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Published: November 7th 2013
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We were awoken by a train attendant at 8am checking tickets but still had an hour left till we would actually be in Xian, one of the oldest cities in China. Once we had arrived we were greeted by a girl from the hostel we were staying at, Hantang House. The hostel was really nice and the room was even better. It didn't feel like a hostel at all more like a hotel, we even had a rain shower in the bathroom! Once we had checked into our room we went back down to reception to get some breakfast. On the menu we saw the option of having an English breakfast which we knew wouldn't be the same as home but decided to treat ourselves anyway - it was actually quite nice and the first time I had tried Chicken sausage.
Later in the afternoon we got a local bus to the train station to pick up our train tickets for Beijing where we would be heading in a few days time. Once we got back, the hostel had organised a free walking tour to the Muslim Quarter. Not surprisingly this is the hub for the Muslim population living in
Xian. There were just seven of us that went all together, Alejandro and Davide a lovely couple from Italy and Colombia, James an English guy, a lady from Canada and our lovely Chinese tour guide Rachel. The tour took two hours and Rachel showed us some of the mosques and encouraged us to try some food from the many food stalls.We ended up trying some sort of vegetable tofu on a stick coated in a spicy marinade, a small rice cake with rose sauce, a deep fried breadcrumbed banana and a deep fried vegetable pancake all of which were really good and oozed with all sorts of flavours.
After exploring the Muslim quarter, we stopped off at the Drum Tower, a mounted traditional Chinese pagoda which was one of the symbols of the city. It looked spectacular all lit up. We got back to the hostel just before 9pm so we were able to grab two rum and cokes just before happy hour finished. Whilst we had a few drinks in the bar upstairs with Rachel, Davide and Alejandro some of the locals were having a sing on the karaoke and then we persuaded Davide to sing a few
songs for us as he was once on the Italian Xfactor. For the rest of the night we also persisted on asking Rachel questions about Chinese culture which was all pretty fascinating, especially hearing that people do eat dogs, but only on special occasions and it doesn't matter whether they're cute and fluffy or not! It had been a really fun day and night but a long one so we called it a night and went to bed.
The following morning we were up at 7 as we were going to visit Xian's most famous tourist attraction, the Terracotta Warriors. The Terracotta Warriors are a vast collection of sculptures of armed men in battle formation that China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang had built to guard his burial place. We hired an audio guide and started to make our way to where the warriors were first discovered. There were three pits that were excavated and which uncovered the Terracotta Army. We started by entering pit one, the largest of the three containing hundreds of terracotta statues. Ornate sculptures of men in armour were accompanied by intricate horse statues. The detail and the scale of the site was impressive as
was learning that no two faces of the warriors were the same.
While it was extremely interesting we both, for some reason felt a little underwhelmed. Firstly it was still a working archeological site and super busy but also it was showcased underneath a modern metal structure which didn't seem quite right for something with so much history. We were still both glad that we made the trip there but perhaps it's just a little too hot and busy.
On the evening we caught a bus over to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, a Buddhist pagoda built in 652 AD. Every night at 8pm a free fantastic water show is put on at the water fountains in front of the pagoda. It lasts for about twenty minutes firing out water to western and Chinese music. After the show we went for dinner at a restaurant that looked busy with locals so thought it would be a good shout. We walked in and everybody started to stare and the restaurant staff were so excited and wouldn't leave us alone. Unfortunately the food wasn't as good as the hospitality as the bok choy had a maggot in it and some
of the food was freezing cold. We tried to explain what was wrong but due to the language barriers the staff were left totally confused as to why we didn't want our food - not even Me No Speak could help us this time so we paid and left.
The next morning we went down for breakfast and bumped into Davide and Alejandro. We were both planning on going to Xian's city walls so decided to go together. The views from the walls were nice and there were a few beautiful pagodas and lanterns up there too. After we came down from the city wall we made our way to the Great Mosque, one of the oldest and largest mosques in China and had a wonder around the grounds. We left the mosque and went and had a quick bowl of fried rice before heading back to the hotel to collect our bags for the train. We were in a 4 bed cabin again but this time we were in with a family - Mum, Dad, Grandma and brother and sister. They were really nice and kept offering us food and Jon tried to teach the little boy English.
We really enjoyed Xian as it felt a lot more traditional than Shanghai and not as commercial. Beijing next stop!
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