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| Qujianhchunyuan Park, South Xian |
We couldn't wait to visit Xi'an - with more than 3000 years of history under its ancient belt, Xi'an is considered the most historical city across China.
Our chance came, it was a long weekend and with time off work we had pre booked tickets on the overnight express from Chengdu to Xi'an. Being a long weekend, not only were we on holiday, so was everyone else.
For thousands of years Chang'an (now modern day Xi'an) was the capital for 13 imperial dynasties, and a total of 73 emperors and empresses ruled over the ancient city, becoming the undisputed root of Chinese civilization. As the great terminus of the famous Silk Road, traders from far and wide brought goods and ideas for sale and took goods and ideas back with them to their native countries creating a wealth of knowledge and a rich cultural hub.
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| Hanging with locals on the train! |
We slept well enough on the smokey overnight train that bumped and bounced its way north over the Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces. In the morning, as we ate our instant noodles and processed sausages in the forever growing cigarette stench, we inched closer to Xi'an.
In six bed bunks across from us we were befriended by several local students - one of whom could speak English well enough to translate our poor Chinese and relay what we didn't understand from the numerous questions being fired in our direction.
After taking photos of us and posting them onto China's social media hub- WeChat, they gave us a few pointers on places to visit in their home town. This included the infamous Ping Ma Yong - (which we later realised is the Chinese name for the Terracotta Warriors).
They were very friendly, although most of the time they seemed to fall back into talking about us, rather than to us. Once we arrived in Xi'an, crowds were everywhere. We struggled to get out of the train station. It was warmer than we had anticipated and the mid morning sky was a hazy yellow. Above us towered the city wall shadowing us and defiantly emphasising its strength. We decided to spend the day exploring Ping Ma Yong (check out the blog here) and so headed off directly from the train station to the bus station!
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| Pork and Cabbage Dumpling! |
When we returned from the extremely uncomfortable bus journey back into Xi'an City, we had to walk several kilometres to our hostel. We were so tired and as it was also Kara's birthday and we had yet to pass a cake shop so we were feeling a little sad.
Our hostel, the Han Tang Inn was located down a dark, smelly alley and suspiciously we walked down. We came across the Han Tang Hostel but coldly they informed us they didn't have a booking for us and we should try elsewhere. We were right mighty annoyed and took out our reservation in which they informed us, Yes, see, we are at the Han Tang Hostel but go down the road to the Han Tang Inn. We wondered if they get that a lot, with such a similar name.
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| Birthday girl! |
So we kept walking down into the depths of the alley. Several kids chased us, a small puppy yapped at their heels. Arriving eventually, the place seemed clean and stay-able. Any fears we had remaining washed away as the hostel had overbooked and wanted to upgrade us, but not only that, as soon as they realised we were un-celebrating a birthday they decided to throw together an impromptu dumpling party!
It was a very simple we-will-show-you-how-to-make-em-and-you-do-em-yourself style! It turned out to be lots of fun and we had a lot of fun rolling out the dough and stuffing them with pork mince. Many of the other hostel guests joined in and once they were cooked, we feasted!
The following day we had a well deserved sleep-in. A cold buffet breakfast of Chinese vegetables and white rice across the street and then we hit the road! On bikes!
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| Checking the map |
Firstly we cycled through the crazy busy main roads of Xi'an and out of the inner city walls making a stop at the historical Big Goose Pagoda. Located four kilometres from Xian's down town in the Qujiangchunyuan Park it was a hectic cycle as we weaved in and out between cars.
The large Pagoda was named after an ancient Buddhist legend. According to stories of Buddhists, there were two branches of Buddhism, one vegetarian the other not. One day, they couldn't find meat to buy. Upon seeing a group of big wild geese flying by, a monk said to himself: "Today we have no meat. I hope the merciful god will give us some." At that very moment, the leading wild goose broke its wings and fell to the ground. All the monks were startled and believed that their god showed his spirit in order to teach them understanding. They established a pagoda where the wild goose fell and stopped eating meat.
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| Front angle view of the pagoda |
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| Side view of the pagoda |
However, in contradiction to the story, the large ornate pagoda was actually first built in 652 (during the Tang Dynasty) by Buddhist translator and traveler Xuanzang. He hoped to be able to provide the people a place to worship and also store his many Buddha figurines and sutras. It originally had five stories, although the structure was rebuilt in 704 during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian to include a further two and its exterior brick facade was renovated during the Ming Dynasty.
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| Beiyuanmen Street |
After exploring the large park we stopped for a McCafe coffee then made our way back to the hostel and dropped off the bikes.
By foot we hit the streets and went in search of Beiyuanmen Street, a Muslim quarter and street food paradise! Beiyuanmen Muslim Street located in a neighbourhood of twisted narrow streets has a long history.
It is said that in olden days, foreign diplomatic envoys and merchants lived here, then they married and had children, so gradually the population increased. Today, most of the 20,000 inhabitants are the descendants of those immigrants.
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| Classic deep-fried banana |
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| Green stuff in a Pita |
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| Handmaking the peanut crisp |
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| Kebab's on the ready |
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| Local date products |
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| Jujube cake |
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| Xi'an City Drum Tower |
The big old Drum Tower, initially built in 1380 was used during the Yuan Dynasty to signal the running of time and on occasion was used as an alarm in emergency situations, of course it has been renovated several times since. It was impressively stand-offish and centrally located on a larger roundabout. We decided to not go in but to keep walking on.
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| Hiring our tandem bike |
From the tower we walked to the City Wall Southern Mingxianchengqiang gate.
The Xi'an City wall was first conceived when Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang (1368-1644), captured an eccentric nomadic hermit named Zhu Sheng.
The hermit foretold that the Emperor would unify China but in turn to succeed he must first build high walls and store abundant food supplies. So he set about creating a circular wall of piled mud and rice.
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| Kara and John going tandem |
In 1568 it was fortified with bricks making it one of the strongest impenetrable walls of its time. The wall, one of best preserved in China, now stands 12 meters tall, 12-14 meters wide at the top and 15-18 meters thick at the bottom. It covers 13.7 kilometers in length with a deep moat surrounding it.
Walking through the large wooden door gate on the southern side we entered an ancient courtyard. With stairs built up the inner side we where able to climb up onto the wall.
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| John racing ahead |
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| A bell on the Wall |
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| The roof of building within the Walls |
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| Chinese lanterns around the Wall |
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| Looking down into the moat |
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| Taking a 'pit-stop' |
There were lots of long straight stretches where we cycled along in rhythm letting the wind blow in our hair. From high up on the city wall we got a very good look in towards the ancient city.
Although most historic buildings have long been torn down there were a few gems and below the wall a beautiful green space made the surrounding area attractive.
After a while everything began to look similar as we past watch tower after watch tower so, to make the ride more fun, we began to race other tandem bikers and we had a hoot!
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| This little soldiers joining in |
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| Sunset in Xi'an |
Tot siens,
John and Kara
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