“You must put camera here please.”
“Bu Shir, Zheige Wo You 800 speed Film, ‘’ I try in my Chinglish
“You must put here.”
“No I won’t put that camera case in the x-ray machine! Call your boss."
Here comes the boss lady.
“Hello Sir… may I assist?”
“Yes… I have high speed film – 800 here and it can’t go in the machine.”
“Very good sir, give it to me I will check for you, thank you.”
“Hao…Xie Xie”
“Bu ke Xie,” she takes the bag and camera past the machine and says
“Please to step through gate.”
BONG… BONG… BONG… BONG!!!!!!
Ooooppsss...not yet… we haven’t set the day.
The alarm and wake up call sound off simultaneously at 6AM and since we had packed the night before the DOTTB was an easy one and we were at breakfast with time to spare. But first check out… I tried to check out and tell them we had bags in the room, and the desk clerk said “you pay now… eat breakfast and then check out I will call housekeeping to check the room.” So we grabbed a quick breakfast, went for the bags and quick mouth rinse and… No housekeeping… called down to front desk… ”you wait for housekeeping to check.”
“Hello Sir… may I assist?”
“Yes… I have high speed film – 800 here and it can’t go in the machine.”
“Very good sir, give it to me I will check for you, thank you.”
“Hao…Xie Xie”
“Bu ke Xie,” she takes the bag and camera past the machine and says
“Please to step through gate.”
BONG… BONG… BONG… BONG!!!!!!
Ooooppsss...not yet… we haven’t set the day.
The alarm and wake up call sound off simultaneously at 6AM and since we had packed the night before the DOTTB was an easy one and we were at breakfast with time to spare. But first check out… I tried to check out and tell them we had bags in the room, and the desk clerk said “you pay now… eat breakfast and then check out I will call housekeeping to check the room.” So we grabbed a quick breakfast, went for the bags and quick mouth rinse and… No housekeeping… called down to front desk… ”you wait for housekeeping to check.”
I grab a maid across the hall and she had no idea of what to do…now Teng and Zhang are in the lobby anxious to beat the traffic… still no housekeeper. We grab the bags and head downstairs. At the desk we check out and she starts again with the “you wait for Housekeeping.” After another 5 minutes and Zhang anxiously pacing because the valet wants him to move, I tell Teng, “Tell her we can’t wait for the “Ghost of Housekeeping Present” to show up, if anything is missing put it on my bill,” and we head for the door with miss “you wait for housekeeping” objecting loudly.
On the way to the airport Teng presents us with a lovely picture and dialogue book from his home on Beijing, a very thoughtful gift and one that will have a treasured place in our home in Hollywood.
The trip to the airport was uneventful, last minute pics of Kung Fu
Driver and the Guide of the Century with our trusty Chinese imitation Lexus Town car, and Teng led us to the ticket counter, checked us in and bid us farewell as well as urging us to return soon where we can stay at one of his apartments and he’ll show me and my grandson, the REAL Beijing. Gonna miss that kid… as he said often, I have a true Gu Men [True Good Friend] in Beijing.
We head for the security check point where:
“You must put camera here please.”
“Bu Shir, Zheige you 800 speed Film, ‘’ I try in my Chinglish
“You must put here.”
“No I won’t put that camera case in the x-ray machine! Call your boss”
“Hello Sir… may I assist?”
“Yes… I have high speed film – 800 here and it can’t go in the machine.”
“Very good sir, give it to me I will check for you, thank you.”
“Hao…Xie Xie”
“Bu ke Xie,” she takes the bag and camera past the machine and says
“Please to step through gate.”
BONG… BONG… BONG… BONG!!!!!!
Nope… it wasn’t the Dragon Lady that set off the alarms… it was Chucky. In his effort to get the film through with out putting it in the x-ray machine [which they told us wouldn’t start domestically in China till May…and of course as with all bureaucracies… someone forgot to tell the Chinese version of the TSA] he forgot to put his money clip and sunglasses in the bin with the cell phone and small camera so of course they had him on the stump… arms and legs spread as they wanded him, discovering the water bottle in his pocket, which he offered to drink on the spot but was finally passed through, to the amusement of the Dragon Lady.
“Don’t start with me!’ he grunts.
“But Honey… you just joined by 'BONG….BONG….BONG Club',” she smirks.
