China Day 15 - Xian

Added: November 03, 2009

We have not visited many places on Monday, 20th of July in Xian. And that was good, because I got cold yesterday at Bingling Si. I guess it was not warm enough for shorts and T-shirt for me. On the other hand it was really hot in Xian. So I was not in mood to explore exotic places.

Our train arrived to Xian at about 7am. Train station was overcrowded as we had not seen before. We had to keep together to or risk to get lost. We went out rather slowly, it was crowded also there. Slowly, we went around barrier and then back on other side to join our local guide. Then we walked for about 1km to place where our bus was waiting, because it is not possible to park directly at train station.

Xian is very old city, former capital of China and it has nicely preserved city walls. Our hotel was inside the walls, near to Bell Tower. It took us about 20 minutes to get there in the traffic.

We got keys to our room quite quickly, but the room was not ready yet. It was still before 8am, so we could hardly blame them. Contrary, Rich was able to get breakfast tickets for us, so we could spend time surrounded by nice meals ;-) (I still had no problem with Chinese-style of breakfast, but there were also toasts, eggs and everything).

Big Wild Goose Pagoda

The first place we visited in Xian was Big Wild Goose Pagoda. It is nice Buddhist pagoda surrounded by complex of gardens and buildings. It is pity I was not in a mood to climb to top or to stay in sun. So we did not see much of it.

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Market in Muslim quarter

After visiting the pagoda we went to Great Mosque. It is located in Muslim quarter. To get there we needed to pass through market. We were warned pickpockets are there and that we should not give money to beggars, because they just fake it.

It was full of nice smells and very attractive for anybody who likes food, like me. But Zuzka prohibited me to buy anything :-( (she meant it well, of course, somebody needed to think about consequences of potentially problematic food)

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Great Mosque

Another example of how Chinese can redefine typical image of Mosque. It is still used in these days by Hui people living around.

I am not sure we came there by main access, but I am sure we would not find it without the guide. From the market we passed through narrow corridor, turned right to slightly wider street and after subsequent turn to the left we were there.

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Dumplings with music

Xian has another tourist attraction. It is The Tang Dynasty Music and Dance Show. Apart from dancing and music there is also tasting of dumplings. Yes! The culture and dinner together! :-)

Every dumpling was different - they were in shape of filling it contained (but sometimes it was hard to guess what it was). It is pity there were only 16 of them. 2 or 3 more would help.

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While we were eating and also before we had nice music performed by this artist.
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Tang Dynasty Music and Dance Show

When dinner was over lights were dimmed and we could start to concentrate on dance show. It was all very nice, but I liked the most those parts without dancing though. Maybe because the artists were doing unbelievable things with their instruments.

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