For the next few days we
travelled over mountains and crossed small rivers covering the most stunning
scenery we have seen yet in China. The mountains were covered in greenery and
mist lingered across the peaks, very few houses. Again it was hard going, one
climb was 23 kilometers as the road zig zagged its way to the peak. Hard climbs make for slow times and no houses
mean nowhere to buy food. We came to a small village which had no accommodation
and nowhere to buy food. It was too late in the day to consider riding the 35
kilometers uphill to the next village so the English teacher at the local
school organized the school bus driver to take us in the school bus. He put our bikes in the back and we followed
a small river up to the next town. The
river coursed through gorges, much more beautiful than what we had seen up the
Yangtze. We were looking forward to a
nice meal and a comfortable bed as we booked into a hotel. When we got back from dinner the owner of the
hotel told us that when she registered us with the police, because we are
foreigners, they told her we could not go any further as the next town, Fang Xi’an,
was a restricted area and foreigners were not allowed to go there. We were not
even allowed to catch a bus through, we had to go back. We talked to the police with the aid of a
computer which converted English to Chinese and vice versa, but there was no
way we could get around it. A problem
for us was that we were racing to get to Xi’an to extend our visas and now we
were being told we would have to go all the way back to Yichang, where the
police were aware of our route they even mapped it out in Chinese to help us
when asking for directions, to take another road to Xi’an - we would never make
it. We had no option now but to take a bus back to Yichang then another bus to Xi’an if we were to get
there to extend our visas in time. The next morning the bikes were loaded on
the bus and we went back to Yichang. We
saw a different Yichang this time as we were on the other side of the river, a
large city with high rise apartments and busy streets. We caught a sleeping bus to Xi’an arriving at
2.30 in the morning. When it was daylight we had breakfast in the Muslim
quarter at a street market, buns filled with freshly fried egg and spicy
vegetables, we had not had these before and we enjoyed the change from
noodles. These buns must be a specialty
of the region as we had them a few times while we were here and for a few days
after. We found a hotel and booked in
for four days as there were things we wanted to see here and we needed to
extend our visas.
Xi’an is a large city of 8,500
million people, busy streets and lots of shopping. It is also a tourist city and we saw
westerners for the first time in a while as well as Mc Donalds, KFC. and to our
surprise Burger King and Subway. Xi’an
is within a large city wall with North, South, East and West gates which are
large arches for roads to run through.
The Wall also houses the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower. Apart from
extending our visas, the main reason we wanted to come to this city is to see
the Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses of the Qin Dynasty, discovered only in 1974
by farmers digging a well. There are
8,000 warriors and horses, so far 2,000 have been restored and are on display
in a large museum which resembles a plane hangar. The museum has been well done and we were
able to walk around each of the three pits and look down on the figures, the
fact that the descriptions were in English as well as Chinese also helped us to
enjoy the museum.
The next day we went to the PSB
to extend our visas, we had done this before so walked in confidently with all
the relevant paperwork. One of the
questions asked is “where are you staying”.
Then we were told that the hotel we were booked into was not registered
to take foreigners and we would have to go back to the hotel and get them to go
to the local police and fill out a blue form. It was Friday and the PSB closed
at 4.30 and would not reopen until Monday.
We caught a taxi back to the hotel but they did not want to go to the
police because they would be in trouble, they wanted to give us our money back
and for us to leave the hotel. We were
running short of time, we tried to book into another hotel but they were full
so in the end we booked into a 5 star luxurious place, 5 times the price of the
place we were at, then rushed back to the PSB who now accepted our application
but checked with the hotel first that we were booked in. By the time we sorted out the paperwork and
paid the fee we left the PSB with about ten minutes to spare. We enjoyed staying at the hotel, even if I
was a shock to the budget. The western
breakfast and a lobby where relaxing music played helped sooth us after such a
stressful experience right on top of the restricted area incident. We stayed an
extra night just to make sure the police would be happy. The police were very nice to us, but rules
are rules. We met some nice people including some French Canadians who are bike
riders and are now inspired to do a long trip.
Our dusty bikes were stored in the kept baggage in the lobby and the
contrast of them against the sparkling clean suitcases was marked.
We had been in contact through
Warm Showers with Jon from England who is a cyclist and teaches English in
Xi’an, we met him for dinner in the
Muslim quarter and then went to a bar for a drink afterwards. Jon attempted to
ride around the world four years ago but restrictions on visas after 7/11
caused him to abandon the trip.
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