Francesca and Henk-Jan's Backpacking Trip!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Terracotta Temptations
Yes, on the 1st of August Francesca and I had a few hours to kill before our flight to Xi’an. We were a little hungry and strolled around the airport in search of food. Not really finding anything we headed for our gate, where we spotted a little mini-market. At the same time a gate change was announced, so we had to make our way to another gate at that point. I did grab some snacks, quickly headed to the cashier and paid. As I always do, I paid with a 100 Yuan note to make more change. I only got change back for a 50 Yuan note… I got pissed and tried to explain what had happened. 3 women banded together and snatched the extra 50 I’d grabbed back. Then Francesca came in, asked what happened and snatched the 50 Yuan note right back and we walked off. We heard them yelling behind us and half expected security to be hot on our heels, but to our surprise we made it to our gate and onto our plane without any problems.
The flight was quite nice, as Francesca tried to take some pictures of the sunset and beautifully colored skyline. She played with the panorama setting: here’s the result… After that she dozed off on my lap and didn’t awake until we landed in Xi’an. Getting to our CouchSurfing host in Xi’an, Raphael, was extremely easy since he’d texted us the address in Chinese. All we had to do was haggle with a cab driver to take us there for a reasonable price. The drive into and through the city took nearly an hour, putting us at Raphael’s place around 11:00 PM. We gave him a call from behind the gates to his high rises complex and he picked us up. Raphael showed us our room for the next few days and I sat down with him to talk for a while about his life in China.
Raphael told me he works for a French company that produces tubes, which they then sell on the Chinese market. Being the only foreigner on the work floor meant he had to learn Mandarin and I was impressed to learn he spoke it quite fluently and was even able to write Chinese Simplified. Very handy skills to have! He also told me he’d been in China for quite some years, and enjoyed life. It’s interesting to see how some people manage to adapt to the Chinese way of life so easily. Raphael did admit he would love to go travel like us again and our stories only strengthened that feeling. A little past midnight I looked for Francesca, who’d already gone to rest and we fell asleep together.
The next morning, the 2nd of August Francesca and I got off to a bit of a slow start. We wanted to go see the Army of Terracotta Warriors, but had to do some research on how to get there. I made Francesca a delicious grilled cheese sandwich, whilst she explored our options. There were some buses from the train station, but keeping our location in the city in mind it didn’t make sense to go there. Instead, we grabbed a taxi around 11:30 AM and were driven to the entrance of the enormous complex.
I was getting quite excited at this point, because I’d expected much of the Terracotta Warriors. We bought our tickets and audio guides, got in the queue for the carts to take us to the halls and entered the park proper. Let me start off by saying that the halls containing the Warriors are works in progress: since the discovery archeologists have been working continuously, unearthing more and more artifacts; even entire new tombs.
In fact, the discovery of the Warriors in 1974 was a complete accident. Peasants drilling a well found an underground vault that gave the world access to the Army. Archeologists and scientists discovered the Army had been built under the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huang – yes, the same guy that worked so diligently on the Great Wall – who probably believed his reign would continue in death. That’s why he had thousands of soldiers – all with unique faces, expressions, hairstyles, armors and shoes, and in various poses – created and put in vaults to protect his tomb. Even though the Emperor’s tomb has not been unearthed yet it is believed it was raided shortly after his demise. Currently the tomb is too unstable to begin digging. Other options are being explored.
Following Lonely Planet’s advice of entering the smallest of the three pits, pit 3, first Francesca and I soon had our first encounter with the Warriors. It was indeed a small pit, containing only 72 warriors and horses, but it also is believed to be the army headquarters, because it contains a large number of high-ranking officials. Francesca and I spent some time admiring the faces from afar. Amusing side note: a clever entrepreneur has set up shop inside Pit 3, digitally putting people’s faces onto a Terracotta Warrior.
