Proclaiming peace (or victory?) at Big Goose Pagoda

Trip to Xi'an: March 23 - March 25. Day Two.

(Once again, trip photos are here)

Day Two started off bright and early; with the sun shining and warm weather, it was a perfect day to explore Xi'an. The anticipation was slightly marred by the fact that the shower only had cold water and a non-draining drain, but hey, missing one shower never hurt anybody (as far as I know).

First stop, 鼓楼 the Drum Tower - a mere five minute walk away from the hostel. We were greeted by the sight of two huge drums when we stepped on to the tower. One of which, if you paid 5 kuai, you could strike 3 times with a pair of wood dowels. A placard at the side informed us that the first strike is will bring luck; the second, health; and the third, fulfillment of all your wishes. We decided to save our pennies (or fen'r as it were) and walked around the verandah to check out the other drums instead. A line of red drums are found on the north and south sides of the tower; each one is associated with specific kind of weather, such as spring breezes, summer showers etc., and you are supposed to strike the drum associated with the weather you want to arrive (or rather, were supposed to strike - you aren't allowed to hit these drums anymore). Why anyone would wish for freezing gales is beyond me, but as Chris points out, it wouldn't be such a bad thing in the middle of a scorching summer.


rows of red drums at the Drum Tower

Next stop: back through the Muslim quarter to see the Great Mosque of Xi'an. It's a beautiful place, really lovely courtyards with budding trees, blossoming flowers, and amazing architecture. The peace and tranquility was broken by the entry of a large American tour group, actually one of the same groups we saw at the Terracotta Warriors. They recognized us too because Chris said he overheard someone saying "didn't we see those three yesterday?" We wandered around for about an hour and even witnessed the latter part of halal butchering taking place in the corner of a courtyard. The public is allowed on the grounds up to, but not into, the main prayer hall. We peered into the dim interior to see a huge space filled with rows and rows of prayer mats; thanks to a quick google search, I can also tell you that there's enough room inside for one thousand people.


one of the mosque courtyards

We wanted to linger longer but we had a few more places we wanted to check out before our evening train. Such as returning to the little shop we saw last night in the Muslim quarter; we were originally attracted by a wall covered entirely with shadow puppets but what caught Craig's eye was a tray holding tiny terracotta warrior replicas. He wanted to purchase his own army(!) and so he did when we returned today: 50 figures for 50 kuai (about 6 USD). Chris and I purchased a xun 埙 each - I couldn't resist after hearing someone play it in the streets last night. I can't fully reproduce its mellow tones yet but practice makes perfect, right?

Thus loaded with souvenirs, we headed to 钟楼 the Bell Tower. The crazy part is that it's smack in the middle of a roundabout, encircled by traffic swirling on a huge 4-6 lane road. It's so busy that you can't even cross the road - you have to pass under traffic via a tunnel to reach the Tower. Like the Drum Tower, you can hit The Big Bell (going rate is 10 kuai for 13 hits I think). There weren't any other bells but there was a second floor with a small painting exhibition and a verandah with a good view of the city center and the traffic below.

We headed back downstairs to catch a cab to 大雁塔 the Big Goose Pagoda, not to be confused with Little Goose Pagoda. As we passed under the city walls, Chris asked the cabbie if people are allowed to walk on top of the wall. "Sure, the main entrance is at 南门 South Gate." We decided to check it out after visiting the Pagoda. The actual Pagoda is in the middle of a big "park", a term I use loosely given the hugely disproportionate ratio of concrete-and-tile to greenery.

Before heading up the Pagoda, we made a stop at the main temple where Chris and I decided join other Chinese people in lighting candles and incense for good luck. Traditionally, you would make a specific wish eg. good health, good grades, luck in love and so on. I hoped for good news about grad school; I guess something worked because three days later, I found out I got into one of my Master's programs! As we climbed the stairs up the Pagoda, I felt vaguely like I was climbing up the Cornell Clock Tower. No chimes at the top, but there was a really good view of of the surrounding area.


Chris and Craig light some incense

By now we were all tired but we still wanted to take a closer look at the city wall. To be really honest, we didn't find being on top of the Xi'an city wall to be particularly interesting. Maybe we were jaded by the experience on top of this wall. The lack of energy was probably a factor too so we decided to head back to the hostel to eat dinner and relax for a couple of hours in the lounge before catching our 9:30pm train back to Beijing.

The email-checking, reading, and studying (yes we brought out textbooks) was frequently and pleasantly interrupted by the presence of the hostel's golden retriever puppy named Gogo, which we think is a play on 狗 - the chinese word for 'dog' pronounced "gou". Anyway, he kept pouncing around and nipping at our toes the entire evening. Gogo took a particular liking to Chris, probably because he allowed Gogo to use his sneaker as a chew toy. Chris regretted this 15 minutes later when Gogo started treating Chris' foot as his chew toy as well. We could tell Chris never owned a dog before because he was having an awful time trying to get the dog to understand the concept of NO. It didn't help that we didn't know whether to address the dog in english or mandarin (we used both).


Gogo!

The assumption that our adventure was winding down at this point is marred by two events. One: Craig helped push a bus. As we waited for a cab to get to the train station, we saw a public bus break down right in front us. Since this is China, several passengers actually got out of the bus and started pushing it along. Craig decide to volunteer a little muscle, thus creating the image of a six-foot, blond, white guy in midst of a group of five-feet something chinese men pushing a bus together. Too bad our cameras were packed away!

Two: We boarded our train to discover our berth was already occupied by an 阿姨 ayi (middle-aged lady), baby, and granny. Um, ok. Turns out their ticket was only good up to Xi'an and they were hoping to 补票 bupiao - add extra money - to get to Beijing. Trouble is, they were sitting on bunks designated on our tickets. A quick conversation with the conductor and the three were cleared out of the berth. I wonder where they ended up on the train. I overheard the conductor saying they didn't have any more 卧铺 wopu - sleeping berths - left which meant they were probably relocated to a hard seat carriage.

13 sleepless hours later, we were back in Beijing.