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Xincheng

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    • Weltreise
      Day 63

      Zugfahrt nach Xi'an

      November 2, 2019 in China ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

      Nach einem leckeren (westlichen) Frühstück im Roftoop Café unseres Hostels in Chengdu, erledigten wir noch einige Dinge und erhielten Tipps von den Angestellten zu unseren weiteren Reiseroute. Mittags ging es dann los zu unserem Zug nach Xi‘an, der alten Hauptstadt Chinas.
      Nach der Ankunft im Hostel, machten wir uns noch auf zu einer kleinen Erkundungstour in der Stadt, vornehmlich im muslimischen Viertel. Dort gibt es sehr viele Streetfood-Stände und Restaurants sowie Geschäfte mit allerlei Dingen, die niemand braucht. Wir haben selbst gemachte Nudeln gegessen sowie eine Suppe mit eingeweichtem Fladenbrot, eine Spezialität dort. Sehr lecker.      Read more

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    • Weltreise
      61
      Day 65

      Xi'an - Sightseeing und Flug

      November 4, 2019 in China ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

      Am letzten Tag in Xi’an haben wir uns noch ein wenig die Stadt angeschaut. Neben der kleinen und großen Wildganspagode und der mächtigen Stadtmauer gibt es nicht wirklich mehr zu sehen. Es war jedoch schön den Spaziergang durch die Stadt zu unternehmen. 😎
      An der Wildganspagode wurden wir von einer Gruppe chinesischer Mädels angesprochen. Zunächst war nicht klar, was sie wollten, da sie uns auf chinesisch zugetextet haben. Jedoch mit dem Translator konnten sie dann sagen, dass sie gerne ein Bild von einem Geldschein aus unserem Heimatland machen möchten. Zufälligerweise hatten wir noch einen Euroschein und so machten wir dann auch noch ein Bild mit Ihnen zusammen. 😊 Wazu das diente war uns dennoch nicht klar. 🤷‍♂️ Natürlich mussten wir auch sonst mal wieder mit Chinesen posieren.
      Am interessantesten in Xi‘an ist das Essen mit handgemachten Nudeln, Teigtaschen und Fladenbrot sowie das durch den muslimischen Einfluss geprägte Viertel. Ansonsten ist uns aufgefallen, dass es extrem viele Handy- und Modegeschäfte gibt, die vermutlich alle Fake-Händler sind (5 Apple Stores im gleichen Viertel ist ein bisschen viel 😆) . Außerdem war die Luftqualität bisher die schlechteste, man konnte den Smog deutlich sehen.
      Am Abend hieß es dann weiter nach Lijiang, diesmal im Flugzeug, da es leider keine wirklich gute Alternative gab.      Read more

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    • TravelerA Curiosity Ride
      Day 164–166

      Train ride across China

      September 5 in China ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

      Embarking on a 48 hour train ride across China from the western mountainous regions to the densely populated eastern cities gave me a glimpse of this vast and diverse country. It was unfortunate that all sleeper cabins were sold out quickly after the sale had started. Hard seat it was! My butt is used to a lot of sitting after all this cycling.
      Not only did I enjoy impressive views out of the window but also good company of some locals. Besides, it was a unique opportunity being on a booked out train with only Chinese for such a long time. The cultural customs and manners differ from ours after all. And that was an experience itself.
      Finally, I am thrilled that I made it to the third largest city on this planet - Shanghai.      Read more

    • China 🇨🇳
      1
      1
      Day 6

      Beijing > Xi’An

      September 10 in China ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

      Another early start for us, leaving Beijing and onto Xi’an! We’ll never forget the insane traffic in Beijing - what was meant to be a half an hour drive to Beijing West railway station turned into a stressful 1h drive. Our taxi driver skilfully weaved us in and out of traffic and got us there in one piece!

      Beijing West station is huge, almost felt like an airport especially as our passport was our ticket. It was exciting boarding a bullet train, and even more exciting that we were travelling business class. We each had a ‘pod’ where we could recline and put our feet up - it all felt very luxurious compared to how we’re used to travelling. The journey was pleasant, with industrial and agricultural views out the window and the train was super smooth given the speed it was going at - over 350km/h at some points! We thought it put the UK to shame.

      Our hotel is Sofitel Legend People’s Grand Hotel which used to be a state-run hotel for visiting Chinese leaders’ foreign dignitaries, Princess Margaret being one of them. We looked forward to swimming in the pool as our last hotel didn’t have one but sadly we were turned away by staff because apparently the water quality wasn’t good enough (although it looked fine to us and we’d have thrown ourselves in regardless!). Back up to our room we went. Hopefully it’ll pass the cleanliness levels tomorrow!