And we were off to the last gate of the last concourse on the ground level where we boarded a bus and traveled almost back to Beijing before boarding our aircraft and… We were off.
12:10PM Xi'an
Arrival was uneventful
The Xi'anyang airport is 1 hour northwest of the city of Xi'an so our guide Zhu Li –[Julie Zhou for the westerners], insisted we have lunch before we head to town. Since we had eaten a small meal on the plane, we weren’t really hungry but we tried the cheesey airport buffet anyhow. I missed the noodle bowl and settled for some dog on a stick, rice and some veggies, rice so so but beer good. This one gets ** and that is generous considering it is an airport buffet restaurant.
On our way into the city we passed several mounds [that looked like giant ant hills only a 1000 times larger] those, Zhu Li explained, were tombs… the largest of which was for one of
the Emperors of the Tang Dynasty. Once an emperor ascends the throne, they began construction of their own tomb. [Job security?] No, the reality is that they cant trust their successors to memorialize them . The tombs were created by digging a hole and piling the earth on top to create the mounds, after the Han reign ,the Dynasties that followed built thie tombs by burowing into mountains. The longest tomb was under construction 54 years for the 5th emperor of Han dyanasty Han Wu Di. There are 72 emperors tombs, only 2 were not robbed, Qing Shi Huang of the 3rd Tang Dynasty, The other was Li Zhi of the Tang and his wife Empress Wu Ze Tian [624-705AD] who ruled 40 years after the emperor died from 690 to 705. She had 4 sons 3 of whom she had de-throned as they did not meet her standards, the youngest [a decided Wimp]declined to reign asking her rule. She was most beloved for the good things she did [as opposed to the dowager empress of the Qing Dynasty who was reviled because of her power]. Because of her popularity, they were the only couple buried together.
On the way to the airport Teng presents us with a lovely picture and dialogue book from his home on Beijing, a very thoughtful gift and one that will have a treasured place in our home in Hollywood.
The trip to the airport was uneventful, last minute pics of Kung Fu
Driver and the Guide of the Century with our trusty Chinese imitation Lexus Town car, and Teng led us to the ticket counter, checked us in and bid us farewell as well as urging us to return soon where we can stay at one of his apartments and he’ll show me and my grandson, the REAL Beijing. Gonna miss that kid… as he said often, I have a true Gu Men [True Good Friend] in Beijing.We head for the security check point where:
“You must put camera here please.”
“Bu Shir, Zheige you 800 speed Film, ‘’ I try in my Chinglish
“You must put here.”
“No I won’t put that camera case in the x-ray machine! Call your boss”
“Hello Sir… may I assist?”
“Yes… I have high speed film – 800 here and it can’t go in the machine.”
“Very good sir, give it to me I will check for you, thank you.”
“Hao…Xie Xie”
“Bu ke Xie,” she takes the bag and camera past the machine and says
“Please to step through gate.”
BONG… BONG… BONG… BONG!!!!!!
Nope… it wasn’t the Dragon Lady that set off the alarms… it was Chucky. In his effort to get the film through with out putting it in the x-ray machine [which they told us wouldn’t start domestically in China till May…and of course as with all bureaucracies… someone forgot to tell the Chinese version of the TSA] he forgot to put his money clip and sunglasses in the bin with the cell phone and small camera so of course they had him on the stump… arms and legs spread as they wanded him, discovering the water bottle in his pocket, which he offered to drink on the spot but was finally passed through, to the amusement of the Dragon Lady.
“Don’t start with me!’ he grunts.
“But Honey… you just joined by 'BONG….BONG….BONG Club',” she smirks.
And we were off to the last gate of the last concourse on the ground level where we boarded a bus and traveled almost back to Beijing before boarding our aircraft and… We were off.
12:10PM Xi'an
Arrival was uneventful
The Xi'anyang airport is 1 hour northwest of the city of Xi'an so our guide Zhu Li –[Julie Zhou for the westerners], insisted we have lunch before we head to town. Since we had eaten a small meal on the plane, we weren’t really hungry but we tried the cheesey airport buffet anyhow. I missed the noodle bowl and settled for some dog on a stick, rice and some veggies, rice so so but beer good. This one gets ** and that is generous considering it is an airport buffet restaurant.
