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27
Feb
2013
Xi’an-China: An overrated tourist destination E-mail
Reviews - Travel
Written by Loey
Xi’an is pouring rain. It has been raining here since the moment we landed, and is still downpouring. We hate Xi’an. It’s the first time on our trip that we really have wanted to go home or anywhere else and can’t, and it’s been an exercise in frustration. Most people come to Xi’an to see the terracotta warriors.

They were discovered in 1974 by some poor farmer digging a well and since 1979 tourists, western and Chinese alike, have been flocking here at the rate of a million a year. Of all the sights in China that we’ve seen, the terracotta warriors have been the most anticlimactic. Maybe it was the presentation, maybe it was the 8-hour tour that we went on, or maybe it was because we felt more like cattle than ever, herded through the site with thousands of other tourists, but after experiencing the relative peace and awe that struck us at the Great Wall, this hardly seemed worth the effort and money to visit.

Here’s the scoop about Xi’an: This is a city of about 7 million people and there is nothing for a poor tourist or even traveler to do. Not many good restaurants, the shopping consists of a bunch of stores with no-name brands, sporting high-end facades, and aside from the warriors, the Big Goose Pagoda and some hot springs (which we saw on our tour of the warriors), Xi’an is kind of a one-hit town. Most westerners who come to Xi’an are with large tours, and spend at most a day or two.

They are catered to by the large hotels, come, take pictures, eat dumplings at De Fa Chang, and then leave. They are the lucky ones. We had hoped that there might be more to this town—there is a cool Muslim section and this was the famous eastern end to the Silk Road—so we thought that giving ourselves from Wednesday to Monday we would easily fill our time exploring this walled city.



Perhaps if it wasn’t raining so bloody hard and not during the big National Holiday we would be having fun. Imagine a million people here on holiday; imagine them with umbrellas open, now imagine them walking kind of slowly and erratically, then imagine trying to avoid the water flooding the sidewalks while dodging the umbrella-wielding Chinese and you can picture what an outing has been like for us.

So after seeing the warriors on Thursday, trying to see the Muslim area on Friday and watching an obnoxious amount of CNN and Chinese shows that look like American Idol, we wanted to get out of here. Friday we tried to see if we could get out any earlier. Remember, we were trying to avoid the crush of people traveling at the start of the national holiday week on Saturday, which is another reason why we didn’t take our leave on the 30th or 1st. But hope springs eternal for your intrepid travelers and we went to a tourist office in our hotel to see if we could somehow move our tickets to another, earlier, day. The person at the desk said there were no flights Saturday, but yes on Sunday. But they couldn’t change it, so we had to go to the airline office itself.

I (Loey) tried asking the crucial questions: “Is this something we need to hurry with? Do you know how many seats would be available for that Sunday flight?” They had no idea. Okay, so Saturday we got up leisurely, had lunch (another huge disappointment) and went to the airline’s office.

There were no seats to be had on the flight. Maybe today, not tomorrow (the today flight would leave in one hour, and it is at least that long to get to the airport!). The exact opposite message we got from the day before. Here was our first head-on with pure communist inefficiency coupled with the Chinese concept of saving face: we weren’t getting or going anywhere!

So dejectedly we waded back to our hotel, this really lame place that is not equipped for people who might want to stay for more than one night, and who are not on a big tour. They are totally unable to answer simple questions for us, like “Do you know of a good non-Chinese restaurant?” Or “Can you tell me where I can catch a taxi around here?”

The hotel itself (the Bell Tower Hotel) is supposed to be this four star joint, and I suppose it would seem that way if you were here for about 10 hours, sleeping 8 of those hours. We have had a broken air conditioner, and our repeated pleas to fix it were ignored until they told us that they turned the air conditioning off for the year, we’ve engaged in a daily struggle for towels (The manager said two should be enough for us. “But you only gave us one,” we had to say!), we’ve found smokers puffing away on this supposedly non-smoking floor, a broken sink, and a TV (our link to the outside world) with two volumes: inaudible and blasting high!

While we expected conditions like this in China, we thought it would come from one of the grimier youth hostels, not a four-star place. Mostly because of the rain, and partly because of the crowds, we’ve had to spend a huge amount of time in our room. Needless to say, we are feeling, for the first time, a bit kicked around by China. With any luck and the gods on our side, we should be able to leave Xi’an on Monday (our originally scheduled time) barring any flight cancellations or major delays.

This weather may be part of a weather system that is causing a typhoon to hit Taiwan now. If we do escape here, we will be heading to Chengdu so that Dylan can have a picture with a drugged panda...

Published with permission by Loey. Visit Loey's blog to read more interesting travel reviews and stories.
Our valuable Editor Loey has been with us since Wednesday, 27 February 2013.
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Comments  

 
+1 #7 Randy Andrews 2013-11-07 21:02
Actually, I had a pretty good time in Xi'an. Spent two days there and saw the Warriors, Wild Goose Pagoda, Shaanxi museum, and the Tang Dynasty show. Also had a good time wandering around in the Muslim section (it is pretty cool at night when they fire up their stoves on the street).

We had the luck of good weather, and we also went the second week of October which is after the national holiday, so it was not very crowded at all.

To be clear, I am not a fan of China tourism because of the hassles/hazards of simply being in China. Except for those few attractive areas, China is basically a huge, highly congested urban sprawl with unsafe food, air, and water.
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+1 #6 Barba 2013-06-19 00:41
Everywhere I went in China, including xian, chinese people defecated and pissed on the streets and in restaurants (!) I saw that on a daily basis. their food is full of chemicals and fake and their restaurants are so dirty, that it is just unimaginable!

chinese are the most racist people i've ever encountered. they insult you openly for being a foreigner and they really believe that their "culture" and "food" is the best. HAHAHA! HAHAHA! There are so ridiculous that it makes you ROFL :-D

And the way they process (or better said: destroy..) food and their eating places are so disgusting that i will never set foot into that disgusting country anymore. china has no cuisine and no culture at all. all taste the same. spicy, spicy, vinegar and soja sauce. good bye china.
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+1 #5 Realchina 2013-06-19 00:20
Quoting Saku:
I guess it can be said about nearly any place in China that hygiene of people and maintainance of public places are a mess, at least I could not find during any of my travels a real pleasuring experience. To blame only one city though doesnt make much sense in my opinion


That's right. But this article was just about Xian. It is a filthy place. Like all places in China. China is actually the most dirtiest and cancerous country one can ever imagine. Everything is filthy and poisoned. Not to mention the corruption, prostitution, immorality, the lowness and stupidity of their society and people, poison food, lying & cheating mentality, their hate, jealousy and their sky-high inferiority complex..oh..there is a lot to say about China...China is a total mess and waiting to implode. It will come soon.
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+3 #4 Saku 2013-06-18 19:50
I guess it can be said about nearly any place in China that hygiene of people and maintainance of public places are a mess, at least I could not find during any of my travels a real pleasuring experience. To blame only one city though doesnt make much sense in my opinion
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+3 #3 Jian 2013-06-14 20:51
To Lizhou:
Saving face, I see. By the way, I have been to XI'an about 6-8 times in last 3 years alone.I have to visit that area frequently as my grand mother lives there. I completely agree with this article. The hygiene of people and the maintainance of the public areas is just pathetic.It rains too heavily and although one cannot do anything about rains, better management systems can definitely be adopted. The cattle tourist thing also rings true. Public transport are jam packed with people.Hope it improves
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0 #2 Saku 2013-03-10 18:28
Thats a surprising article, I have been in Xi'an multiple times, spanning up to 5 weeks in a row, and I still discover news things everytime I go there. And the food there, just lovely.

Of course there are western restaurant, and actually nearly all of them just 5-10min away from the hotel you stayed in. To hail a taxi is hard, especially in fron of the hotel, as it is only for buses allowed to pass through the city center (around the tower) so usually one must go few hundred meters in either direction for a taxi to stop.

Well, the weather is just bad luck, usually it rains the most during summer time in my experience:)
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-3 #1 Liuzhou Laowai 2013-03-03 17:42
I am surprised by this report. Xi'an is one of my favourite cities in China.

What surprised me most was the comment that the food was awful. I have been visiting the city on a regular basis for nearly twenty years and always look forward to the food. Some of the best in China.

Blaming Xi'an for bad CNN programs or Chinese shows that look like American Idol is just silly.

Don't you know that Friday is a holy day in Muslim culture? Do you realise that They are not there to amuse tourists?

As for complaining that you couldn't change your flight arrangements in the middle of the busiest travel time in China, well...

The whole article reads like you just had an attitude problem from the beginning.
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