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.

Thanks for the trip report.

A couple of points:

I'm not sure what you mean when you say there weren't many restaurants in the old city area in which you'd be comfortable eating. There are, basically, two ways you can travel in a foreign land: you can experience the culture, which includes eating in locals restaurants, or you can see the sites as a tourist, which will mean spending your time in restaurants like the "buffet" you mentioned. There are many wonderful restaurants in the area in which you were in, but they are locals places not designed for western tourists. One of our favorites was a state-run Muslim restaurant, the name of which I don't recall at the moment, that served local cuisine that was simply out of this world. If you confine yourself to "western looking" restaurants, your going to get low-quality western-style Chinese and western food.

I agree about the staff at the Sheraton Xi'an -- they are excellent.

I also don't know what you meant about third world taxi drivers. For starters, it's not quite accurate to describe China as third-world. Yes, it is a developing nation but, particularly in the cities, it is far closer to first world. I don't know how much of Xi'an you got to see, but it has quite a good infrastructure and is hardly what I think of when I think "third world." As far as the taxi drivers go, I don't know what you were expecting but, again, in China's cities, taxi drivers know how to drive.

The Big Goose Pagoda is scenic but, in my opinion, the Little Goose Pagoda is far more interesting. However, that's a matter of personal opinion, I suppose.

Regarding Chinese toilets, yes, they can be challenging. As far as they're being "disgusting," I don't doubt that's your subjective reaction given a western background, but cultural sensibilities differ in this area as in so many others -- think, for a moment, of the outhouses of the 19th century, or the shared toilets of an early 20th century tenement.

Regarding the "state-run" reproduction factory, I'm not familiar with it, but I'd also be surprised if it was actually state-run. These are tourist traps the sell over-priced souvenirs. I have a low opinion of a tour guide that would consider this a "necessary stop" on a short visit such as yours. The guides get kick-backs for bringing tourists to these "factories" (and this isn't unique to China -- you'll find them all over the world). The same is true of the buffet. Based on your description, this is strictly for western tourists. The whole concept of a buffet is antithetical to Chinese cooking philosophy, in which all ingredients must be fresh, prepared fresh and served and consumed immediately.

I'm glad you enjoyed your visit to Xi'an, but I'd recommend that anyone visiting the area (1) take a little more time to visit as there are many fascinating things to see, (2) avoid like plague anything designed specifically for western tourists, (3) carry toilet paper with you (true any time you get out of the major cities in China), (4) avoid large "workshops" as they are the equivalent of Times Square souvenir stores (when we were in Xi'an we found a little shop that made traditional shadow puppets out of leather -- these were reasonably priced, beautiful, native to the region and made great souvenirs), and (5) don't be afraid of locals restaurants, particularly in an area like Xi'an which has some unique and very tasty local cuisine.

Whoa, PTravel, I don't know where all this is coming from - lots of mistaken assumptions and attributions that I don't think are justified. I guess I should have clarified some of my remarks - though I didn't think anything I said was inflammatory - and I'm almost regretting having posted my trip report. I think you may have read much more into my remarks than I intended. If you read my post carefully, you'll note that I did NOT say Xian was Third World - far from it - it has infrastructure that is better than many parts of the US! And our driver was excellent. I did NOT say China was Third World. I also did NOT say anything about Third World *taxi* drivers. In fact, if you read my post carefully, you'll note that my post on the driving / roads is entirely consistent with your positive description. I was making a comparison to Third World drivers in general. I was not including China in that category, but I can see how you might read it that way.

It seems that you are making the assumption that I equate "comfortable" with "Western style". Not the case at all. The buffet we went to wasn't great, but it was fine for a quick meal. We wanted to go to the Muslim restaurant you mentioned but we didn't have the name of it. We've been to Muslim Chinese restaurants before, and the food is fantastic. (We are actually Chinese, so we don't confine ourselves to Western-looking restaurants.) However, in the 10-15 minutes of walking around in the area, we didn't find many restaurants period. We just jumped into a restaurant as quickly as we could bc we had a hungry group that was about to riot.

Lastly, about the toilets specifically in the Banpo exhibit itself, I didn't want to be explicit / graphic, but ok, here it is. All 3 toilets had a thick coating of feces smeared on the entire circumference of the *seats* in addition to the bowls being filled well past the half way mark with solid feces. If that isn't completely disgusting, I don't know what is. Maybe you'll tell me it was mud and not feces. Thanks for the toilet paper advice - I always bring it with me (in my travels, many public restrooms in Rome did not have toilet paper, came in handy even in Tokyo where some places simply ran out but that was unusual, and invariably the case with popular tourist spots all over the world that are in more remote areas).

Cheers

Hold it!
My wife and I are China bound in November. We'll be doing this overnight trip while we're there; and, I'll probably cash in my points for the Sheraton.

Your trip report has been enlightening! @:-)
As a matter of fact, I'm e mailing in to my wife before you delete it.

Thanks. ^

I enjoyed that trip report. Thanks! I did pretty much the same tour a few years back. I'd love to go back to Xian some time and just hang out in the downtown (drum tower / bell tower area). It was nice there!

As for restaurants, I believe there's a McDonald's in the mall across from the drum tower ...

