Xi'an is absolutely beautiful and if you ever get the chance to visit China, Xi'an better be at the top of your list. Screw Beijing or Shanghai, Xi'an is the real deal when it comes to mainland China. Most people know Xi'an to be the home of the Terra-cotta Army, one of the most spectacular archaeological finds in the world. I remember learning about it in my Arky1000 textbook and let me tell you it's pretty cool in real life. Xi'an has much more to offer the eager traveller than just the Teracotta Army though. This city, just like nearly everywhere else in China has a rich cultural history and is also rapidly expanding and growing with new skyscrapers going up left right and center. What makes this place stand out from the rest though is the way they have made an effort to keep the old Chinese touches. Xi'an is one of few cities that still has it's city walls standing. Modern life sometimes takes over in China. For instance, the city walls of Beijing were taken down in order to construct the subway system (seems crazy I know but hey, This is China!) Not only is the city wall still up in tact, but the old drum and bell tower are still up and standing and the city has been built around these old monuments. Old style Chinese character is still used in buildings and the city, although large and busy has a very peaceful and serene feel to it. It took five minutes of standing outside the hostel on our first day there to feel the peacefulness of this place and realize that I absolutely loved it. Walking down the streets of Xi'an gave me a really great feeling. even though it is a massive city, it felt so peaceful. In Changsha, you are constantly hearing the honking of horns but in Xi'an it was oddly quiet even though it was bustling full of people visiting for the holidays. My favourite place in Xi'an was the city walls. Our second morning there, we went up top to check it out. We ended up renting bikes and biking around the entire circumference of the wall. It was so exhilarating! Although the wall was a bit rough and bumpy for biking, the view of the city was stellar! A city composed to modern and ancient and although the hustle and bustle of the city hadn't stopped, there was a sense of peace up on the wall. It was like being a bird. You could see everything going on but there was a separation between you and the rest of the city. It was a great morning to peacefully cycle the wall, take in the city, and collect my thoughts.
Another fantastic thing about Xi'an is the Muslim Quarter. Xi'an lies near the end of the Silk Road, so it is very culturally diverse which makes it even cooler! There is a section of the city known as the Muslim Quarter where the Chinese Muslims reside and let me tell you, if you come to Xi'an, you can't miss out on this place and you better come with a hungry stomach! Weaving through narrow old Hutong style streets, there are many Muslims selling all kinds of delicious street foods, hand crafts, tea, and fruit. Some of our groups favourites to snatch up to eat on the streets of the Muslim Quarter were
Another fantastic thing about Xi'an is the Muslim Quarter. Xi'an lies near the end of the Silk Road, so it is very culturally diverse which makes it even cooler! There is a section of the city known as the Muslim Quarter where the Chinese Muslims reside and let me tell you, if you come to Xi'an, you can't miss out on this place and you better come with a hungry stomach! Weaving through narrow old Hutong style streets, there are many Muslims selling all kinds of delicious street foods, hand crafts, tea, and fruit. Some of our groups favourites to snatch up to eat on the streets of the Muslim Quarter were
羊肉泡馍 (yangrou paomo- a mutton and bread soup), pumpkin flavoured yuebing (moon cake), noodles with a cold sesame type sauce and these pancakes that were filled with meat and spices (tai hao che- delicious!). The last day in Xi'an we went back to the Muslim quarter and tried out a little restaurant on one of the less popular side streets and had some deicious and spicy dumplings and some fantastic noodles with tons of vegetables. My stomach really loved the Muslim Quarter and I would definitely say it was some of the best food I have eaten in China.
