China2k17: Week 7
aka I Xi’an Famous Foods
This weekend, I headed to Xi’an to hang out in the Muslim quarter and see the Terracotta soldiers.
Friday:
Friday at 3pm, my friends and I headed to from campus to Pudong Airport catch our 6:15 flight to Xian. There were a few people in the group I hadn’t talked to a lot in the last few weeks in Shanghai, so I was excited to learn more about them and spend more time with them.
We got to the airport fairly easily, and getting our tickets for the flight just required (most of) us to input our passport information into the airport automatic check-in stations. However, a few people did have to get their ticket from the counter (which ended up being better for them because they got window and aisle seats while the rest of us got middle seats.
After we all checked in and went through security, we sat at the gate for an hour before boarding our flight to Xian.
It took about three hours to get there, and when we landed, we had to decide if we were going to take 2 taxis (when only one person in our group could speak chinese well enough to understand what was going on) or a bus together, then a taxi. As luck would have it, there ended up being a service that would take all of us (on what was essentially a private bus) straight to our dorm for 50 kuai each (which is about 8 dollars). What would have been a 90 minute trip from train to taxi to hotel turned into a 60 minute trip in a car. Needless to say, I was very thankful for the chinese speaker in our group (Shout out to Isabelle if you ever read this).
When we finally got to the hostel (aptly named the Party Hostel) we met up with our friends who’d showed up that morning, and they told us about all the things they’d done and the places they’d eaten (all of which we would be doing tomorrow while they did homework). There was also someone that could speak chinese in that group, so the two of them essentially saved us the entire weekend.
After putting our stuff away and picking rooms, we went to a bar downstairs and hung out there for a few hours.
Saturday:
9:30 am on Saturday morning, our group of 12 headed to see the Terracotta Soldiers. The journey there took about an hour and a half, so we all slept to recover from the night before.
The Terracotta soldiers were the one thing I wanted to see before I left China, so I was especially excited about today. After we got our tickets, we headed down a flowery path until we reached the actual crypt (or what was above it, since the real crypt hadn’t been dug up due to issues involving a collapsing chamber and Mercury poisoning (apparently the Emperor who ordered the soldiers was crazy af).
The first room we entered was room 1 (which was a bad idea--if you ever go, do the third chamber last). Pictured above, it was the biggest room, and also the best. The room was the size of a large warehouse, and from wall to wall, the room was filled with horses and people. Honestly it was super cool to see in real life, but after 5 minutes you realize that they’re ultimately just a bunch of clay things. It’s cool that they lasted that long, but you really just need your picture and then you’re good. All of the soldiers are different from little traits here and there, maybe a missing head or two (tbh those were cool) but overall everything looked the exact same. There was, however, a section in the back of the room where they were repairing the soldiers which was cool.
Satisfied, and relatively happy with the first room, we moved onto the second room, which was largely disappointing. It was much smaller than the first room, like epically, and the soldiers were a lot fewer as well.
Moving onto the third room, was equally as disappointing. The room was smaller than the first, but much larger than the second, but there were no people. It was empty (save the museum-like area surrounding the pit) and only filled with shards of pots and people here and there. We took a quick round through the museum in the compound then (it covered the history of the soldiers discovery) before heading back to to hostel, where some of us took naps, while the others went on a bike ride around the wall, something the first group had done when they arrived yesterday.
From three until five, seven of us took a bike ride around the wall surrounding Xi’an. After a while, we split into two groups, and while one group (aka me and another person) made it back to the bike station on time, as well as back to the hostel in a timely manner to go to dinner, the other group got lost on the other side of the city. We later learned that one of our friends had gotten a really bad Charley Horse and that after a few encounters with the wall security, as well as a well faked injury, they managed to get a car ride back to the side of the wall where the hostel was and made it home. Once we got home, we all learned that neither group had seen the first Polish kid that had disappeared at MYST the first night we’d gotten to China (See week 2). He’d messaged the group that he was waiting for us at the wall exit, and when neither group had seen him at the exit, we assumed he was with the other (He then proceeded to get lost in Xi’an for the next few hours but we had long moved on by then--according to a close source, its not unusual for him to get lost on trips).
After the bike ride, and an hour of rest and waiting for the Polish kid to show up, all of us headed to the Muslim Quarter for some street food.
Up until this point, I had been extremely hesitant to eat anything in China that involved meat. However, as this was the Muslim Quarter, and all the mean was halal, I threw caution to the wind, and ate some dank chicken. Well, really it was mediocre but the fact that it was authentic street food made it cool. It was just chicken stuffed with rice (and maybe veggies, I wasn’t sure) so the food wasn’t too crazy, but it was still a jump. Besides that, I took a bite of the other Polish kid’s squid, at some cotton candy, and had hella watermelon.
To end the night, we went to a bar that was made from an old train station.
Sunday:
On Sunday, we woke up to a steady rain at around 10, and immediately learned that that was our checkout time. One of our friends knew that, and had simply declined to tell us. Cool.
As our flight wasn’t until 6pm, we spent the morning at Big Wild Goose Pagoda hanging out in the rain, looking really tired wishing we could ring the bells in the Pagoda. We also watched the performance of a really long and intense Buddhist prayer.
We then spent the afternoon eating the famous and delicious Bian Bian Noodles of Xi’an (except at a halal place in another area of the Muslim Quarter, so there was no pork in them--WHOOOO!) before heading to the airport to board our plane to Shanghai. Which we almost missed (we arrived at the gate in the middle of boarding #Hallelujah)
And that was my week.