After visiting the Temple of Heaven and Forbidden City in Beijing, I’d decided that for the time that I’m in China I’d prioritise visiting the places that I visit cities for. I don’t want to feel obliged to visit absolutely everywhere and have the back condition that I’ve had to flare up again as a result.
The main reason I visited Xi’an was to see the Terracotta Warriors which I posted about yesterday, and they were great to see. They’re expected to be fully restored in around 60 years time, so it’s good to be able to see the work in progress to get an understanding of the work the archaeologists are putting in.
After having spent more or less the past two and a half years living in a hostel-like setting, I thought I’d seen it all, and if I hadn’t seen it then it wouldn’t surprise me. Well, I got into my room, unpacked, and heard a knock on the door. For two nights I ended up sharing a dorm with four ten-year-olds, and after complaining about getting kept/woken up I ended up changing dorms and getting a free beer, though the beer wasn’t exactly worth it.
The day after I visited the Warriors I tried to wing it but I didn’t see too much, so I went off to the market in the Muslim Quarter, which is overpriced but you can find most of the food that this famous from this area. This includes the Chinese Beef Burger, Pork pastries (rolled with garlic, spring onion and lard) like a cinnamon bun and pressed which are pretty tasty, cold noodles with sesame and meat on a skewer seasoned with cumin seeds.
Yesterday I wanted to visit the wall of the city and cycle around it but my back flared up – turns out that going to a nightclub with a bouncing floor the night before was not my finest idea. I went out for a walk and chilled in the hostel, then went out during the evening to see the wall lit up.
Overall, I thought Xi’an was worth a bit of extra time after visiting the Terracotta Warriors. There’s a couple of things that I wanted to do, but I have to think of my back in the long-term so I can save myself for places like India, Jordan and Egypt.
