We slept late today. Sabrina later than me, while I caught up with important things like Slashdot, Dilbert, User-Friendly, and my blog posts. So absorbed was I that didn’t notice that it was 12:30pm already, past the checkout deadline.<\/p>\n
We completed the fastest hotel checkout in world history. We had a few hours before we needed to leave for the airport, so we left our bags in the care of the hotel, and we set out for some Peking Duck. You can’t come to Beijing and not have Peking Duck.<\/p>\n
Peking, btw, is the same as Beijing, but written in an older Romanization system, the Wade-Giles system. In Wade-Giles, ‘P’ and ‘B’ are both written as ‘P’. This is because they use the same mouth shape, but one of them (B) is voiced, and the other (P) is unvoiced. Wade-Giles indicates the voiced sound using an accent mark. Unfortunately, the accent marks were often omitted. And then, people pronounce it using English pronunciation rules, which is just all wrong. So, Peking Duck is really Beijing Duck. And Peking Man is really Beijing Man.<\/p>\n
Anyway, Peking Duck (I’ll call it that, because that’s what everyone calls it) consists of pieces of roasted duck meat, chopped onion, and a flat bread sort of like a tortilla. You roll up duck and onion in a piece of the flat bread, dip it in sauce, and enjoy. It really is yummy. Sometimes the skin of the duck is served as a separate course. But not here. Had a glass of another local beer, dark and malty, very good.<\/p>\n
We walked back to the hotel, by way of Tiananmen Square. A misty day again, no good for photos. But took a couple shots of Sabrina in front of the Monument to the Peoples’ Heroes, and the Pickled Mao Mausoleum.<\/p>\n
Collected our bags at the hotel, caught a taxi, and realized that it would take 50min to get the airport, putting us in danger of missing our flight. We got there 30mins before departure time. Managed to get checked in and clear security pretty quick, got to gate in comfortable time. After we got seated, the flight was delayed for some considerable time. Hainan Airlines seems to encounter a lot of delays. Or maybe it’s just the Beijing Central Airport that is the problem.<\/p>\n
We’re in the air now, even as I write this. Pretty choppy flight. But it should be short, only an hour or so.<\/p>\n
Arrived in XiAn without incident. Outside the airport, a taxi driver accosted us, but he seemed fishy (both figuratively and literally… he smelled funny). We didn’t trust him. Instead caught a shuttle bus to Xian centre. The bus was cheaper any, and dropped us a block from our hotel.<\/p>\n
On the bus-ride, Sabrina arranged for a tour for us for the next day.<\/p>\n
Xian looked pretty typical, until we got to the old city wall. Many old Chinese cities were walled cities, but most of them are gone now. Beijing’s old wall remains only in a few places. But Xian’s wall remains complete, and very well-maintained.<\/p>\n
Inside the wall, it comes to life, all bright lights.<\/p>\n
Bus attendant told us that our planned hotel, the Bell Tower Hotel, actually had very small rooms. We’re planning to go check them out, but may select another hotel after all.<\/p>\n
Checked into Bell Tower Hotel, the room is small, but acceptable. An ever more sophisticated bed-side control console here, why don’t Canadian hotels have these?<\/p>\n
After settling in, we set out to find some late-night food. We intended to go to a dim-sum restaurant, because Xian is known for its own special brand of dim-sum. But it was closed, so instead we made our way to a near by street food street. My first experience with street food in China. It seemed very typically Chinese: hot and noisy.<\/p>\n
Xian cuisine includes a lot of lamb. Walking down the street, my nostrils were taken hostage by a wonderful spicy aromatic smoke. The smell was heavily armed with some spice common in Indian food, but whose name eludes me. But I can say that it also features prominently in President’s Choice Memories of Kashmir sauce. Cumin, maybe. The aromas that had captured my nose presented their demands: find me and eat me! We had no choice but to comply.<\/p>\n
The smell originated from a grill spewing smoke by the road side, and laden with some marinated lamb bits on skewers. The ransom was \u00c2\u00a51 per skewer, a bargain indeed. A quick late meal concluded, we returned to the hotel to sleep. <\/p>\n
The journey back to the hotel was made treacherous by the fact that the pedestrian underpasses get locked up at midnight. Most inconvenient. The roadways generally have fences to prevent pedestrians from crossing just anywhere. But with the underpass locked, and no viable alternative provided, what are we to do? Ask for directions: how do we cross this street? Answer: the fence ends about a block up the street in the wrong direction. We go there, and do a little Frogger across the busy road. Then back to hotel to sleep.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow we get up early (groan) for the tour of the tombs here (yay!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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