      We spent the evening in Datang Everbright City, which is sort of like downtown Xi’An. It was absolutely buzzing here even on a Tuesday night, so many beautiful lights (as suggested in the name!), lots of entertainment and food stalls - sensory overload! We ate some delicious food local to Xi’an - pita bread stuffed with pork, Liangpi which are noodles served cool with a sort of sour/tangy sauce and lamb skewers which appeared to be served on a twig rather than a skewer. We ended on some not so local fried chicken (and rice cakes!), washed it down with a chocolate milk tea and look forward to more food tomorrow in the Muslim quarter as we are going on a food tour via rickshaw!      Read more

    • China 🇨🇳
      Day 7

      Xi’an City Walls + Night Food Tour

      September 11 in China ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

      We had a gentle start to the day today, only waking up at 9am after consecutive very early mornings. We had breakfast and took a DiDi (Chinese Uber - costing £1) to the Xi’an City Wall. We entered the city wall at the east gate but soon discovered that bike rental - our intended activity - had been moved to the south gate only for the next fortnight. So we walked the 45 minutes to the South Gate in the hot sun. We rented bikes for 90 CNY - around £9 - and navigated the entire perimeter of the walls, which was 14km in total. It was great fun, although quite bobbly meaning we had sore bums. We had great views of the city and the walls were so vast that we had plenty of room to cycle. After this excursion we returned to the hotel.

      I made my debut in the hotel pool - now deemed safe - though had to wear a swimming hat to adhere to the regulations. I looked very foolish.

      Later in the evening we met our food tour guide outside the fire station - a 20 minute walk - and joined a young British couple based in Singapore, a British vet here for a conference and an Australian couple, one of which was 81 and said he was a former politician and his wife previously worked for a newspaper. We had some delicious food in the Muslim Quarter such as hand pulled biang biang noodles, bbq meat skewers, soup dumplings and gourd chicken. We travelled between places via rickshaws which was fun but hair-raising. Sadly in the final restaurant we saw live turtles and salamanders in buckets of water - they were due to be cooked! At the end we went to a microbrewery/bar for some interesting beers and ciders beneath the city wall. The bar was playing Pulp and Oasis which we enjoyed.

      We returned home with Ian the vet and his tour guide as he was staying very close to us and the tour guide shuttled us home for free. It was a fab evening all round and everything was delicious. Tomorrow morning we are visiting the Terracotta Warriors!      Read more

    • TravelerChina 2024
      Day 12

      Xi'an

      July 23 in China ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C

      12 Millionen Einwohner! Wir wohnen am Glockenturm im Zentrum. Das Kostümieren ist auch in Xi'an hoch im Kurs unter den jungen Frauen und Kindern. Hier ist es die Tracht der HAN- Chinesen.
      Heute morgen bin ich im moslemischen Viertel gewesen, dort habe ich mit Amy eine der ältesten, größten und best erhaltenen chinesischen Moschee besucht.Read more

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    • TravelerChina 2024
      2
      Day 12

      ...noch mehr von heute

      July 23 in China ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

      Heute Nachmittag haben wir auf der Stadtmauer von Xi'an die ganze Runde von 14 km mit dem Fahrrad gedreht. Hört sich harmlos an, aber die Temperaturen und die Luftfeuchtigkeit machen es zu einer echten Herausforderung, die unsere russisch/ finnischen jungen Mitreisenden gar nicht erst angenommen haben. Immerhin, wer kann schon von sich sagen: Ich habe die älteste und größte erhaltene Stadtmauer von China umrundet??
      ICH! -
      Wir werden immer wieder angesprochen, weil wir hier so exotisch sind. Liana hat beim Essen den kleinen Chinesen bei den Englischhausaufgaben geholfen.      Read more

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    • Chris + Elli: World Tour
      1
      Day 255–259

      Xi'an

      July 24 in China ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

      Finally back to a normal pace and full health as we zoomed into Xi'an on the high speed train. 🚆

      Still kept ourselves on our toes, by leaving lots of time for the train and then arriving at Beijing West only to discover our train left from Beijing Fengtai. 😨 We fully legged it out the station to the taxi rank and somehow managed to make it across town in 15 minutes to sprint onto the train with a few minutes before it departed, absolutely covered in sweat and panicking.

      But we had a tasty train lunch and then a trip across Xi'an on the metro to our absolutely lovely studio flat just outside the south gate: it was a great location and a properly cosy place so it felt like being at home for a bit.

