchase two tickets for a Terracotta Warriors tour tomorrow morning. At least I hope that’s what we booked because I can’t make heads or tails out of the receipt. Pay cash Y285 ($34US) each. Much more than I expected. Hmmm, cash is getting low.

Grabbing the map and umbrellas, we hit the streets rain and all. Didn’t we pass a McDonald’s on the way here? Happens to be one near the Drum and Bell Towers, so we stop for a filling burger and fries. The ubiquitous Mickey D’s. No matter where you’re at, if you get sick of the local food or can’t figure it out or maybe you just luv Big Macs - it’s always there for ya. Don’t knock it (except the fact that they are corporate swine and their food will clog your arteries and give you a big ass) one day you’ll find yourself in Cairo, not wanting any more foul fava beans, or on the Champs Elysées sans cash - and there they are - the golden arches. Ever accommodating to the local cuisine, wine is served in Paris, beef is banned in Delhi, and Kosher is kept in Ashqelon. How they preserve and respect the culture of their host country.

Still raining we head for the Bell Tower, which is in sight, but to get there you have to cross the street. This is the old walled part of Xi’an, and it is laid out as a grid where the two major streets cross in the center, and typical of the Chinese way, they have created four names for them: North Road, South Road, West Road, and East Road, those of course are the basic English names - really they are: Bei Da Jie, Nan Da Jie, Xi Da Jie, and Dong Da Jie. It’s a wide and busy intersection. Conveniently, and I guess for safety, the city planners have gone underground and created a network of connecting walkways, niftily designed like the spokes on a wheel. Under we go and follow the signs for Bell Tower. Round and round we go and emerge at the entrance (having bought a ticket below for both Bell and Drum Towers Y30 each (little over three and a half bucks for both sights) and head up the stairs of the square structure.

Frankly, not much to say about the Bell Tower. It is historic for this ancient city of Xi’an, and uses Ming style architecture. We happen to catch the last notes of a musical performance - too bad, too late - think it was some type of traditional Chinese music. We enjoy the exhibits inside, walk around the exterior, take pics, and head underground to the Drum Tower. It houses some examples of Chinese furniture - you know the heavy, dark, carved stuff. Both buildings are interesting, but maybe it’s just the rain curbing our enthusiasm?

Back down we go underground. We head to the shopping mall to seek a place to sit and relax - maybe some coffee to dry off with? Around, and around, and up. Seems we overshot it. Back down, backtrack, and up. Still doesn’t seem right. This must be why gophers pop their heads out. OK, we finally get it right.

Out of the wet and inside the mall we walk through a maze of jewelry counters that lets out into a several story atrium; escalators to the moon, shops on each level carry the same type of goods - shoes with shoes, watches with watches… The unusual thing about this mall is its ridiculously, outrageously overpriced merchandise. This is not the typical designer style mall where the prices are meant to gouge Western tourists - these products are geared toward Chinese. Maybe I’m spoiled by the cheap malls in Hong Kong…

Zoe has contracted the hiccups and they just won’t go away. We find a small snack counter on the lower level where she can sip on some tea and wish them away. Unlike Beijing, it seems that our Western tourist presence has been mainly ignored. However, Zoe is telling me a cleaning lady has been eyeing me and walking around behind me, smiling. Ah, she has come close and touched my hair, I turn, she smiles a big bad tooth grin, and then gives me the thumbs up sign!

It’s clear the hiccups will not fade away. Pants are wet up to the knees, and we still need COFFEE. Where is the coffee in Xi’an? Pop the umbrellas and brave the rain. Walking down Nan Da Jie, I spot it. King Coffee, adjacent to KFC. Nice place, on the order of the regular chains like Starbucks or Pacific Coffee, but with much better tasting coffee. Later I find out that King’s is owned by KFC - a trend? Java and a slice of delicious looking cake and I am satisfied.

