Xian Day 2 Part 2 - Pagodas, Walls and Kebabs
Following our morning at the Terracotta Armies we drove back into the City to visit the Big Goose Pagoda - built in the Tang dynasty this 7 story, square sided tower is within a Buddhist temple that honours the Buddhist scholar Xuanzang who braved the wilds of western China and the Himalaya to travel to India to collect sutras, scriptures and relics which he then housed in the pagoda. He then spent many years translating them from Sanskrit to Chinese within the pagoda grounds, and is thought to have been very significant to the development of Buddhism within China.
Xi’an suffered from aftershocks following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and the pagoda now tilts slightly to one side.
We also visited the Xi’an city walls which have been built and rebuilt a number of times but the current incarnation are from the Ming dynasty. We entered via the South gate, where you funnelled into a large square surrounded by walls on all sides know as a ‘Jar’. This was to allow defenders to pick off any invaders that may have breached the first gate, and prevent them from gaining access to the second gate or the walls. Now stairs have been added such that you can climb to the top of the wall from this square. The wall itself is very wide and has a number of outposts along it which now act as small bike rental places from which you can more speedily explore the walls. We walked along a small section, looking out over the city below.
That evening we went to the Muslim Quarter, immediately north of the central drum tower and our hotel; while there are a large number of Muslims in China these is the only area in which they have formed a single community within a city. We ate in a small street restaurant where meat kebabs were cooked on a charcoal grill on the street. They didn’t speak much English but some pointing, a phrase book and an enthusiastic waitress got us a number of spicy beef and lamb kebabs, some rice and a vegetable selection and even, bizarrely, some beers. The whole thing cost less than £7.
Pictures:
Big Goose Pagoda
City Walls
Xi'an
Xi’an suffered from aftershocks following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and the pagoda now tilts slightly to one side.
We also visited the Xi’an city walls which have been built and rebuilt a number of times but the current incarnation are from the Ming dynasty. We entered via the South gate, where you funnelled into a large square surrounded by walls on all sides know as a ‘Jar’. This was to allow defenders to pick off any invaders that may have breached the first gate, and prevent them from gaining access to the second gate or the walls. Now stairs have been added such that you can climb to the top of the wall from this square. The wall itself is very wide and has a number of outposts along it which now act as small bike rental places from which you can more speedily explore the walls. We walked along a small section, looking out over the city below.
That evening we went to the Muslim Quarter, immediately north of the central drum tower and our hotel; while there are a large number of Muslims in China these is the only area in which they have formed a single community within a city. We ate in a small street restaurant where meat kebabs were cooked on a charcoal grill on the street. They didn’t speak much English but some pointing, a phrase book and an enthusiastic waitress got us a number of spicy beef and lamb kebabs, some rice and a vegetable selection and even, bizarrely, some beers. The whole thing cost less than £7.
Pictures:
Big Goose Pagoda
City Walls
Xi'an