XIAN DAY TWO: CITY WALLS, LANTERN FESTIVAL.

I walk to the South Gate: (in Xian everything is about the South Gate, all the bars and best restaurants are here, you have to go there to get tickets to the Walls, and it takes about 30 minutes so is not worth the time spent on the metro as by then you do about the same amount of walking.) I decide to walk the city walls which can be done in a big circuit of about 10 miles. They are completely intact having been partially restored.

Once I'm on I begin to get a sense of the scale of this Lantern festival and how it will look, by looking at the sculptures. I make a mental note to come back in the evening.

View of modern Xian from the city walls

You can hire a bike to go on the Wall, many people do this because they are very wide. The walls are enormous. Some couples have tandem bikes which don't tend to be worth the effort. I can't help laughing inside as many men are pedalling slowly and painfully along with lazy Chinese wives who simply sit on the back seat letting them do all the work! You're better off with 2 bikes.

There is some sort of writing carved into the stone: maybe a mason's stone or just graffiti.

This is the western gate. There are four, North East South and West. By now I've been on the wall about 45 minutes.

Cityscape of old and new.

Prayer wheels and drums at the West Gate.

This is the car park just outside the Wall where you catch the bus for the Terracotta Warriors.

Lama temple at the North East corner.

As I approach the South Gate toward the end of the walk I begin to question the wisdom of not hiring a bike as after 3 hours my muscles are starting to protest. The lantern festival extends for what seems like miles from the South Gate. I start to get fed up and long for a rest.  

Finally I come off the wall and have a long-anticipated cold beer. This is a 2 litre glass: I know it's a bit of a liberty but I feel I've earned it. The weather is warm enough to sit outside!

The Lantern festival is an unmissable spectacle. It seems to be famous throughout China. It is organised into different cultures, I can see Russian, Chinese, Hindu, Greek mythological and other images on the wall.

In the evening afterwards I visit the bars and have a game of pool with a few expats, an Aussie, a Brummie and a Geordie: a fun night!

XIAN VISIT DAY ONE: ARRIVAL, MUSLIM QUARTER, BELL AND DRUM TOWER

The bullet train from Baoding to Xian North takes 5 ½ hours, so I start out at 6am and take the bus K2 to the railway station. I'm dog tired due to a poor night's sleep the day before. The train slowly fills up as it stops at innumerable stations all with names ending in “Dong” (East) so I start out with an empty seat beside me at the window however eventually a Chinese comes and sits next to me: sadly he is clearly ill as he keeps taking tablets and sleeps most of the way to Xian. I wish I could do the same. He also snores a great deal, hopefully not as badly as I do according to Sarah! The train passes over a mountain range, it must be quite high as there is snow on the peaks all around. Vast ranges in the distance, beetling crags of snow. I feel a sense of adventure and wish I hadn't packed my camera away. As my arse is starting to ache after over three hours, and to escape my Chinese friend's snoring, I go and sit in the restaurant car for an hour or so with a couple of beers. I contemplate having something to eat there but I'm not hungry yet, its somewhat overpriced and microwaved junk. I feel I may be better off waiting till I get to Xian. I can see cave dwellings in the mountainside, some of them still seem to be inhabited.  

I arrive at Xian North railway station and encounter the worst overcrowding I have experienced so far. Here one just has to join the melee and take one's time going through the inevitable bag and ticket checks. It takes me about 15 minutes to get through to the metro (subway/underground) so I use this to get to the hostel I have booked. The journey takes about an hour in full, and the train is so hideously overcrowded that some people actually can't get on! Anyway the hostel is right next to the metro station on North Street (the main drag of Xian city city centre) I find it very easily in spite of my irrational fears about getting lost! Its very good and has a great bar with cheap food and beer on draught!

I need some lunch so ask at the hostel where to go, the girl there speaks good English and cheerfully directs me to the Muslim Quarter. This is the first I get to experience the heart of this fascinating city. It is a labyrinth of bazaars and stalls and is always hopelessly over crowded: the area pulses with excitement and and exotic atmosphere.

In the evening after a brief doze I go out to sample the nightlife and decide to walk though the Muslim Quarter which at night absolutely electric but again (like most of Xian City Centre) impossibly crowded. I have a hot dog at the hostel before I go.

The Bell and Drum Towers are lit up at night making for a great spectacle. I seem to have arrived at a very fortuitous time, as there is a big lantern festival on the City Walls.

I visit the main drag of the bars in Xian old town. Most are overpriced and hawkers come and try to drag you inside: of course I ignore them. I do go into one or two, my favourite is 3 and 4 bar where I manage to have a couple of games of pool, beer is cheap at RMB 10 (£1) a bottle. Many Chinese bars are not what you would expect. They are designed as areas for courting couples engaging in mating rituals or groups playing cards, sitting on sofas. They don't have a drinking culture the way we do in England, then again who does? I have a few funny moments when guys try to make me sit with a stranger or chase me up the stairs when I do enter a bar. I do tend to be a bar fly when I can!

