The Lone Wolf Travels Part 2 - Muslims, Mosques and Mutton

If you didn't know, it would probably be nice to discover that Xi'an was the eastern terminal of the Silk Road, the ancient trade route that brought not only spices but also Islam to the Far East. As a consequence, Xi'an has a substantial Muslim population, at least for China [I think there are something like 1 million in total]. One of the main features of Xi'an, that will be recommended to you by any avid China-traveller, is the Muslim quarter. Essentially a really, really big market in the centre of the city, it's the best place to buy souvenirs as well as get some amazing food. 

A place near the Muslim Quarter

I didn't get any street food, but I saw loads of people eating this dish where you crumble some unleavened bread [that's bible vocab right there], into a soup with either mutton or beef. It looked and smelled great, so I decided to try it. It. Was. Amazing. Honestly, I was so upset that I couldn't finish it [I know right? That's how you know there was a lot], because it was so tasty and cheap grrrrrrrrrrrllllllllllllalaaalalallalala. It was good. You guys should try it, I have no idea what it's called, because when I walked into one of the hundreds of restaurants, I was swiftly asked 'BEEF OR MUTTON' and then sat down, whereupon my soup arrived pre-crumbled. I think there's also noodles in there somewhere- Xi'an has a big noodle culture.

'People's' Theatre

Oh yeah, I also did some sightseeing, such as the the famous Bell and Drum towers - the symbols of the city. The bell of the Bell tower used to be stricken at dawn, the drum at dusk. I also saw the [outside] of the Great Mosque which, being built in 742, is one of the oldest Mosques in China.

Bell Tower

Drum Tower 

 Xi'an is also one of the few cities in China to retain its original city limits wall. Obviously it's been refurbished, but the original structure and much of the brickwork still remain.

 And that's it for Xi'an. One 13 hour train journey later, I arrived in Beijing...

Xx

...And a Happy New Year?

"Hey Edi, what's up?"
"Oh not much, not feeling too great though.."
"Oh really, how come?
"Well, you know I'm sort of in the middle of an exam period right now...Well, I'm possibly not the most prepared student on the course."
"How's that?"
"Well, I was doing pretty well with revision, until the 31st of December, when I got plastered at this New Year's Eve party. And then proceeded to be drunk until the 2nd of January."
"When did your exams start again?"
"The 4th..."
"Ah..."
"Furthermore, probably as a result of incessant drinking, I've got a pretty bad cough. And I have a speaking exam tomorrow."
"Shame."
"I know right. And, to add insult to illness, I accidentally overpaid my landlord, who now refuses to pay me back."
"Say whhaaaaaaaaatttttttttt?"
"Mate, don't even get me started. You know the Chinese have this whole thing about 'face' [面子，mianzi], well we reckon she probably realised that we overpaid [considering she said 'well, you should have checked it properly then'], but would never own up to it in public as Chinese people are ridiculous. It's no surprise though, Chinese landlords are notorious for being shite. When we called her she accused us of calling her a thief and told us to stop harassing her, as if we regularly call her up for chats. She's a b*tch anyway, she's lucky if I don't box her face in the next time I see her."
"So...any good news?"
"Well, I did manage to book my train ticket from Xi'an to Beijing, they were very nice to me when they realised that I was a foreigner and didn't really know what was going on. I had to queue up in the snow for 45 minutes but it was worth it. Everyone looked a bit shocked to see how much money I was forking over [420 yuan, about 40 quid] for a sleeper train. I realised that most Chinese people were buying seating tickets [about 100 yuan, 10 pounds] and so I probably looked like the stereotypical rich foreigner."
"I thought you weren't going to Beijing till the 11th?"
"Yeah, but Chinese trains get really busy so they open up sales 10 days before. Usually you book about 3 or 4 days in advance, but trains are especially busy during the 春节 [chunjie, Spring Festival] migration period, which lasts for about 40 days, which is when I'm planning on doing all my travelling."
"Right, and what is...choown...chaan? jyay exactly?"
"I'll do a post on that later."
"Ok cool. Any other good news?"
"Well, to be fair I did have a lot of fun over the 2 days of [non-stop] drinking, it reminded me of home, except for the fact that we went to an indoor water-park/hot-springs on the 1st. That was pretty good...no pictures of that though. I've got some pictures of us drinking though, if you're interested?"
"Hell yeah."

I wanted a picture of me to be last, but I thought it would be better if they went in some sort of sequence. Happy New Year everyone!!

xXxXxXxXx

祝你圣诞快乐。。。

So, as everyone in the West knows, Sunday was Christmas. Stranded in the Far East with no family, no festive recognition from the locals and certainly no Christmas meats, it was set to be a bleak celebration of the birth of Christ. We were happily rescued from this outcome, however, by a Canadian friend called Alex. Having been away from home many a year, even spending one Christmas solo in a random city in China, he understood the lonely hearts of the fellow 'the-chinese-don't-celebrate-christmas-so-we-have-no-holiday-and-are-therefore-stuck-in-china' westerners.

This is Alex

We had our doubts about how the day was gonna pan out, for various reasons. But it turned out to be a very lovely day indeed. Indeed. First of all we had to arrange some presents to participate in what will now be referred to a 'the vicious game' [wait for the explanation], as well as some treats to share with the group. For the treats we just brought a leftover crate of beer [don't ask] and some oranges [most foreigners in China haven't had sight or sound of fruit in about 1 and 1/2 years], which went down quite well. Out presents were a wallet [with a cold-weather face mask], a Tea set and an incense burner, bought by myself, Serrena and Holly respectively. Just a quick side note, Alex's house is pretty frickin' huge. It has two floors, several bedrooms 2 bathrooms and a bar. Yes, a bar. He is the only person who lives there. This is relevant to the latter part of the story.

So after we got there we were anti-social for while, you know, took a short nap whilst the other guests flowed in. Then we found out there was Bailey's and cheese cake, so we got a little more involved in the celebrations. After much chatting and socialising it then became 'Vicious Present Swap' game time [sorry, I changed the name]. So, the idea of this game is that all the presents go under the tree and people's names are picked out of a hat one by one to get a present [see above picture for name-picking example]. However, if you like a present that someone else has already picked, you can steal it. I know, right? Such an American game, just stealin' other people's sh*t like that. I got an alright present out of it, some mini-Chinese bowling pins and a push-out paper dragon from Muji. Serrena very unslyly stole back the incense that Holly had bought and, after having to choose a present for the third time, ended up with the very cool mini-Guzheng. 

I know no one knows what a Guzheng is,
so this is a picture of a girl playing one

After the presents and eggnog were all finished and the first people started trickling out to go to their overpriced [though admittedly western] dinners, people started to find different ways to pass the time. After a few comments about how awesomically large Alex's house is as well as the innumerable amount of cupboards it contains, the idea of hide-and-seek followed by Sardines came into play. It was a wonderous afternoon of play - I think the fact that it was a pyjama party helped the regression into childhood. 

In the evening we didn't really have a any sort of proper dinner...actually we just went to some overpriced Japanese restaurant with about 4 other people. Although later on I went to a bar [where Alex plays guitar, he also has a beautiful voice] and that was nice.

Aaannnd that was my Christmas. Hope everyone who's reading this had a considerably better one! Here, have some pictures, and possibly a video.

This is Tetsuya - he got my present, which you can tell is awesome
by how happy  he looks :)

The tea set that Serrena bought was eventually stolen
by Warren

Comments & Questions       ^.^     Xx

P.S The title means 'Wish you a Merry Christmas'. The 'We' is implied...