Traveling the World

Tag: Xi’an

Xi’an

by on Nov.29, 2009, under China

We arrived in Xi’an around 6 in the morning, something one hates to do for the obvious reason of being exhausted. We waited around an hour for our hostel to pick us up, and were relieved when we met up with them. We checked into the hostel, put down our things, and went out. The first thing we did was return to the north train station to pick up bus 306 to the last bus stop. The journey takes about an hour and costs around 14rmb.

Terracotta Warriors

When we arrived at the Terracotta Warriors (bing ma yong 兵马俑) tourist attraction, I felt sick to my stomach. Despite living here and being quite interested in Chinese culture, I find that these kinds of tourist traps make me die a little on the inside. I was extremely bored and annoyed throughout the three hours there and was pissed about spending 90rmb to see it all. In addition to it all, English guides kept hounding us to use them as they felt we were all dumb tourists. I refused to pay for one, but Richard insisted so she tagged along for 100rmb.

Muslim Food

We got back to the hostel around 5pm and dashed to the Muslim Quarter (hui min jie 回民街) to have some delicious Muslim food. Because China is so cheap, it’s easy to sample many types of food without spending more than a few USD. We first had some flat bread, then potatoes, rice with pita bread, you name it! We finally sat down at a little restaurant and ordered lamb on a stick, rice with pita bread, and some naan bread. It was all amazing and well-worth the $5 we spent altogether!!

Fortress Wall

One of the must things you should do when in Xi’an is rent a bike and ride on top of the old city walls. One whole lap around the wall is about an hour if you ride quickly, but the more common time is about two hours. Unfortunately for us, it was a particularly polluted day and we all got sick. It was so bad that a full inhale caused immediate coughing, so we completed the ride as fast as possible and returned back to the hostel to clear our lungs. Just because this was a bad experience for us doesn’t mean you shouldn’t attempt the ride for yourself! Bikes cost only 20rmb for 90 minutes!

Tea

The next morning as we prepared to leave for Xi’an, we returned to the Muslim Quarter to visit a tea shop we had seen the night before called Huang Shan Tea. The owner is a very sweet middle aged woman who can throw a few English phrases out at random times. She, like most other Chinese tea shops, sells you on the tea by having you sit down and taste every tea you want until you decide what to buy. She was amazed at my Chinese, so she gave everyone a discount (they also bought about $100 worth of stuff, which is a lot of money here). Once you enter the Muslim Quarter’s main street, turn left onto a huge street and her shop is about the 5th on the right. If you get lost, you can reach her at 13060388728.

'Great Mosque'

I was expecting the Great Mosque (qing zhen si 清真寺) to be awesome like the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. If I said my expectations weren’t just not met, but smashed to pieces, it would be an understatement. It was so boring and ugly. Muslims have been known to spend a good penny or two on mosques and their other holy areas, yet this place was beyond poor and ugly. In addition to this mediocrity, I was allergic to something there which made me sneeze uncontrollably until my eyes watered. To make matters worse, tissue was nowhere in sight, until Richard finally “remembered” he had some in his pocket, but by then it was too late and the snot was running down my face.

After blowing my nose and demanding we leave for higher ground, we returned to the hostel, packed up, and thankfully got the hell out of Xi’an. Of all the places I’ve traveled to in my lifetime, I was the most disappointed, appalled, and whatever other words you can think of that describe mediocrity and disgust. This is one place I have NO interest in returning to ever again. Travelers beware, YMMV (your mileage may vary).


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August Trip Summary

by on Oct.03, 2009, under China

This summary will be broken down twice, once by location and another time by their totals.

Train to Guilin = 212rmb (paid for Lily) ($30.9)
Hostel in Guilin = 70rmb (paid for Lily) ($10.2)
Food in Guilin = 35.5rmb ($5.10)
Transportation in Guilin = 6rmb (buses/paid for Lily) ($0.80)
Activities in Guilin = 40rmb (die cai shan, paid for lily) ($5.80)
====================================
Total for Guilin = 363.5rmb ($52.80)

Bus to Yangshuo = 30rmb (paid for Lily) ($4.37)
Hostel in Yangshuo = 70rmb (paid for Lily) ($10.2)
Food in Yangshuo = 55rmb ($8.02)
Transportation in Yangshuo = 5rmb ($0.72)
Activities in Yangshuo = 0rmb
===================================
Total for Yangshuo = 160rmb ($23.31)

Train to Chengdu = 104rmb ($15.1)
Hostel in Chengdu = 60rmb (Melba paid for my first night) ($8.75)
Food in Chengdu = 62rmb ($9.05)
Activities in Chengdu = 100rmb ($14.59)
==================================
Total for Chengdu = 326rmb ($47.49)

Bus to Emei Shan from Chengdu = 46rmb ($6.71)
Monastery in Emei Shan = 50rmb ($7.29)
Food in Emei Shan = 50rmb ($7.29)
Donation to Monastery = 30rmb ($4.37)
================================
Total for Emei Shan = 176rmb ($25.66)

Private Car to Leshan from Emei Shan = 30rmb ($4.37)
Activities in Leshan = 90rmb ($13.13)
Bus back to Chengdu = 45rmb ($6.56)
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Total for Leshan = 165rmb ($24.06)

