A different side of China

We welcomed in October with a 20hr train journey to the city of Xi'an (西安) in central China. Although it's definitely something I'm glad I've experienced, I don't think it's something I'd be super keen to experience again!

Bags in hand, we stumbled sleep deprived off the train, thankful we had a guide to direct us through the bustling city to our hostel. Although Tianjin as a city is starkly different to anything back in Scotland, Xi'an was even more of a world away from anything in Tianjin. Although a smaller city, Xi'an was far busier and seemed in a way totally chaotic (and we thought crossing the roads in Tianjin was bad!) but despite that, there was something oddly comforting in the chaos which allowed us all to settle in quickly.

I know I'm not the only one when I say I jumped at the chance to go to Xi'an - not for the enriching cultural experience and history, because to be totally honest I didn't even know where Xi'an was when we were booking the trip - but because I was excited to see a different side of China, somewhere more remote, less Westernized, and just more of what the real China is like. And Xi'an definitely didn't disappoint.

After a bus ride and short walk we arrived at the hostel which ended up slightly more expensive after a mix up on the booking site, however it was probably the best mix up that could have ever happened. The hostel we stayed in was the best in China (no exaggeration, we checked HostelWorld!) complete with a restaurant that served some much needed French toast, the most comfortable beds, the friendliest staff, and even a couple of cats that roamed the reception area.

The comfortable beds came in handy a bit sooner than expected, because although arriving in Xi'an at 10am, I'd gotten approximately 4hrs sleep over the course of the journey and after grabbing some food (traditional spicy Xi'an noodles) I promptly took a 6 hour nap, so it's safe to say my first day in Xi'an was rather uneventful.

After an evening of planning and fuelled by a mega bowl of noodles and a strong coffee, something of a luxury here, we headed out on our first proper day in Xi'an. We made our way to one of the smaller, more authentic mosques in Xi'an, not the Great Mosque that is more of a tourist attraction, as the city has a large Muslim population. However on entry we'd realised we'd forgotten that being a woman would mean we would have to cover up a lot more than any of the guys that came in with us, so me and another scholar were gifted with something to help us with that which we’re modelling for you in the photo below.

Our next stop was the Daming Palace, but with a slight detour to try some of Xi'an's local street food. This was probably one of my favourite parts about the entire trip! Spicy fried tofu (⿇辣⾖腐, mala doufu), cold noodles (⾯条凉⽪, miantiao liangpi) and a fried goji berry fritter; I didn't get the name of that one, so that's the best way to describe it!

A few of us later decided to explore a nearby park just outside of the Daming Palace, just wanting a bit of time to chill out and enjoy the scenery away from the noise of the city, something that was much needed after the buzz of living in Tianjin for a month. On our way back we accidentally stumbled across the famous Muslim Food Street, and then the Great Mosque, something which we hadn't managed to see during the day and hadn't actually planning on seeing, so accidentally finding it was a really pleasant surprise and a happy end to an amazing day.

Day 2 (or day 3 depending on how you want to look at it) was a painfully early start to see the Terracotta Warriors (秦陵兵⻢俑, qingling bingmayong), the most famous tourist attraction in Xi'an. It was such an incredible thing to see.

The Terracotta Army was commissioned to be built by China's First Emperor Qin at the ripe old age of 14 to accompany his tomb, and act as his guard in the afterlife. Built from 246–206 BC the warriors took 40 years and over 720,000 builders to complete. Of the three separate pits that were discovered, pit 1 was by far the biggest and most impressive. Roughly the size of an aeroplane hangar; there were 6,000 warriors that were discovered there however only around 2,000 are currently on display. We saved the best till last, doing the smaller pits first (which were still massive) and touring the museums. Although it was all in Mandarin, it was still really cool to see.

But the day wasn't over yet. After somehow navigating our way out of the museum we managed to get a bus to Mount Li (驪⼭，li shan) and took a cable car trip to the top. It is probably one of the most stunning views I've actually seen in China, as you could pretty much see the entirety of Xi'an.

After a long, slightly detoured, journey back, due to the fact we got on the wrong bus, we went to yet another cultural food street for dinner to really experience traditional Xi'an food. I had the most amazing spicy noodles (they're incredibly popular in Xi'an as you might've guessed), fermented tofu, and a sweet red bean pastry.

Our time in Xi'an flew in and before we knew it was our final day in the city before going home. We visited the incredible Tang Paradise, a testament to everything related to the Tang Dynasty, from reconstructed buildings and gardens to poetry, pottery and foods. We spent the entire day wondering around and exploring but I don't even think we saw half of it!

One of my absolute favourite parts was an exhibit on powerful women in the Tang Dynasty, like China's only Empress Wu Zetian, and Shangguan Wan'er, one of the most famous female Chinese politicians, who started her career at the age of 14.

In the evening, after experiencing Xi'an Hotpot, we visited the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda and saw the nightly fountain show just in front of it. It was incredible to experience the rich Chinese history and architecture over the course of our visit in Xi'an and although a pretty full on week, it was probably one of the best weeks I've had in China so far. I learned so much, and visited so many incredible places, and it's an experience I hope I can repeat in other Chinese cities.

After being back in Tianjin for what felt like only a few days we were soon packing our bags again to visit the longest glass bridge in China. The five hour bus journey to the Hongyagu scenic area seemed like nothing in comparison to the day long train journey to Xi'an we'd endured only a couple of weeks before.

The 6am start to the trip was absolutely worth it when we arrived at the Hongyagu scenic area and shown to our hotel. The small, tourist town seemed to span right down a hill, with our hotel at the top, which meant lots of steps to reach our beds at the end of a long day! After a hurried lunch, our bags dropped off to our rooms we set off on our journey to the longest glass bridge in China. Whether it was down to information being lost in translation, or us simply not knowing what we'd signed up for, we hadn't quite grasped the fact that we'd be walking to the top.

Genuinely, I got the shock of my life when I realised the cable cars were being refurbished. However, a good 152 floors, 10000 steps (thank you step counter) and a lot of photo breaks later, we finally made it to the longest glass bridge.

The bridge was one of those places that you can't quite believe that exists, and that you're actually there seeing it firsthand. You had to squint from one end to see the other! Being able to look down and see the tops of trees was both absolutely terrifying and amazing. The bridge connects to two mountains, and hangs over a massive gorge. Standing in the middle of the bridge, you almost feel like you're flying- that feeling isn't helped by the fact the bridge wobbled every time you took a step.

The journey back down was not for the faint of heart, the steep steps on the way up seemed even steeper on the way down and our legs were shaking by the time we got to the bottom. Once back in the village, which was only about a 20 minute walk away from the base of the trail leading to the bridge, we did a bit of searching for some local food and settled for a big bowl of noodles and vegetables (I think I'm seeing a bit of a trend here). Although absolutely exhausted, we decided to take a trip to the hot springs, maybe a 15minute taxi ride away from the village. I was pretty close to backing out and just going to bed, I was so tired, but I'm so glad I didn't. The hot springs was probably the most relaxing thing I've experienced in China so far, with different pools with different temperatures, some infused with different herbs and flowers (almost like bathing in tea!), all of which had different medicinal properties according to ancient Chinese doctors. Possibly the best part about the entire spring experience were of course the chic bathing clothes we had to wear for the short 5 meter walk to the pool.

The next day after experiencing a traditional Chinese breakfast of tofu, vegetables and steamed buns we visited a local hilltop academy to experience different cultural activities such as Chinese bells (编钟, bianzhong) and drums (堂⿎, tanggu), Chinese medicine (中成药, zhongchengyao) and print making.

It's been a really busy month, but absolutely worth it! It's been so great to experience different areas and aspects of Chinese culture and I really hope I can do more of this as the year progresses.

Until next time, 再⻅!