Pit 2 was up next and proved to be a step up from the previous pit. This pit contains a much more impressive 1300 warriors and horses, with still more being dug up. The grid in which they were found represents Qin Dynasty battle formations. Sadly, most of the hall is still being worked on so most Warriors are still in their vaults and thus not visible to visitors. Luckily the proprietors of the museum thought it smart to put some of the finest Warriors in glass cages.
The standing archer, with his long arms and unarmored body, was found ready to shoot. The cavalryman and his horse – always similar in height – were both decorated and well-armored. The high-ranking officer wore double layered clothing and fish-scale armor. The middle-ranking officer had a slightly simpler outfit compared to his higher-ranking compatriot. Finally, the kneeling archer was discovered without any weapons. He, however, is believed to have held a crossbow, as the position of his arms suggests.
We also learned about the myriad weapons the Qin possessed. Nearly 40,000 weapons were discovered in the different pits, all of high quality even for today’s standards. Apparently the Qin used a chrome-plating technique, something the West only managed to invent in the 1950s. Quite impressive! Walking further through the pit showed us some fine examples of the paint originally used to decorate the Warriors. I cannot believe traces of the paint can still be seen on some of them.
The highlight of the day was definitely Pit 1. Lonely Planet: “It contains 6000 warriors and horses, all facing east and ready for battle. The vanguard of three rows of archers (both crossbow and longbow) is followed by the main force of soldiers, who originally held spears, swords, dagger-axes and other long shaft weapons. The infantry were accompanied by 35 chariots, though these, made of wood, have long since disintegrated.”
Francesca and I took our time in the maddening heat and crowds, always looking for the best spots to get a few pictures. Be ready to be amazed! In the back of the enormous hangar the works-in-progress showed us how much of a jigsaw puzzle rebuilding the Warriors must be. Most of the Terracotta has been smashed and whole bodies just lay sprawled over a few square meters, ready to be reassembled to join the ranks of the Emperor once more.
Other than the 3 pits the Army’s complex also contains a small, but interesting museum. Highlights are some more Warriors in perfect condition and pictures of some of the unique faces, expressions and hairstyles. We also saw pictures of other pits, and examples of the artifacts found there. The idea of stone armors had apparently been considered feasible, so we saw full body armor and a helmet made out of stone. The pit filled with acrobats proved the Army had also been provided with much-needed entertainment.
A little creepier was the giant model of a Warrior holding a little girl’s hand. I didn’t remember, but the sign read it had been used during the Olympics. The two giant marionettes are reportedly the world’s largest and celebrate some successful new conservation and preservation methods. Absolute highlight of the museum were the color-painted bronze chariots and horses found near Qin Shi Huang’s tomb. Pretty cool to see how the severely-damaged chariots have been brought back to life.
The visit to the museum marked the end of our visit to the Army of Terracotta Warriors. For me, it was definitely the highlight of China so far. Francesca and I made our way to the bus station and caught the first bus back to the train station. We’d planned to meet up with Raphael for dinner in town. He wasn’t entirely sure what time he’d get off work though, so Francesca and I had some time to kill. After purchasing some new credit for our phone – never easy in China – we took a taxi to the sizeable Drum Tower, once used to mark nightfall in Xi’an.
From here we made our way into the Muslim Quarter. The Muslim Quarter offered a nice respite from the rest of the city, even though the hawkers were just as annoying. Our walk through some of the narrow lanes was interesting and led us to the Great Mosque, one of the largest mosques in China. I wasn’t sure if we should waste time/money on the decaying complex, but Francesca was interested so we headed inside. Construction on the Mosque started in 742 and the whole thing still looks decidedly Chinese. In fact, if it wasn’t for the prayer mats in the final hall you could’ve fooled me if you’d told me it was just another temple. Furthermore, about 2 minutes into our exploration Francesca remembered she’d actually seen the Mosque before when she visited Xi’an in 2007.