Train to Xi’an = 209rmb ($30.51)
Hostel in Xi’an = 50rmb ($7.29)
Food in Xi’an = 101rmb ($14.74)
Activities in Xi’an = 155rmb ($22.62)
Transportation in Xi’an = 15rmb ($2.18)
=============================
Total for Xi’an = 530rmb ($77.34)

Train to Beijing = 311rmb ($45.40)
Hostel in Beijing = 140rmb ($20.43)
Food in Beijing = 242rmb ($35.32)
Activities in Beijing = 100rmb ($14.59)
Transport in Beijing = 139rmb ($20.29)
=============================
Total for Beijing = 932rmb ($136.03)

Train to Wuhan = 287 ($41.89)
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Total spent = 2939.5rmb ($428.58), My budget was 4500rmb ($656.93)

In the end, my friends paid for these things for me (thanks Alfred, Richard, and Melba!):

Hot Air Balloon = 480×2 (paid for Lily)
Black and White Panda = 1000
Red Panda (really a raccoon) = 100

——-

Look for my upcoming posts about Guilin, Yangshuo, Emei Shan, Leshan, Chengdu, Xi’an, and Beijing!


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Recap

by on Sep.05, 2009, under Daily Life


After such a hectic first half of August, I got to travel with Alfred, Richard, Melba, and Emma. They came over from the states to visit and travel China. I wrote in a previous post where we were going, but for those of you who don’t know or don’t remember, I’ll write it again. They arrived in Hong Kong and took a bus across the border into Shenzhen. They then flew to Guilin to meet me. Immediately upon meeting them, we took a bus to Yangshuo an hour away. In Yangshuo, we rode in a hot air balloon and rode bikes outside of town.

Next we struggled through a 25 hour train journey to Chengdu in which we had to sit the entire way. In Chengdu, we experienced a minority performance and were treated like royalty by the staff at the theater. We played with pandas and raccoons and ate spicy hot pot food. We hiked to the Fuhu Monastery and slept with the monks for a night and got to see their prayer service in the morning. We went to the world’s largest known Buddha at Leshan.

From Chengdu we went to Xi’an, a city filled with terrible pollution much worse than what I experience in Wuhan. It’s so bad that the 5 of us couldn’t breathe after riding rented bikes on top of the old fortress walls (Xi’an is 1 of two cities in China that has a wall still completely intact). In Xi’an, we also saw the Terracotta Warriors, which turned out to be quite boring for me. In Beijing, we went to the Forbidden City (another boring tourist trap) and took a bus three hours north of Beijing to hike up to a little-known and rarely-visited section of the Great Wall called Simatai.

After 16 grueling days of travel, I’m glad to be back in my new apartment. I went to my school and got my schedule and met my students and co-teachers. I’ll be teaching 2nd grade, which means my kids are 7 years old! My school is 3 metro stations south of my apartment, and the metro station is an 8 minute walk from my building. My other option is to ride the public bikes about 25 minutes, which I think is a much better option for my health! I’m excited to be teaching at a public school because it means I can be a real teacher and not just another white face being paid ridiculous amounts of money for no reason. Stay tuned to see what happens next!


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New Trip

by on Aug.02, 2009, under China

Normally I would post this on my personal blog site, but since it’s a post directly related to travel, I shall post it here. As mentioned on my blog, I have 4 friends coming to China from America to visit me. They’ll be arriving in Hong Kong on the 17th of August and traveling until the 7th of September. Because my new job begins September 1st, I have to leave my friends to return back to Wuhan on the 29th or 30th of August. We are purposely traveling to places in China I’ve never seen, so get ready to enjoy many new posts! Here is our itinerary:

Itinerary

As I said, my friends are arriving in Hong Kong and going into the Chinese mainland via Shenzhen. From there, they’ll meet Lily and I at Guilin (her and I are coming from Wuhan). In Guilin, we’ll see the beautiful natural scenery that’s infamous amongst people who travel to China (or live here). Then we’ll go over to Shanghai, where I went in April. After Shanghai we’ll move on to Beijing, a city I’ve avoided seeing for the entirety of my time in China! There we will see the extremely old wall of China, the emperor/dictator’s city, and whatever else tourist crap they will throw at us. After, we’ll head to Xi’an, where the terra cotta soldiers are located. I have a German friend there that I’m hoping to meet up with too!

Unfortunately, because my job begins so early, I’ll only really have 10 or 11 days with my friends, whom I haven’t seen since May 2008, when I graduated from university. 3 of them live in Seattle, and the other in North Carolina, so me being a Floridian and now a Chinaman, it was impossible to see them after university. As a result of my job, I have to leave them at Xi’an to return to Wuhan. They are tentatively planning to fly from Xi’an or Wuhan to Lijiang to hike for a few days in the Tiger Leaping Gorge. In the end, they’ll have a few days left to hang out in the surrounding area of Hong Kong. They’ll be free to see such areas as Shenzhen, Macau, Zhuhai, and Xiamen!

Well, that is the itinerary for my next trip! I’m veryyyyyyyyyyy busy from now until then, so don’t expect to see much action on the website!


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