Asia 2008 – Day Sixteen
November 16th, 2008 - 9:14pm - No Comments »
Day Sixteen – 16th Nov 2008
Xi’an
21:14 – HQ Guest House, apartment 503
A bit of a lie in this morning. Breakfast in bed was all packaged, bought from a supermarket yesterday. We ate dry chocolate muffins and drank warm milky tea in a plastic cup – it contained “Q Chunk Fun”. I don’t know what it was, but it was certainly chunks, but not fun. Maybe Q.
We wandered the Muslim Quarter—I can’t recall ever having seen Chinese Muslims—checking out their interesting street food. I avoided, having learned my lesson. Justine never eats that sort of stuff anyway.
Somehow, we ended up in another market, which meant we bought more junk we probably don’t need, which meant I ended up bartering for junk Justine wanted.
In the exact centre of town is the Bell Tower; the bells are large and if you pay you can ring them. But not the good ones. From the top of the tower you can see the four main streets of the town, imaginatively named “North”, “South”, “East” and “West” streets (or avenue, or road). It’s kind of like the view from the Arc de Triomphe. But not as high. Or as many streets. Or as picturesque. Or as clea.r
Next was the nearby Drum Tower. I’m sure the name gives it away. Many more drums here than bells in the other tower. One must have been fifteen feet in diameter, and was much longer than high. Like everyone else in China, I ignored the notice posted and gave it a small whack, the sound was deep and resonated for a long while. Impressive.
Back in the Muslim Quarter we checked out the Great Mosque. Even though it’s supposed to be of both Muslim and Chinese design, I don’t see anything but Chinese influence. Except for the obvious: washrooms, Qur’an, prayer rooms, of course. Ironically, I think it’s one of the more Chinese things we’ve seen, and thought the place was serene and pretty.
Again it was about dark so we returned to our apartment and settled in for the night.
Tomorrow is yet another travel day, the last leg of our trip. We spend five nights in Hong Kong.
Photos taken today: 180
Photos taken to date: 4329
