2002-12-08 - 6:11 p.m.

Where to Next?

Beijing, Nov. 15

Continuing the story of our trip to China

Because our visit to Tiananmen Square was cut short, we got back to our hotel ahead of schedule, and that was a good thing because now it was time to plan our next move. Once we were done with our two days of touring in Beijing, what were we going to do? We basically had two choices: go back to Nanjing, or move on to Xi'an to see the sights there, specifically the Terracotta Warriors of Emperor Qin.

One thing we were sure of - we didn't want to take the train to any of these places. It's not that the train was that unpleasant of an experience, it's just that it took so long to get anywhere significant, and our remaining time in China was limited.

All of the nice hotels we stayed in had one feature in common - they had a "Business Center" where one could use modern conveniences like fax machines or the Internet. The Internet Caf� at Lily's hotel in Nanjing had been dirt cheap, but using the Internet here at this four-star hotel was about ten times more expensive. When we got online there, we were all about doing what had to be done, and not playing with online journals. Sorry folks!

By making inquiries at the travel center that was also in the hotel Lily discovered that a plane flight to Nanjing from Beijing was about $115 per person, which was pretty much the same cost as a flight from Beijing to Xi'an and from Xi'an to Nanjing. Not too shabby, considering that we were booking the tickets with only two days notice.

Our thinking was: when are we going to be in China next? Maybe never. Sure, it would be a lot cheaper to just hang out in Nanjing, but we both really wanted to see the Terracotta warriors and to see this new place, so we decided to splurge.

Something I forgot to mention, the day before we discovered that Lily's ATM card and my second credit card were working again. Our USA bank had finally got its act together. Hooray! If this hadn't been the case, I don't know if I would have dared go to Xi'an.

We bought our airplane tickets at the travel center, and then went to the business center to get a hotel reservation. This was not nearly as easy as the plane reservations mainly because a lot of the hotels in Xi'an didn't seem to have an online presence. Finally Lily found a pretty inexpensive one for about $55 a night, and reserved a room.

Back in the room I tried to call CITS and arrange some sort of a tour in Xi'an, but had no luck. It was after hours and I kept getting people who didn�t understand enough English to help me. Okay, I'll try again tomorrow.

After our busy day and the running around making travel arrangements we were hungry and I was suffering from low blood sugar. We decided to play it safe and go to one of the Chinese Restaurants in the hotel. We probably should have picked a little more carefully, because we wound up in a Cantonese restaurant that I didn't like much. For one thing the menu featured all sorts of frightening dishes like fish heads, chicken feet, pig stomach and crocodile. I just wanted something simple, and I couldn't find anything I liked. Also the place was somewhat overstaffed. There were two or three waitresses hanging around our table, literally filling my tea cup every time I took a sip out of it. It made me a little nervous, them being constantly at my elbow and not letting me pour my own tea. This put me in a cranky mood, and Lily was tired too. The meal was a little tense.

I did find something not too scary to eat, and once I'd eaten it I felt a lot better and not so snappish. I still was a little jetlagged, and I needed to eat earlier in the evening. I think we wound up going to sleep almost right after that.

Continued