From the total madness of Xi'an station it was thankfully only a 5 minute walk through the rebuilt old city wall to the Jiefang Hotel. The hotel is next door to a 24 hour McDonalds and over the road from a 24 hour KFC. First impressions are that this is a modern, bustling city but a lot of it is still under construction.
Bags dropped and rooms not ready, hardly surprising at that time of the morning, we wandered along wide streets lined with major construction works. Large areas of the city are being demolished and rebuilt with bigger, taller, shinier new buildings. Eva nearly bought a toilet adapter for use above a squatter.
We got to the old Bell Tower which is now being used as a large traffic roundabout. The corresponding Drum Tower is no longer due west of the Bell Tower as it has been moved slightly to the north to make room for a 6 lane road to carry even more cars to add to the visibly high level of pollution.
Had a Starbucks here, same quality as at home but also with the same prices. This must be a luxury item in China as you can buy 8 local beers for the price of a tall caramel macchiato.
Refreshed and with lighter pockets we continued to the Muslim Quarter and the Great Mosque. This trip is turning into a tour of the worlds religions. This old Islamic temple looked and felt like other Chinese temples because the minaret is short and disguised to look like a 3 storey pagoda so as not to upset the balance of local life.
The surrounding network of alleyways contain hundreds of market stalls full of great bargains. I thought the haggling was a good sport but Eva and Dominic walked off apparently embarrassed by my low offers, but my hard approach worked and the market sellers must have still made a profit.
We enjoyed a great spicy beef dinner back in the same area after getting our rooms sorted at the hotel. Lots of really tender beef cooked with whole scotch bonnet chillies and whole garlic cloves with large (20p) bowls of rice.
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