Day 5 & 6 Xian-Lhasa

Day 5

8am

At Xian train station,ready to board the 8:42am train to Lhasa. The expedition journey took about 33 hours.

The first leg of the journey was pretty ordinary, not much to see, we spent most of our time in the dining car chatting to people. We were all looking forward to the breathtaking scenery along the Tibetan plateau.

Day 6

At dawn, the train reached Golmud, the last stop before the Tibetan Plateau. I noticed the altitude immediately and and waited for the extra oxygen to kick in (the train is regulated with oxygen) . The Tibetan plateau was breathtakingly raw and barren. The awesome snow capped mountains, miles and miles of vast wilderness, herds of yak and groups of antelope grazing in tall grasses and 800 km “no-man’s land" were just simply stunning. I am glad that I took the train trip.

An hour before the train pulled into Lhasa, the cabin attendants passed through the cabin one last time with their souvenir carts. I bought some carved combs and painted chopsticks.

At 6:05pm, we finally arrived at Lhasa train station. We were met by our tour guide, Tarmu, he took us to our hotel and told us to have a good rest so that our bodies can acclimatize to the altitude. The view outside our hotel room was stunning, our room looked straight up at the lighted Potala Palace. We're suffering from mild altitude sickness with headaches and loss of breath. We reluctantly went to bed and had an early night. Good night.

Day 4 Xian

Day 4

Beijing and Xian is about 910 kilometres apart, 11 hours by overnight train. We were in soft-sleeper class which has four soft bunk beds in the cabin. We were lucky to have the whole cabin to ourselves. The next morning I woke up to see passengers stroll through the aisles in pyjamas to the dining car. It is typical Chinese breakfast, porridge, salty vegetables and boiled eggs.

At about 8:30am, we arrived at Xian. This city was one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China as it has been the capital of 13 dynasties and has more than 3100 years of history.

We went to the tickets office of train station to rebook the train tickets to Lhasa and then headed to our hotel to check-in and get settled. After taking an hour break, we caught the public transport out 50 km to visit the famous Museum of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horse, it was much bigger than I expected. We first watched the 360 degree movie about the history of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses. The history and discovery of the Army is as fascinating as the sight.

Three farmers discovered the warriors when digging a well in 1974. Since then more than 7,000 of these bigger than life-size terracotta warriors (each of their faces is entirely different) have been found in 4 different pits covering many acres. It was listed by UNESCO in 1987 as one of the world cultural heritages.

Pit 1 - the biggest with columns of soldiers at the front and war chariots at the back (what you see on TV and the travel brochures). However, only the first part of it is excavated, and many of the terracotta soldiers have been badly damaged.

Pit 2 - this contains a U-shaped layout of chariots, cavalry and infantry. Again the majority is unexcavated.

Pit 3 – the command centre of the armed forces to keep the emperor safe in his afterlife. It contains horses and chariots, but the chariots are made of wood.

Pit 4 - is empty, left unfinished by its builders.

What an impressive sight! But it is sad to see someone exhausted so many resources and human lives to build such an elaborate army to guide him after death.

Xian is famous for its dumplings, and tonight we were having a dumpling feast followed by Tang Dynasty performance at Shannix Grand Opera House. We got to sample 20 different types of dumpling. They were different in shapes, flavors and textures. I have never eaten so many dumplings in one go. I was dumpling out by the end of the evening. We retired back to our hotel at 11 pm. Onward to Lhasa tomorrow!

Our stay in Xian was short but well spent.

Day 3 Beijing

Day 3

4:00 am

The telephone rang – morning call. It’s time to get up to see the flag raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square. Zzzz Zzzz, less than 4 hours sleep.

Outside it was a little dark but fresh, much much better than the heat. It took us about 15 minutes to walk to Tiananmen Square. The walk was nice, seeing the changes of the sky from darkness into pre dawn glow. In a distance, we saw the flashing lights of a police car, it was a temporary check-point. As we arrived, a huge crowd had already gathered.. It was around 4.50am we saw the military honour guards, carrying the flag, marched through the gate of Tiananmen Tower (the Gate of Heavenly peace). I wasn’t expecting them to be accompanied by a band .The flag raised slowly at the exact moment of sunrise. The whole ceremony lasted exactly 127 seconds. What an impressive moment!

Andrew left to visit the great wall at 6.30 am. Jack and I did not want to be grilled under the sun. We took a little nap, had our breakfast in the hotel and decided to roam around at our own pace. In this soaring heat, we thought taking a taxi would be a good idea. After negotiating with a few taxi drivers, we finally got one who would take us around for half a day for ¥350.
Beijing is a city reshaped but the pollution is still thick.

