20251011 Viking Gems of China and Japan Day 7 – Beijing to Xi’an

Viking Gems of China and Japan Day 7 – Xi’an City Wall – The not-so-great wall 

We left the hotel at 9:25 and headed to the airport. When we arrived in Beijing, we arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK). Today, we are departing from the new airport, Beijing Daxing International Airport (PKX). It was opened in 2019 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

The airport is about 55km from our hotel. On the way, we stopped to pick up a boxed lunch. It contained a bottle of water, but you can't take it through security, so it was chug or toss before clearing security.

Signs like this at urinals always make me laugh

Before we went to security, we spotted friends, Emily and Paul, whom we had cruised with twice before. We look forward to spending time with them on this journey. We will also be meeting up with another couple we cruised to Antarctica with. It's always fun to meet up with friends we have made on cruises.

I had posted earlier that I wouldn't be posting in China due to its locked-down internet. My NordVPN works great on my phone on cellular, but fails to connect on either my laptop or phone when I am connected to hotel Wi-Fi. It turns out that China has deployed what they nicknamed the Great Firewall, and it actively blocked VPNs. Talking with another passenger, he suggested Privado VPN as his was working. That took some doing. I loaded it on my phone and set it up. It worked on cellular. I tried it that night in the hotel, and sure enough, it worked on Wi-Fi. I downloaded the Windows install package on my phone and used Nearby Share to move it to my laptop. After installing it, I logged in and Bingo! I could access the internet over hotel Wi-Fi! Woo! I planned to get everything uploaded as soon as possible.

We were surprised to learn that the flight to Xi'an was not a Viking charter flight as we were led to believe. It was a regular China Southern Airlines flight, and it was packed.

The flight left right on time and we arrived in Xi'an without issue. Others, however, weren't as lucky. A couple of guests in our group didn't have their bags arrive. Our guide, Oliver, had his hands full working to try to locate their bags.

Sleeping pods - several were in use

We boarded our bus and headed for our Xi'an city wall tour. It was overcast, in the low 60s, and rain threatened. As we drove, Oliver gave us some history of the area, including that this area was the capital of China during the Tang Dynasty in the 7th - 10th centuries. Currently, Xi'an is China's tenth most populated city with around 10 million residents.

Traffic was crazy as we were there during rush hour. The lost luggage and traffic gave us a late start on our city wall tour. We caught our first view of the wall on the way. The city wall was started in the Tang Dynasty and then made higher in the Ming Dynasty. It runs for eight miles around the city.

There wasn't a lot to see at the city wall because, well, it's a wall. It isn't the Great Wall, it's just a wall.

Oliver, showing us where we are on a large, carved map

We went inside the museum

This map shows the original Tang Dynasty wall around the whole area

The smaller rectangular wall in the center top shows the Ming Dynasty modification and what exists today

A model of the Bell Tower with entry gates

An excavation showing the levels of the wall

On top of the Xi'an city wall - yup, it's a wall

Old Town area

The wall is beautifully illuminated at night

All-in-all, we agreed that this visit wasn't terribly exciting. There was some interesting history, but overall, it was just a wall around a city, and we've seen tons of those all over the world.

We left the wall and arrived at our hotel for the next two nights, the JW Marriott. 

Driving through the nicer areas of Xi'an

We enjoyed a very nice buffet dinner. The choices were nearly endless, and it was all very nicely presented. 

More local beer

It was 8:30 by the time we finished eating. We need to be up early for a 6:00 breakfast and 7:30 departure for tomorrow's tour of the terracotta warriors.