Our First Day in Xi'an, China
01.03.2012
We had an early morning today as we had to get to the Beijing Capital International Airport for our flight to Xi'an! Leaving Beijing was hard but I was incredibly excited to get to Xi'an, one of the oldest cities in China and one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China. The flight was just over three hours and once we arrived into Xi'an Xianyang International Airport we hopped into a cab to get to our hotel, the Bell Tower Hotel. The Bell Tower Hotel is right in the centre of the city beside the Bell Tower and Drum Tower Square.
After settling into our Standard Room, we decided we would head into the city to grab lunch, check out the famous Grand Mosque, and the Beilin Museum which are both situated close to our hotel.
Xi'an Lunch
For lunch we stopped at a placed called Xi'an Famous Foods, and it was by far one of the best lunches I have ever had! Xi'an is known for not serving "typical Chinese food", and this resturant has an amazing menu including many dishes made with the Middle Eastern and Chinese Foods that the city is known for. I ended up ordering the Spicy Cumin Lamb Hand - Ripped Noodles in Soup which was listed as their most popular soup - and did it ever live up to its reputation! With it I also got the Chang-an Spicy Tofu, the waitress suggested it and seeing as I had never tried tofu before I though I would give it a shot. It was a little to spicy for my taste but at least now I can say I have tried tofu....and in China no less!
Grand Mosque
Our first stop was to the Great Mosque of Xi’an, one of the oldest mosques in the country as it was founded in 742. Before stopping at the mosque I was expecting to see a traditional style mosque with the commonly used minarets, but I was definitely pleasantly surprised. The mosque is completely built in a Chinese architectural style, apart from a few Arabic letterings and decorations. It is still used by Chinese Muslims today as a place of worship.
Beilin Museum
Our next stop was to the Beilin Museum, also known as the Stele Forest. The admission fee was CNY 50 and we walked around exploring for 3 hours…but I easily could have spent more time their! The museum is located where the site of the Temple of Confucius once stood during the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127). The Stele Forest first came to be when precious stone steles where moved there for safe keeping, including the Classic on Filial Piety written by Emperor Xuanzong in 745 A.D. We got to see stone steles from the Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. The calligraphy collection was amazing to see! In the history of Chinese art calligraphy holds the same importance as paintings and the many inscriptions were beautiful to look at.
After our early flight and busy day all we wanted was a nice meal and our cozy beds. We ended up making our way back to our hotel and had supper in one of the hotel restaurants; we opted for the Western Restaurant since we have been stuffing our face with so much Chinese food lately. We made an early night of it since we have an exciting day planned for our second day in Xi’an!
Posted by Stalaueilpau 15:05