Two-day's Travel in Xi'an

After staying in Shanghai for 3 days at the end of August 2009, my hubby and I took a flight to Xi'an , an ancient capital city. Our flight left from Shanghai Pudong at 4pm and then boarded on Xi'an Airport 2.5 hours later on time. The Xi'an Airport was much smaller than Pudong so that we walked to the baggage claim area easily in 5 minutes. The airport shuttle No.1 to the Bell Tower was just stopped in front of the exit gate. We purchased two tickets for 25/person at the counter set in front of the bus, and waiting in line to get on the bus. The first bus was filled with passengers quickly, but just 2 minutes later another bus was driven in. Before getting on the bus, we passed our two pieces of luggage to an airport worker, who stored our luggage in the bus boot.

Soon, the bus left the airport and run on an expressway to downtown Xi'an . Looked out through the window, I found the scenery changed quickly but totally different from Shanghai . The trees were in dark green, among which were bare mounts of earth. Some villages were dotted in the distance, and separated from the expressway by a large area of farmland. The bus was driven into Xi'an City in 40 minutes. It was the rush hours, every bus was full of passengers, and moved slowly accompanied with lots of cars and cyclists.

Another 20 minutes later, our bus arrived at the Melody Hotel on Xian's West Street , which was just to the west of the Bell Tower and faced to the Drum Tower . Collected our luggage and thrown off a swarm of guides and hotel touts who clustered round the bus, we walked in the opposite direction to the Bell Tower and then turned to left at the first corner. It was a narrow street called Zhubashi, by which we easily found our hotel—Home Inn, in a yellow building.

The hotel's room was comfortable with a king-size bed, shower and toilet. It was already 8:30pm when everything was settled down, and I was eager to have a try of the local dumpling. According to the guides, there was a famous dumpling restaurant named Defachang located on the square between the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower. So we walked out the hotel and arrived in the square via an underground passage. It was easy to recognize the restaurant, which had a big signboard. We had a seat on 1F and ordered one piece of vegetable dumplings (include 15 dumplings) and one pieces of steamed dumplings (include 10 dumplings). It cost us 26 only, and the dumpling soup was supplied for free.

After dinner, we went ahead to the Drum Tower , which was already decorated by many colorful neon lights and looked so gorgeous at night. Our destination was the Moslem snack street hidden at the back of the Tower. The narrow street was already crowded with travelers in different skins, peddlers, booths and restaurants. I visited these booths selling nice handicrafts one by one and purchased three red silk wallets for 10 only. There were so many mouthwatering snacks, but we were full so we decided to explore them the next day.

The next morning of Saturday, we got up early, had a simple breakfast at the hotel and then walked to the West Street . A cab was hired easily and drove us to the Railway Station in 15 minutes. Today, our destinations were the Huaqing Hot Spring and the Terracotta Warriors and Horses in suburban Xi'an . At the bus station on the east square of the railway station, we caught a tour bus No.5 which took us to the Huaqing Hot Spring in half an hour. Quickly purchased two tickets of 70/each, we entered into the ancient park and visited the baths of Emperor Xuanzong and his beloved concubine Yang. Of course, I was interested in their love story displayed on a series of exquisite murals. After 1.5 hours visiting, we exited from the park and then take another bus passing by to the Terracotta Warriors and Horses directly. The museum was astonishing, that every warrior and horse was different and lifelike, I almost thought the horse was breathing. We visited the pits one by one, and saw the museum workers exploring more statues unearthed. There was an attached museum exhibiting the ancient weapons and other things discovered here.

We returned Xi'an in the afternoon by tour bus No.5 and went to the Moslem street for a dinner. After having a short rest at hotel, we took a cab to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Its history could be traced back to 1,300 years ago in the Tang Dynasty. Since it only has 7 stories, we climbed up to the top easily. Then, we watched the Fountain Show at the north square of the pagoda. Having a short rest at KFC on the square, we went back to the hotel. Didn't want to miss the last night in Xi'an , so we went to the bar street just 5-minutes away from our hotel. Actually, the night of Xi'an was more silent than Shanghai's.

On the third morning, we checked out at 9am and stored luggage at the hotel for free. Around 9:45am, we arrived at the Shaanxi History Museum and waited in a long line to get the free tickets to the museum. It was easily to get our tickets in 20 minutes. The museum was a large treasure house, showing the long history of China . We spent 3 hours to enjoy and take photos of these treasures. Exit from the museum, we went ahead to the Forest of Stone Steles Museum at the south foot of the Xi'an City Wall. This museum was quieter due to the fewer travelers. In front of the museum, it was the Shuyuanmen Street where we saw lots of local handicrafts. This is a nice place to purchase some souvenirs. At 6pm, we returned the hotel to collect our luggage and drove to the Railway Station to catch our train to Beijing at night.

Due to the urgent travel, we have missed some must of this city. Now, I'm looking forward to my next travel to Xi'an