Xi'an Chengdu Hangzhou Suzhou Shanghai Trip
April 05, 2008! From today I started my 10-day national guide job for a 17-pax group from Romania. Actually I had personally organised the group. The group arrived in Beijing on April 02, 2008. I had chosen our English tour guide - Eva to take the group in Beijing. I didn't follow the group in Beijing. But I were sure people had enjoyed their trip in Beijing since Eva was both knowlegable and helpful as a local English tour guide in Beijing. My national guide service started today - April 05, 2008 when the group left Beijing for Xian.
I got up at 4:30am and took a taxi for the 4-star Tiantan Hotel where the group stayed. Our Beijing-Xian flight was fixed at 7:55 - HU7137 by Hainan Airlines. It was a domestic flight, so we were supposed to arrive at Beijing Capital International Airport one hour before the departure. We started to leave Tiantan Hotel at 5:20am.
We were on the coach for the Beijing airport. You see it was still dark outside.
People were reluctant to leave Beijing and took the photo with Eva - our tour guide in red leather.
People gave Eva the bye kiss one by one with some sentiment.
The new terminal 3 at Beijing Capital International Airport is in operation now. I were expecting to see and enjoy the largest terminal in the world. It was a pity that we took Hainan Airlines for Xian this time, which still uses the terminal 2. Many domestic and international airlines have been moved to the terminal 3, like Air China, Shandong Airline, Sichuan Airline and many foreign airlines. For more information on the three terminals at the airport, please check our page of Beijing Capital International Airport.
People were waiting for the security check at the airport
Cristina and Vio from the group enjoyed their smoking at the smoking room and many Chinese airports have such kind of smoking room to accommodate a large smoking population.
Ms Tisca was the luckiest person on the plane since she got RMB 100 for the lottery held on this flight.
We arrived at Xian Xianyang International Airport as scheduled at 9:35am. People were waiting for their luggage.
People had chosen their tour guide - Ms Candy in Xian. Last year Cristina and Vio came to Xian and Ms Candy was their tour guide. Since Cristina and Vio were the tour organizor in Romania, they appointed the tour guide for easy communication.
Irina from the group worked as an interpreter. Many people of the group didn't speak good English. So Ms Candy first spoke to Ms Irina in English. Ms Irina then spoke to the group in Romanian.
After our arrival at Xian, we first visited Hanyang Tomb. It is the forth emperor - Jing Emperor's tomb in Han Dynasty which was opened in 2001 and is famous for its rich collecion of the terra-cotta figurines and animals. Actually his tomb is not opened yet. What we see on the exhibition hall are artifacts from his main tomb's surrounding burial sites. Hanyang Tomb is about 20 Km away from Xian airort, 30km north of the downtown Xian.
Entrance to the burial site of Hanyang Tomb
Small pottery figurines unearthed
Small pottery animals unearthed
After finishing our visit to Hanyang Tomb, we drove to our hotel in Xian - Xian City Hotel. It is a 3-star hotel centraly located the downtown area in Xian. Its address: No 7 Nan Da Jie, Xian. It is just beside the well known Bell Tower and Drun Tower and Ancient City Wall. This hotel has 133 rooms. The rooms are equipped with center controlled air-condition, DDD, IDD, Cable TV, and Mini Bar. On the second floor, there are two elegant Chinese restaurants. The breakfast is offered on the second floor. Business meeting rooms and muti-function Jall are on the third floor with well equipped modern Muti-read Video and audio faitlities is an ideal place for many kinds of meetings and parties.
The exterior Xian City Hotel
The Xian City Hotel Reception Hall
After a simple lunch on the second floor at the hotel, most of the people felt tired. We planed to start our afternoon tour at 4:00pm.
Vio and Cristina were energetic and went out of the hotel shopping at the free market near the Great Mosque. This big market is quite close to our hotel. To get there from our hotel, you just turn left and walk on the Xidajie Street for 300 meters and cross the street, you will see the big free market and Beiyuanmen Islamic Street.
Vio and Cristina were choosing some junk at the market.
Vio's family are looking for the stupid things ( joking ) at the market
The entrance to the Baiyuanmen Islamic Street
At 4:00pm, we left our hotel and started our sightseeing in Xian. We planed to get to Shaanxi Museum at 4:20pm for the museum. But we got to the museum at 5:00pm due to some people'unpuntuality. We were told that the museum was closed at 4:30pm. Actually the museum is now free of charge to the public, a good step taken by the local government for public education. But this free activity has greatly increased the daily tourist volume for the museum. To control the volume to its limited capacity, people or the local travel agencies have to reserved the tickets well in advance either via internet or phone call. So missing the booked visit put us in a difficult situation. But to my surprise, the people in our group didn't feel any regret over the absence of the museum visit since they said they were not interested in visiting museums. We felt sorry for this. Then we went to the ancient city wall instead.
Climbing the city wall
On the city wall
People enjoying ice-cream on the wall
After the city wall, we had a very nice dinner at Hantang Era Restaurant. This restaurant was set up in Jan, 200. It is located No.18, Jingqi Road, Wild Goose Pagoda District. It is specialized in Chinese traditional dishes and dumplings. The Hantang Paradise Restaurant can accommodate 650 guests. On the second floor, there are 6 separate dinning rooms. For more information, visit http://www.hantangera.com/.
The entrance to Hantang Era Restaurant
People are enjoying their dinner at Hantang Era Restaurant.
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