On our way into the city we passed several mounds [that looked like giant ant hills only a 1000 times larger] those, Zhu Li explained, were tombs… the largest of which was for one of
the Emperors of the Tang Dynasty. Once an emperor ascends the throne, they began construction of their own tomb. [Job security?] No, the reality is that they cant trust their successors to memorialize them . The tombs were created by digging a hole and piling the earth on top to create the mounds, after the Han reign ,the Dynasties that followed built thie tombs by burowing into mountains. The longest tomb was under construction 54 years for the 5th emperor of Han dyanasty Han Wu Di. There are 72 emperors tombs, only 2 were not robbed, Qing Shi Huang of the 3rd Tang Dynasty, The other was Li Zhi of the Tang and his wife Empress Wu Ze Tian [624-705AD] who ruled 40 years after the emperor died from 690 to 705. She had 4 sons 3 of whom she had de-throned as they did not meet her standards, the youngest [a decided Wimp]declined to reign asking her rule. She was most beloved for the good things she did [as opposed to the dowager empress of the Qing Dynasty who was reviled because of her power]. Because of her popularity, they were the only couple buried together.
Xi'an is THE central city in China. founded in the 6th century BC by the Tang Dynasty which grew to a population of 1 million, by 907AD, the first city of this size in the civilized world… and was over 84 sq km, twice as large as Rome at the time. For 1140 years, 13 dynasties set their capitol in Xi'an ending with the rise of the Mings. It is one of the oldest city capitals and contains 52 Universities.
In 1st century BC around 138BC, the 1st Han emperor went west for Big “horses for his Cavalry and again 109BC which in effect created the Silk Road. This opened trade all the way to the mediteranian as far as Turkey and Damascus. The middle eastern desire for silk rugs to pray on created a whole new major industry in China which we saw at “The #1 Carpet Factory” in Beijing on Friday. Many Muslims migrated to Xi'an and became a large part of the of the local population. Currently 60,000 Muslims are in Xi'an which has a popuation of 7 million today. Muslim restaurants are very popular.
We entered the city in the Southwest area on the second ring road of the city, finished in 1997, on the way to the city wall. The city is very dusty as it is almost 500 meters above sea level on a dry arid plateau and with low mountains to the west, dust storms from the Gobi blow in frequently. The sky appears as a smoky, overcast day.
Since we had a short 1st day, we headed directly from the airport to the Wild Goose Pagoda and Central Cultural Museum passing the pagoda and going straight to the museum which was a bit backwards since we had to backtrack to the Pagoda after the museum and then back past the museum to get to our driver, who had smartly parked on the north side of the complex expecting us to travel the pagoda-museum and out route. This highlighted what we were to later find to be constant… poor communications between our driver and guide
The museum contained mostly artifacts and exhibits of ancient costumes and painting styles including some interesting jade and ceramic friezes telling folklore stories etc. Seen one...Seen ‘em all. Escaped another tchotchke hustle and on to the pagoda.
The Wild Goose Pagoda built is 652AD and is 64 Meters high [7 stories] and is the landmark of Xi’an. It was named so because 3 monks were starving and stopped in this area to pray to Buddha for food just then a flock of wild geese flew overhead and one fell dead from the sky and landed at the monk’s feet. To commemorate the occasion, they erected the pagoda. [just gotta love the folklore… ]
Next stop, the City wall which surrounds the center city, it is 12 meters
across at the top and 18 meters wide at the bottom with 18 inch bricks and a solid earth center. It is 14 kilometers long, completely connected with archery towers placed 120 meters 
apart… a little less than a bow shot for better crossfire protection. [Did I tell you that the Chinese LOVVVVVEEEE their steps…again we needed to climb several flights of steep stairs to get to the top of the wall, and back down again.]
We entered the city in the Southwest area on the second ring road of the city, finished in 1997, on the way to the city wall. The city is very dusty as it is almost 500 meters above sea level on a dry arid plateau and with low mountains to the west, dust storms from the Gobi blow in frequently. The sky appears as a smoky, overcast day.
Since we had a short 1st day, we headed directly from the airport to the Wild Goose Pagoda and Central Cultural Museum passing the pagoda and going straight to the museum which was a bit backwards since we had to backtrack to the Pagoda after the museum and then back past the museum to get to our driver, who had smartly parked on the north side of the complex expecting us to travel the pagoda-museum and out route. This highlighted what we were to later find to be constant… poor communications between our driver and guide
The museum contained mostly artifacts and exhibits of ancient costumes and painting styles including some interesting jade and ceramic friezes telling folklore stories etc. Seen one...Seen ‘em all. Escaped another tchotchke hustle and on to the pagoda.
