Cycling Xi'an City Wall, Big Wild Goose, Shaanxi's History and the dreaded Night Train !!

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Day 16 (Fri 21^stSept)


First call of today was to get my onward train ticket to Shanghai. Walked to train station, took about 45 mins. Queued up at the foreign counter which was full of Chinese. Got to front and asked for a ticket on Sunday, was told they only had seats and no sleepers, not good as it was due to be a 15 hour trip, then she asked for my passport, didn’t have it so went back to hostel, 45 more mins. Quickly checked online and showed they did have sleepers so I got reception to print of the exact train I wanted, went back, this time on the bus. Got to front of queue, passed piece of paper over and amazingly had sleepers now. I have this feeling they just shove people on any given train, and possibly keep sleepers for locals if they can.

Xi’an itself is being massively affected by the Anti Japan movement at the moment. Police have contacted hostels and hotels to order them not to accept Japanese guests, the one that was in my hostel was asked to leave so the hostel doesn’t get vilified. All Japanese shops have closed and I believe police are doing spot checks on the street for anyone looking Japanese. A Taiwanese girl in my room was stopped twice yesterday by Police just walking around. The feeling isn’t good. Can imagine it’s going to be even more Anti Japan in Shanghai and Beijing, especially as I found out when I’m in Beijing it’s a national holiday which lasts all week.

Anyways I got my ticket and headed back to the hostel. South gate which is an entrance onto the city wall is right next to my hostel so I went to the ticket counter, bought my ticket and went up. Its a huge wall, the biggest intact ancient city wall in the World, and with Xi’an being the former capital of China it’s a significant wall. There are bicycle hire points at each entrance gate. I’ve been told if in Xi’an have to cycle the wall so I did. Took me about an hour taking in the views and looking into and out of the city. Had a sketchy bike though. My chain fell off what must have been 12 times, slightly annoying as I was flying past everyone then 50 yards further I was putting chain on and they were all cycling past. It’s also very bumpy and I was getting a sore backside after half hour or so, so I wasn’t too disappointed to get back to south gate. I’d like to have a fly round there on a decent mountain bike, one that the chain stayed on. Can get some decent speed in the right places. Handed the bike back and headed to the hostel, little bit moist after that haha.

Decided I’d go look around the Muslim quarter, this being basically a huge indoor/outdoor market with various shops and food stalls, now the food looks generally really good but a lot of it I have no Idea what it is. I’m basically just pointed at a skewer with some meat on it and passing over some money. So far so good though, everything’s worked out fine enough and its very cheap so can’t complain.


Day 17 (Sat 22^nd Sept)



Got up reasonably early due to 3 Germans in my room making a racket. Had decided on the history museum and the big wild goose pagoda. I got to the museum to be greeted with a huge queue and notes saying you needed id to get in. Once again another fail on the id front. I’d carry my passport everywhere but I’m worried about losing it so it stays in my hostel locked pretty much 24/7. I walked onwards to the pagoda instead.

Once I worked out how to get past the building works going on near the pagoda I ended up near a large water feature, of which there are quite a few around the Pagoda. I walked around, until I found the ticket office to enter the grounds. I got my ticket and headed in. There are some quite nice outbuildings and grounds surrounding the Pagoda. I moved forward towards the pagoda and met by another ticket office, this time to enter it. This always seems the way here, everything seems to have additional costs further down the line. I paid the extra amount and headed inside. Up loads of stairs to the top, the views over the city are pretty impressive from there, however there’s been a constant haze/mist since I’ve been here meaning the views are curtailed somewhat. After this I went back to the hostel for a kip.

I woke up a few hours later and headed out for a wander with Dorothy, my Taiwanese roommate, before getting some tea and going to a German beer bar to watch the Everton game. Once the game finished I headed back to the hostel to sleep, a very happy boy indeed after the brilliant performance and score. It ended what was quite a quiet day really.



Day 18 (Sun 23^rd Sept)



This morning I did make it to the Shaanxi History Museum, got there just before it opened and queued for around 45 minutes. There are free tickets every day and seems everyone had the same plan as me to get there early. Once inside I was met with hundreds and hundreds or Chinese tourists either in small groups or on tours. The museum itself has some brilliantly kept artefacts and relics from as far back as 700 BC I think it was. The lots on display are all pretty impressive if you can get a look at them. Whilst I did enjoy the displays, trying to get anyway near them or being able to look at them without being shoved or people blatantly walking in your way is impossible. It was the most crowded museum I’ve ever seen in my life, it was like being in the middle of a crowd leaving a sports stadium after a game, nowhere to move and impossible to see what you wanted to. This sort of bugged me and ruined the museum experience for me. This may have been due to it being a Sunday I guess but I can imagine it’s still relatively busy during the week; it is classed as one of China’s best museum for exhibits.

Back to the hostel to pack my things and check out. An afternoon of doing very little is ahead, before heading out to the Railway station for my 15 hour journey to Shanghai, luckily I have my bed so hopefully it shouldn’t be too much of a struggle.



Day 19 (Mon 24^th Sept)



Today has been a struggle, probably the worst day I’ve had so far. The train journey was not enjoyable at all. While I did get I’d say 6 hours sleep I was awake at 4, listening to the loudest snoring Chinese man ever. Even my ear plugs were not helping one bit, so I gave in to sleeping and got the laptop out to watch a couple of films instead. 15 hours is a long time in one place.

The hard sleeper seat is exactly that, a very thin mattress sort of thing on a hard base. It had space for my bags underneath but that was the only positive, definitely not the most comfortable method of transport but I reckon I’ll have to deal with far worse whilst I’m away.

Arrived in Shanghai and 4 stops later on metro got to my hostel. Had a few hours kip to catch up from the train and then headed out for my first view of the city, just after sunset. I’m about a 2 minute walk to the riverside and the built up mecca that is Shanghai, the skyline reminding me somewhat of Hong Kong but not quite on such a crowded scale. There’s a lot bigger area here to develop so everything isn’t quite so crammed. I walked down the river for 30 mins or so before heading back. I will definitely be going down there in the evenings again, but this time with my camera. Early night needed after a shocker of a previous night.


Coming next - Shanghai

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Photos

Big Wild Goose Pagoda
Went for some creative flair here !!

Muslim Quarter
Busy place, nice food !!

View from North West corner of City Wall

Comments

[Brian]

Cool
Sounds like a great trip so far mate - enjoying the blog keep having fun

[Zico1878]

It beats sitting around an office in Douglas mate, can promise you that !! :)