Our day began at 4:30 am. Luggage out by 5:15 and on the bus by 6:30, we said goodbye to the amazing Shangri La Chengdu hotel. The only regret is that we had so little time in the actual facility, we were headed by air to Xi'an and then another flight to Guilin. The Chinese airports are truly spectacular. All modern and well maintained. The roads and infrastructure far surpasses anything I have seen in the US. Our roads, bridges, airports are all old and tired and in need of much repair.
Early morning security wasn’t quite as ruthless as it was in Beijing, but the pat down is still quite intimate
. Boarding the aircraft is another experience entirely. The overhead bins are full of multiple random items and it's a first come first shove event. Our flight attendant used terms like "Ladies and Gems and it's 52 degrees Fairhead".
When we arrived in Xi’an we went directly to a new hotel for a fantastic lunch. We learned that Xi’an has over 8 million people. The hotel and others went from 40% occupancy last year to 95% this year. The amount of cranes and construction projects in stunning and the population is expected to grow to 20 million.
The famous Terracotta soldiers are located in Xi’an. A farmer digging for a new well discovered them in 1974. There are 8000 full size kiln fired clay solders. There are horses, archers, weapons, and carriages all to provide for the emperor in his after life. A very smart advisor suggested the clay options, as the original idea, plan "A", was to kill 8000 troops to provide for this need. They used actual soldiers to model for the faces, so each one is different and I believe I saw a hint of a smile on many as they were delighted with plan "B “.
The crowds here were the worst I have experienced. The Chinese don’t follow any lining up protocol. Everything is a free for all. We had to circle our wagons to provide for a spot to take family pictures and I surprised all by acting Chinese and pushing people OUT OF OUR WAY!
Once again, I became a tourist attraction and was asked to pose for pictures
. I cannot get my mind around this. If I see someone different or interesting, I don’t run up to them and ask to have my picture taken with them. I need to start charging.
We had the amazing opportunity to have the farmer who discovered this historic find autograph a book about the site. He is near 80 and isn’t always available. I resisted the urge to have my picture taken with him, although THAT, at least, is interesting.
The air quality here is the worst we have seen. Hazy, grey and overcast. We headed back on the bus to the airport (we were just there a few hours earlier) to get on our flight to Guilin. Tim presented Steven with a book to thank him for doing such an amazing job.
There is a scam in Beijing of “art students" selling their work. The goal is to overcharge and also get your credit card information. Several couples fell for this early on the trip and have been lugging their artwork around to each city. Sherry has lost and found hers at least 3 times so far. Others have left them at security. It would seem these precious pieces keep turning up like bad pennies; you can’t lose them if you try! We ate a box dinner in the airport and if we are lucky we might arrive to our next hotel before 10pm.
Long day but so worth it!
Friday, October 18, 2013
Xi'an and Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang, China
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Comments

2025-02-14
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Harriet
2013-10-18
Some different from when I was there in '96. Looks like the Chinese have discovered the "tourism pays"!