Great Mosque of Xi'an

Our next stop was the Muslim quarters in Xi'An. There is supposed to be a really old and beautiful Muslim mosque there and we wanted to see it.

Directly when you enter the streets to the Muslim quarters you notice a different atmosphere. The people are dressed differently and the many food stands look different. It is very interesting. There are around 80000 Muslims in the city and they all seem to be focused in this area.

Soon we found a sign saying "The ancient mosque 150 meters. You are welcome!", so we turned around that corner in to a very narrow path between the houses. A couple of Muslim men ran past us hurrying forward and we saw then turn in to an opening ahead. We walked there and entered where they disappeared. As soon as we entered the mosque we understood why the men was in such a hurry. It was time for praying and the mosque was filled with people. So we stood still outside and watched them pray. The mosque is very beautiful but we didn't dare to take any pictures during the ceremony. So after about ten minutes we walked out from there. the picture to the right show how it looked just outside the main gate.

So we walked away and took a stroll through a small shopping street with everyting a tourist would ever want to buy and a lot of other  crap. When we came to the other end of the shopping street we found an entrance to another mosque. If it wasn't for Girlwing I would have missed it totally. Thank gods that she can read Chinese! The first mosque we visited is actually the new mosque that was built instead of the old one. And I think the new one looked really really old.

The old mosque is around 1360 years old. The mosque is quite special in that it doesn't look Arabic at all but have a typical Chinese style. You can see some Arabic writings here and there but that is all. It is very beautiful with its gardens and ancient Chinese style houses. I think that is a good thing, because it is the religion that is the important thing, not the design of the buildings.

The entrance to the Great mosque of Xi'an.

 One of the many cool houses in the garden.

 The path to the Great mosque.

Several small "houses" on the way there.

 Still on the path to the mosque.

 Just a couple of more houses and then we are there...

 Ah, there it is!

A quick look inside the Great mosque on Xi'An.

Xi'An Great City Wall

As I mentioned earlier we took a closer look at the great city wall of Xi'An. It is an impressive piece of work.

The first version was build 2200 years ago. It took four years to build and when completed it measured 25.7 km in length, enclosing an area of 36 km.

Inside is now the actual city centre and there is where you will find everything worth watching. And of course the wall itself is worth a visit.

The wall is wide enough for a bus to drive on it, though I didn't see one... but you can rent bikes if you are in a hurry around it. It was still slightly raining so we took a walk around half of the wall. In the picture up to the left you see me reading the city wall map in front of one of the entrances to the city. The city wall is behind me and the house on top of the wall is for the army archers to snipe on enemies.

Here is the house again after we climbed up. 

Notice the scale, it is not a small wall.

Matching waste bins.

 One of the many smaller houses on the wall.

Probably shelter for the soldiers.

 Imagine you are the enemy down there and

I am aiming my crossbow at you.

 Three small police cars, no police...  But around the corner behind the police car there is an entrance to a toilet, so I didn't dare to borrow the car. :(

 Cool Chinese roofs. Used to belong to a rich Chinese merchant, but now the government officials are using it.

 This can probably be of use in case of an invasion.

 The wall continues like forever...

Here we will get off the wall and enter the Muslim quarters. That is another place you must see when you go to Xi'An and you can read about it in my next blog entry. Cool house by the way.

Xi'An Giant Wild Goose Pagoda

I earlier wrote that we saw the Small wild goose pagoda. If there exist a Giant wild goose pagoda, then we must go see that one too!

We went there quite late when the sun was setting, with heavy clouds and a light rain, so I did not have the optimum conditions to take good outdoor pictures. Maybe I should have waited until it was darker and the spotlights were lit.

This time we didn't climb the pagoda. Partly because we were short of time (they'll close in one hour) and partly because Girlwing said 20 yuan was too expensive. 20 too expensive? In the tax-free on the way home she wanted to buy a facial cream for 800 yuan and she said that was very cheap. I don't understand the reasoning here...

Here are a few things that I liked to see in the temple around the pagoda.
 