Raphael had texted us to meet in the McDonald’s to go for dinner. We met him there well past 7:00 PM and followed him to a Spanish friend of his, who brought two backpackers with her. The Spanish girl, Laura, had just moved to Xi’an to teach Spanish and was just getting settled. The other two backpackers, Paula from Argentina and Jo from France would be staying with Raphael as well. As we walked and talked, making our way to a random restaurant I suddenly felt a little tug at our purse. I’d seen a guy walking a little close to me before, but didn’t think much of it. This time however I checked the purse, and saw it was half-opened. I gave the scumbag a firm push onto the road (sadly, no passing cars) and checked the purse for our valuables. Thank god everything was still there!
Our party of 6 found a local restaurant not much further down the street and sat down. We decided to order a mix of dishes together to share. Some sweet and sour pork, filled dumplings and a selection of vegetables filled the table to the brim. We did a pretty good job with the 5 of us; Francesca suffered from a headache and didn’t eat. After dinner the rest of the crew wanted to go to a pub for a drink. We had to say ‘no’ to that offer. Raphael offered to give us the keys and helped us find a taxi – again, not easy in China! – to his place. Back at his house I made Francesca another grilled cheese sandwich. It filled her up, but didn’t take the headache away. Sleep came quickly that night; it seemed we needed some rest.
In order to give our bodies just that the 3rd of August became a very quiet day. We slept in, watched some movies and worked on our posts. I ventured into the kitchen a few times and found Paula and Jo had chosen Raphael’s comfortable living room the perfect spot for some serious relaxing as well. I talked to them about their travels whilst I made Francesca another sandwich. Raphael came back around dinner time and told us he had a little party planned, having invited some other expats to his house.
Paula and Jo headed to the supermarket to pick up some groceries. Raphael and I went through his cabinets and found a box of muffin-baking-powder. Raphael was eager to try out his mini-oven so we decided to make dessert. There was one problem though: he didn’t possess any cups to bake the muffins in. Our only option was to create the dough and pour it onto a plate. Praying this would work we put the mix in the oven and saw it spread out over the plate quickly. It didn’t spill over though, and a quarter of an hour later we had a somewhat oddly shaped, but perfectly tasty mega-muffin! Since we’d made enough mix for a second muffin that one went into the oven as well. Another 15 minutes later a second, even larger, muffin appeared. Dessert, check!
Dinner, check! took a little longer. Francesca and I thought it’d be a good idea to order some pizza. Sadly, Raphael’s place was a bit too far away for some of the larger chains in town. It took a little longer, even with his command of Chinese, to explain his address to the staff of a smaller pizza place. After 45 minutes pizza finally arrived. I brought Francesca, who was still recovering in the room, the entire BBQ Chicken pizza, a coke and some muffin. I sat down with Raphael’s guests to listen to some interesting stories about Xi’an. In the meantime Paula and Jo had finished their vegetables-in-honey dish – pretty tasty! I went back to check up on Francesca after dinner, and by the time I went back outside the party had ended and people were getting ready for bed.
For the 4th of August our plans were limited once more. Since I’d forgotten Francesca’s hat in the taxi to Taiyuan I’d been busy trying to get it back. Through the owners of Harmony Guesthouse in Pingyao we’d found somebody willing to take the hat with them to Xi’an. I ventured out late in the morning to pick up the hat from a hostel in the city. Because taxis are ubiquitous, but almost always unavailable I spent a good 15 minutes outside Raphael’s place, waiting for one to open its doors for me. When that finally happened the rest was over pretty quickly. I left a thank-you note for the travelers that had been so kind to bring Francesca’s premium souvenir back and returned to my girlfriend.
We had to get to Xi’an’s airport for our flight to Chongqing later that night, and had the choice between staying at Raphael’s until 8:00 PM or so, or heading to the airport a little earlier to try and see Emperor Jingdi’s Tomb. We chose the former option and said goodbye to Paula and Jo around 5:00 PM. I also took some pictures of the impressive view of the city from Raphael’s balcony. Note the large number of high rises and cranes… They’re always building something in China! I’d called Raphael earlier that afternoon to explain our choice. We felt bad we couldn’t say our farewells and thanks in person, but he understood and wished us a pleasant trip.
