Made in China - Great Mosque

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Today is a later start after a heavy breakfast. We are taken to the Great Mosque, to see intricately carved tablets in Arabic and old and new Chinese writing styles. Unlike most mosques, this one is a Chinese shaped pagoda with a number of ancient buildings surrounding it. The layout provides many clever views through arches and windows. It is peaceful and suited to contemplation. Afterwards, we briefly walk through the bazaar, and then site-see along a food vending street, with a huge range of foods like walnuts, dried fruits, soups, breads, and pigs stomach on a stick.

The next stop is lunch. Travel China Guide arrange a lunch for their tourists at a “local family’s house”. This proves to be a 145 square meter apartment in a large block. Ms. Shi Caiqin invites us in to her home. It is nicely decorated with the usual TV, lounge, kitchen and the like. The size of the apartment indicates her family is ‘upper middle’ class, as explained by Lilly. She cooks up a quick and delicious lunch while Lilly interprets the dishes for us. Ms. Caiqin is very welcoming but we find it a bit awkward to be eating in a strangers’ house. On the wall are a large collection of multi-coloured post-it notes, each one with a message of thanks from a previous visitor. On the adjacent wall are a large collection of photos of various people that have visited.

After the lunch, we are off to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. We are a little tired of site-seeing, so this stop is brief. I find the large Buddha statues impressive, and a calligraphy demonstration in the store is interesting.

Then back to the hotel for a rest and a run. Dinner is at KFC, only a 5 minute walk in the other direction to the one we’d taken last night. If only we’d known!

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