A friends of mine from work at Web invited me to go with her on a trip to Xi'an, the ancient capital of China, famous for the Terracotta Army. Since it was one the places I really wanted to see and hadn't seen yet, I couldn't say no. We hopped on a dirty night train in Shanghai for what turned out to be a 15 hour trip. Usually getting somewhere is my favorite part of a journey, but the "hard sleeper" (2nd class) cabins on Chinese trains are cramped, small, and hot and the bathrooms ungodly, so I was only too happy to arrive the next day.
Apparently saving money with 2nd class lets you splurge, since Cui Yu Yun, my travelling partner, had booked us rooms at very nice French-art-themed hotel. My room was Matisse. We had arrived late so we quickly left to meet her colleagues in the Muslim quarter for a belated lunch. Her "colleagues" were Xi'an natives who worked for the same bank she did, and they had met on a work trip on Hainan Island (the Florida of China). We had some trouble finding an open restaurant...though it turned out we were just looking for a place to sit down. Wen, her male colleague, then went to find some of the city's famous snack food from the vendors. My favorite were the cold liangpi noodles. Apparently these noodles are all over the country, but in Xi'an they are especially tasty. They are spicy and sesame/peanut-flavored, reminding of the fake Thai food I eat in the US (but better). Another good dish is a pot of literally every single food found in the average Chinese kitchen, the name of which escapes me.
Because Xi'an is so hot, everyone goes out in the evenings, so we were told to go back and take a nap before our excursions. I was eager to see things but acquiesced. Around 5 we went up onto the city walls, the gate of which was very close to our hotel. Xi'an's walls are impressive due to the fact that they are still there. They make a complete circuit around the old city which you can walk or bicycle--we choose the later option, which was quite fun and wise considering the length of the walls. During dull periods we played chicken with opposing bike traffic.
Our next stop was the park which contained the famous "Big Goose" Pagoda, a very old, very different looking tower from the ones I was used to seeing in eastern China. There is a big stretch of water fountains--the kind you can cool off in--right in the middle, and most nights at 9 there is a light-music-water-show. We stayed for it and watched the plumes of water and light dance to traditional Chinese instrumentals. The harmony was interrupted only by the children stepping over the jets to block the water, which left me wishing, just for yuks, that the whole gaggle of bathers would act in concert and stop the entire show.
We wanted to go in the Pagoda, but Yun Yun's colleagues had misinformed us about the time everything closed (this began a pattern of misinformation that would plague us the entire trip). So I didn't get to go in. Instead we wandered around until Yun Yun got Wen to pick us up in his new Chevy. Since Wen only recently got his license we proceeded at about 10 km/h through the wealthy part of Xi'an. He took us to a new artificial rake for some reason, probably because he felt responsible for our evening being cut short and took us to the only thing open.
By then I was ready to get back to Matisse.
End Day 1. Stay tuned for Day 2: "The Ascent"
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