Our last day in Beijing was spent walking around hutongs and alleyway boutiques. We had some excellent Peking Duck for lunch in a very remote area of a hutong. Jenny was very concerned about the location but the small restaurant was full of foreigners eating.

On Tuesday, we got to the airport several hours ahead of our 12pm departure for Xian. A good thing we did as we encountered considerable problems with IceWine bottles we’d been carrying from Ottawa as souvenirs for Jenny’s relatives. Although we had no problem carrying the IceWine bottles from the Ottawa airport as carry-on luggage, at the Beijing Airport we were stopped at security. They explained that we had to check-in the bottles. After running around to various counters, we finally got the bottles checked-in after 30 minutes. The flight to Xian on Air China went very well, although the seats are closer to each other than in a charter flight. BTW We thougth that IceWine was going to be an original gift but we realized at the Vancouver airport that IceWine was being sold everywhere as Canadian souvenir – outselling maple syrup!

After arriving in Xian, we took the airport shuttle bus to the downtown area some 40km away. The airport bus company ended up booking for us a nice 4-star room for less than the cost of our 2-star hotel in Beijing. In the evening, we walked around a lively muslim area of the city. We saw a lot of different foods there.

Today, we embarked on a organized tour of six tourist sites east of Xian culmunating with a visit to TerraCotta Army archealogical site. It is very interesting site but very very busy with tour groups as most tourists that come to the city of Xian do so to visit this site. The afternoon was also rainy.

Next entry most likely from Shanghai.