Xi'an - Day 1
Let's go for a look around Xi'An. We've had over 9 hours sleep and we're full of energy today. Especially after loading up on the hotel breakfast.
We are staying right next to the South Gate of the Xi'An Wall. We pay the $5 to get in and up we go. Built during the Ming dynasty (late 1300s) the wall surrounds the inner city, about 14 kilometers in circumference and 12 meters tall.
We had originally planned to run/walk the full loop. But... the air quality is poor today... And we aren't fit enough. Plus we want to save some kilometers in the legs for more broader exploring.
We do a quarter of the wall and exit at the East gate and head into "the real Xi'An". Before long we're in a bustling district with markets, chinese chess, schools etc. We've noticed we are getting more and more stares as we've got further from Shanghai and Beijing. But Jeff is getting extra attention today. We realised it's probably to do with the shorts he's wearing. It's cold today, but not freezing. And people are staring and laughing and indicating that it's too cold for shorts. One guy seemed a little unfriendly about it. Maybe he was annoyed with us watching the locals playing Chinese chess. Although most players are pretty happy to have spectators.
Lots of the market stalls and shops are selling wads of fake money (Chinese and American). Also with fake looking clothes, like costume clothes, maybe made of cardboard.
We later learn that a few days ago was an important day in the Chinese calendar where ancestors are looked after by burning money and clothes to send up to them, ready for the cold winter.
There is a group of retirees playing mahjong in the sun. Jeff asks if he can take a photo. Thumbs up, yep, sure.. NO! The 4th player waves us away in anger. Fair enough.
We look for a toilet in a department store. We realise it's massive. 8 floors and nothing but cheap clothing. Must be a hundred stores on each floor. Incredible. Jeff gets more comments and laughs about his shorts from a few of the store owners as he goes by.
We jump on the metro and aim further East. There is a suburb that used to be dedicated to the workers of the nearby textile factories that will be a good representation of real, residential China, so we head that way.
We get off a stop early and aim for an arts district. It's the now closed textile factory converted into an area for artists and related small businesses. A very cool space, much better than the equivalent we went to in Beijing. It still feels like a factory and has various artistic stuff amongst the decommissioned textile equipment.
We wander into a cafe for a coffee. It's not very busy since it's 2pm on a Wednesday, so the guy running the place has plenty of time for a chat. The space is super cool; we should have more places like this in the inner west. We get a tour and an introduction into what they do here. It's more about the art than the cafe. They host performing arts and film and all sorts of events here. That said, the coffee was great and made with a lot of care.
Our host tells us Xi'An is host to one of the oldest art festivals, but even then it's only 10 years old. He moved from a smaller city to Xi'An to study and stayed to pursue his career as a sculptor. There was lots of work being provided by the government as they built lots and lots of public spaces with various sculptures incorporated. That has dried up over the last 2 years though. He now focuses on teaching art to students.
We get a lot of our questions about China (and mandarin) answered. Even some stupid questions like "Have you been to the Terracotta Warriors?" — "Uh yea. I'm a sculptor and it's 1 hour away. I've been... a lot".
We say our goodbyes and head up the hill towards "Textile City". It's tree lined and leafy and there are plenty of people selling fruit. Jeff buys a massive apple out the back of a truck for 40c. The fruit and veg produce is prevalent and great quality in Xi'An from what we've seen.
We Metro back to the main city and note a highly rated dumpling place on Google maps, which is rare, usually not many ratings on anything on Google. We're intruiged so we head in.
We can see straight away it's a dumpling joint for westerners and have our doubts but order the dumplings in sour soup. Wow! Probably the best dumplings of the trip. We both agree that dumplings in soup is better than soup in dumplings.
Back to the hotel for a break before heading out again. This time towards the Muslim Quarter which is a large and famous section of the city for food. The Muslim influence into Xi'An is from the silk road. The silk went West, religions and other cultural influences came back East.
We find it easily enough - you can probably see it from space. It's lit up to a million lumens and there are people everywhere. It's kind of like the hutong we were staying at in Beijing but brighter and louder.
We immediately know we won't be eating on the main strip, but it had to be seen. We take a side street which is still bright and crazy, but a little less so. We keep walking until it thins out a bit and step into a place we see selling biang biang noodles.
We don't end up with the belt-width variant but we get the "bang bang" part with the chef doing the prep right in front of us, stretching and slapping the noodles on his bench top. We have some dumplings to go with our noodle dish. Review: just OK. The dumplings earlier have set the bar high.
We take a very quiet street towards home and spot a book store. Jeff is in the market for an English book since leaving his Kobo on the high speed train. They've got a few English books, great! First we've seen so far. The options are effectively Jane Eyre or Game of Thrones which we've already read. Both are beat up and clearly just jettison from past travellers.
Jeff chooses Jane Eyre plus a little Lu Xun book in Chinese for a souvenir.
OK, how much are we expecting this to cost? Ah few bucks right? Jeff starts getting worried when the young girl running the place is having to check with someone on chat and then the internet to see what to charge: 60 yuan (about $14). For both right? No, for Jane Eyre. 115 for both ($25).
(Jeff, via translator app) "This book is worthless in Australia and it's just going to sit on your shelf forever"
"I've had this shipped in. And I sold over 100 last week".
Oh boy..
Jeff feels like he's getting somewhere with the haggling. He's not going to pay $25 for two shitty books. Best and final offer is given. Girl checks with whoever she's checking with on her phone. 160 is the return offer. It went up! Shyeh Shyeh, Dzai-jien.
Home through a park with a lake. It's completely dark and a bit creepy. Although there are plenty of people around. In fact there are a stack of people in the outdoor gym part. Plus more dancing. And mahjong. And cards. And badminton! It's 8:30pm and everyone is still out and about.
We stumble into the hotel after just setting our steps and dumpling records for the trip so far: 21kms, 50 dumplings
