Day 42

I've eaten Korean food in three different cities since leaving that country. Polishing off a bowl of bibmbap at this very moment. Old habits, right?

Busy day today in Xi'an. I got up early and went to the Muslim quarter to find a souvenir. I've purchased hand-made blanket (blanket type things, anyhow) in a number of places I've visited over the last few years, so finding something like that was my mission for the day. But I had to give up on that mission early when the first seller I approached opened negotiations for a used blanket at $1200 usd. Yeah... twelve hundred bucks for something at a stall in an alleyway in Xi'an. The guy was full of shit, so I got the hell away from the markets, giving my shopping money to a a beggar child hanging out at the exit.

I taxied down to Xi'an Shaanxi History museum for a few hours of peeking at cultural relics covering the whole of China's pre-civil war period. The exhibits were very impressive, thought after awhile the whole pottery theme that most Asian museum have going is sort of tiresome.

After a lunchtime snack I walked down to the Big Goose Pagoda. Not sure about the origins of the name, but the ol' Big Goose stands a very impressive 64 metres tall, and is filled with lots of neat Buddhist relics. Tourists can climb up and get a nice view of the city (charge: four bucks).

Later on, skipping a visit to Little Goose Pagoda, I taxied over to the Forest of Steles Museum in the centre of town. That place exhibits a library of texts engraved on massive stone tablets created during the Han dynasty. The museum is a curious place, being simply room after room filled with these big stone tablets... and nothing else. I suppose it's mainly for big stone tablet enthusiasts, though the sureallness of such a place makes it worth a visit for the non-enthusiast traveller.

Xi'an, they say, is the beginning (or end) of the old silk road, a series of trade routes connecting Europe and China, used for the transport of silk products and other commodities. There were many paths traders used, some going through Pakistan, India, or even by sea, but they all passed through Xi'an. I'll be exploring some silk road sights in the coming weeks, starting with an overnight trip to Lanzhou, which will begin in a few hours.