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This morning we woke up in Xi'an... It was quite a restful night but I struggled to settle as I kept thinking of what everyone at home was doing ...and eating and got a little homesick. I think i settled about three am and didn't wake till about eight am. The cabin was comfy and more spacious than the ones in India so I didn't feel hemmed in. We arrived in Xi'an at about eight thirty and headed to the hotel via the local bus. The journey didn't take long and soon we were outside our hotel called 'Home Inn'... We agreed to meet in just over an hour for a city walk so headed to our rooms for a quick freshen up. I jumped in the amazing shower and felt so much better for it and Steven munched on a pot of Chinese noodles before getting a quick dip. At ten thirty we all met in the lobby and headed for the town walk, it was a little warmer here than Beijing but remained freezing... We paced along to keep warm and jumped on the local bus to take us the majority of the way. On the way to the Muslim quarter we passed the Bell tower and the Drum tower, the Bell tower is a vast structure that sits marooned in the middle of traffic... It is currently being renovated but in the past it had a large bell that would ring at dawn while the Drum tower was its alter ego that would mark nightfall. They are both large buildings but we weren't able to appreciate their full glory as they were covered in scaffolding.
We headed north from the Drum tower and found ourselves in the warren like streets of the Muslim quarter which is home to China's Hui community (Chinese Muslims). The narrowed streets are full of souvenir shops, sweet shops and loads of shops selling salted walnuts and other Chinese delights. The place is beautiful and looked stunning against the cold frost like weather, it was fairly busy with local Chinese people but apparently it really comes to life after dark. We wandered down the streets which smelt of roasted nuts and sesame oil and enjoyed looking at the vast array of stuff on offer. Tucked away down one of the streets is the Great Mosque which sits proud... It is said to be one of the largest in China and attracts visitors from all religions. I was quite surprised to hear of Muslim Chinese people but I suppose you have Christian Chinese... It's just something I've never encountered before, was really interesting.
After we had strolled around the maze of alleyways we found our selves feeling peckish... Dinner had been a long time ago and a shower had taken president over breakfast so we headed to a local restaurant for some food. We headed up to the third floor and warmed ourselves with some flower tea which was lovely and in endless supply... We then tucked in to some local speciality dishes such as majiang liangpi which is a dish of cold noodles in a sesame sauce. We also sampled a few various examples of steamed dumplings... We had chicken with shrimp, lamb and beef. I wasn't too keen on the dumpling as they reminded me of soggy pasta, they went down well with everyone else though. We also sampled some egg tart which was very much like a spring onion omelette and another noodle dish... All for a grand price of about three pounds each.
Now that we were warm and full we headed to the historic old city wall. Xi'an is quite special in the fact its one of the only Chinese cities to have their city walls standing and they are in great condition. The wall was constructed in 1370 during the Ming dynasty and is truly something. The walls are twelve meters high and surrounded by a dry moat, the perimeter of the wall is fourteen kilometres and you are able to walk it entirely in about four hours... At a leisurely pace! However we thought we would go one better and hired a tandem bike to cycle it instead haha!! It was hilarious... Steven climbed on the front and I somehow squeezed on the back and off we went. It was so comical at first trying to get the direction right and enough momentum going but we somehow managed... It was a bit of a slog at times but then I realised why ...I was cycling pretty much continuously while Steven was on cruise control. We stopped intermittently for photos and the view from up there was amazing... We were also mucking around with Blair and Glen quite a bit and taking silly photos. The perimeter is a large rectangle with ninety eight observation points that each look like a little temple... However it seems like you pass more than four corners. We attempted to swap so I could go up front but it was extremely unsuccessful... Mainly due to the hysterical laughing we were doing. Steven who we now know is extremely inflexible couldn't get his feet on the pedals at the back and we kept falling over, as my strength alone wasn't enough to support us... We could not stop laughing... it really warmed us up.
By the time we had finished the full 14.3km route we were all toasty and in good spirits so headed back down to street level and wandered back to the hotel. We had some free time till seven and I planned to spend that under a very hot shower. Once we arrived back we headed to our room... Put the heating on full pelt and I did indeed sit in the hot shower while Steven read his book. After a full twenty mins I felt sooo much better and put on my comfies and curled up under my travel towel come fleece blanket. I am normally very stingy about the amount of time spent in the shower as I hate wasting water but looking back over the past six weeks, I have sacrificed so many showers (mainly because they are freeeezing) that it all evens up.
At six forty five Steven woke me up... Turns out I was more cosy then I realised and had fallen asleep.. it was now time to meet the others so I put on my usual five or six layers and even threw my jeggings on as well before we headed to the lobby to meet them. We ventured out and across the road to have dinner. I wasn't that hungry but sometimes its easier go along then to miss it and try and find the group later plus Steven was starving anyway. We headed to a placed called 'Q' and sat down in the back. Tommy ordered us a few local delicacies and despite the temptation of fifty pence bottles of beer we were far to cold so settled for lovely warm tea. It didn't take long for dinner to start arriving (never does) and we firstly tucked into lobster, but not the kind we are used to. In fact it looks the same and tastes similar but is about the size of a small langoustine. It was cooked in a chilli oil and spice sauce with vegetables and was nice but messy as we tried to get to the meat inside. Next there was a Chinese pancake that was really nice ...especially dipped into the sauce of the lobster, there was also sheesh kebabs which were quite tasty. Then came the main dish of the night.... Bull frog in a spicy chilli broth, it was nice and the meat tasty but I hate eating meat off the bone and it was far too time consuming for my liking. All in all the meal was nice and spicy but I found the chilli oil very greasy and over whelming, however for four pounds you can't really moan... Although Steven was obviously missing the lack of carbs.
After dinner we took the bus to Big Goose Pagoda Square, this is where we were going to watch the famous light and fountain show that occurs every night. The Big Goose Pagoda is one of Xi'ans most popular landmarks and towers over the square. It was completed in AD 652 and it one of China's finest examples of Tang style, the pagoda is surrounded by the Da Ci'en temples which are one of the largest of their kind. The light and fountain show was amazing and such a great way to end Boxing Day. We wandered around hand in hand and listened to traditional Chinese music that appears to make the water dance in various colours. It's really something and I loved it... The show goes on for about half an hour and its such a nice thing to do whilst in Xi'an.
The city it's self really is seen at best at night... Everything s lit up including the old city wall and it all looks spectacular, probably my fave place in China so far ...well apart from the Great Wall. After the show had finished we all met up outside KFC and headed for the night bus home, we stood at the bus stand smelling the fish sauce type smell of the fermented tofu being cooked nearby, whilst looking at the bright Chinese letters illuminated on all the buildings and thought this is a very different way to spend Boxing Day.
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