Only after the exam did I have chance to plan for the trip. Attending the briefing session, buying necessities etc.. The day before the trip began, I started packing my luggage.
I arrived at the airport at about 3 p.m., one hour before the gathering time. I took a trolley and found Maxim's Restuarant, our gathering place. After that I walked around the kill some time.
Not long later, my companions started to arrive. Of course, all of us were very excited, looking forward to a wonderful journey. There were 15 people in our trip, including 14 students of HKU and one official of the Xinhua News Agency, Mr. Gary Cheung. The 14 students were Kitty (leader), Sam (vice-leader), Frennie, Helen, Carmen, Kelvin, Fat Boy, Faye, Wai Loi, Kam Yan, Jo, Virginia, Joe and I.
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| Before the departure at Kai Tak |
At 4:20, all 14 students arrived, and we decided to check-in first. Mr. Cheung was the last one to arrive and met us near the check-in counter, and we went to check in then. Mr. Cheung brought a view-cam and recorded sone scenes of our departure, some of us acted in front of the camera as very happy. We took photos around the check-in counter while we were waiting to board. Then, we went through the customs and went to the waiting room. We contiued to take photos, partly because Kai Tak Airport would be closed soon. In the journey, Joe and I used one camera which was mine, we brought 8 rolls of films.
We got into a shuttle bus which led to our plane - an airbus of China Northwest Airlines. the weather was bad in Hong Kong, it was cloudy and we felt a little rain when we climbed up the steps to the plane. The plane was half-full. When I reached my seat, I found an old lady sitting on it, I spoke to her and found that she was speaking Mandarin. That was a surprise to me and I felt the hardship to use my Mandarin. I uttered some words before Mr. Cheung came to my rescue. The plane took off at six. When the plane took off, my ears felt bad because of the change of air pressure. The plane circled in the sky, and we saw Tsing Ma Bridge from the sky before the plane headed north.
After 7 p.m., we had our meals. I had fish-and-rice, salad and dessert. There were screens on the plane, showing American Funniest Videos (笑笑小電影) and some videos about China. Some of us looked through the windows, some of us played with cards or having chats. We were above the clouds and the sun was shining very brightly even though it was alreay after 7 p.m.. I could see the forest far far below. Finally, the sun went below the clouds and there was a total darkness. The moon was bright (of course, we had almost nothing above blocking the light), it was a special feeling: looking at the moon above the clouds.
We felt the plane went down gradually, and we saw some light below. At first I thought it was light from buidlings, but then I realized that I was wrong. The lights were in lines, and red in colour. Somebody said it was hill fire. At 8:30 p.m., the plane landed on Xi'an Xianyang International Airport 西安咸陽國際機場.
We collected our luggages and were able to leave the building about 15 minutes after we left the plane, that was its advantage over Hong Kong airport. We saw a lady waiting for us at the exit of the building, she was a student of Shannxi Teachers University (STU) 陜西師範大學 and greeted us gracefully. After a few words, she led us to a coach, to our surprise, there was also a van waiting for us, and we were told that it was the van for our luggages. Boys among us put our luggages in that van then.
Actually our big coach (with a capacity of about 40) was more than enough to carry the luggages with us, but we were delighted since we were more comfortable in our coach. When the coach was inside the airport area, I saw some slogans about the reunification of Hong Kong and China near the road. When we went farther away, I found we were on a straight road with no road lights. I was amazed since it never happened in Hong Kong unless the lights went off accidentally. It was a strange feeling, but not a feeling of danger, since the road was so straight forward. We saw lots of fire near the road and were interested by it. We asked Miss Lam (the student from STU), and she told us that when the wheat farmers harvested, they burned the remains of the crop, so that the land would become more fertile.
We were driving on a large plain (關中平原), which was also known as "Central Plain 中原". The road was absolutely straight and flat. Ms. Lam talked with us in Mandarin and asked us to introduce myself. She taught us some pronounciations. When it was my turn, I made no mistake in pronouncing my name since I was taught of that in primary school. I never learned Mandarin formally after primary school, but I listened to Mandarin songs for many years and believe I could understand 90% of spoken Mandarin. I was not so sure about my proficiency of speaking Mandarin on my own since I rarely had the chance to practice. So, before the trip, I sat in a Mandarin course un HKU. After I arrived in Xi'an, I found my knowledge in Mandarin became more accessible, and I gained the confidence in using the language soon after we arrived.
Sorry for the self-appreciation! Let's back to our journey. It was a long long journey, much longer than the journey from my home (Tin Shui Wai) to HKU. We finally reached the urban area of Xi'an. There were no high-rise buildings (partly because of the soil condition). Most of the buildings were a few storeys high. Lots of people were riding bicycles, and there were bicycle lanes beside the roads. I suddenly felt it was just like Hong Kong several decades ago, a great feeling of time travelling. I liked the atmosphere very much.
Then, we saw the city wall of Xi'an very grand and beautifully decorated with light bulbs. the buildings were higher near the city centre, and we saw some familiar shops. We were excited by the food stalls beside the roads: beside the main roads, there were hundreds of food stalls selling noodles, wonton etc.. All of us were excited and wanted to taste them. Another interesting scene was that we saw people selling water-melons beside the roads, each of them had mountains of water-melon on the ground!
The raods in Xi'an were very simple: they either went from north to south or from east to west in straight lines, so it was quite convenient to locate a place if you knew the direction you were going. Our coach went from north to the south, and finally turned into a smaller avenue (also with food stalls). Soon, we had some more turns and arrived to a 3-storey building - the hostel of STU.
The rooms were very good and I was very satisfied. Two large and soft beds, air-conditioner, a closet for clothes, a colour TV (彩電) and most important a reasonably hygienic toilet. We had got tap water, and there was hot water supply during some hours at night. One thing special about the toilet was that when we flush it, we had to push the bar of it upwards, it was interesting since we always push it downwards in Hong Kong. Joe and I settled down and placed some things in our luggage into the closet. Each room was given two hot water flakes. I thought of the problem of finding a place to leave our washed clothes in Hong Kong, so I brought a piece of nylon string with me. This proved to be very useful, I tied the string from the closet to the door, so that we could put our wet towels or clothes.
Then, Joe and I wanted to phone our families, but we couldn't do so since the phones didn't work on distant calls, even with the help of Mr. Cheung. Then, we gathered in a room and played some group games like "007", UNO card game and "n-ranking pigs". We slept very lately at 2:30 a.m..