RadioRory
Xi’an may be my favorite city in China. It’s big and bustling (and had the noisiest scooters) but it seems to retain its own identity. Shanghai is a world city and in Beijing, you can’t help but feel the government’s presence.
The Terracotta Warriors make Xi’an a tourist draw now, but for hundreds of years it marked the eastern end of the Silk Road and its fortifications are impressive. The wall has been upgraded and expanded over the centuries and once a barrier, it is now a central part of city life. Over eight-miles long, it’s 40-feet tall and 40-feet across at the top. It’s so well maintained, it’s now a popular biking spot and exercise path offering a wide, flat surface and great views.
Apparently, the towers even make nice backdrops for brides-to-be getting their photos taken.
The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda is in a large park with beautiful gardens and a relaxing setting in southern Xi’an.
The first part of the pagoda was built in the 600s. It’s 14-hundred-year history includes additions, some subtractions by earthquakes, and lots of repairs. It’s now more than 200-feet tall and leans just slightly to one side.
Xi’an also had one of my favorite discoveries. I ventured from my hotel alone at night and stumbled across a huge open air market that seemed to go on forever. While pushing through the crowd, my main focus was to avoid being jabbed in the eye (or other body part) by oblivious people holding long skewers of food while texting. They use roughly-honed sticks by the way, not our bleached white/processed/sanitized/composite wood kind of skewer. I was really just looking for a beer, but couldn’t find any.
I could only guess that they were eating….pig?
The next day, I told my group about the market and our tour guide was happy to take all of us there the following night. When I mentioned the lack of refreshing adult beverages on a hot summer night, he explained that it’s a Muslim market. That means no beer and no pig. Those were lambs! But they do enjoy candy, and as the two big guys in the tour group, we were quickly enlisted to help pound out some kind of taffy using huge wooden mallets.
Working up a sweat and no beer!?!?
And yet it still may be my favorite city in China!
A few points about organized tours here. It was the guide who educated me about the market and its religious ties. The tour also took us to a local home outside Xi’an where we met with a family that was recently moved into a new government housing development that significantly improved their standard of living. We all took part in making lunch and I was on scrambled egg duty. Good thing too, she was going to overcook them.
The group also took part in a Tai Chi class at the Wild Goose Pagoda. It’s the kind of experience that’s tough to arrange when you’re traveling on your own.
