“Have you been to Xi’an to see the ancient capital city?”  That is a common question many Chinese around Wuhan have asked me.  I realized I could finally answer “yes” to that question as I looked at the Wuchang to Xi’an sign on my hard sleeper car last Thursday.  Very soon, I would experience the Ming city wall, the Terracotta Warriors, the Muslim Quarter, and of course the local food.

Since I did not have to teach on Friday I left Wuhan on Thursday, one day ahead of my foreign teacher friends from WuDa; I would meet them at the Xi’an train station early Saturday morning.  I arrived at Xi’an at 7:10 am, rubbed my sleepy eyes (I never sleep well on the train) and headed into the city.  The weather was cloudy and cooler compared to Wuhan.  I quickly found the city bus that headed to the South Gate, which would drop me off by the Shuyuan Youth Hostel, where I would stay for the night.  It was a very cheap and clean hotel, filled with people from all over the world.  I ate breakfast with an English couple who were traveling through China and practiced my Chinese with the girls who worked there – hen you yisi!  After breakfast I rented a bicycle and rode around the city wall, enjoying the city sights and the smells of spring.  Many tourists were either walking or riding a bike as well.  In the afternoon I walked up Nan Dajie to the Bell Tower and wandered around the Muslim Quarter, searching for the famous yangrou paomao – delicious!  After a walk through Lianhu Park I returned to the hotel to relax.  That night the hotel staff held a jiaozi party in the restaurant, which was one of my favorite experiences in China so far.  They taught us how to roll dumplings, let us make them, steamed them and then let us eat all of them!  After a big dinner it was time for bed.

I met my 14 WuDa colleagues and two tour leaders the next morning in front of the station and off we went!  It’s always fun to experience the diversity of our group:  Chinese, American, Japanese, French, Russian and German, to name a few.  Good weather allowed us to enjoy the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, Huaqing Pool, and of course the Terracotta Warrior Museum.  The amount of construction and development around the museum is impressive – stores, shops and restaurants abound.  We were all more amazed, however, at the story of the Bingmayong and all the work being done to unearth a piece of ancient China…truly an impressive tourist destination and one you can’t miss.  We then returned to Xi’an City to see the Bell Tower and do some shopping around the Muslim Quarter.  We then enjoyed dinner at a local restaurant and celebrated our friend Curtis’ birthday…the WuDa International Office never forgets to buy a cake!  After a long day of touring, most teachers relaxed in the hotel while a few (including me) headed back to the Muslim Quarter to experience the night life and buy some more souvenirs.

Sunday morning soon came, and we packed up our things and boarded our tour bus to catch a few more sights before our train left in the early afternoon.  We quickly toured the East Gate of the city wall, the Forest of Steles Museum (Beilin Bowuguan) and the Shannxi History Museum.  I think the group’s favorite was the Forest of Steles; it was a calm, peaceful place, filled with very cool (and many) stone tablets with old Chinese writing, along with some interesting shops and a good coffee shop.  We then had one last good meal before we left for the train station.  We thanked Grace, our local guide, for her help and boarded the train back to Wuchang with local snacks, souvenirs and some fun memories of running around the city together.

I have to say that two or three days is not enough time to fully enjoy Xi’an and the surrounding area, but it was a great chance to explore a special place in China that so many people talk about.  Many thanks go to Wuhan University, our friends and colleagues, who planned this fun trip for us.  I’m sure that many of the teachers, including myself, will return to Xi’an in the future so we can enjoy a piece of Chinese culture, both ancient and modern.