China
Xincheng

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    • Hari 6

      Beijing > Xi’An

      10 September, 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!
      Baca lagi

    • Hari 7

      Xi’an City Walls + Night Food Tour

      11 September, 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!
      Baca lagi

    • Hari 63

      Zugfahrt nach Xi'an

      2 November 2019, 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.
      Baca lagi

    • Hari 65

      Xi'an - Sightseeing und Flug

      4 November 2019, 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.
      Baca lagi

    • Hari 165–167

      Train ride across China

      5 September, 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.
      Baca lagi

    • Hari 8

      Terracotta Army, Bell + Drum towers

      12 September, China ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

      Today we visited the Terracotta Army - it was amazing and we were lucky it wasn’t too busy. Enclosed in 3 different bunkers (called pits) were a total of around 2,000 life sized warriors, chariots and horses. It’s said there are around 6,000 more still to be excavated. How painstaking the excavation must be! They are yet to excavate the tomb of the first emperor - which the Terracotta Army “guards” - as apparently they are too worried about causing damage for now. The expectation is that once it is excavated, the findings will be even more sensational than the Terracotta Army.

      We marvelled at how well preserved and detailed the figures were after all these years. Each one had a slightly different face and pose - some kneeling archers, some with spears, some who were higher ranking than others etc. It’s a shame the colours on the figures had faded as reconstructions showed brightly coloured clothing and armour. We finished off with our first ice cream of the trip - chocolate terracotta warrior shaped ones which came in much nicer packaging than the ice creams in the UK!

      After a brief siesta at the hotel and with freshly squeezed pomegranate juice in hand, we headed up to the Bell Tower and Drum Tower which had great views of the city. We then walked through the Muslim quarter where every street you looked down was packed with people and food stalls. It was hard to know where to go with so much choice, so being nervous tourists we chose a restaurant where we spotted other tourists (though to be fair there were plenty of locals eating in there too). We ate hand pulled spicy biang biang noodles and pao mo which is a pitta and lamb soup, with pickled garlic on the side. When it arrived, the lady running the restaurant served up the soup and mixed our noodles for us after giggling at our feeble attempt! Both dishes were excellent and like nothing we’d tasted before. For those and two plum juices to drink cost around £8.

      We really loved Xi’An, it has a relaxed and welcoming feel and the traffic is certainly better than Beijing! Early start to catch train to Chengdu tomorrow!
      Baca lagi

    • Hari 12

      Xi'an

      23 Julai, 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.Baca lagi

    • Hari 12

      ...noch mehr von heute

      23 Julai, 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.
      Baca lagi

    • Hari 255–259

      Xi'an

      24 Julai, 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 😁
      Baca lagi

    • Hari 44

      Xi‘an Fortsetzung 1

      10 September, China ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

      Von der Spitze der Pagode in der 7. Etage hatte man nach vielen Treppenstufen einen tollen Blick auf die Stadt. Unglaublich wie viele Hochhäuser überall zu sehen sind. Das Shanxi Geschichtsmuseum hab ich nur von außen besichtigen können, da es komplett ausgebucht war. Es gehört mit zu den Top Sehenswürdigkeiten der Stadt.
      Dafür ging es zur Stadtmauer von Xi’an, ein echt tolles Erlebnis! Man sieht in Xi’an aufgrund seiner Geschichtsträchtigkeit viele Chinesinnen, die in der ganzen Stadt Fotoshootings in den typischen Tang Dynastie Gewändern veranstalten. So traf ich vor dem Südtor der Stadtmauer eine solche Chinesin, die ein kleines Fotoshooting mit mir machte. Die Treppen hinauf gestiegen gelangt man auf die Stadtmauer, die rund um den Stadtkern führt und die älteste erhaltene Mauer ganz Chinas darstellt. Von dort kann man spannende Gegensätze sehen. Neue Hochhäuser im Hintergrund und die alten Stadttürme der Mauer davor. Auf der Mauer Fahrradfahren ist eine typische Art die komplette Mauer zu erkunden, sodass es viele Fahrradverleihstellen gibt.
      Baca lagi

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    Xincheng, 新城

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