Old City wall, Small Goose pagoda, Bell Tower
From Luoyang we took the bullet train (it is what the fast speed train is called here). It was nicer than the regular trains, and obviously much faster. The seats are arranged like in an airplane, rows facing in the direction of travel. The trip from Luoyang took about an hour and a half.
We arrived to Xi’an in the evening and we had some trouble to find the hostel (directions and address were not very clear, couldn’t find any street signs even though we knew it had to be close), but luckily we got some help from a young local student who saw we were having some trouble and she lead us there. The hostel in Xi’an, Hantang Inn, was one of the best ones we stayed in. Even though we had a 6 bed dorm room (we shared a room with one of the hostel employees who was hardly ever there), the hostel had a very nice roof top and a pool room. The kids immediately wanted to learn how to play pool and I had the chance to refresh some skills of my younger self. During our time in Xi’an, all the time we spent in the hostel, the kids were at the pool table. The last two days they also spent some time at the rooftop and they were sad to leave the hostel after four days.
Xi’an was the first capital of China and it is famous for the Terracotta warriors which are located in the area. Xi’an’s Old City is surrounded by a wall and the streets follow an orthogonal grid plan with the Bell Tower at its centre, which helps finding your way. On our first day we went up the Old City wall and wanted to rent bicycles to ride around it (it’s a very known activity for visitors in Xi’an). Altogether, the wall is 14 km long so it would have been a long walk and some parts of it are not that interesting anyway. The wall is quite wide, at some areas has shot steeper sections and the pavement is not even, so the ride is not that smooth. It has red lanterns all along and microphones playing some atmospheric music.
Once we found the rental office, it appeared that the bikes are quite large and only the seat height is adjustable. They also had tandems. We wanted N sit on the back of the tandem so that Y can take him (he could put his feet on the pedals, but not pedal too well), but the rental people would not let him ride a bicycle at all because he was too young. They kept showing us the rules on a sign about the ages, but that sentence wasn’t making sense at all (too bad I didn’t take a photo of it). The people at the bike rental couldn’t speak any English, so the conversation was done through Google translator on the phone. The whole thing was very frustrating, the fact that we couldn’t speak, that they were so stubborn (we later saw some other kids of N size who were riding with their parents) and because that meant that we would need to split up, and wait for the others during that time. So Y took the older kids to bike, who were quite excited about the whole thing, and I stayed back with N.
Once they were gone, I realized that they had these small electric buses that go around the wall as well, so I got a ticket (N didn’t need one) and both of us rode around on the bus. N liked the ride a lot, and we were able to go around as well, without the effort.
We stopped at a few places along the wall and were given 10 minutes to look around some of the towers and gates (and the shops inside them).
On the way we met Y and the kids (who turned around at some point to shorten our wait time), so now we were all going to do the whole round (which turned out to be a challenge for A).
After the ride on the wall we took the bus and went outside the Old City to the Small Goose Pagoda and the park around it (there is also the Big Goose pagoda, but we didn’t visit that).
The pagoda had a very nice park around it, surrounded by a wall. We also went up the pagoda and had a look around from the top, over the city. The pagoda complex was just next to a nice park and the Xi’an Museum. We walked around a park a bit, the kids liked to look at the fish in the artificial lake. N absolutely wanted to catch some fish with some improvised fishing rod.
On our way back to the hostel we went by the beautifully illuminated Bell Tower.
Many cities in China still have their Bell Tower and its pair not far, the Drum Tower. These towers were used to tell the time in ancient times. The bells tolled at dawn and the drums were used for the sunset. It is possible to visit the Bell Tower inside as well (there is a fee), but because it sits right in the main roundabout of the city, there is a very good view on …traffic. Although it is supposed to be very nice on the inside as well, we skipped it.
