Day Five - Xi'an

We had a wake-up call at 04:45 for our internal flight to Xi'an - that certainly put our previous 06:00 alarm into perspective! 

Small Wild Goose Pagoda

Internal flights from Beijing leave from the domestic airport which isn't as large as the international one - however security is incredibly tight.  First one of our checked cases was rejected on check-in because it contained a camera battery - this was pretty embarrassing since we were only the second of our party in the check-in queue - we've never had to go behind a check-in desk to rummage through and re-pack a case before! Then our hand luggage contained a power-pack (all electronics, batteries etc had to be put through screening separately like 100ml liquids). Well I'd completely forgotten about even having this power-pack and was at a complete loss when this security guard was saying 'power-pack' to me - luckily I found it though. Absolutely everybody got patted down and run over with a hand-scanner as well as the usual walk-through screening, but it all seemed very polite and quite good natured.

Judy in Chinese!

Bev in Chinese!

First impressions of Xi'an was that it seemed on a more manageable scale - which of course it is - it has a population of a mere 9 million compared to Beijing's 22 million. On arrival we had lunch near the Jianfu Temple complex that houses the Small Wild Goose Pagoda. A dish at lunch was chips - just ordinary ones but served as a dish in a regular Chinese meal - not weird but really unexpected in the context as so far we'd had purely Chinese food! 

After lunch we visited a very nice history museum in part of the complex but really we were too tired by then to do it justice. There was also a lovely handicraft museum where some really skilled Chinese brush painters were working. One of them wrote our names for us.

The Bell

The temple grounds

We also enjoyed the beautiful grounds of the temple complex with it's fountains and huge bell that was rung every morning for prayers. It's a copy of the original but still very interesting not only for it's size but also because when the bell is rung the water in the surrounding urns bubbles up with the vibration.

Xi'an city walls

Arrow Tower on the city walls

After a rest we visited the Xi'an city walls. They are Ming dynasty walls though they have been rebuilt to some extent. They are very broad and encircle the whole of the old city - 9 miles altogether - you can if you wish hire bikes or tandems and cycle all the way round. 

Skyscrapers outside the city walls

Inside the Tang era old city is the Large Wild Goose Pagoda and buildings within the city walls have to be no higher than this structure and all have Tang style roofs. That means nothing is more than four or five stories and it contrasts quite strongly with the modern skyscrapers on the outside.

The bell on the city walls.

They like their drums and bells in Xi'an, there is a bell tower in the centre of the old city and another bell on the city walls above the South gate. There is also a drum tower in old Xi'an. The bell was rung in the morning and the drum sounded in the evening.

Dinner included a really delicious steamed bamboo stem - well we think it was bamboo stem - it sparked an argument between Jason and the local guide. Jason said it was lettuce stalk but Susan, the local guide, maintained it was bamboo stem. As it wasn't like any lettuce we'd ever had our money was on Susan. 

I was going to say we didn't have a weird dish of the day but we most certainly did! For breakfast on the plane we were given a porridge made with rice, millet and water and served with pickled vegetables which you added to give flavour and texture. It was not actually all that bad, we both ate it, but we didn't enjoy it the way the Chinese man seated next to us did - he absolutely wolfed it down!