Xi'an - Muslim Quarter/Mosque

The skies look blue and sunny in Xi'an, don't they? Weird to look back and see the blue skies since our memory is of the thickest smog we have ever encountered. Our throats, lungs and noses were screaming at us the entire time we were in this city.

This is our early morning arrival at the Xi'an train station. More than hordes of people. This was the day before the National Holiday, October 1 (like our 4th of July). It is one of the two times during the year where almost every Chinese person returns home for a week to see their families. We were enjoying being in the middle of it all. Our guide, Jarrod, met us at the station, and got us into two taxis that whisked us to. . . . .aaaaahhhh. . . . the Sofitel. A beautiful hotel with all the western amenities which was particularly attractive to mom and Nancy. We were happy to be there as the rest of our stay in Xi'an wasn't a dream. Other than the smog, again, deceivingly absent in this photo, we had quite an adventure with our guide. Jarrod would run off at every opportunity for a smoke, stop his explanations to us to take phone calls that went on and on, spoke quickly and completely incomprehensibly, and just didn't plan anything for us beyond our immediate requests. There was a museum in town we wanted to see and we didn't know you had to reserve tickets in advance. He did not do that for us and never let us know until the day of. He took us to eat at the dirtiest, grungiest restaurant any of us had ever seen, and his English being so poor he couldn't even translate the food options for us. We asked him for vegetables, seemingly the most benign choice, and he didn't know how to translate that! Our whole experience in Xi'an was unfortunately colored by our experience with Jarrod. When I wrote the agency after the trip letting them know of our disappointment, they said we did not have a guide named Jarrod, our guide was Betty. After many emails back and forth and our insistence that we indeed were with Jarrod for 2 days, it finally was discovered that because it was the National Holiday, our guide, Betty, had pawned us off to Jarrod-we-don't-know-who for our trip. We received a page long letter of apology from Betty, too little, too late.

Tour guide aside, there are some fascinating parts of Xi'an, and the Terra Cotta soldiers are not to be missed.
After dropping our bags and Mama Lu at the hotel, we headed off to the Muslim quarter which was full of good sights, sounds and smells.
Beautiful dried fruits, nuts, spices adorned the streets.


Some kind of wild looking bread that I would have loved to try, but no one slowed down long enough for me to grab one!

We made our way through the packed streets and market place to the Great Mosque, hidden back in the tangle of lanes. It is one of the largest mosques in the country, and I believe the only one that has the Chinese architectural influence on its buildings.



Lots of gardens, courtyards and anex rooms to the side as we walked through. It is still very much a working mosque. Stunning.


The Bell Tower in old Xi'an.
There is a large square inbetween the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower. We were taking a little rest, but there is no rest for the Westerner. People began lining up to get pictures with and of Paige and Ridley. Storey and I were off on another part of the square. . . . .
flying kites! The Bell and Drum Tower hotel behind Storey (for the Walters to see!).



More enticing street food that was completely unknown to us. (Of course our translator/guide was not helping us at all in figuring this out!)
Mmmm, dried kiwi. If only I had dared to try one! The smog mist a little more evident in these photos.
For all my early tour guide griping, the Muslim quarter is facsinating and really fun to walk around in. Our first day in Xi'an. Off to the soldiers tomorrow!