Off to see the new landmarks, the Beijing Olympic Stadium, the Birds Nest. We had to go through a checkpoint to get to the Stadium, across the stadium is the National Aquatics Centre (the Water Cube). Wow! What a magnificent modern architectural element!

We then went to the 798 Art Zone. It is converted from a factory plant. When approaching the Art Zone we saw a big red post written with "798", we knew we had reached our destination. Once you enter this area (taxi is not allowed to drive in), you can feel artistic flavor of the area. There are different kinds of galleries, art studios, cultural companies, fashion shops, book shops etc. I can spend a whole day in here. It is the separated world from outside. We had our late lunch at Vincent Cafe, a French restaurant, very yummy pancakes.

Well, it’s time to head back to our hotel,we were to leave for Beijing west railway station to catch the 9:30pm train to Lhasa via Xian.

Day 1 & 2 Sydney-Hong Kong-Macau-Beijing

Day 1 & 2

At 10:45 am I was sitting on the Qantas Jet, it’s going to take off in any minute. Goodbye Sydney. Everything went well, I arrived in Hong Kong at 5:45pm and took a ferry to Macau and arrived at my grandparents place at 7pm, just in time for dinner. I had a short half-day (and overnight) stay in Macau before flying to Beijing with my cousin, Jack. We would team up with Andrew at Beijing. During my stay in Macau I converted my Australian dollars to RMB (¥), the exchange rate is always better here. We had lunch at my favour restaurant, O Santos, we had Bacalhau (cod), fried game sausages and Galinha a Portuguesa (Portuguese Chicken). I had no room for dessert.
We were on a plane again at 2.10pm flying to Beijing. I had no memories of my journey across the skies. I was so full and tired, I was out the whole 3.5 hours.

When we went through the customs, Andrew was already there waiting for us. I met Andrew when I was touring Singapore last year, we have been keeping in touch via facebook. When I told him my plan, he decided to come along. In the 21 century, we are all global citizens, there is no geographic boundary between us.

OMG, the minute we stepped out the airport, we were walking into an oven, we were being baked by the excessive heat, it was 38℃ !!!


We caught the airport bus to our hotel, lucky it was air- conditioned. By the time we finished our check in, it was already 4pm. We contacted the travel agent whom we booked our Tibet trip on internet. All our travel arrangements went well. As foreign visitors are not allowed to travel individually to Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), a tour must be booked in advance before you are allowed to go into Lhasa. There are different tours to choose from and they are very flexible. Our tour was very simple, the travel agent organised our Tibet travel permits (TTB & PSB), a guide would see us off at Beijing train station, and another representative would meet us on arrival in Lhasa. After that, we would be on our own.

It’s dinner time, decision! Decision! There is a Chinese saying, no visit to Beijing is complete if you miss seeing the Great Wall or dining on Roast Duck. Jack and I were here four years ago and did both, but it was Andrew’s first visit so we gave him the privilege. He’s not keen on Peking Duck, so we opted to be a bit adventurous to experience some new taste. Personally, I think the Peking Duck in Beijing tastes the same as the one I ate in Sydney.

We caught a taxi to Donghuamen Snack Night Market (东华门夜市). The street is crowded with food stalls. The stalls are along the side of the pedestrian area, in a long row with coloured lights and Chinese lanterns hanging on top. They sell all manners of food. There are lots of creepy foods, such as snakes, scorpions, crickets, locusts, seahorses on a stick and heaps of pig and also testicles. Of course, there are sensible food like stir fried noodles, dumplings, dim sims, buns and Uighur kebabs.... What the heck ....we were being brave, we tried the crickets, snakes, scorpions and locusts, except for the snakes which had no taste and tough, the rest were very crispy and tasty (if you don’t know what they are). They were deep fried in front of us and then seasoned with herb and salt. We also had dumplings and noodles, again absolutely delightful. We ended our meals with another famous stick – San Char, it was a small red sourish fruit coated with candy, wow, refreshing.

It was a fun and adventurous night out except that we had been ripped off by the taxi driver, our hotel was just couple streets from the market.

Itinerary

Day 1 & 2
Sydney --- > Hong Kong --- > Macau --- > Beijing
*Change money in Macau
*Obtain Travel Permits in Beijing
* Team up with Jack and Andrew

Day 3
Beijing
*Sightseeing
*Catch train to Lhasa via Xian in the evening

Day 4
Xian
*Visit Terracotta Warriors

Day 5 & 6
Xian --- >Lhasa
*Train Trip

Day 7 - 20
Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR)
*Acclimatization
*Stroll around
*Lhasa
*Barkhor Circuit
*Jokhang Temple
*Potala Palace
*Nam-Tso
*Yamdrok-Tso
*Shigatse
*No other plans, will wait and see

Day 21
Lhasa --- > Beijing --- > Sydney