Beijing to Xi'an
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Mon 14 May 2018 22:57
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Beijing to
Xi'an
  After our Summer Palace bimble it was
time to head to Domestic Departures for our flight to Xi’an. We can only
describe security as thorough with Bear’s backsack having three rides on the
xray conveyor belt, the final time with his pencil case full of various wires
coming out and riding unaccompanied. Once through that palaver, we had made sure
our hand luggage was below five kilograms (or it would get bounced to hold
luggage), no one weighed it..............grrrr, Bear settled
for a tuna and cheese bake. Sitting opposite a girl with a melted cheese
croissant dangled between two chopsticks and eaten like a lolly had me exploring
the pristine toilets and surrounding shops, top quality fakes of just about
everything. We settled in departures, gate 36 and was
pleased when a big group of men boarded a flight to Nanjing taking their loud
games with them.
   Settled on
board, we found a huge amount of legroom, Bear was thrilled to see his
old friend – the Japanese toilet seat for sale in the
on-line booklet – Oh how he misses them and talk of them often.....I was a
little sad to be overlooking the wing to get any
decent scenery shots.
  It was fun watching next door being unloaded and reloaded but as we pulled back
the haze seemed to thicken.
   Chuffed to see two
chaps wave us off, a red chap covered in cute
pandas and as soon as a girl landed we got
ready for take off.
   The haze gave us no views of Beijing but through the cloud we could just
make out some mountain peaks. The TV monitors showed
a map and told us our journey was just shy of two
hours, one thousand one hundred kilometres and we were heading
west.
 No one in the seat behind me meant I
could lean the camera from the next window, mountainous
scenery.
  A hard bank to the
left and we saw miles of flatland and nothingness before the mountains popped
up.
 Hundreds and hundreds of wind turbines came next.
   Early supper came, fish with vegetables and rice, accompanied by a couple of
rice crackers, sweetcorn and cucumber, outside the
clouds had fine rain falling from their wispy bottoms. You never describe me as having a wispy bottom. No,
dear, yours shouts too much.................
   Coming in toward
Xi‘an (she-an) we saw millions of acres of patchwork farmland. We would
later find out we were looking at winter wheat due for harvest at the beginning
of June.
  We actually land in Xianyang, the neighbouring city to Xi’an (the airport built
here to preserve the air quality etc of Xi’an). We saw a huge stadium.
 Coming in to land we passed over
perhaps the biggest apartment building site we have
ever seen. Locals laughingly tell you that the national bird is the
crane...... Central government own all the land, people can buy leasehold
(seventy years) and rents can skyrocket on a whim. Locals can buy on producing
their documents at a police station, everyone else has to prove paying local
taxes for three years.
 Once on the ground, we taxied for
about fifteen minutes, three-sixty around the airport
building, Bear wasn’t entirely sure our chap knew where he was going but
eventually we came to a stop, aided by a young man waggling his ping-pong bat
enthusiastically.
  Sunset as
we disembarked and began the very long long walk to baggage reclaim. I did not
expect the first shop I saw in the terminal – Caribbean
Coffee.
   Candy met us and we were soon in the
back of Mr Chan’s mini bus on the one hour trip to Xi’an. As soon as we neared
the city we saw high rises. There
are three million cars to a population of 9.4 million, in a bid to reduce the
numbers on the roads and encourage more people to use the electric buses, there
is a twenty per cent restriction each day, Monday to Friday. This is achieved by
number plates, today, Monday people with a 1 and 6, tomorrow a 2 and 7 in their
registration. Easily skirted by two car families. Buses and taxis are called BYD
meaning Build Your Dreams.....
 We went under the Inner City Wall, both original (90%) and restored (towers
and gates) that surrounds with a length of seven miles, we hope to bike ride it
before we leave, Oh do we....... Moving right along.....There is a main gate north, south, east and
west but each side has four entrances in total, The Outer City covers 10,000
square kilometres and the Inner City is a total of 12 square
kilometres.
      After sterile Beijing barren of
advertising, it was nice to see bright lights and we
immediately liked the city.
  Opening the door of our digs, we
assed a well-appointed shower room and two for two,
yay, a comfy bed and soft pillows. Soon settled after
what felt like quite a long day. Night, night all.....
ALL IN ALL AMAZING, HUGE
SCENERY
COMFORTABLE AND
EFFICIENT |