Hundreds of Apartment Blocks

Saturday, April 28, 2018
Xi'an, Shaanxi, China
Sunny 27 Beijing to Xian
A relaxing start this morning, putting our bags outside the door at 8. 30 a.m, (Viking collects them and checks them in for your flight) we have breakfast and go for a walk near the hotel for about 45mins before checking out. The bus took us to  a Hutong (meaning Alley) that describes an old traditional Beijing suburb where the streets are narrow about 9’ wide and the accommodation is still in an original style, with common toilet blocks for multiple families, 3 room apartments and communal courtyards.
Rickshaws take us through the Hutong to visit one home where we're welcomed with tea by the owner's brother. He speaks (through Angie), about his family, and his unmarried sister who now lives there. He and his 3 brothers (now in their 60s and 70s) were given free apartments because they married, but their sister did not marry so she still lives in the little house in the Hutong. The house is small and cramped and one level only- white inside and all grey exterior. These days they are air-conditioned, with TV’s, refrigerators and freshly painted.
Outside in the 9' wide street, many cars are parked. Not all are BMWs and Audis (although German cars are obviously popular) but nice cars. Affluent people now live in these particular hutongs as they are all very close to the centre of Beijing (within the 2nd Ring Road). Afterwards, we walk through more of the hutong which is better suited for pedestrianizing - although there are still a few close shaves with cars and motorcycles. We visited a massive Bell Tower in the basement of which was a tea house and we had a group Chinese tea tasting. We tasted 5 different teas, ginseng, green, jasmine, rose petal and fruit tea. You were then encouraged to purchase tea sets like all our interest/marketing stops. Most lunchtimes, there is an educational/shopping experience attached.  
Back on the bus, we headed for Beijing Airport (T2) for our flight to Xi’an. Viking’s organisation is excellent (ding-ding hao) and we ate a packed lunch (ham and cheese croissant, fruit muffin and apple) on the way. The flight is full as it’s nearly the start of a National Holiday.  The holiday officially starts this Tuesday May 1- Labour Day - and officially runs for three days (but many people seem to be starting early today - 28th April – and turning it into a very long weekend).
On the flight I sat next to a very friendly and interesting Chinese lady from Xi’an who had a 2 year old boy and worked for a bank. She had been working for 2 weeks in Beijing and was returning home. Although we landed about 5:00 p.m., we did not arrive at the Hotel until around 7:30 p.m. due to heavy traffic in the city centre.
The road in from the airport was very interesting. We passed high-rise apartment blocks, one after another, usually in groups of about 8-20 of the same design and height -  probably 20-30 stories each. It makes Hong Kong look underpopulated. We are told there are 8 million people here but I think the place could accommodate more. A lot of the blocks are still under construction and we noticed that even after dark there were many with no lights on inside … empty we think.
With the holiday about to start, there are a lot of light and floral displays set up in the public parks and roundabouts. Most trees have lights in them and it looks quite spectacular from the bus.
Dinner in the Hotel and off to bed for an early night. We are staying at the Wyndham Grand probably the best Hotel in Xi’an, sadly we are only here for 2 nights, we would like to have stayed longer.
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