That's how I took it. Sorry. I still don't understand the reference to third-world in this context, but whatever you say.

Again, I can only go from your description. For what it's worth, in all the times I've visited China (and, for that matter, all the times I've visited any other country in the world), I've never had to resort to a tourist-venue for food. There are always alternatives, even if it's interesting-looking street food.

Out of curiosity, can you speak Mandarin? By the way, I absolutely agree with one of the points that you made: Chinese Americans are regarded solely as Americans in China. My wife, who was born in China and lived there until she was 27 has become very Americanized, and people constantly assume that she is just another American tourist and will talk about her in Mandarin in front of her (to our great amusement).

I'm a bit surprised. We saw lots of little restaurants in the area around the Drum Tower and City Wall, and also scads of locals places in the Muslim neighborhood surrounding the Great Mosque (I hope you got a chance to see it -- it's spectacular). I can't, for the life of me, remember where we ate the day we went to see the terracotta warriors -- we saw a lot in that area, but I know we had to have eaten something as my wife gets cranky when she's hungry. We might have grabbed some street food. We were there during December, so it's likely we found our favorite Chinese street food: roasted yams. Anyway, my only point is that, at least in my opinion, rather than settle for some blah touristy quicky meal, the fun comes from finding a local solution that, at least, allows us to experience a bit of the culture.

I agree -- that's pretty disgusting. I suspect it's the result of people used to "squatters" trying to use the same "technique" on a western toilet. In the future, you'd be better off trying to find a squatter (though only if your sense of balance of is good -- if not, just hold it to you get to a hotel or upper-scale restaurant).

Yep -- we acquired that habit during our early travels through Europe. There were many public toilets in France and Italy that didn't supply this necessity.

That's actually not downtown Xi'an. Xi'an has a downtown that's just like most other mid-sized Chinese cities, with lots of stores and shops, including department stores and the like. We were in Xi'an for 11 days and absolutely loved it. There are lots of interesting neighborhoods through which to walk, and an eclectic mix of Chinese cultures and traditions.

Your memory is correct. The state-owned Muslim restaurant (whose name I can't recall) is in the row of stores diagonally across from the McDonald's.

Don't.

Make it 2 nights if at all possible.

As for other ideas, China is most certainly a third world country. One still can't drink the water out of the tap (even in big cities), there are major food and pharmaceutical safety issues, healthcare is a big problem (in that wealthier people go to HK for treatment). While Beijing and Shanghai might be much more 2nd world and other cities may look nice on the surface, lots of people sleep in their shops/places of business, sanitation is not of the highest standard etc, typical third world problems.

And of course, on a GDP basis, China is definitely third world.

A fantastic country, one that I love and admire in many ways, but its still 3rd world.

Is De Fa Chang not the muslim restaurant you are thinking of (it is in the building diagonally across from McDonalds next to the drum tower?).

Clearly lots of tourists at De fa Cheng when I visited, but as many (if not more) Chinese than foreigners. Also relatively few concessions to foreigners (no English menu, limited English from a couple of the staff). I was able to order using my basic Chinese and had an enjoyable meal. Equally, I had a fun lunch next day down next to the Great Mosque, dining on Paomao noodles. There were of course many tourists in the local branches of Starbucks.

But I'm in my early 30's, traveling alone, living in China and with quite a lot of time spent aborad. I love diving into the local scenes and agree I get a lot out of that. But if I am traveling with my parents, who are in their mid-60's and didn't have passports until 15 years ago, I'll be found with them in the Sheraton restaurant eating French or Italian style food, again alongside certain locals as well as expats. They're on vacation, not a cultural orientation, and I want them to enjoy themselves rather than feeling uncomfortable or challenged. They will likely leave China with a less rich experience than I had, but at least with the clear view that China is not something found on willow-pattern porcelain but a thriving and fascinating place. Also (like it or not), multinational fast food chains and cuisine are a key part of China today, and a valid part of a visit to China, at least in the cities. Many of us on these boards make our living out of the fact that an increasing number of Chinese citizens eat at KFC, drive Buicks and VWs, shop at Ikea and Carrefour (and Gucci).

Everyone has different comfort zones on this kind of thing, and this works both ways (Chinese colleagues are always asking me to recommend good Chinese food in London and I suspect many older and less well off Chinese would find a trip to the US, for example, totally bewildering). You may argue that people who can't cope with the full-on local experience should not bother visiting, but I do think that even trips where tourists end up sheltered in international hotels and the like bring positive cultural and economic benefits to all concerned.

My only point is that there are a number of ways to travel, and there is also a fundamental difference between tourism and travel. As you say, everyone has their comfort zones, but it's worth knowing all the options. Incidentally, I'm in my mid-50s.

I'm visiting next month, and looking forward to Xi'an. Thanks for this.

Unless they are famous/successful/beautiful/etc.

Then they're regarded as rich Chinese Americans.

I was actually thinking of this famous (ABC) gymnast who was in one of my college Chinese classes. Much to the embarrassment of the gymnast, our teacher periodically assigned us Chinese newspaper articles about her -- suffice it to say, none of them even hinted at the fact that she was American. We also read similar articles about other famous people with Chinese blood.... same deal.

What about Bai Ling? Is she Chinese or American?