12: Wild Goose Pagoda & Chinese Calligraphy

Cases all packed last night, and put out in the hall for porters to collect and send them ahead to the airport, so we won’t see them again until we arrive in Beijing! Bit of a lay in this morning, as we’re not being picked up until nine-thirty to visit the (small) Wild Goose Pagoda. This building was built back in 707AD in the Tang Dynasty solely to house the ancient Buddhist scriptures that were brought by pilgrim monks to Xi’an from India to be translated. It was originally 147ft (45m)

high, but was damaged in the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake and now stands at a slightly reduced 141ft (43m).

While here we were treated to an extra activity that wasn’t part of the itinerary, a Chinese calligraphy lesson! This was good fun, we were all seated in a class room on site and taught how to paint just one Chinese character, they’re all made up of four parts apparently and we now know the word for Happiness. Once this was finished we had the opportunity to purchase a silk panel which would have our names painted on by a resident calligraphy master.

Now this was an excellent situation for me! Tomorrow is our eleventh wedding anniversary, and I thought I’d be clever and get a card for Elaine here in China as it would be a bit special

having one in Chinese. But, and this is a big but... I asked every guide we’d had about anniversary cards but couldn’t get one anywhere that we’d been so far, as apparently they no longer have celebration cards anywhere in China anymore...!!! So, I was able to purchase one of these silk panels showing our names and 11th wedding anniversary on it; success snatched from the gaping jaws of failure...!!!

Next up was a buffet lunch in The Tang Dynasty Theatre, an identical set up to the similarly named theatre we visited yesterday but with one massive difference... there were bottomless drinks here, we could have as much beer or soft drink as our little hearts desired...!!!

After having our fill it was off to the airport for our flight to

Beijing, was so nice not having to worry about our luggage; we even got a light dinner on the plane, which wasn't too bad actually. It seemed no sooner had we taken off and had our meal, that we were coming in to land as it was just a one hour fifteen minute flight.

Soon we were loaded on the coach and it was an hours drive to our last port of call and two night stay at the Landmark Hotel. Here we encountered our first hotel problem, it's a nice place but is full of screaming kids from various countries playing in the Beijing World Minor Invitational Ice Hockey Tournament. Our first room was on the fourth floor and we complained that these uncontrolled kids were running riot along the corridors, so were given a transfer up to the ninth floor. There were a few kids were on this floor but much better behaved.

Decided to go for a walk around the area after changing rooms, hoping to find the river that Max told us about; out of the hotel, turn right, turn right and turn right again... what can possibly go wrong...!!! There's kiosk shops, small restaurants, fast food kiosks and even massage parlours but only a narrow canal, not what we’d call a river.

So we headed back to the hotel for a latte, costing 50 yuan (£6) each, at least it came with a chocolate and a glass of water! Chatted to a few of our group while savouring our rather pricey coffee and they had the same experience with their walk; either we all missed the real river or Max’s idea of a river differs from ours somewhat...!!! Not unpacking anything tonight, just in case we have to change our room again...