The next morning it was time to get your baggage and plough your way through the crowds at the railway station. Outside we were at once attacked by touts selling maps etc. We found the chauffeurs of the two minibuses that would take us to the Min Sheng Grand Hotel. The hotel was fine, just as good as the one in Beijing, even somewhat softer beds, and most important, in a short walking distance to the Bell Tower, Drum Tower and the Muslim Quarter – some of the most important sights within Xi’an. There are 6 million inhabitants in Xi’an, which is the capital of the Shaanxi province. The city is one of the few cities in China where the old city walls are still visible. Other than that it is most famous because of the site of the Terracotta Warriors which is just outside of town.
 

The Great Mosque

It was wonderful to come to the hotel room and have a shower after the night on the train. After the shower and a short rest Kath took us for a walk to give us a short introduction to Xi’an. After that we all went our separate ways. Xi’an has a very charming Muslim Quarter, with narrow lanes lined with old mud-brick houses. This is a paradise for souvenir shoppers, with plenty of small, colourful stalls and shops. The area has been home to the city’s Hui community (a minority group) for centuries, and has retained much of its original character. I went to see the Great Mosque first – an oasis of peace and calm and beauty in the middle of this big city. The Mosque is among the largest in China. The present buildings date back to middle 18th century. I had a look at everything except the prayer hall, where only Muslims may enter.

After that I went shopping. I bought among other things two very cute little silk suits for my nieces, on in blue and one in yellow. I also bought myself a pair of chopsticks that I would bring with me to restaurants and use for the rest of the trip. The sales people were nice, and it was relatively easy to bargain a cheaper price (you overcome the language barriers by writing numbers on a piece of paper when you bargain). That is not to say that they didn’t do the best deal, but in any case it is very cheap by European standards. After my shopping spree I went inside to have a look at the Drum Tower (which, surprisingly enough, contained several drums), then I went to the supermarket in the large modern shopping center to shop for groceries and cool down. I don’t know why, but I love groceries shopping in foreign countries. I had thought to visit the Bell Tower (marks the centre of town, from here run Xi’an’s four major streets), but decided against it (looked like the Drum Tower only with bells instead of drums…). 

In the evening we all met up to go to the night marked in the Muslim Quarter, and get something to eat. I really like the Muslim Quarter! The main street of the quarter runs out from under the arch of the Drum Tower. The street is surrounded by green trees on both sides. The narrow side streets to the left constitutes the market. In the main street the night market is mainly a food market. There are a few stalls and shops, but mainly restaurants, and in the evening the street is bustling with life. There were a few cars there, but not more than so that people are walking in the streets. Other than that you can see the standard bicycles, tricycles, mopeds and motorbikes. You can catch the sight of a few tourists, but mainly you see Chinese people. Often families with small children or groups of adults. Both the cooking and the eating do for a large part take place on the sidewalk. The smells from the food lie heavily over the area. Some tables are of regular height, but others are so low that you sit on low chairs with your knees sticking up.

We found a place to eat, but couldn’t get a table on the sidewalk. But it didn’t really matter as the place had no wall towards the street. We sat on rickety light brown tables and chairs. The place had dirty walls in yellow, white and green, more tables  stacked in one corner, a large refrigerator in the other. At one wall there was a long iron-bar with meathooks. The food, which was prepared on the sidewalk by young boys with little hats, consisted of a heavy round bread which we used a penknife to part in two and fill with the meat from the small ”grill- spear” (which were made of the little metal things on a bicycle wheel!). In addition we had some ”folded” pancakes filled with vegetables. Afterwards we bought an ice cream for dessert at a street stall and went along with a girl that Kath knows to the Xi’an Center of Traditional Chinese Art to have a look. The girl told us that the charming old buildings had been used as a location during the making of the movie The Last Emperor. She also told me when she heard that I came from Norway that they had a couple of Norwegians working there, and that the building would be restored next year with support from the Norwegian government. Afterwards I walked around the neighbourhood a bit longer, before I went out of the Muslim Quarter to the park that can be found between the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower. It had looked like a pretty boring park during daytime, no people and just these square fields of grass, but at night it was obviously a very popular park, bustling with life. After that it was home and to bed.

By the way, the traffic in China seems wild, people drive like crazy. You can never take for granted that anyone will stop at a red light. But unlike India there does seem to be some kind of system to the madness; cars, bicycles and pedestrians do seem to be able to co-exist without too many problems. The cyclists often have their own roads in the cities. I am not talking about an ordinary bicycle lane, but a path as wide as the street itself, one on each side. On these bicycle streets you could see old people trying to direct the traffic with a red flag – but they were often ignored. We saw some pretty funny scenes due to the fact that some of them got quite upset because they were being ignored.