Back to China Index Page

<< Day 5: Datong—Hanging Monastery & Yungang Caves | Day 7: Xi’an—Hiking on HuaShan >>

Xi’An—Within the Walls

We loved our Datong hotel. Not only were the beds super-comfortable, but the lavish breakfast buffet came with steaming cups of real coffee from an espresso machine--mmmmm.

We would be traveling to the city of Xi’an this morning. On the way to the airport, we joined the morning commuters creeping through the milky haze.

We passed our restaurant from last night:

Our taxi driver was a smooth and skilled driver. When three lanes of traffic backed up at the light, we joined the line of cars that quickly made a fourth lane—across the line, in space belonging to oncoming traffic.

All around, we could see high rise construction projects, newly planted trees, and recently built roads.

Datong has rich coal reserves in the land, and many smokestacks were huffing away to provide energy for the city’s 3 million residents, as well as neighboring communities. (The fat smokestacks are burning coal too, although at first glance we thought they might be part of a nuclear power plant.)

At the Datong airport:

We had a brief layover in Beijing, where we found a TCBY yogurt shop.

Sebastian also completed several pages of his math schoolwork.

When planning our time in Xi’an, we had focused on two main activities—visiting the terracotta warriors and hiking the holy mountain of HuaShan. Both sites were a fair distance outside the city, so I had prearranged for a guide (Jeff) with a driver to transport us around. He had included an airport pickup in his reasonable rate, and we were happy to see him upon our arrival.

Near the Xi’an airport were some more wide, coal-burning smokestacks:

Xi’an is a large metropolis, with a population of about 10 million living in the area (this number was provided by Jeff). Traffic was heavy, and the drive to our apartment took over an hour.

Watching the world go by:

This section of the city was called the Hi-Tech Industries Development Zone:

We were staying near the center of the city, within the old city walls.

We passed by the 14th century Bell Tower, which now sits in the middle of a traffic island.

It used to contain a large bell that was rung at dawn every morning.

We had the good fortune of staying in a very special apartment near the Bell Tower—it was called the “Warriors Apartment.” The outside of the building was modern:

But the inside . . . oh, the inside was such a treat! It was full of terracotta warriors!

The living room:

The wall of one bedroom:

(I neglected to take a photo of the two small armies that held up our beds.)

The shower:

The apartment's decor was the brainchild of a man named Clarence Guo—he and his wife were gracious hosts who provided complimentary breakfast food, snacks and drinks for us.

When we checked in, Clarence showed us some warrior costumes that he had recently purchased for guests to use. Genevieve wasted no time in dressing up and blending in with the other warriors.

Sebastian was intrigued with the bow and arrow:

A short walk from the apartment was an area known as the Muslim Quarter. Xi’an was once the eastern end of the famous Silk Road, a network of trade routes that stretched all of the way through the Middle East to Turkey and parts of Southern Europe. In addition to silk, textiles, spices, and countless other goods that were traded along the routes, religions and ideas also flowed back and forth. Muslim merchants and their families migrated to Xi’an and established a thriving Muslim community. Today, there are about 60,000 Muslims in Xi’an.

The Muslim Quarter has one main street with many restaurants.

Branching off are narrow lanes lined with small shops and packed with people.

Most of the shops were selling what appeared to be the same 10 types of cheaply made souvenirs at fairly inexpensive prices--miniature terra cotta warriors seemed to be the #1 item, followed closely by scarves.

Winding through the Muslim bazaar, we found the entrance to the Great Mosque, which was established in the 8th century. The buildings have been expanded and refurbished over the years, and the architecture has a definite Chinese influence.

The mosque was designed in a long rectangle, with a succession of four courtyards leading to a large prayer hall.  Inside the first courtyard was this large ornate archway, which was built in the 17th century.  It was structurally unstable and was roped off with a "Danger" sign.

A building on the side of courtyard #1:

Architectural details:

In courtyard #2 were three stone gateways with the Chinese inscription above them reading “The Court of the Heaven.”

In courtyard #3, there was a pagoda (“the Introspection Tower”) that served as the minaret—it is the tallest building in the mosque and is used to call Muslims to pray.

At the back of courtyard #4 was the grand prayer hall, which can hold 1000 worshipers; it was closed to visitors.

Also in courtyard #4 was the “One God Pavilion”, which is also called the “Phoenix Pavilion” because the roof line resembles a phoenix spreading its wings before flying.

A well:

Genevieve, next to a natural rock sculpture:

Modern grey buildings rose up on the outside of the mosque walls.

Other details from inside the mosque:

Inside one of the buildings was a drawing that showed the layout of the mosque:

There weren’t many visitors, and we attracted the attention of the group in the upper right corner of this photo:

For dinner, we returned to the main street in the Muslim Quarter and found a 3-story set of restaurants that Jeff had recommended. Each floor had a different restaurant. We climbed the stairs to the top floor, where the restaurant was lively and noisy. A worker at the entrance said something to us in Chinese and made “shoo-ing” motions (“go away”) with his hands. We were a bit surprised at the gesturing, but we retreated back down the stairs. The restaurants on the other two floors were full of cigarette smoke, so we decided to give this building a pass.

We found another restaurant that had a BBQ grill out on the street, with delicious smelling kabobs. We poked our heads inside, a bit wary of whether we would be welcomed, and a server immediately waved us inside and found a table for us. From the menu, we weren’t quite sure what we were ordering, but that is part of the fun, yes? We found ourselves with a huge pile of two different types of kabobs—very spicy and good—and a plate of vegetables. We also had one fried dish that left us debating whether it was fish or ham. (I know that you're thinking, "How hard could that be?"  Trust me.  We still don't know.  However, Sebastian really liked the dish and ate quite a bit.)

The restaurant workers were all very nice, and the manager came over and spoke to us in English, making sure that we were enjoying our meal.

Here is a (blurry) photo of Genevieve and Sebastian outside the restaurant:

We walked down the street, enjoying the scene:

We came across this candy booth, where the workers were making a type of sweet that I had never seen before.

They took pieces of what looked like layered dough, and rolled some type of seeds into it.

Genevieve wanted to try some. I was not too optimistic regarding the taste as (1) there was no chocolate involved and (2) I am generally not a fan of nuts or seeds in candy. The taste, however, was divine. The texture was very chewy, and we all found ourselves rolling our eyes around making “Mmmm!” noises. I ate several pieces. (Thanks to Alice, who came across our website while planning her family's trip to China, we have identified this delicious confection as "Dragon Beard Candy," available on weekends at the Koi Palace restuarant in San Francisco--we will have to give it a try the next time we are in that city!)

We continued our walk down past the Drum Tower, where kite vendors were flying long strings of small kites high into the night sky.

Another view of the Drum Tower:

We could see the large drums above the outer wall:

Traditionally, these drums were beat at sunset to signal the end of the day.

We strolled across the small plaza in front of the Drum Tower and reached the Bell Tower:

More kites:

A short walk brought us back to our wonderful apartment, ready for a good night’s sleep--safe in the presence of our own terracotta warrior protectors.

<< Day 5: Datong—Hanging Monastery & Yungang Caves | Day 7: Xi’an—Hiking on HuaShan >>

Back to China Index Page

Back to Home Page