Well I just got back from
Xi’an last night and I have to say that I still don’t like traveling. Hours and days are spent waiting for something, may that be a plane, a taxi, or just sitting on a bus. I would much rather be home, sitting on my ass in front of a monitor.
We got a pretty fair price ($85RMB) for the taxi ride to the airport, but of course we used a Chinese-speaker to arrange that. The flight was pretty straightforward and much like any average flight in the U.S. When we arrived, nobody was at the airport to pick us up, but we soon discovered that the peeps were holding up an email address instead of an actual name. One thing to take note of though, calling the hostel’s number from my cell phone didn't work. I even tried putting a “1” and/or the “86” country code, but no beans. So in a last ditch scenario, I would have no idea how to call a land line from my phone. Either that or the number was written down incorrectly.
We arrived at the
hostel, paid $120RMB for the ride, and got into our room. Accommodations were ok, but a
Motel 6 in the U.S. still beats out these places in terms of quality. The front desk peeps spoke English and were very friendly, so that was a helpful bonus.

The next day we woke up and tried to buy a train ticket and find the buses to the Terracotta Warriors. There were a fuck ton of people at the train station. I guess this is where the billions of Chinese congregate, as the “common people” usually use this as their primary form of transportation to or from different cities. From what I saw there were 2 lines: a short line for trains leaving very soon and going to a close city, and a huge indoor room where all of the other tickets could be purchased at. Of course there was a huge line for the regular tickets, so we just skipped out on that and tried to find our bus. The bus was #306 or something close to that. They were located to the right of the train station and there were a bunch of them, just sitting there waiting for passengers. I guess they have enough people heading towards the tourist sites to justify having a bunch of buses ready to transport peeps. We, of course, didn’t see this pack of buses and started wandering around the inner city wall.

Yes, I forgot to mention that this city is surrounded by a huge-ass outer wall. I’m sure it would look hella menacing if I were on a horse, riding towards this city back in the 15th century or so. But yeah, because I was traveling with a white American, we got accosted a bunch of times with offers of tour guides and private cars. Yeah everyone is out to make a buck, but they try to rape you with charges. The bus ride to the site was cheap: something like $7RMB. Yeah that totally beats the hundreds of Yuan the private places wanted to charge. Go buses…at least in this country.
So here comes story time. I’m sitting there, listening to my MP3 player in one ear and chatting with my traveling compatriot in the other, when I suddenly hear a noise and then feel a splatter. An old lady to my right had just vomited all over my leg and the seat next to me. The hag actually bypassed the isle and got me, 2 seat-lengths away! How is that possible!? I actually didn’t get mad at all, as I reached into my pocket, whipped out some stolen KFC napkins, and began wiping myself off. Good thing was that she only had some watery rice for breakfast. I think I woulda pulled a
Stand by Me move if it was anything solid or spicy. But yeah, for the rest of the day I had to walk around looking like one dirty-ass hobo.


The site museum for the
Terracotta Warriors was pretty straightforward. There were 3 “pits” and one gallery. Pit 2 was closed off for renovation, but I’m sure it would’ve looked just like the other two. Yeah I don’t know what people see in actually “going” to a place to see something. There was nothing that added to the “experience” in terms of being at the site vs. seeing it in a book or something. Different strokes for different folks I suppose.



Afterwards we headed home and prepared for a Tang Dynasty Dinner. The hostel arranged it for us so we didn’t get to pick what we wanted to eat. When we got there all we got were dumplings...tons and tons of dumplings. I’m a fan of the fried dumplings, but not the steamed ones that my mom can make, so yeah…blah on the food.


The actual theater performance was really neat, with lots of music and dance. You got to appreciate the fact that they are performing live. These actors and musicians have lots of talent and passion, sad how their lives are not as stable as most others who have “real” jobs, but I’m sure that's universal.





The next day I got on a plane and headed back to Beijing. When I got there, none of the taxi drivers would take me back to Yanjiao for $100-$200RMB becasue they were all asking for $300-$400. I found out later that a “fair” price woulda been around $190RMB. Bastards. So yeah, I had to pay $83RMB to take a taxi to the bus stop and then I paid my usual 5RMB to get on the bus to take me home.
Even though this little trip was only 3 days in total, I was exhausted. I’m not built for traveling, but at least I can cross this city off my list.