CHINESE NEW YEAR IN BEIJING

Day 1: Chinese New Year's Eve, 7th Feb:
The Chinese on the move are an irresistible force: Chinese New Year has been called the greatest mass migration on earth. It started weeks before the actual Spring Festival (7th-15th Feb) all around the campus and the city, you would see streams of people with wheeled suitcases walking to taxis or bus stops. There's something ant-like about it.

At the last minute I realise I'm likely to miss New Year's Eve in Beijing as I booked for the 8th: I discover this at a function I have to attend, so I decide to see if I can alter my plans at this late stage but don't expect to be successful. First of all I catch a bus to the train ticket office in town which is, unsurprisingly, closed. So before giving up I decide to try the railway station to see if  can get one there. I catch a bus from my flat and with my passport, to my surprise I manage to get a trip that same day. Buying rail tickets in China can be something of a challenge involving long queues and risk of no availability. Walking around the now-deserted university area of the city I am  alone in huge empty boulevards surrounded by the distant crump of shells exploding everywhere around, as the Chinese start letting off incessant firecrackers on a huge scale. I feel like the character in the film The War of the Worlds as he walks around the deserted city while the Martian machines encroach destroying everything in their path.

becoming anxious to catch the train I get a taxi and am overcharged as usual (they're  all shysters but then again its Chinese New Year) and he goes to the wrong entrance to the station meaning I have to walk 500 yards to the door.

I realise that every action or decision seems to trigger some irrational fear, like I'll miss the train, get on the wrong train, won't be able to find my hotel, there will be an accident etc. etc. It's hard to deal with this: I have to  try and stop my mind from working like this.

I have the whole carriage to myself!

Once there I take the subway to my hotel (the same one as I stayed in before) and have an Indian nearby. The fireworks have already started.

It feels cosy anyway. Following this I go out for a beer and watch the fireworks. Some US expats in a bar tell me some of the best places to go. Here are a few images I managed to get. The fireworks are quite prolonged and spectacular, seemingly scattered around the whole city. They are also incredibly noisy!

The atmosphere is electric though. I have people coming up and hugging me wishing me Happy new Year!

Following this, I end up in some bars and have too much to drink: I get someone to make me a Black Russian (the real McCoy not the Tia Maria/Coke version) after which memory doesn't serve me too well. I think I get back to my hotel at about 2 am, good night's sleep though!

Day 2: New Year's Day 8th Feb

The next day  I transfer to my other hotel. It's near the Lama Temple which is great until I  realise that on New Year's Day thousands of people go there for a pilgrimage! First the nearby subway station is closed and I have to stay on the train for another 30 minutes to get to the next nearest one and change. The whole area is shut down, there are police officers everywhere and I can't move! Thousands and thousands line the streets and I try to follow them but give up in despair. I feel like the character in Close Encounters of the Third Kind when he tries to get to the mountain! I decide to try going through the hutong but sans map I become a bit lost. Fortunately I bump into some Italian tourists who point me in the right direction.

I check in: the hotel is a renovated courtyard and really doesn't have much charm: spotlessly clean though! It has windowless rooms however which feel claustrophobic! Back to Houhai on the subway for lunch (dumplings) and then I walk back to the hotel which is both quicker and easier, but so crowded it's hard to describe: you wouldn't believe you could get so many people in one street!

Exhausted, I have a doze and then go out for the evening. No sightseeing on the agenda this time, I just want to experience the atmosphere. I go back along the hutong to Houhai and the area is full of expats (They are nearly always blonde!) I drop into a dumpling shop again then to a couple of bars and have an early night.

Day 3: Confucius Temple

I decide to to go out and explore and maybe have some breakfast. Walking along the hutong I come across the Confucius Temple and Imperial College, so decide to have a look around. It's peaceful and filled with history.

Here students took lessons in Confucianism. You can see a jade statue of Confucius and the Stele Forest: this hall holds hundreds of giant stone pillars with Confucian writings on them commissioned by the Emperor. Behind the jade statue of Confucius are some paintings of his disciples made by modern artists as copies of ancient paintings.

Inside the Imperial College

This is the nearby Cafe Confucius where I have a late breakfast. I'm tired from yesterday and feeling a bit anxious, so I decide to have a relaxing day. Walk around the hutong, a bit of shopping, light lunch and chat, then in the evening I have a good curry, and bump into some French tourists, who I take to Great Leap Brewing and we have a good time. Back at the hotel the manager buys me a beer!

Next day back to the flat, hoping for a rest!

New Year lanterns outside my apartment

The most rubbish things you read on travel blogs: (paraphrased)

1. "I came travelling to find myself." (No. 1 embarrassing statement)
2. Since leaving my corporate/high-flying/executive job to go travelling.......
3. I have empowered myself
4. I am soooo brave!
5. Since I landed my publishing deal based on my blog I'm now working on my new novel.....

(and similar self-serving drivel)