Xian, China: 9/20/13

I had never heard of Xian until I saw an episode of The Amazing Race ( my all time favorite TV show) many years ago where the contestants had to find a clue while looking at literally hundreds upon hundreds of Terracotta Warriors, known for this blog as TCW.  Luckily was game too to our going to Xian after we both read about it online.  Most travelers say you can "do" Xian in 2 days but we wanted an extra day to explore and so glad we did as there is far more to Xian than just the TCW.  I had read a gazillion posts on TA's Xian section about one tour guide, Bryan Bai, that people just all raved about so we booked his services a good 8 months ago for the first 2 of our 3 days to take us to specific sights in the city - we're not normally tour guide people at all but this worked out well for us.

• We had taken the overnight train from Beijing and got a metered taxi for  9 yuan ($1.50) to our hostel. Worked out fine b/c, no longer had we arrived and checked in, that Bryan arrived to begin our first tour!
• Xian's population is 10 million, including 100,000 Muslims, so it's considered a middle sized city by China's standards; there are, Bryan said, 22 million Muslims in China and 1.8% of the country's 1.3 billion population is Buddhist; there are 22 provinces in the country and 30 "medium sized cities", i.e. with a population of 10 million or more.
• I asked Bryan about the one child rule and he said there are 9 groups listed who can have more than one child: military wounded, miners and other dangerous professions, some farmers living in mountainous areas, divorced people, people who have a child with a disease, an only child marrying an only child, a Chinese living abroad returning permanently to China and certain ethnic minorities
• Saw the same haze as in Beijing which Bryan said was due to the number of coal burning plants burning nearby
• Our first stop with Bryan was at the Shaanxi History Museum; Xian, also spelled Chang'An, is the capital of Shaanxi province; our visit coincided with the Mid Autumn Festival which is sort of like our American Thanksgiving, so school was out and there were crowds of people everywhere.  Photos below of the most remarkable items at the museum.
• Onto the Big Wild Goose Pagoda: constructed in the Tang Dynasty in 9000 AD to commemorate a monk who traveled from Xian to India and back on a 17 year, 50,000 km round trip; the monk wrote a book about the 138 countries he visited en route; 100 monks still live in the temple now.
• An aside: saw the first handicapped toilets in China in Xian; no idea how they cope elsewhere.
• Onto Xian's Great Mosque; there are 17 mosques in and around the city but the Great Mosque is the biggest; built in 742 AD again during the Tang Dynasty; the Tang Dynasty lasted from 581-907 and was the original Chines civilization and began in Xian, aka known as the City of Glory; the tea ceremony and the kimono were introduced to Japan from the Tang Dynasty in China.
• Local Chinese Muslims have both a Chinese name and an Arabic name.
• Photo time now from our first day in Xian.

In front of our Xian Hostel; actually taken a day later but I wanted you to see what the place looked like from the outside first.

Our room with our own bathroom; notice the 66 bag - it's from Iceland and on its last legs; the plastic Nomin bag was from the State Dept Store in UB and has lasted us very long and well.

The hallway outside our room where we had our daily breakfast of tea (thanks to the constant jug of boiling water at the end of the hallway), rolls with butter and jam and Fuji apples.

On our way to the museum: celebrating the advent of the new phone!

One of the "Three Treasures" the Shaanxi Museum is known for that never leave the museum to go on tour or loan anywhere: The Agate Cup

You could only see these through a magnifying glass as they were minuscule. The dragons were buried by the witch doctor in a box below the palace to bring good luck.

This was the second top treasure: a Gilded Silver Flask with design of 2 Dancing Horses.

The third top treasure!

Not a good photo of the TCW but of us at least!  You can't get close to the TCW in situ so great to see some so close.

People were selling these all over Xian

More fountains in time to music shots!

I love the fountains going off in time to music - very popular with the Chinese too.

The red color of the gate at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda meant that commoners were to stay away and it was only for the imperial monarchy.

Also Big Wild Goose Pagoda

Entrance to Great Mosque

With Bryan, our tour guide

Shopping in the Muslim Quarter - we spent many hours there after being introduced to it by Bryan above.

Pomengranates in the Muslim market: they represent fertility to the Chinese.

We saw this repeatedly in the Muslim Quarter: 2 guys would take turns one right after another pounding the living daylights out of this cracker/brittle with huge mallets and attract huge crowds in the process.