Beijing > Xi'an

July 28

Our tour has strict limitations on luggage size & weight. Since I am going to be here for 5 weeks – this was an issue for me. There was stuff I will need for work once I get to Qingdao that I didn’t want to lug with me during the tour. So I had arranged with our tour hotel in Beijing to hold a bag for me while on the tour. I will pick it up on Sunday when I return to Beijing for training. When I return, I will be staying in a hotel about 30 minutes away (via taxi) so that should be interesting going from one hotel to another to retrieve my bag.

Anyway, it was difficult to leave the bag behind as I am fearful it will not be there when I return. For 3 of the 4 days at this hotel, I saw luggage in the foyer that simply had a big fish net over the top – that was how it was being stored. I was assured mine was being locked away – but I am still not convinced.

On to our day…..
We took the bus to a Hutong in Beijing. A Hutong is basically an old neighborhood that is still left over from before Beijing became a modern city. They are kinda like duplexes in that they are connected.

Each unit consists of 4 rooms – kitchen, living room, 2 bedrooms.

bedroom


living room



kitchen

In the middle is a shared courtyard where you grow a garden.


courtyard

Notice I did not list a bathroom – there are none – you have to use the public toilets. We did not see any of them – but saw signs. They are spread out all over the Hutong – can’t imagine not having a bathroom in my own house!?

Upon arrival, we took a rickshaw ride around the Hutong.



There are parks, stores, restaurants & bars and then the ‘houses’ are in the alleys.


The family we visited was the parents, their 2 sons and 2 daughter in-laws.


family we visited (parents)

Each had their own 4 room ‘house’ and shared the courtyard. It was in pretty good condition considering some of the exteriors of the others.


After our rickshaw ride, we took the bus to the Beijing airport to fly to Xi’an. Because this flight was booked by Globus (our tour company), we didn’t ever see the tickets until they handed them to us at the ticket counter. They spelled our last name wrong – TRIMMER.

The ticket agent was attempting to tell us we had to go see a manager, but we had no idea what she was saying. We got our local tour guide to explain it and he took us to the manager who corrected it. By crossing it out and writing on the ticket. (I could of done that!)

We eventually got thru security – which you have 3 different phases of for domestic flights. International flights only have the standard 1 checkpoint.

We had an hour and had to eat lunch on our own. There was a KFC so mom and I were eager to eat some Western food. Well, that proved to be a challenge because the menu is completely in Chinese – everywhere else we had been also listed a few words in English so you have a vague idea of what you are ordering.

Anyway, they had a picture menu so I ordered what I thought was 2 breasts and mashed potatoes for us to share. The mashed potatoes came in a container that was maybe 1/3 cup in size and tasted nothing like KFC mashed potatoes! The breasts were more like the back of the chicken. Very little white meat on it and very bony. (And most of you know how I feel about “meat on the bone”). I tried to eat it, managed about 2 bites and then broke down and ate some of the skin out of desperation.

We eventually boarded the Air China flight- which was a huge relief since it was a “real” plane (737) and not the rusted prop plane we had envisioned. Mom and I were in the very last row. It was a thousand degrees on the plane.

The flight was 1 hour 45 mins and they actually served us a meal – which is shocking! We didn’t know what most of it was, but had fun looking at the packages.

Upon arrival in Xi’an one of the ladies in the tour group fell in the bathroom – so there was all sorts of commotion and delay getting to our bus.

Xi’an is more like what we pictured China to be. Very old and more third world country like. We assume it has not been spruced up because it is not a host city for the Olympics.

We had about 1 hour once at the hotel to rest and get ready for dinner, however, our luggage was being sent in a different bus – so we were told we might not get it in time. We were told this right after our tour guide said that we needed to dress “smart casual” for our dinner. This of course didn’t go over well as we were all in shorts and had been sweating for the past 9 hours.

The hotel was very nice, however, the rooms were lit with extremely dim lighting. Maybe 15 watt bulbs at most. That was very annoying! Not to mention the fact that all the switches were in strange places and not labeled. The AC and many of the lights were controlled by a little computer thing by the bed – which we didn’t realize for quite some time.

Our bags did arrive about 20 minutes before we had to leave for dinner, so we were able to change and freshen - although very quickly!

We went to a dinner theatre which was very nice. Probably the best food we had yet. Granted, I didn’t eat much other than the cucumbers – (yes, I ate a vegetable!) The show was great! Much better than the Opera the night before.


On our way back to the hotel we were told we had to be back on the bus in about 9 hours which was my breaking point. This is supposed to be a vacation! I have had so little sleep.

When we got back, I decided to have an OJ from the mini-bar. Before opening, I noticed it expired on 2/22/08 – which I find common in mini-bars. So I did what I would of done at any other hotel – call and ask for a new one. This turned into a 30 minute saga with 2 room attendants coming to our room who spoke no English. It was a huge scene. I just wanted a freaking orange juice! They called the front desk and had that person tell me it was not expired – it didn’t expire until January of 2009. This went on and on…. It ended with no new OJ and I didn’t risk drinking the expired one. I was not happy.