      Went for a walk that evening into the city - loads going on on the streets, lots of girls dressing up in Tang dynasty clothes and taking photos in front of the Bell Tower, and then a walk through the Muslim Quarter which was full on chaos disneyland with millions of people.

      Luckily a few streets away we found a fantastic Biang Biang noodle bar where you choose all your own ingredients and Elli went into a happy noodle reverie for a while. 🍜

      Next morning we had to register at the police station - usually hotels do it for you but since this was a homestay we had to go - a slightly bizarre cultural experience which took an incredibly long time. Then had a very relaxing day at home and wandered round the local street food places in the evening (this time for some more disappointing noodles - the good is great here, but there is a decent amount of mediocre too!)

      Elli went to see the Terracotta Warriors (which Chris has already seen and mercifully didn't have to run the sweaty tourist gauntlet) which was a hot and stressful experience but still very amazing and very moving, if you could elbow your way to the front.

      On Saturday we had intended to be up the city walls by 8am to do the 14km cycle before the sun got too hot - we didn't make it till 8.30 but outside the main entrances there weren't really any crowds and we hired a (very small and extremely uncomfortable) tandem to go round it. The wall is a really serious bit of fortification and absolutely huge, and has some fantastic views along it, as well as a few off the side. We made it round and recovered with ice cream, a nap, and later on, a fantastic discovery: a completely vegetarian Chinese buffet for 23 yuan each (about £2.50) so we're started to put back on the weight that we lost in Mongolia 😁      Read more

    • Ehrengard HeinzigChinas Glanzlichter
      2
      Day 15

      Xi'an

      October 22 in China ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

      Heute hatten wir wieder herrliches Wetter, auch wenn es früh nur 4 °C waren. Dafür gab es strahlend blauen Himmel und Sonnenschein.
      Um acht ging es zum Glockenturm und Trommelturm, danach zur Stadtmauer, die auf ca. 14 km begehbar oder mit Fahrrad befahrbar ist. Leih-Fahrräder stehen nach Farben geordnet an mehreren Stellen auf der Mauer bereit. Es gibt sogar Tandems. Die Mauer ist 12 m hoch und 12-18 m breit. Ursprünglich gab es in jeder Himmelsrichtung ein Tor, das mit Zugbrücken gesichert war. Das Signal zum Herunterlassen kam morgens vom Glockenturm, das Signal zum Hochziehen abends vom Trommelturm.Read more

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    • Our OE
      1
      Day 53

      Markets, Majiang & the Drum Tower

      May 24 in China ⋅ ⛅ 37 °C

      After a big day previously, we took it a bit easier today. We started with a trip to the breakfast markets. Big crowds here with long lines at the popular stalls. Vela ordered a few little treats for us, including a pork sandwich, beef pastry scroll, some sweet sticky date rice and a soy milk to wash it all down.

      We headed to the park by the river and found a shady spot under a tree to eat. By this time (about 10am) it was already pushing 30 degrees (maybe more) so we headed for a coffee shop for our fix and to enjoy some air conditioning.

      We then planted ourselves at a Majiang table for the afternoon. Diane and Ross were definitely starting to get the hang of the game, with Diane putting together a big "Hu" (hand) and netting herself a very nice 8 points off Nathan. Not to be outdone, Nathan crafted a very nice hand of his own and earned 21 points off Vela (who was a little disgruntled). At this stage we aren't playing for money though, so we'll let Vela off the hook for now.

      After 4 hours of Majiang (amazing how quickly the time disappears) we headed down the road to a Cantonese restaurant. We were served fried lettuce (yes, strange to us westerners but very normal and delicious in China), a chicken dish, a frog dish, a roast pigeon, and a big bowl of fried rice.

      And to end our day we headed up the drum tower which was nearby the bell tower we explored on our first evening in Xi'An. The drum tower was used to notify residents of the time and is dated back to the Ming Dynasty in 1380AD. There were 4 massive drums, two on each end, with a diameter of nearly 3 metres, and each side was lined with 12 smaller drums. The 24 smaller drums represent each of the 24 solar terms.

      There was a cute little girl in traditional Chinese dress dancing in the corner, and Diane asked if she could get a quick photo with her. The girl obliged but put on a very serious face, Vela still managed to snap a good photo with half a smile.

      We headed upstairs and enjoyed watching the swallows swooping around the tower while the sun was setting.

      Tomorrow we leave Xi'An, headed for Beijing!      Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Xincheng, 新城

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