xi'an

I’m about to leave Xi’an and head to Kunming this evening, so I thought I’d check in first. Xi’an was a nice change of pace from Beijing and I’m getting much better at navigating Chinese cities. Xi’an is a huge city of some 3.5 million people or so, but feels manageable. I stayed within the ancient city walls in a nice little hostel close to most of what was worth visiting in the city. There’s a lot of history in this part of the country, but roaming around museums never sounds too appealing to me. So, instead I made it out to the nearby Terracotta Warriors, spent a good amount of time in the Muslim quarter which is full of street food and vendors and generally continued my aimless exploration of Chinese cities. I also managed to tag along with a large group from Ireland for a fun night of drinking and card games on Monday night. The Irish never disappoint.

The Terracotta Warriors is a fascinating site with an entire army in battle formation ready to protect Emperor Qin Shi Huang after his death. It’s an impressive display and truly maniacal – my type of guy! What’s most impressive is that none of the 7000 soldiers have the same facial expression. I also managed to get there on my own (as opposed to on a tour), which wasn’t so bad – and saved me quite a bit of money - though I could have done without the horn-crazy bus driver that took me back to Xi’an. My head was throbbing when I finally got back.

Unlike Beijing I did a good job of finding good street food and eating local specialties. The Muslim Quarter – home to a large population of Chinese Muslims for several centuries - was great for this. Mutton soup, fried pancakes, some sort of noodle dish, dumplings and various other random things. I took quite a few pictures of the vendors, so hopefully you all can get a better idea of what this part of the city is like. I really enjoyed it.

Well guess that’s it for now. Sorry I haven’t uploaded pictures in a very timely fashion, I’ve been having some technical difficulties with both my camera and computer - but I think I’ve found a way around them for now. Tonight I hop a flight to Kunming in the Yunnan province in Southwest China and then head north from there towards Dali, Lijiang, Shangri-La and the Tibetan border :)