The Terracotta Army is the main reason for going to Xi’an, but most of us take another day to visit the rest of the city. One of the main spots of this city is the complete wall surrounding the old city, and with a total length of 12 km. They are also open for the public to walk or ride a bike on them.
Apart from that, I liked the Big Wild Goose Pagoda in the south of the city, and the Drum Tower, an impressive building in the center of the old town. The Drum Tower was normally placed in the center of the ancient chinese citiies, together with the Bell Tower, and were used to announce the time.
I found also people in Xi’an quite more talkative and funnier than in Beijing, and even more English-speakers. Of course, I guess the fact that there was some festival happening in the city on December 25th night helped me in having a nicer feeling about the citizens.
But what I did not like at all, and will be difficult to forget about, is the pollution. In Beijing there was also pollution, but not at Xi’an’s level.
An image is worth more than one thousand words, but I will say that at any time, you could actually see the pollution at a few hundreds meter distance from you. Just amazing, but easily understandable after seeing from the train or the bus the heavy industrial area around the city.
Pollution is one of the hot topics China should focus on. It is well known in the world the issue with the pollution, and it has appeared in many occasions in the news, like its impact in the Olympics, but they really need to do something with it… for the planet, but mainly for the Chinese. It cannot be healthy when you actually feel and see you are breathing pollution.
I will start the trip from the beginning, so I also refresh my mind and do not miss anything… I will try not to to bore you… 😉
I already wrote part of my first impressions of China in this post. I flew to Hong Kong and crossed the border to Shenzen to benefit from the cheap internal flights in China. Hong Kong area is full of islands, and the ferries are a common transport there. So, I found the fastest way for my purposes to reach an airport in Mainland China using the Turbo Jet Sea Express ferry linking Hong Kong International Airport and Shenzen Airport. Really easy way to go to Mainland. Just remember that you have to pick up your luggage before the customs, and that there is a free bus from the pier to the airport (just 2 km).
The first image I got when I jumped off from the boat was this one:
Nice sunset, isn’t it? It is a pity that it was cloudy… Cloudy? No. China is the most polluted country I have ever been (ok, I have only been within Europe, Canada and Japan, but anyway…) and that could be seen at simple sight. The “cloud” is always present: in Shenzen, in Beijing, in Xi’an and even in Shanghai. But, of course, this was just the beginning, in one of the most industrialized areas of China, also called Special Economic Zones, where more factories are placed, and where tougher controls are carried out to avoid an overpopulation around it.
So, after this shock and the issue with the taxis, I took one of the last flights to Beijing, where it was snowing during the night… Nice image, but bad omen for the rest of the days there regarding the climate… Thanks to God, I was prepared. 🙂