Around Xi'an
I stepped outside of the train station at 5:30am. Xi’an is one of the few cities in China that has kept as much of the city walls as possible. The North gate stands just south of the train station and there were yellow and red lights lighting up the cloud-filled early morning sky. There weren’t any taxis nearby and so I started walking, still in a daze, toward the city walls, knowing my hostel was at the South gate entrance. A man walked up to me quickly and said, “Taxi, taxi?” Now, I know from reading and from experience to ignore such offers, but I really couldn’t see any legitimate taxis anywhere around so I said okay. He led me through a maze of construction to a back street with several idling cabs. They were all green and had the appropriate displayed licenses, so I figured I was safe going with this guy. However, when I asked him how much to get to the South gate, he told me 40 kuai. I knew this was wrong since going from my apt. in SH to Pudong was only 30 kuai and at least twice the distance. I argued for a bit but he wouldn’t budge. I was exhausted and wanted to get to the hostel so I gave in. The ride was less than ten minutes. I was furious with myself for not arguing harder or looking for a different method of transportation, but it was before sunrise for goodness sakes!
The cabbie dropped me off at the South gate entrance to the walled city and pointed down a dusty, demolished alley at a fluorescent light and nodded expectantly for me to get out of his car and move on. I lugged my stuff down the alley and found a building whose façade was completely barricaded by bamboo scaffolding and a tiny sign read, “Welcome to Shuyuan Hostel, a proud member of Hostelling International”. I followed the sign to a lovely building behind the scaffolding – an old style neighborhood with a series of courtyards. Birds chirped from cages, two small cats came to purr their welcomes, and an adorable yellow lab puppy yelped a hello. The guy at the desk, “Danny”, registered me and took me to the basement where my economy room was located.
When he opened the door, the mold and mildew almost knocked me backwards. The room was an veritable Petrie dish for all sorts of spores and each breath felt filled with them. I was too exhausted to complain and passed out on the lower bunk for two hours. When I woke, my clothes were wet and my nostrils felt furry with mustiness. There wasn’t a locker in the room for my valuables, so I had a legitimate reason for upgrading and did so immediately.
Honestly, Xi’an didn’t impress me much. The city is filled with people looking to make a quick buck off an unsuspecting and disoriented traveler – no matter whether the traveler be Chinese or foreign. I did some sightseeing around the city, but found the people to be very unfriendly, so I didn’t explore too much. I managed to spend a good deal of time in the Muslim quarter at night, which was exciting, and I did go to the Xi’an History Museum, which was similar to the museum in Shanghai. The best part of the Xi’an museum was an argument I watched play out to out-of-control proportions…regarding a 100 kuai bill and it’s validity. A woman purchased instant noodles for her family – extremely overpriced, I might add – from the “coffee shop” (a reception area selling cheap knockoffs of artifacts in the museum with a corner dedicated to selling Snickers bars, cokes, bottled iced tea, instant noodles, and chips). After the family was well into their noodles, the man tending the shop came over and spat out that the bill was fake. I have no idea what words were exchanged after this, but the gesturing, screaming, threatening, hollering, finger pointing, and foot-stomping that ensued was riveting.
Actually, looking back, I suppose I did see quite a bit of the city. I found a restaurant with one of my roommates from the first night, Phil from Australia (an air-traffic controller!!!), and went back later in the week to try more of their food because it had been so good and cheap. I walked around, mostly because I was lost, a lot in and out of the city walls and think city walls are a wonderful idea. I happened on an artist community and was inspired walking through all of the stalls watching artisans at their craft. Now that I’m safely out of Xi’an, I suppose it wasn’t so bad. The whole experience was worth it for Hua Shan, though, so I’ll say no more and get on to that part…and the Terracotta warriors too, of course.
