Exiting Xi'an

The city of Xi'an has greatly benefited from tourism. Those terra-cotta warriors have certainly put the city on the map. The airport is beautiful and the area I stayed in, inside the old city walls was nice and clean. At the same time there is plenty of ancient Chinese architecture to see.

I stayed at the Shuyuan Hostel, which was perfectly located next to the South Gate of the old city wall. It's a traditional Chinese building with three courtyards and levels. The rooms were great (6 bed dorm for $5 a night), but the three flights down to the less than clean bathrooms at night was not the most fun I've had in China. The best thing about this hostel was the fun factor with great people, which made the scary showers worth it.

My favorite was Matt, a finance guy with General Mills in Toronto, who just arrived in China to teach business English for a year. Matt recommended a duck restaurant to our group for dinner after our exciting terra-cotta warrior tour. My two cute Scottish lass roommates (one is a executive recruiter in Edinburgh and the other is in her last year of med school), an Australian girl who came to China for a year to learn the language, and a couple from the UK, who looked like Australian surfers, and I headed out to have an authentic (read no English menu) duck dinner. It was great fun and very tasty. More food than we could eat and drinks ran us $7 each at a white tablecloth restaurant. I love this country!

For even more excitement, we all went to a foot massage place that my French-Canadian roommate in Shanghai recommended. It was a great place, without a word of English spoken. As promised, we all got 80 min. foot massages (which included basically a full body massage) for $3.20! I wanted to stay longer in Xi'an and go there everyday!

However, all good things must come to an end. The next morning, I got up early with the Scots to walk the Xi'an city wall (photo above of top of wall). It was a great morning so I decided to head off to see the other two tourist sights in the city, the Bell Tower and Drum Tower, before my flight. Not more than 5 minutes after I left the girls and headed up a lovely main street my wallet was stolen. I still don't know how they got it from under my arm. Luckily, all I lost was some cash, an ATM card and my MasterCard. As long as I have my passport with those annoying visas, I'm fine. I flew to Beijing in the afternoon, so it is easy to get the cards replaced here. So, for the record, the first theft on my RTW trip occurred 2 1/2 months in.