Xian

This is really the end of the world – the Silk Road ends (and I suppose, begins) here. At least according to the Chinese. There’s a statue facing west that marks the beginning of the Silk Road. The statue is of a general, and don’t ask me what his name is because I don’t know – they told us on the bus on the way from the airport, and I didn’t have anything to write with at the time. The central part of the city is surrounded by a wall. The wall was built on the foundations of the old walls of the Tang dynasty forbidden city (more on the Tang later, REALLY) by the Ming dynasty. It’s quite a thick wall (two chariots can drive abreast on it, should they choose. And if you happen to have a chariot handy, I suppose), and pretty high as well. (have pics, I think). Our hotel looks out on a portion of the wall, and we actually have a great room right in the front of the building on the 7th floor, so we can see all sorts of things from here. Every night they have what can only be described as a big conga line party. It’s basically a big dance party that goes around the park for hours and hours. Well, it’s probably not as long as all that, but it seems like it goes on for hours. Luckily I’m still so exhausted in the evenings that basically I get into bed and I try to read my book and I can’t keep my eyes open. Next thing I know it’s morning. As I type, they are out there right now partying up a storm.

Xian has a relatively large Muslim population for China (the Hui people). Apparently, Xian also has a large Christian population. Inside the wall in the older part of the city is an interesting combination of ultra modern and ultra expensive stores. They have a fancy schmancy mall that reminds me of Tysons II. Ferragamo, Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Versace and Ralph Lauren. You get the idea. Further on down the main road is the Bell Tower. It was built in the 14th century and then rebuilt in 1739. They ring the bell at about 8 o’clock each night, and you can hear it from quite a ways away over the din of the city. It is quite a deep sound. If you walk a little further beyond the Bell Tower off to the left is the Drum Tower. It is smaller than the Bell Tower, and marks the Muslim Quarter. There is an alleyway off from the tower that is called the “Muslim Market”. There is stall upon stall of Chinese crap. (have pics) Mah jong sets? They have about fifty billion. Mostly those are plastic crap, although some people are claiming they are bone and bamboo. They have lots of stalls with Chinese art, some of which is really nice, and some of which is not. There are lots of silk pillow covers, which I am quite tempted to buy, but I’m afraid I’ll get a gorgeous one that won’t go with my couch, so I think I’ll just not buy one. There was one thing we looked at today that I was SOOOOO tempted to buy. It was a lighter with Mao’s picture on the front. When you opened the lighter, it starts playing the anthem. You can buy just about ANYTHING you want with Mao’s picture on it. Not sure how that goes along with the whole communism thing he tried to get going, but I have a feeling he’d probably think that this was cool. Actually, I know he would – he would totally dig the fact that his face is on every piece of kitsch in China. What is incredibly disconcerting about the Muslim market is that you cannot touch anything without a vendor coming up to you and saying “You like, give you good price. Cheap. You name price.” It’s getting to the point where I’d really like to go somewhere without having someone come up to me and offer to give me a good price. Several times when I was looking at the silk pillow covers, the vendor would come up to me and start a running commentary on what was on the cover. “Bamboo”, “flowers”, “birds”. It’s a bit odd. You have to haggle for everything, and I’m just not sure if I’m any good at it. At this point I think that things are cheap enough that it really doesn’t matter, but you have to haggle no matter what. They offer a price, and you have to offer half, and then they offer a price, and so on. I hate it, really. I never really know when to stop, or when it’s appropriate. I’m sure that I could have gotten better prices for a lot of the stuff, but there’s nothing I can do about it now.