Greetings from Beijing where we just landed last night after flying in from Xian. PTravel was so right about Xian - should have stayed more than a night in Xian. What a wonderful town! What struck us about Xian were the tree lined streets everywhere. Such a stark contrast to Shanghai - Xian is a very green and well laid-out city with wide, nicely paved sidewalks. Much better air quality, pleasing to the eye and seemed to be a very clean town. Would definitely go back.

When we landed at the Xian airport, we went to the dark blue tourist info desk which also arranges for transportation to hotels. We thought this was a gov't organized cab line like you have at some airports. They said it would cost 260 for a mini van (we had a group of 5 with 9 carry-on roller bags). They then took us to a row of transportation desks, of which there was one - each of the hotels also had their own desks (out of curiosity, I asked the Sheraton if they had transportation to the hotel and the Sheraton agent said it needed to be booked in advance - can't do it at the airport when you land). The 5 of us barely fit in but we managed. The trip from the airport (it was a Sunday) at 7pm only took 30 min.

There were lots of nice restaurants next to the Sheraton, which we regretted not going to. For dinner, we went to the "old part" of town (known locally as "gu lou") where the Great Mosque, Drum Tower and Bell Tower are located. This is a really interesting part of town at night with all the landmarks lit up (very picturesque), the grounds are more much expansive than we expected and is filled with night/street vendors. It was surprisingly crowded with people, and it's worth going to at night (there were still tons of people around when we left the area at 9:30pm). But there weren't many restaurants in that area that we felt comfortable eating in. We ended up eating at De Fa Chang, a dumpling place where you pay as you go - ie, you give the waitress cash and she gives you a plate of dumplings, you give her cash and she gives you a beer... You want napkins, pay her 15 and she'll give you a pack of tissues. This wasn't the type of restaurant that we wanted to go to but it was something to experience and added to the overall experience. The dumplings were fine - nothing special if you've had Chinese dumplings before. US$20 fed 4 ppl incl beers (it was 20 for a plate of something like a dozen dumplings and we had 5-6 plates).

The next day we had an all-day tour of the major sites before heading to the airport at 3:45pm to catch our flight. We wanted to see a bunch of sites in one day, so we got a private car and guide. I reserved a JinBei minivan with driver through the Sheraton for 1000 for the whole day. It was a larger vehicle for the 5 of us plus our tour guide plus our 9 pieces of luggage (smaller van would have been 860 - we were glad we upgraded to the larger bc it was tight for 6 people... Would have been very comfortable for 5 ppl incl guide). We got an English speaking guide thru the hotel for another 300 for the day. I arranged for the car, driver and tour guide by emailing the local Sheraton hotel the day before I arrived - the Sheraton was extremely responsive with email so I was able to confirm everything via email - awesome service from the Sheraton Xian employees. Tickets to the various sites and lunch were not included and we paid for those on our own (came to 250pp for the sites and 50pp for buffet lunch). Guide didn't need any tickets for himself but we did pay for his lunch. We didn't set our agenda for the day until we met with our guide at 8:30am. We basically told him what we wanted to see and he suggested add'l sites, then he mapped out the itinerary for the day to ensure we got to see everything we wanted efficiently. He was great about organizing a bunch of sites for us (the hotel said we could only pick 3 stops, that the package we paid for included only 3 stops of our choice and airport drop-off - that was the only negative about the Sheraton and wasn't something I was aware of when I made the booking and only found out about when I arrived at the hotel). Nevertheless, our guide and driver took us to 6 sites (we're a fast moving bunch!) and we still had plenty of time to spare at the airport.

Eddie Lau was our guide (cell 13609193006 and email [email protected]). He did an awesome job as well letting us know in advance which exhibits were just quick spins and which were worth spending more time at, as well as which part of the Terracotta Warriors exhibit should just be a drive-by (bc stuffy and full of mobs of tourists). The driver was awesome too - he didn't speak English and wasn't a guide - he basically stayed with the car the whole time, but he was great - American style driving - none of the "stop and go" braking and accelerating of many Third World drivers. He was a Sheraton employee, not some outside contractor. PM if you want his name - just don't want him to get in trouble for taking us to many more sites than he was supposed to. Itinerary and approx times below.

8:45-10am went from hotel to Big Goose Pagoda (beautifully landscaped grounds with good picture taking opps - we didn't go into the Pagoda as we didn't think we had time and Eddie recommended that we just take pictures from the outside) and City Wall (tickets for the City Wall were 40 pp).

10-10:30 drove from City Wall to Banpo Village (tickets were 35 pp). It's basically an archeological dig site. Not terribly exciting and not much to see but they have neat videos showing computer generated images of what the huts looked like over time (though narrated in mostly Chinese and a few in English). Spent 30 min looking around and that was plenty. Do NOT go to the toilets there - they are unlike anything I've ever seen - absolutely disgusting. (We forgot to ask Eddie for his advice before heading to the bathrooms!)

11:00-11:30 drove to the Gov't Owned Terracotta Reproduction Workshop where they provide a free tour of the workshop and also sell Chinese lacquer screens and furniture, silk embroidery wall hangings, carpets and other souvenir items. It orig started as a lacquer furniture store and expanded into making terracotta reproductions. The lacquer screens and furniture were expensive compared to prices for similar items in the US. Pashminas that sold elsewhere for 170 (and even less at $10 on eBay) were 480 here! Stayed there for 30 min till noon.

Virtually right next door is Huaqing Hot Springs (70pp) where Yang Gui Fei (the famous Tang dynasty imperial concubine) would vacation. The picturesque grounds are tranquil, not overrun by tourists and beautifully landscaped. We stayed there for 40 min, which was just about right for us for the number of photos we wanted to take.

At 12:45, we headed to buffet lunch at a place our guide took us to near the Terracotta Warriors (TCW) site. We would never have been able to find this place on our own - there were no signs. He said this is a place that many Western tourists are taken to bc it's a relatively nicer place considering that we're in the countryside and that the Chinese tourists are taken to more local places that aren't as clean and wouldn't be to our liking. (We had 3 Chinese Americans in our group - Chinese Americans are considered American and not Chinese in China.). The buffet lunch was 50pp and included unlimited soft drinks and beer. The food was ok, nothing special - beef stew, hot and sour chicken, bbq pork, cooked veggie medley (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower), potatoes, fried rice, soup and various desserts.

From lunch, we walked directly to the TCW entrance (fee of 90 pp). After you get thru the main gate, there's a trolley cart that takes you to the site and costs 5 pp. We saw the 5 various pits/sites (infantry, officers, archers, cavalry and exhibit), which took 1.5 hrs (plenty of time for photos). Our guide had told us the mornings get really crowded, so better to do afternoon. We finished up at 3:45 and headed straight from there to the airport, where we arrived at 4:50 (the actual drive time from the site to the airport was under 45 min - there was no traffic - most people had told us it would take anywhere from an hour to 1.5 hrs with traffic). Our flight to Beijing was 7:30, so we had more than 2.5 hrs to kill at the airport.

See my post on intra-China travel for a report on Xian airport.