Xi’an 18th – 22nd October

On our journey to Xi’an we travelled out of town in to the countryside with huge mountains in the distance, although shrouded in mist or fog. We passed arable terraces and deep ravines.

One area was totally flat and had miles and miles of plastic vegetable cloches as far as the eye could see! 

We are staying in a Youth Hostel in Xi’an, not only will Glen not be getting a senior citizen discount here but he might be banned from the hostel seeing as he is 60! 

Having now arrived here we are pleased to report that we have been accepted amongst the young guests! Glen sat playing a guitar in the common area and the youngsters didn’t boo him! They didn’t clap either though. Chuckle. 

Having been out and about walking, and on buses we noticed that they constantly wash the roads here, so it always looks like it’s been raining! And with the fog/smog it looks cold even when it isn’t. 

We walked along part of the city wall.

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We saw people playing Table Tennis, which Isn’t surprising as it’s very popular in China.

The underpasses here are also very clean and welcoming. We came across a Book Shop, it was more of a tunnel than a shop. It got smaller towards the back and Glen said it’s like a rabbit hole, so they should call it ‘The Wonderland’ book shop ‘read me!’ He does make me laugh. 

They’ve sold a lot of freshly ‘squeezed’ (minced!) Pomegranate juice here. On the side of road on the way to the Terracotta Warriors archeological site there was stall, after stall of Pomegranates stacked up for sale. We’ve seen the mass sale of one product in lots of countries and we always wonder how the locals decide which stall to buy from.

We’ve seen lots more children with their nappies poking out of their trousers and also the bare bottoms of what we assume are the newly ‘trained’ toddlers! They must be so cold poor things! I couldn’t help myself, I had to take some photos for you!

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We’ve seen this lady and toddler a few times now, always a bare bottom. Chuckle 

Wires here are like those we saw in Vietnam. A right buggers muddle! I wondered how they manage to sort which wire is which when there is a fault…

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But they seem to manage. Mind you I don’t know how long these workman had been there or how much longer they would take! 

So far in China nearly all street food is on a stick! Most often there is more stick than food! As people walk around eating from them at all angles I can hear my dear old Nan saying “They will have your eye out!” I feel sure they must at least cause some injuries occasionally. Makes our cocktail sticks in the UK look a bit pathetic.

We walked to the Muslim quarter and it was an amazing experience. It was a lively and noisy atmosphere. Lots of whole hearts and livers for sale. Delicious varieties of breads, dried fruit and nuts as you would expect of Muslim food. 

We were surprised to see pigs trotters in this area though. The green garnish didn’t make them any more appealing.

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I loved the Jack fruit.

Every body part and the unappetising insides of animals are on sale in restaurants and on food stalls. However, not once have we seen chicken breast or pork steak etc. I’ve been thinking about this a lot, a thought came to me in the night. Maybe those ‘sausages’ on sticks, which they cut ornately before cooking, consists of the good cuts of meat, the bits they don’t like, the opposite to the UK. 

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As we can tell from the translations on their menus, it isn’t always clear what the food really is as it’s often mis-translated. Therefore when we asked what was inside this little square, covered in chicken floss (a finely shredded sweetened chicken coating that we’ve had before in many Asian countries) we didn’t really expect this to have a ‘Salad Cream’ filling we were told it would have, but it did! it wasn’t a good combination, because the square was actually a really good quality sweet madeleine type sponge cake! Their taste in food is very different to ours. 

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Xi’an looks lovely at night

We came to Xi’an to see the Terracotta Warriors and as always we learnt more than we expected. I won’t bore you with the history but one fact that I thought was interesting, well amazing really, was that they found their weapons had chrome-plating which protects from corrosion. This technology was thought to have been invented by the Germans in 1937 but it transpires that the Chinese were using it 2200 years years ago!

It was very foggy the day we went to see the Terracotta Warriors.  

We’re having problems with a slow internet here. As a result the pictures don’t seem to be uploading in the usual high resolution.