 There are a lot of old houses in the area of the temple. Many of them contains altars to the many "gods", others are the homes for all the monks that live there.

When you get to the temple you often see one or more of this steel bathtub filled with burning incense. 

 Usually you use the incense or a candle and hold it like this and bow three times in each of the four direction while you mumble some blessing words in the Buddhist language.

 Here is the Giant wild goose pagoda, that we didn't climb.

A chinese lusthus (gazebo).

Some of the monks strolling around.

I could imagine myself living in a summer house just like this one.

A couple of local girls.

A famous Chinese monk who taught the Japanese how to write with the Chinese characters. He also taught them about a lot else from the Chinese culture and made them civilised so they didn't have to live in caves any more.

I can never get enough of the cool Asian roofs.

A monk reading from the holy scripture near a Buddha altar.

Xi'an Museum

On our fourth day in Xi'An we went to the museum. There you can see the history of the area from the stone age to more recent times. A lot of interesting objects to see.

Girlwing was very excited and took pictures of every object she saw. She is so cute, and annoying... It felt like it took us forever to go through the whole museum. But it was worth it!

Here you get a taste of what we saw there. Not too much... If you want to see more then you'll have to go there yourself. You'll need half a day. We used four hours. The tickets are for free, but there are thousands standing in queue. So you do want to go and buy tickets for 20 yuan for the special exhibition to be able to jump the queue.

 

This Buddha is nice.

Magnificent stone bowl.

Under the table you can see the reflection of the bottom.

Another beautiful jade bowl.

An ancient Chinese coffee mug, or something...

After taking all the pictures, 

Girlwing got hungry and bought her favourite food. Corn cobs!

Xi'An Terracotta Army

You can not go to Xi'An without seeing the famous terracotta army. There are many tousands of soldiers that all look different from each others. We believe that the original soldiers of Chinas first emperor stood models for the clay artists.

The archaeologists found three tombs filled with soldiers and they believe that there are more tombs to be found.

The tombs with all the soldiers are an impressive work. It is quite amazing that the emperor only became 49 years old and still had time to conquer and unify the whole China, to become the first emperor of China, build the first Great wall of China, the Grand canal of China and build this impressive terracotta army. He also arranged book burnings and to bury scholars alive.

His whole life he was striving for eternal life and that is what killed him in the end. He had alchemists trying to make elixir of life to achieve immortality. When he ate some of these pills containing high levels of mercury, he finally died. In one way he became immortal... we still talk about him.

To me he looks like the regular nut-case that is striving for power. People like him should never be let close to any power at all. Still, our history is filled with them.

Here are some soldiers standing guard.

Archaeological excavations are still in progress.

A lot of chattered pieces are put together in an advanced puzzle.

The generals war planning rooms.

Headless war planning in progress.

A piece of nature between the tombs.

A lot of soldiers are found in this way. Both sides of this path is more or less untouched and it is unknown what lies beneath.

Xi'An Small Wild Goose Pagoda

The first old Chinese building that we planned to see in Xi'An was the Small wild goose pagoda. A pagoda is a kind of house or tower with many roofs.

This pagoda was built in year 709 and is 15 levels high but it used to be even a bit higher before the devastating Shaanxi earthquake in year 1556.

Girlwing and I climbed the stairs all the way up to the top. The last levels I had to take off my backpack to fit in the stairs and small passages. Finally up there we were able to enjoy the fantastic view over the city.

Breakfast!

Stone carvings with names of who donated a lot of money for the construction of the pagoda.

On my way up the pagoda!

Chinese graffiti at the top...

The temple next to the pagoda.

Small Wild Goose Pagoda.

A pomegranate tree.

 The yard of the temple.

A stone lion.

A sacred animal looking piece of wood.

The horse parking lot. The higher stone, the more powerful owner.

The most powerful people have a statue on top of the stone.

Really cool leaves on that bush!

Happy lion parking spot.

The temple and the pagoda in the background.

I also took some time to smell the roses.

Lunch!

The great wall of Xi'An.

We will take a closer look on that one before we leave.