Once we finished settling in, our first sight was the nearby drum tower. We watched a mediocre drum performance while there. Just behind the drum tower is the Muslim quarter. When I visited Xian is 2002, there was an antique market just off the Muslim quarter, and I hoped that it would still be there. Unfortunately, a tacky tourist market had replaced it. One stall was selling fake LaCoste shirts, and since I was wearing my own LaCoste shirt, I decided to compare them. The fake one really did have much poorer craftsmanship than the fake one. The lady selling them assured me it was real and the one I was wearing was fake! For lunch, we ducked into a hole-in-the-wall Muslim restaurant and ordered some mutton soup, which was quite good. It had square dumplings in it. The Muslim quarter is quite nice, and definitely feels somewhat authentic. There are lots of people wearing the hats that identify them as Muslim. After luch we headed to the Great Mosque. Outside, I bought a Muslim hat and put it on.
The mosque is quite a remarkable building. It is built in the Chinese style, and looks somewhat
like any other temple. There are a few notable differences, though. The mosque is oriented towards the west (to face Mecca), unlike every other temple in China, which is oriented north-south. Also, the pagoda-like structure in the middle of the mosque is actually a minaret. In addition, there are lots of arabic inscriptions all around the structure. One old man thought I was a Muslim because of the hat I was wearing!
From the Muslim quarter we took a taxi to the provincial museum, but were appalled by the lineup. Like the museum in Zhengzhou, the line to the Shanxi museum was impossibly long and would have likely taken an hour to get through. I had no desire to wait for that long, so instead we went to the nearby Big Wild Goose Pagoda. In front of the pagoda was what appeared to be a large fountain, but it wasn't working. We wondered when it would work. While climbing up the pagoda, I was disturbed by Viennese music. I looked out the window of the pagoda, and saw that the fountain was spewing water to the music. Apparently at night they have the same show, but it is set to light as well. From the pagoda we could also see the nearby Tang Paradise park, a park built to replicate Tang times. We decided to go there after finishing at the pagoda.The Tang Paradise park was rather expensive at 60 kaui a person. Nevertheless, we still
entered. The park was quite nicely landscaped, but while the buildings looked good from the top of the pagoda, they looked fake from up close. The entire park felt completely artificial. We were hungry, so we stopped for some Baozi. Martin got a phone call while we in one of the buildings, so I watched a dress rehearsal of the evening performance with people who wore no costumes. The music became repetitive and tedious after a while. Behind the building we were in, there was very loud French music blaring. Just south of the main park was a mini theme park. We had one free ride, so we went on one of the those swinging pirate ships. It was horrible. I shut my eyes for the entire time. We went around the park's lake, and then left. Boy was I glad to be out of the worst tourist attraction in China!We took a taxi to the Little Wild Goose Pagoda hoping that it would still be open at 5:30. It was not, so we tried to find a restaurant recommended in the lonely planet guide that was nearby. It was no longer there, so we took a route that would lead us back to our hostel. We stopped in a Sichuanense restaurant on the way, and had a terrific meal. Martin went to the bathroom there, and said he saw the kitchen, and that it absolutely filthy. I had been thinking of returning to that restaurant as well! Once returned to the hostel, we relaxed and had our free beer at 8:30. The hostel gives each of its guests a free beer in the evening. Quite tired we went to bed early, but knew we'd be woken up when Caitlin, the third member of our group arrived. She eventually arrived at about one AM.
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