We flew from Beijing to Xi’an on the 07.55 flight arriving at 10am. We foolishly packed a penknife and our cutlery sets in our hand luggage (too used to packing for train journeys) and had to go back to check in to avoid them being confiscated! The flight went smoothly enough but when we got to Xi’an our pre-arranged pick us up wasn’t waiting for us. A bit of a problem in China when you haven’t got your destination written in Chinese and you can’t communicate with taxi drivers. We manage to find someone to write the address of the hostel in Chinese, but fortunately the driver turned up just as we were making our way to the taxi rank. It turns out that this driver is only taking us off the airport and he stops in the middle of the road alongside a group of taxis to negotiate our fare to the hostel. On our way we stop again to fill up with petrol and for some unexplained reason we have to get out of the car and stand on the forecourt hoping that this driver is not going to drive off with our luggage in his boot!
The hostel is in a good location in the centre of the old town and the heart of the shopping district, directly opposite the opera house. We are only a few minutes walk from the old Bell Tower and the Muslim quarter. Apart from smelly drains and almost continuous noise it’s not particularly good value for money at £26 per night. In fact the hostel is actually in a three-star hotel, although not three star by western standards.
Xi’an is a city of 10 million people and the holiday seems to have brought most of them out onto the streets (Think Oxford Street on a Saturday.) It is incredibly noisy – horns honking incessantly, people shouting, music blaring, slogans and music being broadcast from shops plus all manner of other noises adding to the general cacophony – covered in blanket of smog and this area is dirty, shabby, smelly. The smell seem to emanate from the street food stalls which exude a rather unpleasant aroma which we think comes from the fat they use. There are many modern buildings though, several massive shopping malls and many upmarket designer boutiques alongside a variety of large concession stores specialising in mobile phones, electrical goods and jewellery etc.