Xi'an
So I left you in Chengdu. The flight to Xi'an was easy and uneventful, even if the food was a little lacking. We got the airport bus in to town and then got dealt some Chinese style tourism. A girl in high heels and smart uniform asked for out baggage labels and said "as you got the airport bus, you get this service". She then got our huge bags off the bus - which we seemed much better equipped to do ourselves. Then she once more said "as you got the airport bus, you get this service". We thanked her and made our way. Then she said "I have some information on Xi'an, would you like some help". On finding a good English speaker, we were interested (with a healthy dollop of suspicion) and followed her invitation to come to her office. This small room, on the second floor of a plush hotel, contained fifteen identically dressed girls, and turned out to be the official tourist office. Then there were three more separate transactions where she would ask us to sit down, then told us some useful information, we would get up take our bags, and then she would offer another 'service' and we would put our bage down again. The end result of which was a hotel room much cheaper than the youth hostel dorms and we were driven there. We refused the tour, but got other info.
Xi'an is a fun city. There is lots of history here asside of the teracotta warriors. There are many pagodas and towers, and an excellent museum. There are also many streets of markets which are filled with stalls selling delicious food, lots of kebabs and flat breads - influenced by the relatively large muslim population in one quarter of the city.
We decided to get our train tickets to the next destination and got a taxi to the railway station. We went in and after being pointed to the right desk by a security guard with a few words of English, we wedged ourselves in front of the ticket office so we could carry out the anticipated lengthy booking procedure. Between us we rattled off Mandarin phrases for "We would like two tickets", "Soft sleeper, top bunk", "2nd July". The ticket lady then said something we didn't understand, and then resignedly asked us something we didn't understand, and I offered my phrase book for consultation, on reading it she pointed to "Express train". We said "yes", and suggested a time of departure. Unfortunately there were none in the early evening, and the first one in the morning, which we said 'yes' to, was at seven AM. She then kept saying something to us which we didn't understand, and eventually just sold us two tickets. We checked the characters in our phrase book and it at least seemed to be leaving Xi'an and going where we wanted, at the right time on the right date.
Later on in the day, I thought it might be good if we got someone to translate the remainder of the tickets. The lady at tourist information had said she was available for any queries, and this seemed like a good use of her time. She had, after all, said that helping us "It's my... duty" [note lack of 'pleasure']. At this point she told us we had in fact purchased bus tickets. For those of you with rustier mandarin "tekuai che" can mean both 'express train' and 'express bus' (and 'express quite-a-lot-of-other-stuff-on-wheels' I imagine). So it would appear we're going on a rather long bus journey tomorrow - still, we're going where we want to! :) This still doesn't explain why the lady didn't say it was a bus: when I handed her a phrase book page with a picture of a train on it, when I asked for a sleeper (top bunks), etc. etc. Or perhaps she did and that's why she looked confused, kept saying things we didn't understand, and kept saying stuff in frustration to the lady on the next desk. Perhaps the conversation translated was actually "this is a bus not a train", "we don't understand", "this is a bus not a train", "yes, yes" ... etc.
So disaster asside, we're doing quite well. We boycotted the goverment tour to the terracotta warriors (and a bunch of other stuff we didn't want to see) and got a bus there ourselves. We also got a bus across town today (small steps to resuming our status as hardened travellers!) Last night we had a fantastic meal at a place down some small streets, you order plates of raw meat fish and vegetables, then they put a bucket of charcoal with a hot plate on it in the middle of the table. Then you barbecue your food, dipping it in spices - yum! The food in China is definitely one of my favourite things about it.
The terracotta warriors were impressive, a lot of it they still haven't uncovered although they know what's there. They also think there are many more armies nearby which they haven't found yet. They don't seem to be in any hurry to find it, or excavate the rest though - strange!
Tomorrow we're off to Luoyang where there are some caves with Buddhist carvings. The perhaps one more stop and up to Beijing. Anne is still appartment hunting, but with any luck she will have a new pad by the time we arrive... ;)
OK, I was going to write a few more notes on day to day life in China, but I think I'll have to save them for another posting.
over and out.
Ali
Xi'an is a fun city. There is lots of history here asside of the teracotta warriors. There are many pagodas and towers, and an excellent museum. There are also many streets of markets which are filled with stalls selling delicious food, lots of kebabs and flat breads - influenced by the relatively large muslim population in one quarter of the city.
We decided to get our train tickets to the next destination and got a taxi to the railway station. We went in and after being pointed to the right desk by a security guard with a few words of English, we wedged ourselves in front of the ticket office so we could carry out the anticipated lengthy booking procedure. Between us we rattled off Mandarin phrases for "We would like two tickets", "Soft sleeper, top bunk", "2nd July". The ticket lady then said something we didn't understand, and then resignedly asked us something we didn't understand, and I offered my phrase book for consultation, on reading it she pointed to "Express train". We said "yes", and suggested a time of departure. Unfortunately there were none in the early evening, and the first one in the morning, which we said 'yes' to, was at seven AM. She then kept saying something to us which we didn't understand, and eventually just sold us two tickets. We checked the characters in our phrase book and it at least seemed to be leaving Xi'an and going where we wanted, at the right time on the right date.
Later on in the day, I thought it might be good if we got someone to translate the remainder of the tickets. The lady at tourist information had said she was available for any queries, and this seemed like a good use of her time. She had, after all, said that helping us "It's my... duty" [note lack of 'pleasure']. At this point she told us we had in fact purchased bus tickets. For those of you with rustier mandarin "tekuai che" can mean both 'express train' and 'express bus' (and 'express quite-a-lot-of-other-stuff-on-wheels' I imagine). So it would appear we're going on a rather long bus journey tomorrow - still, we're going where we want to! :) This still doesn't explain why the lady didn't say it was a bus: when I handed her a phrase book page with a picture of a train on it, when I asked for a sleeper (top bunks), etc. etc. Or perhaps she did and that's why she looked confused, kept saying things we didn't understand, and kept saying stuff in frustration to the lady on the next desk. Perhaps the conversation translated was actually "this is a bus not a train", "we don't understand", "this is a bus not a train", "yes, yes" ... etc.
So disaster asside, we're doing quite well. We boycotted the goverment tour to the terracotta warriors (and a bunch of other stuff we didn't want to see) and got a bus there ourselves. We also got a bus across town today (small steps to resuming our status as hardened travellers!) Last night we had a fantastic meal at a place down some small streets, you order plates of raw meat fish and vegetables, then they put a bucket of charcoal with a hot plate on it in the middle of the table. Then you barbecue your food, dipping it in spices - yum! The food in China is definitely one of my favourite things about it.
The terracotta warriors were impressive, a lot of it they still haven't uncovered although they know what's there. They also think there are many more armies nearby which they haven't found yet. They don't seem to be in any hurry to find it, or excavate the rest though - strange!
Tomorrow we're off to Luoyang where there are some caves with Buddhist carvings. The perhaps one more stop and up to Beijing. Anne is still appartment hunting, but with any luck she will have a new pad by the time we arrive... ;)
OK, I was going to write a few more notes on day to day life in China, but I think I'll have to save them for another posting.
over and out.
Ali
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