Finding a taxi turned out to be a little easier this time around. Lonely Planet had listed the Tomb to be close to the airport, so when I told the driver to take us there I figured it’d be no problem to ask him to also take us to the Tomb. To our surprise he had no idea where we wanted to go… I fixed the status quo by calling a hostel and asking them to explain to the driver where to go. After 15 minutes of passing the phone back and forth he finally understood where to go and drove off. The drive turned out to be quite a detour and the Lonely Planet’s tip of going to the Tomb on the way to the airport was inexplicably off. Sometimes you have to wonder if they actually visit these places themselves.
When we finally arrived at the Tomb around 6:00 PM the ticket office was empty. Francesca tried to ask some foreigners coming back to their tour bus and I called the hostel staff again to translate a Chinese person’s answer. Both came back with the same result: the museum and Tomb weren’t open until 7:00 PM like the Lonely Planet had listed; they’d closed their doors just a few minutes before. We had no choice but to ask the taxi driver to take us to the airport. Severely disappointed Francesca and I sat down and completed the trip there.
Since we were now way early we couldn’t even check in yet. Francesca found a little restaurant with WiFi available and sat down for a drink. We pulled out the laptop and researched our options. Changing our flight would be an option, since we didn’t have major plans for the next city, Chongqing. I called Ctrip and found out that changing the flight would be free. In the meantime Francesca had looked up pictures of the Jingdi Tomb and museum. She’d remembered seeing another Tomb on her previous trip. Another Google-search gave us the itinerary of said trip. Guess what! She’d already seen the Tomb! Relief came rapidly, since I wasn’t terribly bothered about not seeing it anyway, and Francesca now vaguely remembered her encounter with Emperor Jingdi and his mini-army.
Our flight to Chongqing saw us landing in China’s largest city around midnight. Our host had told us that getting to her place would not be very easy. Plus, the road to the airport had been under construction for some time, further complicating the drive. After I texted her we were on our way to our place she called and asked to speak to the driver. They agreed to meet near the entrance to the gated community she and her parents lived, which was exactly where we met Jacqueline. We thanked her thoroughly for staying up for us whilst she drove us to her home. In the car we met her awesome dog Guai Guai and talked about our travels and plans for Chongqing. It was nearly 2:00 AM after we had had a drink – no surprise we fell asleep so easily. Just look at the picture of our awesome room and bed!
The flight was quite nice, as Francesca tried to take some pictures of the sunset and beautifully colored skyline. She played with the panorama setting: here’s the result… After that she dozed off on my lap and didn’t awake until we landed in Xi’an. Getting to our CouchSurfing host in Xi’an, Raphael, was extremely easy since he’d texted us the address in Chinese. All we had to do was haggle with a cab driver to take us there for a reasonable price. The drive into and through the city took nearly an hour, putting us at Raphael’s place around 11:00 PM. We gave him a call from behind the gates to his high rises complex and he picked us up. Raphael showed us our room for the next few days and I sat down with him to talk for a while about his life in China.
Raphael told me he works for a French company that produces tubes, which they then sell on the Chinese market. Being the only foreigner on the work floor meant he had to learn Mandarin and I was impressed to learn he spoke it quite fluently and was even able to write Chinese Simplified. Very handy skills to have! He also told me he’d been in China for quite some years, and enjoyed life. It’s interesting to see how some people manage to adapt to the Chinese way of life so easily. Raphael did admit he would love to go travel like us again and our stories only strengthened that feeling. A little past midnight I looked for Francesca, who’d already gone to rest and we fell asleep together.
The next morning, the 2nd of August Francesca and I got off to a bit of a slow start. We wanted to go see the Army of Terracotta Warriors, but had to do some research on how to get there. I made Francesca a delicious grilled cheese sandwich, whilst she explored our options. There were some buses from the train station, but keeping our location in the city in mind it didn’t make sense to go there. Instead, we grabbed a taxi around 11:30 AM and were driven to the entrance of the enormous complex.
