Xi'An Part San

After a long day of sightseeing yesterday we decided to start out our morning a little slower by walking around downtown a bit and getting breakfast at Starbucks :-)  After some caffeine and a muffin we had a plan for the day and headed out to the city wall with the intentions of renting a bike and riding completely around the top.

Yep, Starbucks is pretty much the same :-)

Once at the wall our hopes were soon dashed as we discovered they had banned bikes on the top of the wall for the month of December in order to finish some construction on one portion of the wall :-(  O.k., no problem (may murrr!).  The bikes were appealing because this city wall goes around the entire city and the bikes would have allowed us to get a 360 of all of Xi'An.  However, we soon discovered that wall is wall is wall :-)  We strolled along about 1/4 of the wall and took in the relatively quiet city (not a big tourist season right now) and scouted out some areas to perhaps try later in the day.  It was a little chilly...but not too bad (well for me at least...I'm pretty sure Rodney froze his butt off!)

On top of the City Wall of Xi'An

After our adventure on the wall we decided to try to find a couple of the more local attractions we had searched out via Rodney's trusty travel guide.  The first item on Rodney's list was a local flea market/antique fair which is only held on Sundays in Xi'An.  I have to admit...I had little faith that we would find the right alley for this market (or even if it still existed given the book was published in 2007)...but...Rodney had faith and we soon found ourselves smack dab in the middle of a pretty cool local antique market.

Local Antique Flea Market in Xi'An

I wasn't really sure I was looking for anything here but Rodney had his heart set on finding some swords/knives for a relative.  We bartered some and looked around and eventually I spotted a pair of walnuts I thought would make a good stocking stuffer.  (O.k. it is hard to describe the fascination with walnuts here...but...you see them all over the place, people buy them in a set and twirl them around in their hand...I think it is supposed to help circulation or something??)  I asked how much...200 RMB!!  What?  Here's the other thing about these walnuts, depending on (apparently the sellers opinion) they can range in price from pretty cheap...to outrageously expensive.  Supposedly the more expensive ones are almost identical in size, shape, weight, and markings.  I quickly moved on to the guy right next to him where I got a set for 20 RMB.  Good enough for me!  Rodney bartered for awhile and soon had himself a couple of nice knives and a bracelet of some sort...all in all, a pretty good find!

As Rodney was finishing up one final transaction I wandered out and noticed a temple nearby...and heck...that seems touristy right?  So we went and visited what apparently is a pretty famous Taoist temple.  Here's the thing with me and temples though.  In China...there are a LOT of temples.  And to some extent...a temple is a temple is a temple.  So it was cool to see the Taoist temple...but, we didn't linger for long.  The one thing I found fascinating about this one is that you could buy fake money outside of the temple to leave for the temple Gods apparently.  I had a pretty good laugh about this.  For 10 RMB you could buy 10,000 fake RMB to leave for the temple Gods.  Why not leave the 10 RMB?

An alter and statue where you can leave fruit and fake money.

After the temple we decided to hit up the Big Goose Pagoda.  We weren't really sure what to expect...other than a Pagoda, but it turned out to be a really good choice.  The area around here looked almost like a Disneyland of Pagodas.  Tons of vendors, outdoor fountains going off, rides and of course the usual pagoda and towers to explore.  We decided to make our way to the huge tower and start our way to the top.  After what seemed like 25 flights of stairs we finally arrived to the top!

The Big Goose Pagoda in Xi'An

We got to the top just in time too!  There was a window at the top where you could look out upon the whole square and just as we reached the top they started a fountain show in the square below (very similar to the fountain shows in front of the Bellagio).  After enjoying the fountains we headed back down and explored the square a bit more before deciding it was time for a little dinner.

I had my heart set on a local dish, Yang Rou Pao Mo.  This is essentially pita bread that you tear up really small into a bowl and then they pour either beef or mutton soup over top and let it soak into the bread.  I had found the 'best' place in Xi'An to find this dish (supposedly it has been serving the local specialty since 1897...there was even a famous poem and song written about it that basically says something like everything in the world is changing, but once we go home to this restaurant in Xi'An the Yang Rou Pao Mo never changes) and armed with iPhone pictures I had taken of the address in Chinese and the dish name in Chinese we set off on an adventure.

Turns out, the photos helped immensely and we found the restaurant, no problem!  Once inside we ordered up our soup and tried to order several other dishes because we were starving.  But each time we were brutally rebuffed and directed to a counter where cold unappetizing dishes laid.  We soon got the picture, as foreigners we were allowed to have the soup...and pick dishes that were already made...but not order anything else...lol.  O.k. no problem, we came for soup anyways.  As we sat painstakingly tearing up our bread a young Chinese boy joined us at our table.  We seemed to get along just fine...well the conversation was a little lacking (him not speaking any English...Rodney using 'Wei Wei' to convey everything from excuse me to go straight ahead and myself knowing only food words and numbers...lol)...but I do enjoy how they do it in China...if there is room at your table...sit somebody else there!

Our soup soon arrived, and it was worth the wait.  If you should ever find yourself in Xi'An you will certainly need to try out this local specialty :-)  After dinner we were pretty exhausted so we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.  Tomorrow we shall return to Beijing, but will have a little time to explore the artsy part of Xi'An and perhaps do a little more shopping.

Zaijian for now.
Gary