We’ll this was another relaxed morning to catch up on
my sleep, I ended sleeping for over 14hours in total, I must have been worn
out!
When I did get myself out, the first visit of the day
was to the City Walls of Xi’an.
City
Walls
The city walls were first built in 194BC, but these
have since been replaced. The ones I visited today were built in 1370 in the
Ming Dynasty.
The walls are 12 metres above street level and is approx
9-10 miles to complete one circuit around (my watch said it was 9.19miles but
that did include my walking around some of the towers). You can access the
walls at any of the ancient gates in the daytime, where tickets to access are
54RMB.
I remember my cousin telling me that you could cycle on
the wall, but I didn’t see anything when I got there. When I climbed to the
top, I did see people with bikes and thought, aha it must be around somewhere,
very quickly I saw it and hired my bike for the walls!
I started my journey around and the first stop would
obviously be one of the gate towers, there were built high up as the top floor exclusively
was reserved for archers to stop invasions. The front had 4 and the sides had 3
bow and arrow windows!
The corners held the corner fortresses again for
archers to protect from the corners from the walls.
The walls themselves are pretty thick as you can see,
they ate 15Mtrs wide at the base!
Just a quarter of the way around, I came across a local
girl, who clearly had her first time on a bike, just cycle right into me, she
hired it, got on it, not looked around and cycled into me when leaving the hire
place. Bad news for you guys, I was ok, but the handlebar was a bit bent! The
girl had to pay the repairs as it happened in front of the hire people so she couldn’t
argue it.
Here she is anyway! When the rental guy is checking her
bike as well.
I carried on around the wall for a bit…
Then I heard some noise and saw some local
entertainment. The US culture at the moment seems to be street dancing, but no,
not in China. They have street skipping competitions.
I carried on around the wall and enjoyed every minute
of it, amazing views on a UNESCO heritage site.
This is my GPS results of the cycle.
Muslim
Quarter
My next stop was to the famous Muslim Quarter in Xi’an.
Xi’an was the first city to introduce Islam to China, it still holds a huge
population. This was introduced, as when the Silk road was being used, the end
of the journey was Xi’an, the then former capital of China.
Many of the traders from the middle east would meet
local women, get married and the rest is history. As it became quite popular
Emperor Gaozing officially allowed Islam to be practiced in China in 651AD. I
will update more info on this upon my return.
Currently the Muslim quarter is the home to the best
street markets, restaurants, 20 mosques and the China that everyone thinks of
when they read about it.
When first arriving this was my view, the first thing I
thought was cool.
Then I started walking around, its not very often you
see an man sharpening a knife in the middle of the street, or a chef cooking
his food with a cigarette hangout out of his mouth.
I walked around more; seen some amazing sights, hearing
some crazy noises of the street sellers, out shouting each other to get the
sales.
Next I went to visit the great Mosque, this is found
the easiest as I was actually able to communicate to the locals in my pigeon Arabic,
instead of my none existent Mandarin.
The Mosque was very cool, giving a nice mix of Islam
and ancient Chinese culture in one. It was built in 742AD, it takes an area over
12,000Sq Mtrs.
It was split over 4 sections, giving different courtyards
for each part.
The pictures explain it all, I will give more info on
my return home.
Dinner
Time and Wind Down
We’ll I was looking for a restaurant that my cousin had
recommended to me, but I could find it.
I found a local place which was quite busy so I headed
in.
Looking through the menu (well the pictures) I picked
out two items, which appeared to be Sweet and Sour Pork and Egg Fried Noodles,
a different world to what we have at home.
The best part, all of that was only 52RMB (£5.50).
On the walk to the hotel, I did see the classic street dancing, so i got a sneaky snap.
After that I went back to my hotel, and for some crazy
reason, the pool is open till 4am. So I went for a nice swim and relaxation
time, as it was well overdue.
Tomorrow: There may not be an update, I’ll have another
wonder in the am and in the afternoon I’m flying to Shanghai to see my cousin!
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