Day 34 - Visiting Xi'an area, shouting in Chinese, and going to the Xi'an Belgian bar!

By bogaert

Choosing the Hilton hotel in Xi'an was a good idea, getting an upgrade by the hotel to the restricted executive floor was probably the best idea. It was a great room with perfect bed, total silence, and ideal temperature. After a good night I was ready for a full day program. The driver called me 08:00 sharp to confirm the pickup time at 08:30. As planned I was a full day on the road, visiting the Big Goose Pagoda, the famous Terracotta Warriors, the emperor Qinshihuang mausoleum, a Terracotta factory, and the Han Yang Ling museum (also an emperor mausoleum). All great sights!

The terracotta warriors are a top tourist highlight in China. More foreigners are hanging around here, including some families with children. Whilst visiting the largest pit of the terracotta warriors I witnessed again how Chinese people are attracted to Caucasians, in particular when having blond hair. We had this experience a few times over the past weeks when hanging around in Xia'men, but this time it was worst. I was standing in front of the warriors, a busy place, next to a family with two young children. Chinese people approached the children and started to touch their hair and face. This was so ugly! It worked like a magnet, one started and several others followed, in particular older people tried to touch with dirty hands the face of both children. The parents tried to protect their children and the kids were creeping away in their jackets. I was so annoyed that I jelled in a very angry tone the first phrase that came to my mind: "Nī zài zuò shén me ne!". The Chinese were shocked, being shouted by a Caucasian in their language. There are most probably better phrases, or I said it totally wrong, but it worked! They understood the message; their behavior was not appreciated and all stepped backwards. Why don't these people understand that we have to be careful when traveling in their country, as we are far less resistant to Asian variants of different kind of infections? I definitely have to improve my Chinese before coming to China with my two long hair blond girls (or color their hair temporary black).

Big Goose Pagoda

With the busy traffic it took the driver till 19:00 to get me back at the hotel. It was a great day! I think I did a great job in arranging all travel of the day myself, at a bargain!

During the afternoon I text-ed with my colleague who arrived in Xi'an. As agreed we met at the Xi'an Belgian bar for a last encounter in China. Traffic was as usual like hell in the evening, so I decided to be adventurous and took a motto-taxi. It was indeed an adventurous ride as a passenger on an electric scooter, but I got there very fast. The bar was crowded, full of Brits teaching English as a foreign language in Xi'an. It was an enjoyable evening!

Morning Execerise