scribbler at large

Well, my plan to post about the other half of our Xi’an trip got sidelined by Thanksgiving and the exciting fact that my mom is here! Please forgive my delinquency—I’m hoping you were all busy enough yourselves not to notice. As usual, a bad air day was the inspiration I needed to write this post.

So, back to Xi’an! While the terra-cotta warriors (see last post) were mind-blowing, the rest of our time in the city was equally cool. After a few hours looking at and learning about Emperor Qin’s tomb, our guide took us back into the city to the Muslim Quarter…which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: an area of the city with a big Muslim population.

We parked on a tiny side street, and walked into the center of the Muslim Quarter where the sidewalks are packed with vendors hawking food, spices, and candy. At first we just stumbled around stunned by our good fortune—cheap food, the smell of roasting meat, and enough people-watching to keep me entertained for days. My husband kicked things off with a bowl of tofu that was soft and spicy and warmed our insides.

After shouldering our way down a crowded street our guide led us into an indoor market packed with tourists, tchotchkes, and the occasional fish massage parlor (you stick your feet in a tank and fish nibble on your skin).

The market was really just a long path flanked by vendors with a roof over it, and after following it for a while, we popped out in front of the Great Mosque of Xi’an, which is one of China’s oldest and largest mosques. Built in the 700s after Islam was introduced to China by traveling Arabian merchants, the mosque’s architecture is beautiful mashup of Chinese and traditional Muslim styles.

There are four courtyards leading to the main prayer hall, and we walked through them slowly, checking out the pagodas, landscaping, and inscriptions on the way. Our guide was eager to discuss Buddhism, Islam, and the group of Mormons he’d met a few weeks ago, and every few minutes he’d stop walking to make a point. Being surrounded by Chinese people in Muslim garb while having a heady discussion about religion and politics with a young Chinese man was another one of those mind-bending, where and when am I moments that I keep talking about. If you’re interested in the Great Mosque, here’s some more info.

The entrance to the prayer hall at the Great Mosque.

The entrance to the prayer hall at the Great Mosque, which was off limits for tourists.

After emerging from the grounds of the mosque, we turned our attention back to eating, and went on an aggressive street food sampling spree. Unlike a lot of the foods on the famous “snack street” in Beijing, the food in Xi’an seemed relatively fresh and hot. We struck gold with some flaky fried breads filled with vegetables (name unknown) and fried persimmons.

The only misstep we made was buying some shady “chuanr” (chwar), which is roasted meat (in this case lamb) on a stick. It was greasy and fatty and gag-inducing, so we tossed it a couple of bites in.

We also watched a slaughter/butchering operation take place in a big hole dug by the side of the road behind a makeshift curtain. Our guide speculated that the hole and curtain were efforts to avoid getting nailed by some kind of health-inspection agency.

After another lap of the busiest food street, we parted ways with our guide and checked into our hotel to take a nap. What did we do after that? We went back to the Muslim Quarter under cover of night. This turned out to be a great move. Xi’an, like many Chinese cities, has a drum tower and a bell tower. In the past, the Drum Tower typically marked time, the sounds of the drums indicating time of day. The Bell Tower stands at the center of the city, and used to serve as a vantage point to survey the city and provide early warning of invaders. In Xi’an, both towers were built in the 1300s and sit close to each other. At night they're lit-up, and we did a lot of staring and photo taking.

The biggest food street in the Muslim Quarter leads right to the Drum tower, so we did our sampling under the lights of the tower. The streets were even more packed after dark, and vendors were churning out hot food. We wandered around watching candy makers pound and twist their sugar-recipes into candy, and spice makers (whatever they’re called?) grinding hot pepper.

We tried the famous roujiamo (row-jya-moah), which is sort of like a pita hamburger, but the burger is shredded roasted lamb and beef with hot pepper and oil. It didn’t look especially appealing, but it tasted awesome.

The surprise highlight for me were tiny peeled and roasted potatoes coated in oil and spices—perfectly cooked in a way that would shame most American diners. After the potatoes, we tried more spicy tofu, more quail eggs on a stick, and more candies, and then walked home completely stuffed and happy.

These look gross, but are super delicious. Fried quail eggs on a stick painted with sesame sauce.

On the way home we we heard a loud cracking sound—think firecrackers—and discovered a group of people in a park wielding whips (yes whips). Big, stone tops were spinning in front of them on the pavement and every few seconds they’d hit the tops with the whip to keep them spinning. Later, I did some googling and found out that this is a traditional Chinese exercise—here’s a video.

The next day we went to Xi’an’s city wall, which is still intact after hundreds of years and now rings the old city. The wall was initially built during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) but was expanded by Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang in the 1300s in order to better protect the city. It now stands 40 feet high and 40-45 feet wide at the top. The whole wall is about 8.5 miles long, and has towers at regular intervals where soldiers were posted to fight off invaders. The distance between towers is calculated to be within enough arrow range that the entire wall could be defended without soldiers accidentally shooting each other. There are four main gates in the wall and we went to the South Gate where we rented a pair of bikes.

We biked the entire wall, stopping to take photos and admire the (smog-limited view). The air was pretty bad that day, which made for semi-unpleasant biking (feel the particulate fly into your lungs!) but it was very cool to see the city from the vantage point of the wall.

Looking down from the wall at the gold-plated Guangren Lama temple.

The rest of the day we wandered around the city before getting on our train and heading back to Beijing. Did we eat more? Yes we did. Before we left we tried biangbiangmian, which is a famous flat noodle dish. We ordered a bowl to share, and then watched the cook make the noodles in front of us. The result was fresh noodles floating in a hot broth with chunks of beef and potato and greens—the perfect meal for a cold day, and a good Xi’an sendoff.

We left with a glowing impression of Xi’an as a city with a long history but a young, metropolitan attitude and really amazing food. We arrived in Beijing the next morning after a paper cup of sludgy coffee on the train and about an hour of awake-time for watching the scenery roll by. As always, it was nice to be home.

That’s the overdue update on Xi’an. I leave you with this: