After our delightful visit, the rickshaws carry us to a courtyard flanked by large bell towers, which were used in ancient times to mark the time, announce ceremonies, or call residents to prayer. Inside one of the buildings is a tea house; certainly not the traditional one, but one set up specifically for tourists. There we learn about and sample various types of teas, and are shown the proper way to brew each type. Of course, following the demonstration there's the inevitable opportunity to shop for the products we've just sampled, with, of course, a special discount just for our group.
I do wonder, however, why they served us multiple cups of tea when the Happy House is a 2-star accommodation, at best.
Today we will be flying to Xian; this is our first experience flying with the tour. Viking has a very well-organized system for this, and we definitely appreciate it. We're given color-coded tags for our suitcases; these will tell the Viking porters which hotel our bags will go to upon arrival in Xian. We were given our schedule last evening, and left our bags outside our hotel room door at the appropriate time. Jack has arranged with the airline to accept copies of our passports to issue our boarding passes. Once we get off our bus at the airport in Beijing, Jack is met by a Viking employee, who has already checked us all in and has all of our boarding passes. Our bags have been checked for us, and we head to our departure gate. Very smooth.
The downside is that there's not time for a sit-down lunch today, so we're given a box lunch to eat on the bus. Today's presentation isn't awful; the cheesecake makes up for the soggy sandwiches. No glass of soft drink today; only bottled water from the bus cooler.
Security in China is a little different than here in the US. There is definitely no TSA Precheck, but we don't have to take off our shoes and jackets. However, everyone seems to set off the metal detectors, resulting in each of us being wanded. They do have female agents to wand the ladies, so I appreciate that. There are random hand swabs done, and I get that on this first flight.
We find our gate, and as we're waiting to board, an announcement is made in Chinese, and Jack jumps up and informs us that there's been a gate change. Good thing we had him, as this announcement wasn't made in English! Off we trot to our new gate (think ducklings again), where the flight is soon ready to board. No zone boarding here; everyone lines up and gets on at the same time, and it's a surprisingly quick process. The airline computers have assigned our seats and we've been warned we might not be sitting together, but today David and I hit the mother lode: we're in aisle seats across from each other.
After an hour-long flight, we land in Xian, where we wait at baggage claim to identify our bags. We won't see them again until they're delivered to our rooms by the Viking porters. Flying from city to city isn't my favorite part of this trip, but Viking makes it as easy on us as they can. We're greeted by a new Jack's Bus, which takes us to the Crowne Plaza Hotel. While still a 5-star hotel, it's not as new as the Kerry, but still nice. But what strikes me most is the air quality. The pollution in Beijing was awful, but Xian is even worse. The scene outside our hotel window looks like a movie set depicting the Earth dying....Bladerunner?
After dinner at a local restaurant, we settle in for the night.
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