Xi'an last day

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I made an early start to avoid the heat for my cycle ride around the city walls. It wasn't possible to see the bell and drum towers which are in the centre, but there were good views of the city gates. My next stop was at the little goose pagoda. This pagoda is set in gardens and it could have been the inspiration for the imitation pagoda in Kew gardens. In the heat of the day the shade of the trees was very welcome, as was the air conditioning in the Xi'an museum, which is in the same garden as the pagoda. It had an exhibition in the basement on the different periods in the history of the city. The high point was during the Tang dynasty. I still don't know why the pagodas are called "goose".

After a break to cool down with an ice cream I visited the mosque in the Muslim quarter. This part of town retains it's narrow streets and alleys. It is full of Muslim restaurants and small tourist shops. One of the things on sale is smelly tofu. It is tofu which has been deliberately left to go mouldy, a bit liKe Stilton cheese. The smell is not very appetising to me. The mosque is in a Chinese style of architecture with Chinese style steels, but with inscriptions in Arabic.

Xi'an is a mix of rich and poor which perhaps gives a picture of modern China. On the way to the small goose I walked past a Gucci store and there wereother similar stores due to open. Outside the small goose, while waiting for the bus a man cycled past me with a huge cart behind him jammed full of cardboard and other materials.

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