Two Days of Touring

October 4, 2007-10-04

We are here safely in Xi’an. After 6 hours in LAX, and 17 in the air, we arrived in Xi’an. Our flight to Hong Kong was on time and we had just enough time to get to the gate to meet our Dragon Air flight to Xi’an. Our plan was to change currency at the airport as we were advised. Unbeknownst to us, today is a national holiday so the banks are closed. An affable fellow flashed his taxi license and followed us to the tourist info counter and said he could take us to our hotel. The woman at the tourist info counter helped translate. He agreed that we could change currency at the Hyatt where we were going, and the fee would be fixed. We agreed. He then took us down into the basement level and across some tunnels to a parking lot. There a car was waiting with another fellow. They talked, put our luggage in the trunk, and we got in. To our surprise, the friendly fellow at the desk was not the driver. This man could not speak any English. Now we just had to trust as we had no way to change things. Fortunately, he took us right to the Hyatt and waited for his fee. While Rich was changing money, it seemed to take so long that the bellman was preparing to pay for us so the driver did not have to wait. Just then Rich emerged from the hotel with the correct money. The Hyatt was a welcomed refuge from airports and airplanes. After freshening up a bit, we went for a walk down the main street. There was a huge modern shopping mall that dwarfs South Coast Plaza and surpasses it in glamour. The streets are filled with people 5-8 deep. We found a “food loft” on the top floor of one of the malls with a variety of cuisines—Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Maylasian, Western, Pizza, and a dessert bar. We had dinner while people watching over the mall. Rich said he was feeling like a minority here. There are very few white people on the streets.

The traffic is unbelievable! Our taxi ride made a New York taxi ride seems like Disneyland. For the pedestrian it is literally “dodge the buses and taxis;” Traffic lights are merely suggestions. We learned to just stick close to the locals and pray we make it to the other side.

Tomorrow will be our first tour of the city. We have signed up to join a group with an English speaking guide. My problem is that everyone assumes I speak Chinese. In the shops and restaurants, they speak to me expecting I would understand. I’m going to have to learn some basic phrases fast.

October 5, 2007

We went on a city tour joined by a family from Germany--only five on the tour with a very good English speaking guide and a bus that could seat 20. The highlights were the East gate of the city wall, the Terra Cotta Warrior factory, lunch at the silk factory center, silk factory demo, Terra Cotta Warrior site, and the Wild Goose Pagoda. All day the city was enshrouded in fog, haze, or smog (depending on who you talk to). We are told that the blue sky only is seen after rain so we are hope there will be some rain while we are here.

China is getting ready for the Olympics and mega tourism. At the Terra Cotta Warrior museum, the government has built a mile long entrance served by golf carts to the museum entrance and an equally long exit plaza with shops and food places from the museum to the parking lot. The plaza areas within the museum can hold thousands of people at any one time. The idea of a “crowd” in China is mind boggling. There are 10,000 visitors a day at this site.

As it turns out Oct 1-8 is national holiday week--that is to say, the government has instituted a week vacation for all its workers and encourages them to travel. As a result, this is the busiest week in Xi’an for local tourists and we are right in it. The accommodations for tourists at the government lunch restaurants and factory tours are filled with guides and sales personnel. When we visited the Terra Cotta Soldier Museum 23 years ago, we could not have imagined the way it has been developed.

Our guide told us only 4% of the people are involved in any kind of religion. The four religions recognized are Taoism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. My young couples today like “western weddings” so they go to a church for their wedding. However, since the cultural revolution, there is no need for religion since everything is new.

Speaking of weddings, we saw in the store display window of bridal shops, people dressed in western wedding attire standing as mannequins. The fact that they are talking to each other and moving slightly gives it away that they are real people.

After our tour, we checked into our Global Volunteer headquarter hotel, the Sino Peal Hotel which turns out to be just on the other side of the city wall of the Hyatt. It cost less then $1 by taxi to get here. We were so tired from touring plus being up at 4AM adjusting from CA time, it was long day for us. We are meeting with the co-coordinator Saturday morning to find out what new adventures we are really up for. So far, all has been good.