Beijing & Flight to Xi’an

Friday, 15 Sep 2017 – At the Beijing airport, a Viking Cruises representative met us and transported us to our hotel.  When other members of the group saw us in the lobby or the hotel restaurant, they recognized us as the “lost” passengers, a name which stuck with us for a few days.  At the hotel, we learned a few basics, which held true for the remainder of the trip.  It was emphasized to us that we should not drink the tap water in China, or even use it on our toothbrushes.  Having sufficient water to meet our needs was no problem because plenty of bottled water was available both in the hotel rooms and on our coach.

Saturday, 16 Sep 2017 – After a buffet breakfast, we boarded our coach for a 2-hour drive to one point on the Great Wall. There, we managed to climb several steps to the first tower.  Although Sally wanted to go a little further, Jesse convinced her that there was really no point in expending more energy.  Several others of our group had stopped here, also, and we talked with them while resting.  While we were there, several Chinese tourists asked to take photos with Jesse.  He was quite the novelty in China, as he has been in some other countries.  A little later, we visited a Jade Carving Factory Restaurant, where we enjoyed lunch.  Some of our group purchased expensive bangle bracelets and carvings.  (To Sally, the almost clear bracelets looked as if they could have been plastic.  If wearing one of these, she felt she would have had to tell people that it was actually jade, costing $500, not something picked up at Wal-Mart!)  After lunch, our tour guide apparently believed that we needed a walk of almost one mile.  Therefore, we walked in a park-like setting, through the Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs, where the path was lined with sculptures of soldiers and animals.  After returning to the hotel, we enjoyed dinner at a local restaurant.

Jane's Tour Group

Preparing to Climb the Wall

Resting form the Climb with Karen

Rickshaw Ride

Sunday, 17 Sep 2017 – We placed our luggage in the hallway at 7:00 AM, and after breakfast, we checked out of the Beijing hotel and boarded our coach for our Hutong Tour.  Hutongs were the community areas where people lived before the start of high-rise apartments.  Although most of these original dwellings were taken over by the Communist government beginning in the 1960’s, by the 1990’s an effort was taken to save some of these areas.  Since the streets in the Hutong area are alleys, too narrow for our bus, we loaded into 2-person bicycle-powered rickshaws for a ride to visit a local family.  Inside her house, we sat where we could ask questions of a woman, while her niece served tea.  Her parents had owned this house, which was originally much bigger.  However, the government had given parts of the house to other people for their living quarters.  Later, the government tried to return her property to her, but when the others did not want to move, she was compensated for what had been taken from her. After this visit, we re-boarded the rickshaws and were taken to a tea demonstration.  We were served tiny amounts of about 10 types of tea.  Although a few people bought tea afterward, we received a written summary of information given about the teas, for those interested in trying new teas.  From there, we visited the Bell and Drum Square, before re-boarding our coach for a 2-hour ride to the Beijing airport, where we boarded a 2-hour flight to Xi’an (pronounced “Shee-ahn”).  There was a short ride from the Xi’an airport to our hotel, where we relaxed until our 5:30 PM buffet dinner in the hotel.

A few words about traffic in Chinese cities:  China seems full of huge cities, each about the size of New York or bigger – and, despite trains and subways, the traffic is extremely heavy and slow.  (Population of the Shanghai metropolitan area is 37 million; Beijing, 22 million; Xi’an, 14 million.)  However, drivers seem skilled at merging, and we didn’t see any vehicles with “dings” from minor accidents.