Good Morning Xi'an

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Found and checked into my new hostel, which is quaint and old=fashioned with inner

courtyards, dogs and a cat. The room is small but impeccably clean, as is the rest of the

hostel.



Xi'an is very small in comparison with Beijing, although perhaps deceptively so, as the

inner city (ringed by still-standing / reconstructed city walls) is small, but the city

stretches beyond the walls themselves.



I started with the Muslim Quarter, a great labyrinth of passages lined with stalls, selling

food mostly. The people here are less frantic than in Beijing, and the whole atmosphere is

more tranquil. I find the headscarves a welcome and reassuring sight that remind me of

Whitechapel and home - I had never thought I'd miss them!



Much of the food sold seems to be typical for Xi'an - walnuts, dried kiwis and dried

pineapple. There is also a lot of food that looks like a fusion between Middle Eastern and

Chinese food - so there are flatbreads for example, but also noodle soups and dumplings.



I wandered around the market a bit and met up with another girl who, as it turns out, is

staying in the same hostel and arrived on the same train this morning, and together we

walked in circles for a bit (much to the frustration of ever eager rickshaw drivers) before

finding the Great Mosque, which was also an unusual mixture between Chinese Buddhist temple

architecture (for example the demons at the gate and the pagodas) and traditional mosque

architecture. The minaret was not a tall tower, but instead a pagoda which also served as

the entrance to the mosque.



After the mosque, we stopped for lunch and then ventured outside the city walls to visit the

Great Goose Pagoda and park. This is most famous for the Chinese scholar and historian who

made a pilgrimage to Nepal and brought back Buddhist teachings. The pagoda itself was

fairly lacklustre, but there were good views from the top and the gardens around it were

lovely (real gardens this time, with green grass and trees, not just rocks).


Dinner in the evening was a bit of a palaver as the tourist office recommended a restaurant

that was hard to find down a big shopping streets with seemingly no other restaurants. In

the end we did find the restaurant, but by that time it was already closing! Instead we

settled for the next restaurant we found which, coincidentally, turned out to be the one

recommended in the guidebooks. Happy chance.

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Photos

Muslim Quarter
I wondered where the birdsong was coming from. These cages are everywhere.