I was getting quite excited at this point, because I’d expected much of the Terracotta Warriors. We bought our tickets and audio guides, got in the queue for the carts to take us to the halls and entered the park proper. Let me start off by saying that the halls containing the Warriors are works in progress: since the discovery archeologists have been working continuously, unearthing more and more artifacts; even entire new tombs.
In fact, the discovery of the Warriors in 1974 was a complete accident. Peasants drilling a well found an underground vault that gave the world access to the Army. Archeologists and scientists discovered the Army had been built under the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huang – yes, the same guy that worked so diligently on the Great Wall – who probably believed his reign would continue in death. That’s why he had thousands of soldiers – all with unique faces, expressions, hairstyles, armors and shoes, and in various poses – created and put in vaults to protect his tomb. Even though the Emperor’s tomb has not been unearthed yet it is believed it was raided shortly after his demise. Currently the tomb is too unstable to begin digging. Other options are being explored.
Following Lonely Planet’s advice of entering the smallest of the three pits, pit 3, first Francesca and I soon had our first encounter with the Warriors. It was indeed a small pit, containing only 72 warriors and horses, but it also is believed to be the army headquarters, because it contains a large number of high-ranking officials. Francesca and I spent some time admiring the faces from afar. Amusing side note: a clever entrepreneur has set up shop inside Pit 3, digitally putting people’s faces onto a Terracotta Warrior.
Pit 2 was up next and proved to be a step up from the previous pit. This pit contains a much more impressive 1300 warriors and horses, with still more being dug up. The grid in which they were found represents Qin Dynasty battle formations. Sadly, most of the hall is still being worked on so most Warriors are still in their vaults and thus not visible to visitors. Luckily the proprietors of the museum thought it smart to put some of the finest Warriors in glass cages.
The standing archer, with his long arms and unarmored body, was found ready to shoot. The cavalryman and his horse – always similar in height – were both decorated and well-armored. The high-ranking officer wore double layered clothing and fish-scale armor. The middle-ranking officer had a slightly simpler outfit compared to his higher-ranking compatriot. Finally, the kneeling archer was discovered without any weapons. He, however, is believed to have held a crossbow, as the position of his arms suggests.
We also learned about the myriad weapons the Qin possessed. Nearly 40,000 weapons were discovered in the different pits, all of high quality even for today’s standards. Apparently the Qin used a chrome-plating technique, something the West only managed to invent in the 1950s. Quite impressive! Walking further through the pit showed us some fine examples of the paint originally used to decorate the Warriors. I cannot believe traces of the paint can still be seen on some of them.
The highlight of the day was definitely Pit 1. Lonely Planet: “It contains 6000 warriors and horses, all facing east and ready for battle. The vanguard of three rows of archers (both crossbow and longbow) is followed by the main force of soldiers, who originally held spears, swords, dagger-axes and other long shaft weapons. The infantry were accompanied by 35 chariots, though these, made of wood, have long since disintegrated.”
Francesca and I took our time in the maddening heat and crowds, always looking for the best spots to get a few pictures. Be ready to be amazed! In the back of the enormous hangar the works-in-progress showed us how much of a jigsaw puzzle rebuilding the Warriors must be. Most of the Terracotta has been smashed and whole bodies just lay sprawled over a few square meters, ready to be reassembled to join the ranks of the Emperor once more.
Other than the 3 pits the Army’s complex also contains a small, but interesting museum. Highlights are some more Warriors in perfect condition and pictures of some of the unique faces, expressions and hairstyles. We also saw pictures of other pits, and examples of the artifacts found there. The idea of stone armors had apparently been considered feasible, so we saw full body armor and a helmet made out of stone. The pit filled with acrobats proved the Army had also been provided with much-needed entertainment.
