An Update (and more Xi'an)

Starting when I was in Xi'an, I was having some reeeally strange computer issues, but I think I have them under control now so I'm finally going to post the rest of my Xi'an photos.

From my reading/research, experiencing Xi'an means visiting these sites (in no particular order) :
- the Drum Tower and Bell Tower
- the Muslim district and/or the Great Mosque
- the art district and/or the Stele Forest (not a forest, fyi)
- the old city wall
- the Small Wild Goose Pagoda
- the Big Wild Goose Pagoda
- the Shaanxi History Museum
- the Terracotta Warriors


If you had one day in Xi'an, you could/should follow this itinerary:
1. See the warriors (outside the city) in the morning/afternoon;
2. transfer to the city center for a look at the drum and bell towers in the late afternoon evening,
3. and then walk from the towers to the Muslim district 'cause it's just around the corner.
4. Finish feeling like Xi'an is awesome, because it is.


If you have two days, and like museums (or LOVE them as I do), the Shaanxi museum is worth a visit. [But I'll explain why I left it off my key sites list with it's own post.]


Start reading below!

Shaanxi Museum

The Shaanxi museum was good, but not necessarily great. However, you should know, that's entirely a personal opinion, based upon the fact that,
1. Ancient relics aren't really my thing.
2. At this point I've probably seen more stone statues and carvings than most people will ever see. And I don't even care about stone carvings.
3. I've been to the British Museum and the Pergamon Museum. It's pretty hard to top that. [I know, how snobby, right?! ;D]


I had to take photos with the flash off, so here are the blurry highlights:

An "Education Base of Patriotism" museum!

  

This was pretty cool. Can you see the skull?

Look again.

 

 I took a photo of this because I thought, How on earth could you know it's supposed to be a unicorn hoof?!

But then later, I saw this statue, and I guess Chinese unicorns are notable for their perfectly round hooves? I guess?

 

A 14-faced seal.

The information plate read, Its owner was the famous minister of Western Wei Dynasty Dugu Xin. The 14 square faces bear engraved characters indicating different functions or titles such as “Humble Xin Presents a Letter to your Majesty,” “Seal of Commander-in-Chief”, “Seal of Supervisor-in-Chief”, “Seal of Regional Inspector”, “Regular Script”, “Dugu Xin’s Handwriting”, “Order”, “Secret”, etc. … The Seal suggests the important and powerful status of the owner.

The "secret" label makes me laugh for obvious reasons.

 

 His dude is hilarious!!!!!!

 

  

I was also pretty delighted with this miniature army.

 There are more than 300 pieces.

Apparently, each man's role and tools (drum-and-gong carrier, archer, sedan carrier, fan man, etc.) is written on the bottom of his pedestal.

Muslim District

The Muslim District was my favorite part of Xi'an, next to the terracotta soldiers. It was mostly a lot of food, with some other amusements mixed in.

Fried quail eggs on a stick.

bulk fruit leather

 

There was a lot of dried fruit being sold.

Meat-product-on-a-stick cut in a spiral to look cool.

noodle stove 

Muslim ladies hanging out.

dragon-bird kite

arbitrary Tropical Santa qipao

Read further for my food commentary, and a few pics from the Great Mosque!

Muslim District: Food

I'm not an adventurous eater (and I'm very fine with that, thank you) but I did have a good time trying out the some of the eats the Muslim district had to offer.

Green bean (or pea ?) "cake" with raisins

 This is a little difficult to describe. It was if someone turned peas into a course flour, mixed in some sugar, water, and raisins, and then compressed it into a square. It wasn't bad, and I recommend at least trying it if you ever have the chance, but it kind of messes with your mind to eat a mouthful of green bean flavored flour.

Fried persimmon-filled donut-thing

Sticky, greasy, and sickly sweet. It'd fit in well with fair food.

Juice made from asian pears, Chinese dates, wolf berries, and sugar.

Tasty until I remembered that I probably shouldn't be drinking more than was necessary to stay hydrated. You do not want to have to make an unscheduled, emergency bathroom stop in China.

Paper-thin pastry filled with meat, then fried.

 Awesome. Period.

 Handmade noodles, beef, and pickled vegetables.

 Excellent!! This included some mystery ingredient that made my tongue feel cold.

[on the lower left] rice-jelly cubes cooked in oil

 Bleh. Bland, weird texture, and oily. In retrospect, I should have anticipated that this'd be a no-go.

Salty mutton soup with bits of heavy flatbread.

It took me until my last day to try this, because I'm not a soggy bread person, but it's the most recommended dish for travelers, so I finally gave in. 

It was seriously the best thing I ate all week!!! The bread was so dense that it was more like chunks of noodles, and the flavor of the soup was fantastic.

Muslim District: the Great Mosque

My knowledge of Islam is comprised of what I recall from an excellent Islamic Culture course I took in college, and what I learned from the entertaining and informative Little Mosque on the Prairie. So, it was kind of cool to be able to see a mosque setup in real life, in the form of Xi'an's Great Mosque.

Heh-heh-heh: "scenic sports"

outside the mosque

The bottom one reads, 'Please don't spit.' 

Warning! Cultural Criticism Ahead: 

Only the Chinese would need to be told not to spit in a holy place.

This is the rather unassuming minaret.

 I snapped this through the doorway. It's grainy because of the lighting.

I'm assuming these clocks are related to the five daily prayers.

I didn't get this immediately: the janitor's face is blue-ed out because it's disrespectful (or something like that) to display images of faces within a mosque.

The Art District and the Stele Forest

The Art District of Xi'an was worth a wander, even if you're not interested in buying duplicated works of art, calligraphy supplies, or over-priced souvenirs. 
Here are some highlights.

neigh!

A hand-less man painting tiny, detailed calligraphy on fan folds.

 A ridiculous lenticular featuring the three "great" leaders of China: Mao, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping. [Also, Mighty Morphing Jesus over their left shoulders.]

 

Brushes galore!

A brush seller who doesn't appear too delighted that I was taking his photo.

At the end of the Art District there's a museum called the Stele Forest. For a reason that I deeply do not understand, it's listed and recommended in every 'list of things to do in Xi'an'. 


Why don't I understand? Well, first of all, here's what a stele is:

A big stone slab. 

 
And if you take a closer look...

What do you mean you don't read traditional Chinese? Why would you come to a museum featuring works of Chinese literature and history carved into stone?

Uh-huh. See?


But for me it wasn't a total bust, for reasons that I think only my Gran will also find interesting. Behold:

First, remember that I don't speak Chinese, but I can read an small amount of Simplified Chinese. (One of the few positive changes the Communists implemented was a simplified script in order to promote literacy. I think it's way more accessible than traditional Chinese, which is still used in Taiwan.)
Aaanyway, because of this, I did enjoy studying an ancient dictionary that cataloged and standardized the radicals and the characters they made when combined.

Here, for example, is the character/radical 刀 [knife], and all of the possible characters it was a component of at that time. [reads R-->L, and top-->bottom]

Then there was this slab record having something to do with missionaries, which I don't find interesting in and of itself, but I overheard a tour guide talking about a unique feature of the stele:

At the top you can see the signatures of relevant Chinese people, but the signatures below them are written in Sanskrit, because not all of the missionaries knew Chinese writing. 

Thanks tour guide who I did not pay for!

 Finally, I thought the map of the Yellow River was really cool, because I really like maps.

It's bigger than this, but this is my best in-focus shot.

That's about it. 
I am given to wonder what Chinese people think, because how much traditional Chinese do they read?

Making "rubbings" to sell. (More like blottings, actually.)