Well, we survived Beijing, even after finding our own evening meals for the last three nights. Luckily the restaurants have menus with pictures! Prices are pretty good with an evening meal for 2 costing $20-25 Cdn.
There was much debate as to how long the drive to the airport would take this morning, one hour was allowed, it took 25 minutes! The waiting time will be spent between the relative quiet of the lounge and the people watching in the terminal. The waiting time has just increased due to a one hour delay!! This was the good news We got on the flight, and the captain announced a further 15 minute delay due to those pesky air traffic controllers. About 30 minutes into this 15 minute delay we were informed that due to bad weather south of the airport we were now into an indefinite delay and that lunch would be served on the ground! Not good.
Finally three and a half ours late we got airborne. Luckily this flight was an extension of our Toronto – Beijing flight and we were in Business, so the delay from that point of view was tolerable. What was more concerning was that we were to tour the Terra Cotta warriors on arrival at Xi’an (read about Xi’an here).
Our bags were second off the belt, and we headed out to meet Julia, our guide. She had been waiting 4 hours at the airport! There was a quick change of plan, there was no time to everything we had planned for Xi’an so we settled for a visit to the old city wall this afternoon (forgoing the Muslim Quarter and the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Neither were high on our priority list anyway. We would visit the Warriors tomorrow before flying out.
The traffic out of the airport was bad due to a broken down car, we then picked up speed until we hit the outskirts of the city. Again a well populated city with 8.75 million people. It is also unique in that it is the only Chinese city still surrounded by the original city wall.
Below are some general views taken from atop the wall.
Inside the wall new buildings retain some of the old architecture
That’s what happens when you try to switch lanes when you shouldn’t
Luckily Julia stayed with us until we checked in at the hotel as there was an issue with our free breakfast. The Hilton wanted to charge us $20 each for it! I have a Hilton Loyalty card, whether that made any difference or not I don’t know, but shortly after we settled into our room the front desk phoned to say that although the breakfast / room rate was not booked, we were offered a complimentary breakfast each!
Time for more Chinese food!