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| Da Yan Pagoda 大雁塔 | The view of Xi'an city seen from the Pagoda 大雁塔上的西安市景 |
We left the garden, and we had some time to walk around and visit the souvenir stores. The souvenirs were quite expensive. There were jade products, wood crafts, small statues, and playing cards. We just had a look inside the stores. Some girls bought beautiful kites from the stores.
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| The museum |
We were given enough time to watch the antiques, and in fact I followed the path again from the prehistoric period to Ching Dynasty.
Gathered again in the coach, we travelled to the next spot with tired legs.
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| The outlook of the wall 城牆外觀 | On the top of the wall 城牆上 | I'm on thw wall 我在城牆上 |
Of course, the big doors of the city wall were not closed, but were opened to let vehicles and people going in and out. We hadn't much time staying there. Then, we were on our coach and rode to the centre of Xi'an city, near the Bell Tower. When we were walking to a restaurant to have our lunch, we walked along a street which was like a background in making films. The road was made of rectangular rocks and not concrete. Beside it, there were houses which were two or three storeys high, with wooden window frames. The street lamps were antique-like, and of course the bicycles which were everywhere in Xi'an.
Suddenly I discovered something about psychology, which was a research centre of applied psychology, but it was a small scaled one, just the size of two shops.
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| The street near the Bell Tower 鐘樓附近一街 |
We came into a restaurant offering dumplings filled with soup 灌湯餃. We also had some "8-treasures congee 八寶粥", and we counted the 8 elements of the congee (different beans). Of course we had dumplings. We were full when we left the restaurant. After that, we had a look around. I visited the applied psychology research centre of Shaanxi. It was small, but it was for the whole Shaanxi Province. I saw a few people there, and I saw in a leaflet that they offer IQ test, personality test etc.. There were testing machines, but I couldn't see them, what a pity.
We had time to walk along a street in which there were many souvenir stores. Many of them were selling small objects like old coins, golden words of Chairman Mao, small toys etc..
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| The Bell Tower 鐘樓 |
It was situated at the centre of Xi'an city, where the infrastructure was better. There were concrete roads, and the pedestrians and cyclists paths were well separated from the vehicles' roads. Street lamps were built, and there were traffic lights (I believe there were less than 10 sets of traffic lights in Xi'an). There was a big metal bell, and tourists could pay RMB$3 to have 3 hits of it with a long piece of wood, we tried it, the sound of the bell was thick. We could see the whole city when we climbed to the top storey and walked round the tower. We found there were nothing else interesting, and left.
There were several exhibition halls, each contained many many steeles. The steeles were lined up so that people could see the front side and the back side of them. They were protected by glass frames, and some of them had a rock animal at the bottom. Many famous books were crafted in the steeles, like Confucius' words "Lun Yu 論語". The halls were big, and if one wanted to see all of the steeles, s/he should have strong legs, not to mention reading the words on them. I realized that crafting these steeles needed great skill. The calligraphy was good. The steeles were black in colour with white words, and the halls had weak lighting, if one walks to steeles far from the entrance, it could be quite terrifying. It was surely a good place for playing hide-and-seek.
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| A arbour in the Forest of Steeles 碑林內一亭子 | Steeles in a hall 碑林內的碑 |
While we had visited all the halls, some of us rested our legs, about I found some shops selling goods (e.g. tea leaves, Chinese medicine, Chinese cloth). Kitty and Frennie were there too. Then, I was back to the arbour, and Kelvin was watching two people playing Chinese chess. What an atmosphere! Playing Chinese chess in a place full of a feeling of traditional remains. Besides steeles, there were crafted pillars in the garden, and there were paintings on the walls of corridors.
When we felt enough of staying in the museum, we walked back to the car park, but we could not see Mr. Cheung nor our coach. So, we had a walk on the streets. There were stalls selling paintings, some of us were interested, and Fat Boy bargained with the stall-keeper. They argued for every dollar, and some of us helped Fat Boy. In Hong Kong, we never bargain dollar by dollar since it is not a desirable behaviour, people would consider you as a middle-aged woman 師奶, but in Xi'an, it was a must to bargain, and we got much fun in the process. At last Fat Boy bought what he wanted, but still not satisfied with the price. While they were bargaining, I walked through the door of the city wall, and went outside the wall. There I saw a beautiful scene of the wall, with a river 護城河 in front of it. I bought a corn-shaped ice cream, which tasted like sweet corn. Finally, we were on the coach again, and back to STU.
I went to the second floor and looked upward, I found light, and I saw a gate at the end of the steps. I also saw some people at the other side of the gate. I spoke to them, but I couldn't understand their language. He may be a guard, but he was more possible to be a patient. I thought patients were just locked there like prisoners, at least that place gave me such a feeling. The stairs were dark, and I was afriad of staying any longer, so I retreated back to the street.
As I could not find the book shop which Fat Boy and Kelvin were visiting, I went back to TU Road, and then back to the hostel. I met Kelvin, and knew that where they were visiting after separating with me. The book shop was not on Chang An Road and was inside a village. Kelvin told me that others were probably in the bar which we visited two days ago, and we went to Xiao Zhai again by taxi.
Helen, Frennie, Kitty and others went there long ago, and felt tired, so they left very soon. Then, Sam and Virginia came. So, Joe, Kelvin, Sam, Virginia and I sat together and chatted. We had beer and talked about the June 4 Event, the politics of China and Hong Kong etc.. (showing that freedom of speech was present in Xi'an). We talked about our own situation (e.g. financial) too. In the bar, there was a waitress, Miss He 和, who knew Cantonese, so we felt like meeting a friend there. She learned Cantonese in Xi'an, and she said not many Cantonese people went there. There were only one or two bars in Xi'an. She told us that she knew someone operating a bar in Macau.
We were a little bit hungry, but the bar couldn't provide much food, so we left the bar. Before that, we took a photo with Miss He outside the bar. We crossed the road to the cooked food stalls on the pedestrians' path, someone greeted us immediately and showed us where we could sit. We ordered meat noodles, and told the chef that do not make the noodles too spicy. Some stall-keepers around talked with us, and we told them we were from Hong Kong, and they were interested and talked among themselves. The bowls of noodles were big, and were rich in meat, vegetable etc.. One thing special was that there was a plastic bag covering the bowl, so the noodles were in the bag, so that after we had finished the noodles, the stall-keeper just threw the plastic bag away and did not need to wash the bowl. Another environmental unfriendly activity. We also had mutton. Although we told the chef that we couldn't tolerate the degree of spice there, the noodles were still very spicy, but it was really good. We spent about $20 for 3 bowls of noodles and a dish of mutton.
We crossed the road to find a taxi, and we travelled back to STU. I enjoyed this kind of eating and drinking very much, it was even more convenient, and of course more economical than in Hong Kong.
Additional photos:
Photo of the Bell Tower
Another picture of the steeles in Forest of Steeles
Leave me a message if you have any additional information or correction.
