One Week in Xi'an (Part 2)

So after visiting the Terracotta Warriors (and a night of tequilas), Cat and Christine left Xi'an for the next part of their mini tour of China. Jon and I were left with sore heads and five more days to take in as much of the walled city as we could.

But this particular day wasn't to be one of adventure but instead a day of watching an Australian TV Series on DVD, called Underbelly (which is brilliant, by the way) and recovering from our hangovers. By the night time we were going stir crazy and after meeting three travelers from England, we were drinking again. This time our night didn't end with Tequila but instead in a KTV, which is a popular activity in China. You hire a room for the night in which you are supplied with sofas, a big TV, two microphones and a console containing (depending on the establishment) a huge to minuscule selection of English songs. This particular KTV had a relatively good collection, albeit not that extensive - most of the night was spent singing the best of  long-forgotten boy band, Five. Oh dear.

Sadly, the following day was similarly spent nursing hangovers and watching Underbelly... However that night was slightly different because Jon and I ventured to the bars on our own, though the novelty of foreigners in their bars attracted many of Chinese patrons could come and chat to us. In fact, although this time we didn't head to a KTV, I did end up singing karaoke with a professional singer and some crazy fella who decided to join in. It actually worked quite well, take a look at the video. This is a famous song in China, called 'One Night in Beijing', the title being the only English lyrics in the whole song - naturally I sang those bits. The professional sang the rest barring the high pitched bits, taken on by the crazy fella, who fancied himself something of a male-soprano. Commentary is provided by Jon.

The following day was not wasted, you will be pleased to hear as we went exploring the city by foot. We walked around the walled city of Xi'an, and before we knew it had stumbled upon the Muslim Quarter. It was fascinating to see the hustle and bustle of this Chinese Muslim community. Cooking food in the streets, kids playing games, old men socialising (mostly playing Chinese chess) and even chickens having a wonder around the streets! On the way back to our hostel we bumped into one of Jonathan's students from a previous semester. A 16 year old boy called Bobby from Xi'an, back for the holiday, he invited us to have dinner with him the following night.

The day before we left, we decided to hire a bicycle and peddle around the city walls. It was great fun and provided us with some fantastic views of the city, most people must cycle the walls clockwise but we'd decided to go anti-clockwise. As we rode, we ended up high-fiving many of the cyclists heading our way, which entertained us even if no-one else was! At each corner there was a tower, which provided us with a fantastic photo opportunity.

Me and Jon, taking a break from our bicycle ride around the city walls

After cycling around the walls, we met up with Bobby as planned. We were picked up in a spacious BMW by his chauffeur and taken to a private room of a restaurant situated within a five star hotel, turns out Bobby was quite rich. He ordered a huge array of dishes and hardly touched a thing leaving us under huge pressure to work our way through the noodles, salads, stone-cooked prawns, chicken's feet (a first for me), duck, foie gras (another first) plus many others! At the end of the meal, he sent us back to our humble dwellings at the hostel, but not before showing us a picture in the hotel lobby of his Dad stood with Chinese government officials inside that very hotel (turns out, his Dad was one of the owners!).

The final day, we had planned to visit a nearby mountain but realised we would risk missing our flight. So we finished Underbelly, and having learnt our lesson from arriving in Xi'an, we took the shuttle bus back to the airport but not before getting a snap of the beautiful Bell Tower.

The Bell Tower, which sits at the very centre of the city of Xi'an