Non-Traveling, Traveling, and Day One in Xi'an

Outside our building--blanketed in snow!

We almost didn’t make it out of Hohhot on Monday, January 21. A snowstorm blanketed all of China and (according to Clyde) Hohhot got more snow that day than it has in years—it looked to have dumped only about 3 inches but it shut down the city. Just our luck, we were scheduled to leave Monday morning for Xi’an. Instead, we spent the entire day waiting: for the airport to open, for the flight to take off, for the agent to come bearing new tickets for a different airline. The kids bounced off the walls and Dave and I drifted around the house, in vacation mode but not yet on vacation. We were lucky—we could have been stuck in the airport all day. In the end, we managed to get new tickets for a different airline and to catch a cab outside our apartment (this was absolutely impossible when we tried it 5 hours previously—not a single cab would stop for anyone) for a 10:25 p.m. flight (12 hours later than originally planned).

Once at the airport we stood for about a half an hour in front of the reader board that lists flights and the counters at which you can check in. Two screens would come up in succession, each pasted with red “canceled” or “delayed” signs—an entire day’s worth of flights marked in red. On the third screen we could see our flight number but no counter listed. We waited and waited. And then inspiration struck Dave: we went and stood in line at a counter we thought likely to deal with our airline. Putting into use the lessons learned way back in Beijing in late July, Dave worked his way to the front of the line and, once he learned that we could check in, he threw our bags onto the conveyor belt before the tour lady next to us could start feeding her collection of 20-odd bags through. It worked! Our two bags checked, we marched through security (we could keep our shoes on and bottles greater than 3 ounces, but Grace had to give up her metal magnet balls) and found the gate marked on our boarding passes. We had been told that the flight was delayed a bit but that it had taken off from Xi’an, so we ate some Ritter Sport chocolate bars (fortification for the long night ahead) and settled in to wait for our flight.

Around 10:30 p.m. we saw a China Eastern plane come in (our airline) and head for one gate down from us. Hmm, interesting. And why, we wondered, did the gate we were sitting at list flight MU235T but flight MU2356 (ours) was nowhere to be seen? On a whim (honestly, I think Dave is starting to develop some kind of sixth sense when it comes to the vagaries, inconsistencies, and downright lack of knowledge involved in travel in China) Dave walked down to the other gate to look into things. Pretty soon Dave came jogging back from that gate—it was indeed our gate (although nowhere could we find notice of the gate change), a fact he found out from fellow passengers. We hauled up our stuff and by 11:00 we were on our way to Xi’an. The flight was uneventful and calm. We arrived around 1:30 a.m., easily got our bags and a taxi, and made it to our hotel in the center of Xi’an by 2:30. Samuel never fully woke up from the taxi ride so while Dave checked us in, Samuel walked back and forth in a daze, saying weird sleepwalker-type things. Thankfully, we were all asleep by 3:00.

We woke up at 8:00 Tuesday morning and upon opening up the curtains finally got our first view of Xi’an by light. What did we see? Our room looked right onto the Bell Tower (dating from the 14^th century).

To the left: the Drum Tower and McDonald's

In the center: Starbucks

To the right: the Bell Tower, a shopping mall, and another McDonald's and Starbucks

The Bell Tower is in the center of the old city, which is still entirely surrounded by super-thick walls built during the time of the first emperor of the Ming dynasty. So, from our windows we could see the Bell Tower to the right, the Drum Tower to the left, two McDonald’s and two Starbucks. Crazy. It goes without saying that after we dragged our sorry selves out of bed the first place we went was the Starbucks across the street. Ah, coffee! and tea, and pain au chocolats, strawberry-rhubarb scones, and whole wheat carrot muffins. Not very Chinese, I know, but just what we needed.

Breakfast for the weary travelers--looks like Starbucks anywhere, doesn't it?

We spent all Tuesday with Howard and Thomas, two friends we met in Washington last year where they spent a year as visiting scholars at CWU. They took us to a wonderful lunch in the Muslim quarter where we got to try Xi’an’s most typical food: mutton broth poured over broken bits of bread. It’s really tasty—maybe because it takes so long to tear the bread up into tiny pieces, one is truly starving by the time it comes back—served with plenty of la jiao (hot sauce) and cilantro. The bread doesn’t disintegrate as you would imagine, but instead holds its own and becomes almost pasta-like in its chewiness.

Thomas, Dave, and Howard at the restaurant

We walked to the city walls after lunch—they are completely intact and surround the central, oldest part of Xi’an. Apparently you can walk around the entire central city (14 km around) but the snow and biting cold (it is much more humid in Xi’an and we stupidly left our warmest long underwear in Hohhot) and little kid legs kept us from trying it. Instead, our short walk was punctuated by one long snowball fight between the kids and Howard and Thomas. Very funny and a great way to experience the city.

We're in front of the Drum Tower, just after lunch. Although temperatures were warmer in Xi'an than Hohhot, it seemed bitterly cold because of the wetter climate.

Dave walking up the steps to the city walls.

Looking onto the outside of the walls--you can see the moat on the right and the guard towers around every 100 meters on the wall on the left.

All along the part of the wall we were walking on, workers pieced together these huge lanterns in preparation for Spring Festival. According to Howard, the entire wall will be lit up with lanterns for the New Year's and city folk will be able to stroll amongst them.

Howard and the kids taking a break from the snowfight to pose along the battlements.

Snowfight in action

The view down the wall with the newer city on the left, the old city on the right.

Samuel posing with a cannon and cannonballs.

Grace couldn't make it home on her own steam so Thomas helped her out.

As you can see, I'm about two weeks overdue on posting. Somehow it was really hard to post while on the trip. Anyway, we made it back and despite a couple of head colds and way too much laundry, we really enjoyed ourselves. I'll keep up everyday until you have the whole story.