Singapore to Xi’an Days 2 – 3 May 1 to 3rd 2019
Arriving in X’ian Day 2 01 May 2019
After a morning browsing the shops in Singapore and proving that one can almost travel from one end of the city without leaving air conditioning we went back to the hotel. The Swissotel staff were amazingly efficient and seemed genuinely interested in their guests and their travels.
Anyway, from the sublime to the ridiculous, we went on Scoot (the Singapore airlines “el cheapo” version) to X’ian. We arrived at about 10 pm and joined the normal crush to get bags and then exit the airport. We were met as arranged by Kathy-our terrific guide. She gave us a background to X’ian as the old capital of China surrounded by a city wall and a moat. We went through the wall to our hostel, the HanTang Inn. Staff great-rooms basic.
City Tour X’ian Day 3 02 May 2019
After a delicious omelette breakfast, we were picked up by Kathy and our driver. We had inadvertently arrived in China on a public holiday-Labour Day. In fact a four day holiday! Kathy was very concerned that we would be unable to see the terra cotta warriors properly as local tourists had arrived en masse in X’ian a city that already has a population of nine million. We had decided to put off our visit to our last day and decided today to tour the city instead.
Our first destination (through horrendous holiday traffic) was the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Great name and a great place to start exploring X’ian. It has been described as the defining landmark of X’ian not only as a building but also in that it represents the city’s role as a cultural melting pot. The Pagoda is a Buddhist temple rendered in a very Chinese way. It was built by a crown prince of the Tang Dynasty in memory of his mother and was presided in the first instance by a Chinese monk who had spent over a decade in India learning about Buddhist teachings. He was able to combine these teachings with the Chinese concept of Dao(in English- the way or the path) a Confucian philosophy seeking to understand nature.
After some time spent waiting for tickets and people watching we wandered slowly through various pavilions with various renditions of before reaching the pagoda itself.
Then on to our second stop which was the “city wall sightseeing area” where we walked along the wall with a million of our closest friends- and buses and bikes- what could possibly go wrong? The wall was originally built around a palace in 700AD of clay. It was reconstructed in 1370 during the Ming Dynasty as a fortification and extended about eighty metres. It has been reconstructed many times, most recently in 1983 and it is now about 13.7 km in length and circles the entire modern city.
Then on to the Grand Mosque along a lane selling every kind of food you can imagine. It is unlike any mosque we have been to-similar to the Goose Pagoda it is a foreign concept but has been designed and built in a Chinese style.Beautiful gardens.
Finally we went to the centre of the city and visited two dominant towers in the city centre.Both constructed during the Ming dynasty one was for drums and the other for bells.The drum tower was used to indicate the passing of time and the bells in the event of an attack on the city.
Had a lovely lunch across the street and then a lively discussion in the hostel bar later that evening.
