CITS

We are met at the Xi'an airport by our guide and driver. Yeah...OUR guide and driver. We're the group...a group of 2.

But it's no big deal..we're not special. One of the benefits of travel in a country of a billion people is that they all need a job. One growth industry -- and source of jobs -- for China is tourism, and unless you explicitly sign on for a group tour, it's not uncommon to find yourself with your own individual guide and driver from the China International Travel Service (CITS), as we did in Beijing in '96 and Guilin in 2000. Having a guide is a nice way to get around in a country in which you don't speak and can't read the language, and having a driver is a necessary way to get around in a country that no one seems to speak the same language of the road.

[Later...10/12] Apparently our guide was using the same CITS itinerary as another, if not many others, because almost everywhere we went, we kept running into the same couple from New Zealand. After running into them at our Hyatt breakfast buffet as well, we chatted them up. This was their first exposure to the system, and it struck them as somewhat inefficient, but appreciated. Running into them one last time at the hot springs after the terra cotta warriors, we had our guide and driver team up with theirs for a special little side trip that Candy had in her (unofficial?) bag of tricks...a visit to an old couple that live in a "cave" fronted by a house into which their children have moved. Actually a couple rooms and a couple chicken coops dug out of the side of a hill, the arrangement didn't seem all that strange once seen first hand. Our New Zealand acquaintances appreciated being included, and we appreciated having someone with whom to share it.