Flying to Thailand

Next morning we had to leave to Thailand but at night we still had to go to some night show. We were so tired because of the change of time that we felt a sleep on the show and woke up at the end. There were about 200 people on the show and average age about 80. We were the youngest one :)
Short 3 days in China and we are back in the plain. Flying to Thailand. See my Thailand blog

Gena in the jade store

Statue

Gena on the tea ceremoni

Me on the local market

Great Wall

Beijing

I wanted to go to China for long time and always thought that orient will be different from any modern country. In Russia when I was a little I had book about Mao. Every poem in the books said Mao the greatest. For some reason China for me was also Great Wall and maintains. When we were planning our trip I knew that I wanted to visit Great Wall.
I was very surprised when in the airport we were met by the guide who had perfect English. She was 24 but like any girl in US at that age she didn't know what he wanted. We drove trough Beijing and it was like any other western city with KFC and McDonalds we didn't see any old people in the uniform. Everybody we met were talking freely about their communist party and how in last 3-4 years the whole country rapidly changed. No more free housing. It is difficult to find job and so on.
We went on the Great Wall. It was modern build construction with toilets and other facilities. Some old parts of the wall are closed for tourists. Next to the wall we visited market where I bought Rolex watch for $5

more warriors

Terra Cotta Warriors

Flying to Xian - Terra Cotta Warriors

After spending two days in Beijing we had to fly to Xian. Our guide left us in the local airport without any directions. None of us spoke Chinese but suddenly two women came to us and grabbed our bags. They said some thing in Chinese and showed us check in counter. For some reason they didn't stay in line and went directly to the counter. Five minuets later our bags were checked in. We thought Wow! What a service for the foreigners. Two ladies showed us the gate and started to say something in Chinese. One of them showed us some tickets and started to yell - $30 per person. From her reaction we understood that we had to pay them $60. When I asked them Why? The other lady said – overweight bags. I didn't believe them. When my brother asked them for their ID's price went down to $20 and when I mentioned police they took off without any money.