Speed Touring Xi'an

Since we’re already in Guangzhou, I am waaay behind in my travel diarrhea, not to mention details are beginning to grow dim as this is now several days ago, so we whiz quickly through the highlights of Xi’an, or as quickly as I can force myself to edit.

9/19/07 Speed Touring Xi’an - Great Mosque & Muslim Quarter, Bell & Drum Towers, and Great Goose Pagoda.
First order of the day is a paperwork session. Rich, Howie and I hustle after Sherry to a another “close by” building, the notary office. Here we check the official adoption documents before they are finalized. Good thing we do. I find a lot of typos, though if it were me writing documents in Chinese it would probably be worse. I have been turned into “Ennifer” at one spot, Lian has become Lana Rasmusen, the last child to be adopted, and left lingering at the police station after she was found from April 1 to the 11th. Sherry reviews every comma and makes sure it is all correct. Then we head back to the hotel. She will return to pick us up at 11:30.
It is only the Pines touring today, the other families not being such gluttons for punishment. The driver drops us off “near” our destination. The Great Mosque is reached by winding through the narrow souvenir packed alleys of the Muslim Quarter. Since every stall has approximately the same tourist goods, it gets a little numbing and we zip through (besides our luggage is probably overweight for our flight to Guangzhou already, we can’t really afford to buy much.) Thank God that Sherry knows where she is going, since there are no directive signs I can make out.
The Mosque and Muslim quarter are remnants from the days when Xi’an was the beginning of the Silk Road to the Middle East. That two way traffic brought Muslims to China. Sherry told us the actual Muslim population is probably less than 100, but they receive special tax exemptions from the government. Seems to be a little resentment there. Then a sudden transition to open sky and a long series of courtyard leading to a still active prayer room. Men wearing white caps and traditional long dark jackets lounge and smoke near the purification rooms. Then we plunge back through more alleys and out into a fruit market and open air. A huge structure confronts us, the Drum Tower. You can go up, but apparently we’re not going to, so we look and begin a long hike to the Bell Tower now located at the other end of a long shopping plaza, and surrounded by a four lane traffic circle. Vendors are hawking long kites, strings of 20 or more tiny kites, and have them sailing above the plaza and two Towers. We have to reach it through the subway underpass (more steps) since the traffic would be sure death. Here we do climb. You can ring the huge bronze bell on the first level – for 10 yuan. When we get to the top, which besides a commanding four way view of modern Xi’an, houses a beautiful collection of pottery and calligraphy, Lela announces she has to go. We rush back down only to find the nearest WC is back in the subway, so I herd her into a corner and whip on a pair of pullups, there being no place to allow her to go ala Chinese child style, IE slinging her rear end over a curb or some greenery, which we have had to do a few times. Hey, when you’re in China.....and a lot better than a child with dripping undies sitting on your lap.
Sherry announces time for lunch. As we drive to a restaurant Lian falls asleep. I carefully carry her in and waitresses scurry to make a bed out of pushed together chairs, so of course she wakes up the moment I put her down. When we are seated and handed picture menus, Sherry turns to head out. We tell Sherry we need translation, that photos of unidentified bits in a bowl are not adequate. We manage to order noodles, a tofu soup, sautйed veggies, rice and I splurge for spare ribs. It is way too much food, but we make a valiant effort, at least Jamie, Lian and I do. Lela has apparently decided she can survive China on goldfish, ice cream, suckers, and a few bites of plain noodles.
The Great Goose Pagoda, to differentiate it from the Little Goose Pagoda, is a farther ride just outside the city walls. It is part of an active Buddhist temple complex, originally built in 652AD, though it and all the other buildings have been rebuilt many times according to Sherry, who does know her local history. There are men working on white marble railings as we enter. Beautiful gardens with small shrines surround the pagoda. The pagoda is a rather austere brick structure, 210 feet high, built to store the library of sutras (religious scriptures) brought back from India by the monk Xuanzang. His actual 17 year pilgrimage to India, study of Buddhism and return with many artifacts and sutras is the basis for the famous epic, Journey to the West. Pictorial representations of his journey fill the walls of two side buildings. The name, Great Goose Pagoda, comes from a story of the conversion of a sect of meat eating monks to vegetarianism. It seems that after praying for food, a large goose fell from the air at their feet, and they took this to mean that the god was sacrificing himself for their benefit and were ashamed at their gluttony. All this is very interesting, but we have seen too much for one day. The girls are falling down on their feet. We take them back to the hotel, feed them peanut butter sandwiches and put them to bed and pass out ourselves.
By the way, when I say pass out, that is exactly what I mean. If you do not have children or sleep like a baby while traveling, then you may have never reached the advanced state of sleep deprivation that would qualify as cruel and inhumane if inflicted on a prisoner of war. This is where you are one minute reading a bedtime story and the next swirling in a nether world of fast action dreams, only to snap out of it to find yourself telling your child something like, “the basis for the principals of religion are esoteric” and receiving a baffled look as you should be reading about Cinderella, who rarely discusses religious philosophy.