April 8-9 2012, overnight in Hong Kong

As this was just an overnight stop before flying into mainland China, we stayed at an airport hotel, the Novotel Citygate, and were pleased when the check-in lady told us she was upgrading us to a premier room on the 20^th floor.

A (hazy) view from our 20th floor room at the Novotel Citygate, Hong Kong

It was a lovely, comfortable hotel, with its own shuttle bus into the airport, and the only disappointment was that they didn’t have any channels on the hotel TV showing the Arsenal-Manchester City game, so I had to make do with watching the text updates on the BBC website. At least we won!

The following morning I visited the shopping mall which is attached to the hotel and soon found a suitcase which looked rather sturdier than the previous one, and we were good to go.

At about 2.30pm we flew with China Eastern Airlines to Xi’an (pronounced she-ann) in the centre of China. Xi’an was the capital of China for many years and is a substantial city with about 8 million inhabitants. Today it is most famous for the terracotta army, which we will visit tomorrow. Meanwhile, we met our new guide, Sherry (Chinese name Li Yun) who is a lovely lady with very good English. We were driven to our hotel, which is in the centre of the old walled city. The address is the Grand Mercure, Renmin Square, but all is not what it seems. Renmin Square is not a Square in the normal sense of the word, but a compound comprised of three hotels (ours, a huge Sofitel and the Xi’an People’s Hotel plus a conference centre). There are quiet men in black suits at the entrance and dotted around the place, but they haven’t bothered us. The Grand Mercure doesn’t have a bar or restaurant (except for a breakfast buffet) but we are able to use the facilities in the Sofitel, which has a lovely bar and three restaurants. In fact, on the first night we went to the Chinese restaurant in the conference centre and enjoyed a really lovely meal.

Our latest guide, Sherry

Tomorrow doesn’t sound too strenuous, with a visit to the terracotta army, back to the hotel by about three, and then free time. So, off to bed for now.

Jenny’s bit: Sherry is full of information, and able to communicate it – a double bonus.