The Wild Goose Pagoda built is 652AD and is 64 Meters high [7 stories] and is the landmark of Xi’an. It was named so because 3 monks were starving and stopped in this area to pray to Buddha for food just then a flock of wild geese flew overhead and one fell dead from the sky and landed at the monk’s feet. To commemorate the occasion, they erected the pagoda. [just gotta love the folklore… ]
Next stop, the City wall which surrounds the center city, it is 12 meters
across at the top and 18 meters wide at the bottom with 18 inch bricks and a solid earth center. It is 14 kilometers long, completely connected with archery towers placed 120 meters 
apart… a little less than a bow shot for better crossfire protection. [Did I tell you that the Chinese LOVVVVVEEEE their steps…again we needed to climb several flights of steep stairs to get to the top of the wall, and back down again.] 
Zhu Li was not feeling well and it showed… after explaining her symptoms Dr Illy deduces she has G.E.R.D and suggests she try for some anti reflux remedy at her local pharmacy.
Zhu and Shao Wei, our driver dropped us at the Xi'an Jianguo Hotel with instructions that we would do the Tang Dynasty dinner and show tonight and dumpling banquet tomorrow as we have to leave the hotel at 6AM for an early flight to Hangzhou on Tuesday.
This was a decidedly older hotel, with a quaint pond in the center instead of a courtyard and
we quickly discovered that the high speed access advertised was actually dial up in the room. For broadband you had to go to the business center between 7AM and 11PM. I decide to try the dial up and quickly regretted it. Trying to upload the NOWAT to Yahoo and attach pics and the WORD doc was less fun than double root canal so the pics I wanted to send had to wait and I finished Day 5 before we headed out to dinner.
One note… the bathroom was a bit larger but still the worst lighting possible. Apparently Chinese hotel designers are just as ignorant of their Western cousins who for years designed lovely bathrooms with the worst lighting… just ask any female traveler who has tried to put on makeup in these dungeons. And it wouldn’t hurt to get some better lighting in the Tub/shower area as well…ohhhh welllll enough ranting for now. Of course they did provide condoms [not complimentary of course]
Oh…. We also discovered that the room had no in-room safe and had to stop at the desk to put the passports in a safe deposit box, which was another 3 stooges routine but with key in hand… it was off to the show…. Hopefully without the acrobatic act Illy pulled before the last one.
We'll leave it here and pick up with the Tang Dynasty dinner and show tomorrow… this was longer than I expected but History buff and anally factual Illy had to get all the facts in.
再见朋友
Zài Jiàn Péng-You
Chuck and the shaking her fist at me over the last comment
Dragon Lady.
Zhu and Shao Wei, our driver dropped us at the Xi'an Jianguo Hotel with instructions that we would do the Tang Dynasty dinner and show tonight and dumpling banquet tomorrow as we have to leave the hotel at 6AM for an early flight to Hangzhou on Tuesday.
This was a decidedly older hotel, with a quaint pond in the center instead of a courtyard and
we quickly discovered that the high speed access advertised was actually dial up in the room. For broadband you had to go to the business center between 7AM and 11PM. I decide to try the dial up and quickly regretted it. Trying to upload the NOWAT to Yahoo and attach pics and the WORD doc was less fun than double root canal so the pics I wanted to send had to wait and I finished Day 5 before we headed out to dinner.One note… the bathroom was a bit larger but still the worst lighting possible. Apparently Chinese hotel designers are just as ignorant of their Western cousins who for years designed lovely bathrooms with the worst lighting… just ask any female traveler who has tried to put on makeup in these dungeons. And it wouldn’t hurt to get some better lighting in the Tub/shower area as well…ohhhh welllll enough ranting for now. Of course they did provide condoms [not complimentary of course]
Oh…. We also discovered that the room had no in-room safe and had to stop at the desk to put the passports in a safe deposit box, which was another 3 stooges routine but with key in hand… it was off to the show…. Hopefully without the acrobatic act Illy pulled before the last one.
We'll leave it here and pick up with the Tang Dynasty dinner and show tomorrow… this was longer than I expected but History buff and anally factual Illy had to get all the facts in.
再见朋友
Zài Jiàn Péng-You
Chuck and the shaking her fist at me over the last comment
Dragon Lady.
