On our way to/from
the Great Wall yesterday, “Tinker Bell” had air dropped us a few
pictures from our trip.
We were heading out
this morning before the restaurant opened for breakfast so we were
provided boxed breakfast (chocolate muffin, croissant, and yogurt) and coffee in the lobby beginning at 4:30
am.
The Beijing airport
is one of the biggest airports in the world and getting though it to
the gate was an adventure in and of itself. Ralph had already warned
us in the bus about getting through security and he was not
exaggerating in the least bit. It was amazingly strict. We had
already been instructed about umbrellas so had them in our carry ons
but what came next was really interesting.
We were stopped when
entering the airport and random samples were taken for gunpowder
residue as a group and when testing was negative, the group was
“released” and allowed into the airport. We got our passports
and boarding passes from Daisy – our luggage had already been taken
care of and would be magically transported to our hotel in Guilin.
We had been
fingerprinted in this airport when we had arrived. Our passports and
boarding passes were checked and a picture taken. We were accustomed
to taking out our electronics (laptops, ipads etc) but it took a few
tries to get through security for me because you also need to remove
umbrellas, charging cables/cords, converters, and charging batteries
out of your carry on and put into a bin. If your charging battery
isn’t under a certain wattage, it was confiscated. We had someone
in our group lose their battery for this reason. This is probably
something that should have been communicated before our trip.
Even after getting
through the scanner, we were wanded and frisked with the airport
security person even running her fingers along the inside of the
waistband of my shorts and gently patted ALL over. We were later
discussing how this type of shake down in a US airport would have
been met with some very very angry and offended people.
We were a little bit
early for our flight so I wandered around the shops and found some
very interesting “snacks” in some of the shops.
The flight to Xi’An
was just under 2 hours and we were served breakfast on board. I have
to really praise Disney in that even though most of our flights had
in-flight meals, they didn’t rely on just that to keep us fed. On
this airline, we were given congee with vegetables, yogurt, and a
roll that had some dried meat inside. Later, some of the Adventurers
were discussing this breakfast. The vegetables came in a separate
container from the congee and many ate those first like a salad
without realizing they were actually for the congee – to be mixed
in and eaten together. Someone commented on how they liked the bread
until they got to the “cobwebs” in the middle.
Xi’An was
noticeably cooler and less humid. We did our usual bathroom meet up
and then went right past luggage claim and met up with our local
guide, Yale. “Call me Yale. Just don’t call me Stanford or
Harvard”.
We boarded a bus
that was warm and, unfortunately, the windows couldn’t be opened
and the air conditioning was really struggling. It was about an hour
to the terracotta soldiers. We were dropped off first a ways out
from where we would see the warriors and walked to the “shopping
village” and into a restaurant/tea house where we would be having
another of our pre-ordered meals while they did a tea demonstration.
The last time we had
been out to this area, this shopping village wasn’t in existence.
Instead, we remember being pounced on by vendors selling souvenirs
and walking on dirt to get to the museum. This village was all new
to us and a much nicer option than the very very aggressive vendors
who used to hang out here.
We were seated at
long tables and got fruit in a starbucks cup, 2 huge chocolate
muffins (also labeled starbucks) and the fried rice we had ordered.
The fried rice was very simple – just peas, carrots, and chopped
ham. We were also invited to order drinks or tea so Seth ordered the
lychee concubine black tea and I ordered a crysanthemum tea. I was
surprised at how expensive the tea was – 30 RMB (about $4.50) per
cup. Maybe this was the Starbucks equivalent of a tea house.
They had a tea
service set up to do a demonstration and a small bowl of each type of
tea that they sold. We were also given a list describing each type of
tea. She demonstrated the water temperature by pouring the water
over the small zodiac figures on the front of her tray – when the
temperature is just right, the figurines turn colors. For some teas,
you wash the tea cups and filter with hot water – other teas, you
add the tea leaves, pour water over them and then rinse the
cups/filter with the tea. Seth’s tea was delicious and the woman
doing the demonstration pointed out that it was their most popular
tea. I was amazed at how quick the tea prep process was – hardly
any steeping time at all – literally seconds and she was serving
the tea. She didn’t use very many leaves either – maybe a
heaping teaspoonful. She also showed us the correct way to hold the
cup – different for ladies from the gentlemen using 3 fingers – 2
to hold the edges of the cup and 1 finger to support the cup from
underneath, We decided to buy some lychee concubine black tea leaves
as well as some of the oolong tea leaves. We got 200 grams for 360
RMB (about $50 USD).
After we made our
purchases and marked the bags with our names, they were left at the
tea cafe for us to pick up on our way back out. We also picked up
Xi’An magnet but there was no body around to pay money to so I took
it back into the tea cafe and they charged me 30 RMB for it (about $4
USD) but the store next door was selling them for 10 RMB each.
Lesson learned. Yale passed out Quiet Vox units and narrated during
our tour.
We were each given a
ticket and Yale explained what each building was – pit #1 and pit
#2 and the display of the bronze chariots. He took us into pit #1
first which was the bigger of the 2 – and the most crowded. As
soon as you enter, you overlook the entire pit and everyone was
jostling around for a spot at the railing and to take pictures.
We then went left
and around the corner where Yale pointed out where the 4 farmers had
been digging and had discovered the ruins. I couldn’t tell you
that the soldiers looked different from when we had visited 15+ years
ago but the building was definitely the same. We made our way slowly
along pit #1 and also saw the terracotta warrior “hospital” where
they painstakingly put the pieces of the soldiers together.
We visited pit #2
and then had some pictures taken (Mickey Mouse’s “treat”) in
front of staged soldiers and horses of which we received a printed
copy of later in Guilin. Yale handed out our next pin and gave us
some free time to explore.
We headed over to see the bronze chariots
but it was dreadfully crowded. The chariots were smaller than we had
remembered.
We met up again
outside the museum cafe and were soon on our way back to re-board our
bus and head back to the Xi’An airport where we were taken to the
Regal airport hotel in the airport (before security) to have a buffet
dinner. The choices were good.
Getting through
security was much easier this time and we soon boarded a bus that
took us to the tarmac to board our China Eastern flight to Guilin.
We were served dinner on the plane but it was noodles with pork that
I didn’t really care for (plus I was already very full from our ABD dinner).
The snack peas were good, though.
About 2 hours later,
we were landing in Guliin where we met up at the customary bathroom
location and then past security to meet up with our local guide,
Jenny.
Once we reached the
Shangri-La hotel, we were given our room keys and our instructions
for the next morning’s activities. The room was pretty nice but
this was the first time on this trip that we had to break out our
voltage converters to use for all of our various electronics. I
could have sworn I had brought a power strip with me but couldn’t
find it anywhere so we fixed up several different converters to get
all of our stuff charged up. We could see the gumdrop mountains from
our window but the sun had already gone down so we really couldn’t
see them well as it was almost 10 pm. It was lights out shortly
after that.
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