Xi'an

After some exciting days in Beijing, our journey continues to Xi'an, one of the four ancient capitals. In fact, Xi'an is one of the oldest cities in China and the oldest capital. The other ancient capital cities are: Nanjing, Luoyang and Beijing. A few more were added to the list of capitals later on in time, due to archeological findings: Kaifeng, Hangzhou, Anyang and Zhengzhou. Xi'an lies in the heart of the Middle Kingdom and it's not as big as Shanghai or Beijing, but has 'only' ca. 8.5 million inhabitants, which makes Xi'an a sub-provincial city. Even though the metropolitan area has a population of 13.5 million, it does feel quite provincial. Its name 西安 means 'Western Peace'. The famous and historical Silk Road starts (or ends) here and the Terracotta Army is also in Xi'an, although a bit outside the city. There are very few sights within this modern city and visitors don't need to spend much time to see them all. The most interesting part is the Muslim quarter. There are 50.000 or so Muslims in the city and their quarter is especially at night worth a visit. The area is then full of people, scents, food, drinks, shops, mosques, etc. There you will find Muslim cuisine at its best. A specialty are Bam Bam Noodles (look at the photo and the video to see why they are called like this). Another specialty is Chinese Burger. It's a bun with minced meat inside. You can have the meat raw if you want. Many Chinese prefer it raw. It looked disgusting to us, so we went for the cooked version. And here you will find bread!!!! If you have stayed longer in China and miss bread as much as I do, this is the place to find some. It's real bread, not the soft sugary disgusting Chinese bread you find elsewhere.
We stopped outside this restaurant and had a look at the food on display and how it's prepared. We ordered some dishes outside and were accompanied to a table inside to wait. The food came slowly and when all the dishes were there and we started eating, a waitress came and asked: May I help you? As I didn't understand what she said, I thought she spoke Chinese, I said: Ti bu dong, I don't understand. The waitress smiled and repeated her English question, which I understood now. 

We stayed at the Aurum Hotel, a modern four star hotel within the city walls, roughly twenty minutes walk from the nearest metro station. There are two train stations in the city, one fairly central and the bigger, more modern one where the bullet trains stop is in the north of Xi'an. Follow the Krauts, sorry, the crowds to the metro and get off somewhere in the centre and start walking.
If you want to see the Terracotta Army, you have to get to the train station in the city, find the bus station and look for the buses to the terracotta army. There are frequent buses and the fare, paid on the bus, is cheap. Since you will be the only foreigners on the bus, look what the other passengers pay and pay the same. They might try to rip you off.

We are travelling at the speed of light (Now or Never by Tom Novy) by train again. Beijing to Xi'an is just a few hours and costs the same as flying.

One of the first things we saw. Hmm... Would you call him a sleeping beauty?

The people here must be rich.

Bell Tower

Drum Tower

Muslim Quarter

BREAD!!!!

Skewers on little branches with bread.

Gate to culinary delicacies 

Want some juice?

Metallic cigarette boxes with communist designs.

Bouncer

Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine (way before George Foreman had his idea)

Bell Tower again

A taste of what we would see the following day.

And here are two videos (may not show and play on iPad/iPhone)

If you would like to read more by me, here are my novel and my diary from Ar'ar, in the northern Saudi desert. Both available on Amazon as soft and hard copy.