Everything during our trip in Xi'an went quite smoothly and you might think considering this is China, that's too good to be true right? Well you are totally right. We had a little bit a of a disappointment in Xi'an that makes a hilarious China story. Our last day in Xi'an, we decided to join some Chinese friends we met on a trip out HuaShan (one of the most famous mountains in China and for good reason..although I really wouldn't know but we will get to that!) We got some last minute train tickets to Huashan and were planning on leaving in the afternoon to make the two hour train journey there where we would hike up the mountain, spend the night and watch the sunrise then come back down and catch our train back to Xi'an in order to make out flight to Hohhot that we couldn't miss. We had it all worked out and had just enough time to be able to sneak this last minute day trip in. Well we get on the train and make it the two hours to Huashan, get off the train as the sun is setting and hop in a black taxi and head towards the gates to the mountain park. Thank god we were with some Chinese friends or we would have been royally screwed. They asked the driver the details of the park and if we would have enough time to get up there and back down. Well his response was not exactly what we wanted to hear. "Are you crazy! It's Mid-Autumn Festival there are 10,000 people on that mountain! There is a four hour line to get on the gondola up and if you want to climb up it, it will take you 6 hours (normally only about 2)" Well we obviously couldn't do it, there was no way in hell we would get up there and back down and still make our flight the next day. We just wasted two hours on the train plus the time in Huashan and didn't see a thing. Sam and our Chinese friends were able to go up the mountain because they didn't have a flight to catch the next day so we bid them farewell and good luck with tackling all the people and we hopped in a taxi and headed back for the train station. In the taxi, the four of us were laughing hysterically at the day we just had. It was dark and we didn't even get to see the mountain and being so tired we thankfully were able to laugh it off. It was also pretty funny how there was 10,000 people on a mountain. That's just insane. Even on the busiest ski hill in Canada, there would never be that many people! I'm sitting here at my desk laughing out loud at this but unfortunately it's so hard to write it in a way to make you guys find it was funny as we did. We got back to the train station and had about an hour to kill in this dinky ass town before the next train went to Xi'an, so we grabbed a few beers and sat on the steps outside of a very old run down hotel/shop and my friend Miguel pulled out his guitar and starting playing as I sang along. Picture this, four foreigners sitting on the steps of this run down joint, beer in hand with backpacks and a guitar singing English. We gathered quite the crowd and we had a few Chinese people who came and sat to listen to us, including a policeman. I wish I had photo evidence of this moment as even I wish to see what it must have looked like, drinking beer and attempting to make conversation with a uniformed Chinese police man..another example of the insanity of China.
All in all, Xi'an was an amazing trip and I would go back in a heartbeat and actually get to see and climb Huashan (on a side note, Sam said it took him 7 hours to get up the mountain and the steps were packed with people and it was literally a line up the hill moving slowly step by step and another 6 to get back down). We made the most of the time we had and ended up coming home with one of my favourite China stories so far. I would love to post some photos but Chinese internet is very dodgy and they unfortunately just won't upload..I will keep trying though!
Everything during our trip in Xi'an went quite smoothly and you might think considering this is China, that's too good to be true right? Well you are totally right. We had a little bit a of a disappointment in Xi'an that makes a hilarious China story. Our last day in Xi'an, we decided to join some Chinese friends we met on a trip out HuaShan (one of the most famous mountains in China and for good reason..although I really wouldn't know but we will get to that!) We got some last minute train tickets to Huashan and were planning on leaving in the afternoon to make the two hour train journey there where we would hike up the mountain, spend the night and watch the sunrise then come back down and catch our train back to Xi'an in order to make out flight to Hohhot that we couldn't miss. We had it all worked out and had just enough time to be able to sneak this last minute day trip in. Well we get on the train and make it the two hours to Huashan, get off the train as the sun is setting and hop in a black taxi and head towards the gates to the mountain park. Thank god we were with some Chinese friends or we would have been royally screwed. They asked the driver the details of the park and if we would have enough time to get up there and back down. Well his response was not exactly what we wanted to hear. "Are you crazy! It's Mid-Autumn Festival there are 10,000 people on that mountain! There is a four hour line to get on the gondola up and if you want to climb up it, it will take you 6 hours (normally only about 2)" Well we obviously couldn't do it, there was no way in hell we would get up there and back down and still make our flight the next day. We just wasted two hours on the train plus the time in Huashan and didn't see a thing. Sam and our Chinese friends were able to go up the mountain because they didn't have a flight to catch the next day so we bid them farewell and good luck with tackling all the people and we hopped in a taxi and headed back for the train station. In the taxi, the four of us were laughing hysterically at the day we just had. It was dark and we didn't even get to see the mountain and being so tired we thankfully were able to laugh it off. It was also pretty funny how there was 10,000 people on a mountain. That's just insane. Even on the busiest ski hill in Canada, there would never be that many people! I'm sitting here at my desk laughing out loud at this but unfortunately it's so hard to write it in a way to make you guys find it was funny as we did. We got back to the train station and had about an hour to kill in this dinky ass town before the next train went to Xi'an, so we grabbed a few beers and sat on the steps outside of a very old run down hotel/shop and my friend Miguel pulled out his guitar and starting playing as I sang along. Picture this, four foreigners sitting on the steps of this run down joint, beer in hand with backpacks and a guitar singing English. We gathered quite the crowd and we had a few Chinese people who came and sat to listen to us, including a policeman. I wish I had photo evidence of this moment as even I wish to see what it must have looked like, drinking beer and attempting to make conversation with a uniformed Chinese police man..another example of the insanity of China.
All in all, Xi'an was an amazing trip and I would go back in a heartbeat and actually get to see and climb Huashan (on a side note, Sam said it took him 7 hours to get up the mountain and the steps were packed with people and it was literally a line up the hill moving slowly step by step and another 6 to get back down). We made the most of the time we had and ended up coming home with one of my favourite China stories so far. I would love to post some photos but Chinese internet is very dodgy and they unfortunately just won't upload..I will keep trying though!
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