Study and Travel Xian

[moly b den]

Hello,

I will be in Beijing for 5 weeks in August studying mandarin but I did not sign up with one of the school/sight seeing packages as I registered directly through the school. Does anybody know of any tours or ways to get out on weekends and see xian? Is this trip something a women with minimal mandarin skills could do alone? I think the Great Wall and other trips around beijing I can figure out as a day trip on public transportation, but xian seems pretty far.

Thanks!!!

[Xiwang]

You should not have any trouble going to Xian, even with limited Chinese skills. If you want to take the train, you should plan on going for a long weekend. If you want to fly, a website such as www.ctrip.com will help you book your tickets and/or hotel in English. The site even covers good low end hotels, such as the Home Inn. There are also websites that you can find through Google of youth hostels that can be booked on-line in English.

There are also travel agencies that help set up basic travel packages for students. You may find some of their representatives handing out brochures on campus.

Buying train tickets should not be a problem. There are websites that can do this for you in English, although the tickets will cost a lot more. (At the least, these sites are useful for reference and research.) You can also go buy the tickets yourself at the train station since you won't need to know too much Chinese just to tell them where you want to go, when, and the type of seat/sleeper you want. On the other hand, it might be a good real-life excursion for you to go there with your tutor or language partner.

In the end, you'll probably meet some great schoolmates with whom you can travel, if you wish to do so. That should make the entire process more fun and, with the shared labor, much easier. (It's also more fun biking around the old Xian city walls with a group of friends.)

[renzhe]

Consider taking a hard sleeper train to Xi'an. If you take one on Friday evening and return on Sunday evening, you save two days of travel, and have two days in Xi'an. This should be enough to see the bare necessities (the city walls, the Terracota army, the Muslim quarter and the pagodas), though the city itself warrants a longer stay.