As explained in our Special Post from March 29th through April 4th, weather problems sunk our plans to take a special trip from Shanghai to Xi’an to Beijing. But a substituted, shorter trip was made available, and we decided that if we were ever, ever to see the site of the Terracotta Army that dates from 210-209 B.C. (yes, that is 2,227 years ago!), we must go. It will be a non-stop, two-day sprint, but it will be worth it.
On your mark! Get set! GO! We depart Insignia by bus at 1:00pm after China Immigration gives us their warm, welcoming examination of our documents. Seventy-five minutes later, we arrive at this cavernous yet practically empty, brand-new Tianjin airport terminal. We have our guide Michael, a very calm, kind and upbeat man about fifty years old. You can tell that he has been doing this for a long time, and he is used to herding cats, which is how this group seems to be like. The first thing he says to us is: “Does everyone have their passports? You need your passports.” Of course, not everyone does, which is understandable as Oceania didn’t make that clear as we were leaving. Michael heads back to the ship and retrieves the ones needed. There are two buses of us doing this tour, about 22 people to each bus. When he returns, he warns us that we are on a very strict timetable for the entire duration of this tour, and that it is imperative that we 1) stick together and 2) show up on time to every meeting spot.
Keeping in mind that this tour is a substitute for the tour planned months ago, Cathy and Steve are prepared to stick close to our guide and obey his instructions. Things will sometimes be a bit less organized as they have cobbled this tour together in about thirty-six hours. The airport experience is easy. First we get off the bus and go through security even to get into the terminal. Once inside, other people are there to help us with the check-in. By the time Cathy and I get up to the counter, there are no two seats together. So be it. Again our passports are carefully scrutinized by the airline clerk. Then we go through security again to get to the gate area. Fortunately, we do have plenty of time as our flight doesn’t leave until 3:45.
We are flying Tianjin Airlines. We board a nice, clean Airbus A320 with lots of flight attendants, all of whom could be runway models (pun intended). The plane is full, so it seems to take forever to get loaded and push away from the gate. But the 568-mile flight, which lasts one hour and forty minutes, is quite routine. Snacks? No. Soft drinks? Ummm, no. Each passenger gets a bottle of water. Okay, no big deal for a mid-afternoon flight.
This being our first airplane flight in China, we are observant of a few things:
- First of all, our tour guide gets bumped from the flight. Fortunately, the guide from the other bus did make the flight.
- There is never any pleasantries from the captain as on every flight we have every previously been on. Nothing. All announcements, in Chinese and English, come from the cabin crew.
- You know how on every flight there’s an announcement “We should arrive shortly in Blah, Blah, Blah”? And then three to five minutes later, the plane touches down? On this flight, that announcement comes about five seconds before the wheels touch the runway. It’s a little unnerving.
- We are still taxiing to the gate when one guy gets up and starts getting his stuff out of the overhead. What’s that about?
- The very second our plane comes to a stop at the gate, everyone in the plane that can possibly fit in the aisle jumps up. Of course it’s fifteen minutes before anyone can move toward the front of the plane to disembark.
But it is safe and on time and so we get off the plane around 5:45. Into our buses. We are Green Bus 1, and there is a specific list that assigns us to which bus. That’s too bad, as Patricia Watt is on this tour and we were hoping to spend time with her. No such luck. We are introduced to our wonderful guide Chung Hung, but we may call her Rainbow. She is a proud native of the city, and knows the roads better than even the driver.
Xi’an is huge – huge! The city population is approaching nine million, and the metro area is 13 million. And the airport is way out away from town, so it’s over an hour to get to our hotel, which is on the edge of town. As we pass through the city, we marvel at the number of high-rise buildings. As Cathy says, it looks like a city you see in some Star Wars movie. Hundreds of enormous apartment buildings, each one at least twenty stories high. Pat later tells us that she was here twenty-eight years ago and doesn’t even recognize the place. It is completely different than what she remembers. That is the miracle of China.
We are staying at the Wyndham Grand Xian South Hotel, clearly a five-star joint. As we approach the hotel, it is now dark and we notice that the city is very brightly lit up with decorations. Chinese New Year is approaching, and many of the businesses have made contributions to dress up the area. It really is quite fantastic, and Rainbow gives directions on how to walk to this area from the hotel.
Before she lets us off the bus, Steve and Cathy are grateful that Rainbow very politely but very firmly tells us all that it has been arranged for all of us to receive a wake-up call from the hotel at 5:30am the next morning, and that we must be ready to board the bus at 7:15 sharp. As she says: “You are on a very tight schedule on this tour. Any minute you waste being later than 7:15am will be a minute you cannot spend at the Terracotta Warriors and Horses. Be polite to all your fellow travelers and be on time tomorrow.” Thank you, Rainbow.
We are all herded into the hotel. We figure that checking us all in will take forever. We are wrong. The guide from Red Bus #1 collected all the passports. He and Rainbow passed out room keys (check-in had been prearranged), allowing us to go straight to the rooms. After the hotel had scanned all the passports, we would get them back from our guide.
Now it’s going on 8pm, so we drop our bag in the room and head right for the restaurant. It’s a huge buffet, with all kinds of different foods. There is something to suit everybody’s taste. Passports are passed out by our guide. The service is interesting. While these young – and I mean young – men and women do a good job, and they are super polite, they seem to be somewhat inexperienced. Steve is interested in a couple of glasses of wine, and finally gets the attention of an adorable girl who is working there. She speaks as much English as he does Chinese, but we manage to communicate. She gets the wine menu, I point to what I want, and she gets it. She is as cute as can be and so polite and earnest that I ask if I can take her picture. Of course she says yes, and you now see her in the photo at the beginning of this post.
Dinner is completed, it’s around 9:30, and we have a hyper active day tomorrow. We retire to the room, which, having been living in 216 square feet for the past three months, seems like a royal suite, especially the bathroom. Too bad we are only here until 7:15 tomorrow.