Since it is just too sloggy out for more sightseeing, we head back to the hotel, stopping at a grocery store for snacks and water. (After the fact I’m trying to figure out what the name of the store was and where it’s located. The fact that the Xi’an street map we bought is mostly in Chinese and only lists the major streets in English and I’m relying on a memory from four months ago…well, need I say more?) Best guess is that the place is called Sea Star Supermarket and it is located on Fen Xiang just west of Nan Da Jie. Just in case you want to go there. Loads of pastry and breads and frozen dim sum, but shy on chips and nuts. The total got to be about Y45 ($5.50US), maybe because the batteries were pricey. The clerk makes a big to-do about the oranges - we didn’t get them weighed in the produce department. Stupid us. Guards at the exit check receipts and bags. Not a very hospitable store.

Other than the overall dreariness of the day, and the not so pleasant store, Xi’an seems like a fine city. Almost everything is “new” - meaning slapped up concrete block structures of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s - giving the atmosphere a cat-dragged-in-look, especially in the rain. A tidy but worn appearance, flat, boring looking. The city center is the hub and where all the new hot spots are springing up around the ancient historic sights. Nan Da Jie has the requisite upscale clothing stores and a few eateries, the usual chain stores. Not eye candy, but tidy. It is the people who make a city and so far I find them to be pleasant, lighter in spirit than Beijing and altogether friendlier.

Back in the room we try to dry off and relax with TV, but channel surfing coughs up only Chinese stations, ironically playing some pretty darn good US (Mandarin dubbed) movies. The TV doesn’t seem to have an option for English subtitles. After fifteen minutes of out of sync mouth movements in the non-emotive, jarring Mandarin, we head down to the very friendly travel service to map out our next journey.

Again, the game of charades is played to get prices on trains & planes to Guilin and Shenzhen. Drawings, calendar, map, flapping arms - each correct guess is rewarded with cheers and loads of laughs. Armed with info, we go back to the room to discuss. Only one piece of information is missing - what if it is raining in Guilin? Our plans there will all be outdoors. Back to the travel office to use their Internet service. Ah, T-storms for the next few days.

Here’s how it all panned out:

Train: Y400 ($48US) - train to Guilin, 27 hours
Plane: Y1090 ($131US) - fly to Guilin
Plane: Y650 ($78US) - fly to Shenzhen, 2 hours

The shocker is the cheap flight to Shenzhen! She initially quotes us Y1650, then immediately gives us a 50% discount, but then says the final price is Y650. We just don’t know why - not a math genius, bad with calculators? So, we book it. Shenzhen it is.

Out for dinner tonight to a close-by restaurant, about two blocks from the hotel, called the Banana Leaf. Photo of the place looks elegant. Reality is that they had a great photographer zero in on the highlight of the place - it’s grand staircase and jungle-effect entrance. We are greeted at the door and escorted to table. The wait staff to diner ratio is nearly 1-1; there is a lot of fussing and hovering as we have been seeing everywhere. Guess the unemployment stats must be low in China. The CIA World Fact Book says something very different than what China’s National Bureau of Statistics reports. Over a 5% difference??

The menu is about 60 pages - we’re somehow expected to share this novel while remembering the items that we might want to choose. The menu appears to be subsidized by ads, as does the restaurant by a weird roving & dancing Asian amalgam band dressed in over-the-top ethnic garb that does western pop cover tunes with violin, guitar and percussion. They ask us for requests. We decline that (and their offers to dance) as their impromptu selections are entertaining enough. They actually are annoying all the diners - but I think it’s the shtick of this restaurant.

Dinner is served. Not too Thai-ish, but OK, large portions. Again, because we came in a little late we are among the last diners - yet it’s only around 9pm. Closing time. And we know what that means! Get the hell out!

One errand to run before this exciting day is over - find an ATM so we can withdraw more cash and pay for our tickets. The Construction Bank’s ATM, next door to the hotel, does not take my card - no Cirrus/Plus logos. Hmmm, this is all very weird about the “no credit we only take cash” bit because this bank actually owns the hotel, and this bank is fairly large and is seen all over China. Guess the Bank of China has a corner on the international withdrawals and keeps the fees all to itself. Nice that they can do that. That’s what central government controlled banking is all about.

The girl at the travel service will book our tickets anyway at the lower price - we love her!

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