Flying into Xi’An
Xi’an was the last of our 4 parts trip to China. The 1st was a 4-day self-guided trip to Beijing, 2nd was a 8-day agency-guided trip to ZhangYe-Badain Jaran Desert-Xining, the 3rd a 10-day agency-guided trip to Tibet and the 4th a 4-day self-guided trip to XiAn.
We flew to Xi’An (西安) from Lhasa (拉萨), it was a 3-hour flight. We reached Route from Xi’an Xianyang Airport at about 4pm and e-hail a taxis to bring us to XiAn city where we had booked a place to stay for 4 nights.
The taxis ride cost ¥168 for a 50min ride over a distance of 54km.
Tang Everbright City
From our stay was a very short distance to one end of TangEverbright City 大唐不夜城. We took a taxis for ¥10.50 to the north side of Tang Everbright City to start our walk from the North end to the South End.
One of the most prominent building in Tang Everbright City was Big Wide Goose Pagoda (大雁塔). It was this yellow square shape seven layer structure standing a the north end of Everbright City. We wondered as they why the Pagoda was name “Big Wide Goose Pagoda”.
On checking the internet there was a legend, about a branch of Buddhists that ate meat which was not a taboo. One day these monks could not find any meat and then a wild goose broke its wings and fell to the ground. The monks wee started and thought it was a message from Bodhisattva ordering them to be more pious. Subsequently they established a pagoda where the wild goose fell and also stop eating meat.
How true was the legend, nobody knew. But the true fact about the pagoda was that it was built in 652AD during hte Tang Dynasty to store the Buddhist scriptures and statues that the great monk Xuanzang brought back from ancient India.
Tang Everbright City was an “imitation city”. Imitating hte properous Tang Dynasty, a glorious period in China’s history. It started near the base of Big Wild Goose Pagoda.
We were having doubts on whether to visit an “imitation city” but on arrival we were so “blown away” with the sights and sound. Many Chinese locals visit Everbright city in beautiful traditional dressing. Their head ornaments were stunning and their clothes were so enchanging. Every dressed-up lady that walked by looked like a “Chinese Fairy (仙女)”.
Along the walking promenade were many massive “Chinese looking” buildings”, with shops and restaurants. We went into a restaurant called Yuedexian (悦得闲广式点心茶楼-大悦城店). We decided to pamper ourselves and ordered many dishes.
We had a lovely dinner, ate everything and left the restaurant feeling very full. The cost was ¥240 for three of us. We were often so amaze with the inexpensive excellent quality meal we had in China. Every city we visited had plentiful of restaurants offering very good food at very affordable prices.
After a big dinner, it was just so right to walk down the pedestrian promenade down to the southern end of Tang Everbright City. Wow, the night lights had turned the place into a stunning place. We were sure this “imitation city” was way better than the authentic ancient Tang City.
This night was not even a weekend night and yet the crowd was out in full force. The entire place was so vibrant and “so happening”. It was not a festive day and yet the festive mood was flooding the entire ambience.
We would love to be able to see the entire street scene and lighted building from somewhere high up. Unfortunately there was no where we could go up to view it. We regretfully did not stay in one of the hotels in the Everbright City as probably on its high floor we would have a “brilliant” view of the lighted street.
Our stay in Xi’an
We rented a two bedrooms apartment for three of us. The Yonro Apartment came with one toilet, a kitchen and a washing machine in the unit. This booking was done on Trip.com and the cost was SGD443 for four nights.
We found the apartment easily, it was on the higher floor of one of the blocks of condomium in the Yunta district a short walk (1km) from Tang Everbright city.
The apartment was large, it was generally clean though it could be more orderly/tidier in some small areas.We were fine with the apartment but was not very impressed with the condominium lift, common area as they looked pretty poorly maintained by residents/building management.
Other Accommodation in Xian
