Most of this day was spent on the train. My sleep had been fitfully disturbed but by day I was suddenly imbued with the ability to sleep like a baby and did so until midday when I went to see Liam in carriage 12. We talked for a bit and then I went back to carriage 16 to read. Our destination, Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi Province, is really important to Chinese history and was the capital of many dynasties. It used to be called Chang'an. Xi'an has a very central position in China and is one of China's hugest (domestic and international) tourist destinations. A lot of people come to China on a Beijing-Shanghai-Xi'an package. The main attraction here is the Terracotta Warriors. More on those later!
The train had been very delayed when we had got on it but had caught up to only 25 minutes late by our arrival into Xi'an. Several parts of the station were cordoned off and we accidentally joined the queue for entrance to the waiting room instead of the ticket office. We realised our mistake when we reached the head of the queue and the guard helpfully informed us: "this is the train station". Really? Dash it! I thought it was the local swimming pool!
We found the right queue and bought our tickets on a sleeper to Chengdu for the evening after New Year's Day - the 8th. Then we tried to get a taxi to our hostel but they appeared unflaggable for some reason so we found a bus to the Bell Tower. Our hostel, Bell Tower Youth Hostel, was just around the corner from the stop. The hostel was a busy one and we got beds in a 10-person dorm. 3 beds were already taken by two Australian girls called Lucy and Heidi who had been teaching in Shanghai and were now finishing up their time in China with a trip to Xi'an, and Zack from Guam who was travelling alone and had been doing so for several months. He had been right through Europe, and even though I have covered a lot of China now which is quite impressive to those who haven't travelled much, I still felt the twinge of jealousy at his travelling experience. Inter-railing here I come! The three of them went out and we were left to unpack the necessities (I HATE living out of a bag) and sort out some laundry. We took showers at last and slowly got ready to go out, and by the time we were acceptable to leave night had fallen and we were hungry. We walked to Beixuanmen Islamic Snack Street, which is right next to the Drum Tower (anyone with any knowledge of Chinese city layout will know that the Drum Tower is invariably just down the road from the Bell Tower). The street is packed with Hui people. The Hui are of the same ethnic group as the Han but are Moslem. Their main region is of course Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, but as Shaanxi borders Ningxia, the capital Xi'an is also awash with Hui people. The street we were walking on is basically on the surface just a tourist trap, but if you turn off onto some of the smaller streets then it is obvious that people make their lives here. It is very close to the Great Mosque which is the centre of life for the Hui minority. The traders here were selling all manner of food items and souvenirs, and the street was packed with food stalls, local people, and a muddle of tourists. We tried the local speciality, yangrou paomo, which is soup with mutton and bits of bready pancake soaked in it. Quite nice to begin with but they gave us chopsticks to eat it with, which was slow going scooping out the mutton and pancake, and the pancake began to disintegrate into flour, rather ruining the soup. We were full up anyway, it is a very hearty dish! I bought some dragon's beard (candy made out of flour) from a sweet stall, but to be honest it was vile. That was all we had the time and energy for, and so we returned to the hostel.
The Bell Tower lit-up at night.
Beixuanmen Islamic Snack Street, absolutely chockablock with people.
Some of the stalls with a huge variety of snacks and meals for sale.
The Drum Tower near the Islamic Snack Street.
Yangrou paomo, mmm.
Xi'an is famed throughout China for its snacks. This is one of the sweet stalls with loads and loads of mysterious goodies on offer.
No comments:
Post a Comment