A little creepier was the giant model of a Warrior holding a little girl’s hand. I didn’t remember, but the sign read it had been used during the Olympics. The two giant marionettes are reportedly the world’s largest and celebrate some successful new conservation and preservation methods. Absolute highlight of the museum were the color-painted bronze chariots and horses found near Qin Shi Huang’s tomb. Pretty cool to see how the severely-damaged chariots have been brought back to life.
The visit to the museum marked the end of our visit to the Army of Terracotta Warriors. For me, it was definitely the highlight of China so far. Francesca and I made our way to the bus station and caught the first bus back to the train station. We’d planned to meet up with Raphael for dinner in town. He wasn’t entirely sure what time he’d get off work though, so Francesca and I had some time to kill. After purchasing some new credit for our phone – never easy in China – we took a taxi to the sizeable Drum Tower, once used to mark nightfall in Xi’an.
From here we made our way into the Muslim Quarter. The Muslim Quarter offered a nice respite from the rest of the city, even though the hawkers were just as annoying. Our walk through some of the narrow lanes was interesting and led us to the Great Mosque, one of the largest mosques in China. I wasn’t sure if we should waste time/money on the decaying complex, but Francesca was interested so we headed inside. Construction on the Mosque started in 742 and the whole thing still looks decidedly Chinese. In fact, if it wasn’t for the prayer mats in the final hall you could’ve fooled me if you’d told me it was just another temple. Furthermore, about 2 minutes into our exploration Francesca remembered she’d actually seen the Mosque before when she visited Xi’an in 2007.
Raphael had texted us to meet in the McDonald’s to go for dinner. We met him there well past 7:00 PM and followed him to a Spanish friend of his, who brought two backpackers with her. The Spanish girl, Laura, had just moved to Xi’an to teach Spanish and was just getting settled. The other two backpackers, Paula from Argentina and Jo from France would be staying with Raphael as well. As we walked and talked, making our way to a random restaurant I suddenly felt a little tug at our purse. I’d seen a guy walking a little close to me before, but didn’t think much of it. This time however I checked the purse, and saw it was half-opened. I gave the scumbag a firm push onto the road (sadly, no passing cars) and checked the purse for our valuables. Thank god everything was still there!
Our party of 6 found a local restaurant not much further down the street and sat down. We decided to order a mix of dishes together to share. Some sweet and sour pork, filled dumplings and a selection of vegetables filled the table to the brim. We did a pretty good job with the 5 of us; Francesca suffered from a headache and didn’t eat. After dinner the rest of the crew wanted to go to a pub for a drink. We had to say ‘no’ to that offer. Raphael offered to give us the keys and helped us find a taxi – again, not easy in China! – to his place. Back at his house I made Francesca another grilled cheese sandwich. It filled her up, but didn’t take the headache away. Sleep came quickly that night; it seemed we needed some rest.
In order to give our bodies just that the 3rd of August became a very quiet day. We slept in, watched some movies and worked on our posts. I ventured into the kitchen a few times and found Paula and Jo had chosen Raphael’s comfortable living room the perfect spot for some serious relaxing as well. I talked to them about their travels whilst I made Francesca another sandwich. Raphael came back around dinner time and told us he had a little party planned, having invited some other expats to his house.
Paula and Jo headed to the supermarket to pick up some groceries. Raphael and I went through his cabinets and found a box of muffin-baking-powder. Raphael was eager to try out his mini-oven so we decided to make dessert. There was one problem though: he didn’t possess any cups to bake the muffins in. Our only option was to create the dough and pour it onto a plate. Praying this would work we put the mix in the oven and saw it spread out over the plate quickly. It didn’t spill over though, and a quarter of an hour later we had a somewhat oddly shaped, but perfectly tasty mega-muffin! Since we’d made enough mix for a second muffin that one went into the oven as well. Another 15 minutes later a second, even larger, muffin appeared. Dessert, check!
