On The Move To China - Day 9

We enjoyed our breakfast on the 32nd floor overlooking the city before heading to the airport for our flight to Xi’an. Once again, we were the only two light haired humans on the plane. They were so kind to give all the information for safety in English for the two of us!

We found our new guide, Amy, as we exited the airport. We stopped by the hotel to check in before starting our sightseeing for the day. Our first impressions of the city – what a great little city – only 6 million. It is completely different in character from Beijing and Shanghai. Our hotel is on the edge of the West city wall.

The City Wall is part of the old city wall that has been completely refurbished. We drove to the South Gate – the original opening to the walled city. This is where they built the draw bridge that open over a 5 meter deep mote. We loved the South Gate. Once we passed through the three openings we went to the top of the wall, rented bikes and road to the Southwest Corner. The whole wall is 7 kilometers around and takes about one and a half hours to bike around. We road 40 minutes – which was plenty of time because our butts couldn't’t take the bumping on the stone and the hard seats any longer – we headed back to the car to go to the Da Ci’En (Great Kindness and Grace) Temple and Wild Goose Pagoda.

The pagoda is one of the most famous Buddhist pagodas in China and the original pagoda was built in 589 AD on this site. The temple was rebuilt due to being in such disrepair, but the Wild Goose Pagoda from 1556 is still standing. We once again posed for pictures, this time it was with a bunch of school girls – go figure! Our guide looked at us rather funny; I told her we were use to this for it has happened everyday!

The temple was beautiful. The colors on the buildings were so bright and brilliant. The Buddha was gold colored and rather impressive. Incense filled the air and best of all – it was not crowded! I could have spent a long time there, but as we watched a monk close the doors on the hall holding the golden Buddha, we knew it was closing time. There was time to walk us through the gift shop – those tour guides!

We enjoyed our dinner at a traditional “Dumpling Banquet”. We listened to music while we stuffed ourselves on steamed dumplings, boiled dumplings, fried dumplings and dumpling soup. Fat and happy we headed back to the hotel for the remainder of the evening. It took us forever – the traffic is horrible! Cars, buses, trucks, people, bikes, rickshaws, taxis and motor cycles were at corners at a complete stand still. Police were trying to help move the traffic. At one intersection, our driver even had to get out convincing a stupid driver (male) to move. Several drivers in fact got out of their vehicles to help! Amy told us they did not have a subway system built yet, but it was under construction. Boy, do they need it. Looking out my window now there is still bumper to bumper traffic jamming the streets. Glad we are tucked away in our hotel.