China Tour 2012 - Day Three

Our last day in Beijing and a flight to Xi'an.

It rained all night and the rain continued in the morning. Our plans today are all outside and we were issued rain ponchos by our guide. We needed them. First was a stop by the Olympic park to see Birdsnest stadium. It looked cool, but a rainy day is not the time to stand around and look at it. After a few moments for photos we were back in the van and on the way to the Summer Palace.

Covered in ponchos we headed into the Summer Palace in the rain. It was crowded and wet and really hard to appreciate. We went on a Dragon Boat ride anround the lake and that was fun. It allowed a view of the whole area. Ada told us it was built in the 1750s and that the lake is man made, the dirt excavated for the lake became the mountain. Pretty cool but again, think of the labor involved. The emporer got what he wanted. On to lunch at a Sichuan restaurant for a spicy lunch. The dishes just kept coming and we kept eating. So many different flavors and unusual foods but we are all game to try anything.

Next stop the airport for our flight. Nothing too unusual here as it seems that airports are pretty much the same east or west. Thankfully signage is in both Chinese and English. We are all in the back of the airplane, an Airbus 300, in rows 64 to 66. I'm the only one with a full recline prick in front of me. When we get to Xi'an we will be met and taken to our hotel and then we are on our own this evening. Hopefully I can get some time and a VPN connection to upload this and some pictures.

The Xi'an airport is amazing, huge, and new. The Chinese and anticipating a lot of growth here and this is the largest airport in Asia. On the drive i to the city we saw loads of construction - there are cranes everywhere. It was a long drive from our airport to our hotel but we got an education in Chinese history from Summer our guide. Our hotel is in a beautiful section of town and the hotel is posh! Wow, doesn't do it justice. We walked around the area, had dinner at a fast food noddle restaurant that was really tasty, bought a couple of bottles of wine on the way back to the hotel and then sat in the girls large room and chatted and drank. Then good night!