Destination: Xi'An (China)
Duration: 8 days 9 to 16 Nov 2019
Mode of travel: Celebrity tour with CTC Travels
Damage: $1419/pax + RMB200 (fee for guides) + RMB600 (cable car and performance)
Flight: Scoot, we had 20kg baggage and 7kg hand carry, 1 dinner
Accommodation: We have 4 accommodations, details will be in the post
Weather: -2 to 18 degrees
Currency: approx. SGD1 = RMB5
Time difference: same as Singapore
Date: 12/11/2020
Itinerary:
Ta Yun Mountain (塔云山)
Xi'An Ancient City Wall (西安城墙)
Good morning at JinTai Academy Hotel (金台书院酒店).
As I had mentioned at the previous post, the vanity counter was almost as low as a chair. Anyway, it was only a one night stay.
A mobile came to the entrance of the hotel selling all kinds of tofu. It's all uncovered so didn't take the risk.
Transport all taken care is the main pro of package tours and the con will be you have to wake up as scheduled.
Selfie on board.
Scenery along the way.
"Entrance" of Ta Yun Mountain (塔云山)
The mountain is about 1665m above sea level, with a tiny 6sqm GuanYin Temple on the peak.
These were their bus which drove us up from the foot of the mountain.
Here's office building cum ticketing gantry. The person in charge stood in front to give us a welcome speech. It was very nice of him but the wind was howling and we were freezing cold wtf.
Anticipating snow in 10 days time which by then, we already in Singapore. I am not sure if the mountain is still open during winter.
We took the rope way, not sure if climbing is possible. But even with the rope way, there were still a lot of walking and climbing.
Rope way adult fare single trip RMB50, round trip RMB80,
children below 1.2m single trip RMB30, round trip RMB50
It could be challenging if you have height phobia.
We saw a cable with no windows or ceiling, probably for transporting of goods. We were joking asking who dare to give it a ride lolxx..
So many mountains...
Walking and climbing began...
Be here to view the beauty of nature while you are young and fit enough.
Nice place to hike with walkways.
Saw the glass bridge.
Lots of climbing...
Red ribbons tied by devotees who came down from the Golden Temple.
It was a cold morning with my triple chin.
The water looked dirty though.
Rayson was the photographer.
It's a bit tiring but we were enjoying the mountain and fresh air.
慢慢爬...
As we approached nearer to the temple, there were more and more red ribbons along the way.
At the foot of Golden Temple.
Imagine we had walked our way from the arrow there, to up here.
I could only take pictures when I was standing on a safe area.
The stairs were probably as old as the temple ie. 400 years old and they were very steep. Why couldn't our ancestors make the stairs easier for us leh?
The temple was the tiniest temple in China with a human size Goddess of Mercy statue and a monk seated inside. Only one person could step into the temple and pray at a time. And the temple was not golden in color. I will explain further when I get down, heehee...
One of our tour mate, "sat" her way down. Myself, I faced the temple and climbed down backwards as if I was coming down from a ladder.
This picture wasn't able to show how steep the staircase was.
Could see the glass observation deck which we didn't have time to go.
After the visiting the historical temple, we moved on towards the glass bridge.
It's out of the world here like a immortal land.
Didn't feel a thing when walking through, but when I looked at the photo now, it gave me goose bumps....
The view that took all the troubles away...
And what we saw when we looked up was where we were half an hour ago - The Golden Temple (金顶).
The temple isn't golden but becos it's at the tip of the mountain, it's name derived. Build around 400 years ago, it is the tiniest temple in China with only about 6sqm in area. Inside sits a statue of Goddess of Mercy.
Although I am a free thinker, I'll always pay my respect of Goddess of Mercy cos it was my late mother's religion. My mother believed that benevolence and mercy are the most important quality in life, she's not wrong I know.
She had passed on for more than 20 years, but I still miss her till I cry....
A lot of times, I wish she is still around, so that I can bring her to see this beautiful world.
My legs were still good and carried me well surprisingly.
I didn't need to bend down like others, cos I am short enough to walk under lolxx...
Tai Shui Cave (太岁洞), constructed for tourists' pleasure.
Look at the English translation, waahaahaahaaa..... HOLY HOLE lolxx...
Why he walked off with another woman huh??
Finished off the 99m tunnel quickly.
Bravery required...
Wheeeeeeeee.... finally at the glass bridge!
Ticket required.
Had to wear booties before walking on the bridge.
After he was done, he helped me to wear, heehee.... felt so doted, I could see eyes of envy.
Breath taking view from the bridge.
There was another bridge at the end.
I no energy to walk through it, just took a couple of funny pics and u-turn back.
Not sure how but we made it back to the rope way station and back to the foot of the mountain.
There was a restaurant, the only choice for lunch.
This place served some roasted seed tea (苦桥茶). It's so freaking nice that I had to make sure to buy some back.
Hoooohooo.... braised pig trotter!
Scraped fats (I could see) away, enjoyed the melt in your mouth skin and tender meat. A lot of people are too health conscious thus rejected this dish, but actually what they are eating are not as healthy as they think.
Yummy...
We were at Xi'An Ancient City Wall (西安城墙).
We entered through ChangLe Gate 长乐门 (East Gate), instead of South Gate which is the main gate. I didn't know until I am doing this post, kinda pissed off sia.
The ancient wall is rectangle of 13km, it's damn nice to have a jog.
This UNESCO site exist since year 1370, stretched over Ming and Qing Dynasty.
All the while, I thought Rayson was being nice, acted friendly cos he's just doing his job. Through this incident, I saw him genuinely, a very nice and caring person. So glad to have him around.
The center of the wall is now a carpark but in ancient time, this place traps enemy once the doors were closed.
We could had seen more if we were at the South Gate.
Took pic with cartoon ancient wall warrior.
There were one whole stretch of warriors, so cute.
Not able to see the other end, must be about 3km.
After a brief stay at the Anicent Wall, we had buffet dinner.
It's spacious and bright.
We had personal hot pots and a grill.
They only had clear soup so I made my own mala soup by adding in 老干妈 chilli and other sauces.
Free flow beer available and I just found my favourite beer of my life!
SNOW beer (blue), back in Singapore, only found SNOW in green.
After dinner was some dance performance which bored the hell out of me.
Apparently the ticket was quite pricey.
The dancers wore elaborate costumes, but wasn't fascinating for me since I had watched so much of china ancient drama series.
Back to Titian Times Hotel and we were given a bigger room then previous stay, omg...
Still had an hour or so before bed time, we head out looking for the night market.
I blur blur went to the wrong direction and ended up at another portion of the Ancient Wall, YuXiang Gate (玉祥门).
Glad that this post is finally "born", will continue to work on Day 5.
