Day 255 - Making our way around Xian's sites

Revived after nearly 12 hours of much needed sleep we headed out into the cold, grey Xian day to explore this interesting city. Our first stop of the day was at the Big Goose Pagoda, which is set in the grounds of the Xian Da Ci'en Temple. Here we wandered around the gardens, inside the exhibition rooms, and through the temples - we even got a taste of home when we saw that one buddhist statues mentioned New Zealand. The pagoda was originally completed in 652 and is the place where many of the buddhist scriptures brought back from India were translated by Monk Xuan Zang.

From here we made our way to the Bell and Drum Towers, which are 2 of the several main landmarks in Xian. The Bell Tower originally housed a bell (surprising, huh?) that was rung at dawn, and the Drum Tower's drum was banged at night and to single the opening and closing of the city gates. Both towers were built in the 14th Century and later rebuilt in the 1700s. It was fun climbing both towers because of the views offered at the top over the modern parts of the city as well as the older traditional areas, both enclosed within the City Wall.

We then headed into the Muslim Quarter for lunch, but were disappointed when our only options seemed to be meaty soup - we were obviously not in the best area for food but were so hungry we were willing to eat anything! Afterwards we wandered the tight alleyways of the quarter, made even more claustrophobic by the stalls that crowded each side of the street, but that made for interesting browsing. The alleyways eventually opened up into the Great Mosque, which is the largest mosque in China, and the place of worship for Xian's large population of Muslims. The mosque was built around 742 and is a blend of Chinese and Islamic architecture, but we were surprised at how similar it is to a Taoist or Buddhist temple. While we were there we witnessed dedicated worshippers coming to the mosque to do what everyone but the tourists do here: pray.

We headed back to the hostel for a rest before going back to the great restaurant we found yesterday for some more great food. Adam managed to order a pineapple beer, which suited Liv's tastebuds more than his own!

Adlibing it all over Xian.