Food, Dancing, and the City Wall in Xi'an

May 31st, 2013

Food in Xi’an

Xi’an is particularly known for its dumplings and I sampled many kinds at a dumpling feast.

My guide also took me to a restaurant that catered to Westerners


I'm not a culinary expect, but I'm pretty sure deep-fried egg
fritters coated in syrup are not a traditional Xi'an delicacy

One night, I went scavenging to find some street food. Tourists never went to the market I saw, and although the sellers and I couldn’t communicate with words, we could bridge the divide through smiling, pointing, and creative hand gestures. They were quite amused that I was willing to try their native dishes and gladly served me.

Next to the market was a big supermarket that housed the Mexican store.

Does anyone have ideas what makes this store Mexican?

Dumpling Feast

The show was good, but not as epic or incredible as the one at Yangshuo. The costumes were excellent though.

 

 

 

Most audience members recognize that shows, performances, films, etc. are a stylized view of reality. But we rarely consider that the works of art we see are often created by artists whose worldviews are quite different than those of the general public. Differences in categories such as level of income, political leanings, religious convictions, etc. naturally feed into what they produce and how they try to influence culture. I most notice it when I see dances that are theoretically highlighting masculinity, but feature people prancing around. I liked most of the dancing, but did not appreciate the one featuring the aerobatic, flexible side of the Chinese army.

Perhaps I have unrealistic expectations because no live performance can ever
compete with the montage from Mulan's "I'll Make a Man Out of You"

City Wall

Around the old city is the city wall.

My official itinerary called for a bike ride around the city wall. Learning my lesson from Taipei, I changed the itinerary and had a pleasant walk instead.

 

My poor guide is used to caring for obese elderly Americans who walk for five to ten minutes max before they get exhausted and want to go back to the bus. Once he realized that I was serious about wanting to walk for a couple hours around the wall, we had a pleasant 5 mile stroll. Xi'an is one of China's ten biggest cities by population with about 8.5 million people in the administrative area.

The walk provide a nice blend of ancient history and modern city to see what Xi'an was like and how it will be in the future.

 

 

In between the skyscrapers and wall is a great place for a park.

The government provides affordable housing for many cities within the old city walls. As we walked, we moved from slums into increasingly nice areas.

 

Not bad for a youth hostel

 

My guide was a botanist before realizing he could make multiples of his salary
 as a tour guide. He would often smell trees before we could see them

How do you make a skyscraper distinctly Asian? Add a pagoda top!

You know what looks good? Hawaiian shirts. What's even better?
A Hawaiian building!