Monday, July 23rd
Xi’an, China
Fortunately, I didn’t have any weird dreams of wax figures last night! It was probably because we had to get up at 4:30am to get to the airport for our flight so it wasn’t like I could get to the REM stage of sleep!
We arrived in Xi’an around 10am and took an airport shuttle to the Drum Tower where we walked with my suitcases in tow to our hotel. I am already liking the look of Xi’an more than I did Shanghai. Xi’an seems like my kind of city – historical, bustling and compact. It is much easier to walk around in Xi’an than Shanghai.
After lunch and some down time, including blogging and catching up on emails, we headed out to the Bell and Drum Towers which are the main attractions in Xi’an outside of the Terracotta Warriors which we will see tomorrow.
The Bell Tower is the in the center of town was a chaotic traffic circle surrounding it. It’s fun to just stand on the balcony and watch all the maniacal drivers of buses, cars, scooters, bikes and scooter-cabs. We even saw a minor bus accident standing up there. Fortunately, we made it in time to view a musical bell performance at the Tower. The Tower was built during the Ming Dynasty in 1384 A.D. to help citizens tell time. It was typically rung in the morning and during the day.
The Drum Tower was used during the Ming Dynasty as well, but used at night to close the city gates and then announce the opening of the gates in the early morning. We were also extremely fortunate to hear a drum performance at the Tower as well.
I am really bummed that I can’t share my pictures with you. I just feel my descriptions don’t adequately describe how beautiful and unique this city is.
After the two Towers, we headed to the nearby Muslim Quarter, home to the city’s Chinese Muslim population. The Quarter is also home to one of the largest mosques in China, in addition to markets and food vendors galore. I even saw and Alex Ovechkin jersey in one of the shops in the market place! I had heard great things about the food in this area from a former student and my guide book.
The Quarter did not disappoint except for this piece of rice pie that we originally thought was a sponge cake. The rice pie on a stick had a soy glaze or something on it that did not taste good. Valerie tried it first and told me to try it and she got a picture of me after my initial bite. In this case, the picture speaks a thousand words about what I thought of it. I will have to post it when I get to Seoul.
Otherwise, all the food smelled delicious (no stinky tofu here) and we sampled several items including my favorite, a round, flat sesame and garlic bread. I really wanted to try the lamb kebabs but they were selling 5 kebabs and I only wanted to try one. Maybe tomorrow!
The streets of the Muslim Quarter were congested with people, scooters, and scooter-cabs. As I’ve mentioned before about Taipei and Shanghai, the drivers here are mad men. It’s like they are playing a game of chicken on the roads! We decided that we wanted to try a restaurant recommend in our guide book for dinner, the First Noodle Under the Sun. Since you only live once (YOLO!), we hopped in the scooter cab and communicated with him as best we could with our maps to tell him where we wanted to go.
Our driver started taking us through the streets of the Muslim Quarter and we felt like we were going away from our preferred destination. We weren’t quite sure what was going on when he finally stopped at what seemed to be his home. We got out of the cab and stood around for a few minutes after he had explained something to us in Chinese. It took us a few moments to realize what was going on, but our driver reappeared, replaced his battery and then drove us back through the Muslim Quarter, across town, honking the entire time, and against traffic at times to get us to the First Noodle on the Sun. It was actually a great way to get a broader since of the city. However, I’m telling you, drivers love their horns in China! It was quite the experience and only cost us 50 RMB which is less than $8.00 USD. Cabs have been surprisingly inexpensive in Shanghai and Xi’an compared to home.
Our dinner was amazing! I don’t think I have ever eaten noodles so fresh and doughy before. I ordered the biang biang noodle, which is a giant 3.8 meter long (that’s 12.5 feet) noodle folded up in a bowl. I tried hard to eat it all, but I could only eat 12 feet of it. Valerie and I each had noodles, a sprout side dish and drinks all for a whopping 60 Yuan. That’s $9.50 USD for dinner for two at a three star establishment. Can’t beat the quality and price of food here in Asia!
Xi’an, China
Fortunately, I didn’t have any weird dreams of wax figures last night! It was probably because we had to get up at 4:30am to get to the airport for our flight so it wasn’t like I could get to the REM stage of sleep!
We arrived in Xi’an around 10am and took an airport shuttle to the Drum Tower where we walked with my suitcases in tow to our hotel. I am already liking the look of Xi’an more than I did Shanghai. Xi’an seems like my kind of city – historical, bustling and compact. It is much easier to walk around in Xi’an than Shanghai.
After lunch and some down time, including blogging and catching up on emails, we headed out to the Bell and Drum Towers which are the main attractions in Xi’an outside of the Terracotta Warriors which we will see tomorrow.
The Bell Tower is the in the center of town was a chaotic traffic circle surrounding it. It’s fun to just stand on the balcony and watch all the maniacal drivers of buses, cars, scooters, bikes and scooter-cabs. We even saw a minor bus accident standing up there. Fortunately, we made it in time to view a musical bell performance at the Tower. The Tower was built during the Ming Dynasty in 1384 A.D. to help citizens tell time. It was typically rung in the morning and during the day.
The Drum Tower was used during the Ming Dynasty as well, but used at night to close the city gates and then announce the opening of the gates in the early morning. We were also extremely fortunate to hear a drum performance at the Tower as well.
I am really bummed that I can’t share my pictures with you. I just feel my descriptions don’t adequately describe how beautiful and unique this city is.
After the two Towers, we headed to the nearby Muslim Quarter, home to the city’s Chinese Muslim population. The Quarter is also home to one of the largest mosques in China, in addition to markets and food vendors galore. I even saw and Alex Ovechkin jersey in one of the shops in the market place! I had heard great things about the food in this area from a former student and my guide book.
Otherwise, all the food smelled delicious (no stinky tofu here) and we sampled several items including my favorite, a round, flat sesame and garlic bread. I really wanted to try the lamb kebabs but they were selling 5 kebabs and I only wanted to try one. Maybe tomorrow!
The streets of the Muslim Quarter were congested with people, scooters, and scooter-cabs. As I’ve mentioned before about Taipei and Shanghai, the drivers here are mad men. It’s like they are playing a game of chicken on the roads! We decided that we wanted to try a restaurant recommend in our guide book for dinner, the First Noodle Under the Sun. Since you only live once (YOLO!), we hopped in the scooter cab and communicated with him as best we could with our maps to tell him where we wanted to go.
Our driver started taking us through the streets of the Muslim Quarter and we felt like we were going away from our preferred destination. We weren’t quite sure what was going on when he finally stopped at what seemed to be his home. We got out of the cab and stood around for a few minutes after he had explained something to us in Chinese. It took us a few moments to realize what was going on, but our driver reappeared, replaced his battery and then drove us back through the Muslim Quarter, across town, honking the entire time, and against traffic at times to get us to the First Noodle on the Sun. It was actually a great way to get a broader since of the city. However, I’m telling you, drivers love their horns in China! It was quite the experience and only cost us 50 RMB which is less than $8.00 USD. Cabs have been surprisingly inexpensive in Shanghai and Xi’an compared to home.
All that noodle~~ Yummy!
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