Xi' An: Stone Men and Muslim Food

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We arrived early in the morning in Xi'An, yet again before daybreak. But life is always easier when you've already decided on a hostel and a taxi can take you directly there. We had only just finished settling in and were setting out to look around for the Muslim Quarter when a light rain broke out. It seemed pointless to be spending the day wandering around streets when the weather was so bad, so we decided to go back to the hostel and book a tour for the Terracotta Warriors. There was one leaving in 5 minutes. So we got in with our lovely English speaking guide, Julie, and a whole bunch of French people and were on our merry way. Julie was incredibly informative and we learnt a lot about China and Xi'An on our way to the warriors, which included a stop off at a factory where they showed us how terracotta was made. They didn't even try to make us buy anything there.

There are 3 chambers at the terracotta warriors, and an extra museum for some bronze chariots. While they were all pretty interesting, it was a tad repetitive, and the only really impressive one was pit 1, which had by far the most statues in it, and that we saved for last. On the way back to the hostel we stopped for lunch, and got to talk to the french people in our group, who all turned out to be really friendly. All in all it was a good day.

The next day it was still a bit overcast, but not raining, so Lex and I went looking for the Muslim Quarter of Xi'An. It took us ages, and we got quite disorientated, which I guess is a result of the city being built in a square shape and every direction looking the same. After some help from a local we finally found some streets with women with head scarves and the occassional sound of an imam. It was much more lively and colourful than most of the streets you find in the city. But that said, Xi'An in general was a lot more lively and colourful than any of the streets in Beijing (not to mention all the great old style architecture still standing everywhere).

We found a great street that sold art supplies, and what appeared to be a Buddhist temple still in use, with incense burning everywhere and great street vendors. Then we found the street with the restaurants. We decided to save dining out there until the next night, which was the night of the Lantern Festival, where supposedly children walk around the streets with lanterns. That didn't happen, though there were quite few fireworks (not just firecrackers, thank god).

That night we checked out the bar attached to our hostel. We met a girl named renee at the bar and went and joined our group, who all turned out to be good fun. It was a good night. The next night, the night of the so-called lantern festival, after an absolutely divine braised eggplant and spiced bread (which was certainly repeated more than once in our stay in xi'an), we went shopping around the sidestreets, there were some good finds.

None of the other sights around xi'an particularly interested us, so the rest of our time was gladly spent either in cafes or in the muslim quarter. The last two days were definitely spent bumming around in this fashion. On the day we left for Shanghai we checked out a DVD store recommended to us by an American we bumped into in the Muslim quarter. It was fantastic.

The train station of Xi'An on the otherhand was a nightmare. It was just a huge, stinking hot squash of people trying to get to the gate that led to the train. A gate that wasn't even open. After a very uncomfortable 30 minutes, we finally made it onto the train for the 16 hour ride to Shanghai...

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