Dinner, check! took a little longer. Francesca and I thought it’d be a good idea to order some pizza. Sadly, Raphael’s place was a bit too far away for some of the larger chains in town. It took a little longer, even with his command of Chinese, to explain his address to the staff of a smaller pizza place. After 45 minutes pizza finally arrived. I brought Francesca, who was still recovering in the room, the entire BBQ Chicken pizza, a coke and some muffin. I sat down with Raphael’s guests to listen to some interesting stories about Xi’an. In the meantime Paula and Jo had finished their vegetables-in-honey dish – pretty tasty! I went back to check up on Francesca after dinner, and by the time I went back outside the party had ended and people were getting ready for bed.
For the 4th of August our plans were limited once more. Since I’d forgotten Francesca’s hat in the taxi to Taiyuan I’d been busy trying to get it back. Through the owners of Harmony Guesthouse in Pingyao we’d found somebody willing to take the hat with them to Xi’an. I ventured out late in the morning to pick up the hat from a hostel in the city. Because taxis are ubiquitous, but almost always unavailable I spent a good 15 minutes outside Raphael’s place, waiting for one to open its doors for me. When that finally happened the rest was over pretty quickly. I left a thank-you note for the travelers that had been so kind to bring Francesca’s premium souvenir back and returned to my girlfriend.
We had to get to Xi’an’s airport for our flight to Chongqing later that night, and had the choice between staying at Raphael’s until 8:00 PM or so, or heading to the airport a little earlier to try and see Emperor Jingdi’s Tomb. We chose the former option and said goodbye to Paula and Jo around 5:00 PM. I also took some pictures of the impressive view of the city from Raphael’s balcony. Note the large number of high rises and cranes… They’re always building something in China! I’d called Raphael earlier that afternoon to explain our choice. We felt bad we couldn’t say our farewells and thanks in person, but he understood and wished us a pleasant trip.
Finding a taxi turned out to be a little easier this time around. Lonely Planet had listed the Tomb to be close to the airport, so when I told the driver to take us there I figured it’d be no problem to ask him to also take us to the Tomb. To our surprise he had no idea where we wanted to go… I fixed the status quo by calling a hostel and asking them to explain to the driver where to go. After 15 minutes of passing the phone back and forth he finally understood where to go and drove off. The drive turned out to be quite a detour and the Lonely Planet’s tip of going to the Tomb on the way to the airport was inexplicably off. Sometimes you have to wonder if they actually visit these places themselves.
When we finally arrived at the Tomb around 6:00 PM the ticket office was empty. Francesca tried to ask some foreigners coming back to their tour bus and I called the hostel staff again to translate a Chinese person’s answer. Both came back with the same result: the museum and Tomb weren’t open until 7:00 PM like the Lonely Planet had listed; they’d closed their doors just a few minutes before. We had no choice but to ask the taxi driver to take us to the airport. Severely disappointed Francesca and I sat down and completed the trip there.
Since we were now way early we couldn’t even check in yet. Francesca found a little restaurant with WiFi available and sat down for a drink. We pulled out the laptop and researched our options. Changing our flight would be an option, since we didn’t have major plans for the next city, Chongqing. I called Ctrip and found out that changing the flight would be free. In the meantime Francesca had looked up pictures of the Jingdi Tomb and museum. She’d remembered seeing another Tomb on her previous trip. Another Google-search gave us the itinerary of said trip. Guess what! She’d already seen the Tomb! Relief came rapidly, since I wasn’t terribly bothered about not seeing it anyway, and Francesca now vaguely remembered her encounter with Emperor Jingdi and his mini-army.
Our flight to Chongqing saw us landing in China’s largest city around midnight. Our host had told us that getting to her place would not be very easy. Plus, the road to the airport had been under construction for some time, further complicating the drive. After I texted her we were on our way to our place she called and asked to speak to the driver. They agreed to meet near the entrance to the gated community she and her parents lived, which was exactly where we met Jacqueline. We thanked her thoroughly for staying up for us whilst she drove us to her home. In the car we met her awesome dog Guai Guai and talked about our travels and plans for Chongqing. It was nearly 2:00 AM after we had had a drink – no surprise we fell asleep so easily. Just look at the picture of our awesome room and bed!
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home