Day-37: Tianjin to Xi'an, China

Day-37: Monday, March 10, 2014

Beginning Location: Tianjin, China

Interim Location: Beijing, China

Final Location: Xi’an, China

We were up between 0500 and 0630, the later time for me. As we had already packed and the bags had been taken last night, our preparations were simple, basically shower and get dressed.

By 0730 we were ready to go. We found our butler and room stewardess and said our goodbyes. We then proceeded to our GoNext rendezvous to meet up with our 23 fellow travelers and our travel agent. The 24^th traveler had been taken to a Tianjin hospital apparently with stomach ailments and the resultant dehydration; not the place one would choose to be left behind.

By 0800 we were off the ship bidding the crew a final farewell. We sped through Chinese immigration and found our baggage waiting for us outside the customs hall, just as planned. With  “skycap” help we moved our five bags to the waiting bus where we met our guide for the next four days. 

Our guide was a 32-year-old woman named Chou Xia, or for our purposes “May”. Apparently she chooses an appropriate name for whatever group she may be guiding.

We boarded the bus for the 3-hour ride to Beijing. En-route we made two “happy room” stops. While at the first stop I ventured into the store and with little difficulty made a cookie and Coke Zero purchase, apparently my Mandarin is getting better.

Around 1115 we stopped for lunch at a "wine" restaurant, an unassuming venue located amongst industrial buildings and “low-end” housing projects. Our Chinese cuisine for the day was a choice of sandwiches, a duck club or a ham & cheese sandwich.

The ride to Beijing was interesting in a manner similar to yesterday. En-route we saw vast areas of agricultural land, farm communes, heavy industrial centers, a high-speed bullet train, and any number of interesting sights.

Chinese Version of Toll Station

We moved on to the airport at Beijing where we boarded our China Eastern flight to Xi’an. The 2-hour flight was aboard an Airbus320, not so different than any U.S. carrier other than:

• The average age of the cabin crew was under 30.
• The crew members were all in good shape.
• The crew appeared to appreciate having customers.
• The safety instructions were in Mandarin.

Our arrival was on time and we boarded another bus. 

Still Alive, How About A Clam Roll?

The Wall of Xi'an

 We headed directly to our scheduled dinner, a “traditional” Chinese dinner tonight, featuring dumplings. By time dinner was over someone had counted 17 different dumplings that had been served. 

The dining venue also served as a theater, the Shaanxi Grand Opera House, my kind of place and I can say not exactly modeled after the Sydney Opera House. The show was a musical representation of Imperial China dating back hundreds of years with singers, dancers and musicians with an unusual assortment of instruments.

After the show we returned to the hotel where the night ended quickly for us all.