Around Xian

Day 19 - The train pulls in at Xian station at about 9 in the morning. The nice young man gets directions to our hostel for us and even carries my rucksack (er.., so much for roughing it out... I haven't once carried my rucksack yet so far. JD's been carrying ours..). Btw, if you're anything like us and thinking of doing a similar round trip, I recommend getting those rucksacks that come with wheels. These look like normal luggage bags (so you won't stick out like a bloody tourist). Plus if like us, you're not really backpacking all the way, this works out better as you blend in (very handy as touts abound at stations) and you always have the option to carry your luggage as a rucksack should you need to. Btw the train we took actually continues all the way to Lhasa (2 or 3 days from Beijing to Lhasa I think), so you could actually do Beijing, Xian then make your way to Nepal and then India and Southeast Asia. Alternatively a flight from Xian to Nepal costs about 50 quid.

We check into our hostel (called Seven Sages) and sleep till noon. The hostel is another traditional looking quarters, once used as army barracks (the front portion of the building has been converted into a museum of some sort and there are pictures and information posted outside that seem to suggest this place had some significance in fighting the Japanese invasion. We booked our accomodation via hostelworld.com. I would NOT recommend this - our room was dank and there is rising damp on the walls. The bathroom is raised and with electric plugs right next to the shower head, we faced possible electrocution every time we showered. There is the smell of stagnant water everywhere and the cobbles in the courtyard are slippery with green mould. The staff keep on sprinkling some pungent garlic smelling liquid around the compound. As all the air fresheners in the room look about 10 years old (completely empty and dusty), I throw them all out. We buy an air freshener spray on day 2.
Our hostel
Electrocution chamber
We walk to the town centre, pay a visit to the Bell Tower, take some pictures and eat at a food court nearby.

Day 20 - We visit the Muslim quarter of Xian and walk around its pretty extensive maze of streets. It's slightly strange to see all these people who otherwise look and sound just like the other chinese, but wearing white 'songkok'-like muslim hats. There is food everywhere, in stalls and in eating shops alongside the road. Butchers sit alongside vegetable sellers. Lots of shops selling tea and souveniours.
Muslim quarter
JD is looking for a fake Tag Heuer watch and a seller we approach takes us to the back of his shop and lo and behold, there are drawer fulls of TH's, Rolexes, Omegas, the lot. Btw, their 'starting price' is about 700 yuan, which is (ridiculously ) at least 7 times the amount they'd go down to (I think...). We didn't buy anything from him though...

Btw you need to be careful as there are pickpockets and snatch theives around. A girl at our hostel said a kid tried to snatch her purse at the market. Also, check when getting your change back - the chinese note for 5 yuan is similar to the smaller 5 mao note. 5 yuan and 5 mao is analagous to 5 dollars and 50 cents respectively. The same lady at the hostel got burned. Fortunately, we didn't encounter anything of this sort (perhaps we blended in and conversed in mandarin when buying stuff, or we were just lucky...)

From the market, we walk to the town centre and look at the Drum Tower from across the road (we didn't bother paying admission and going in, assumming all chinese Bell Towers look the same anyway). We pass a local hotel and see a lot of office workers buying pack lunches from the entrance. In a moment of inspired 'backpacker-frugality', we purchase a pack lunch for 5 yuan to share. They must have thought we were really poor (an average lunch or equivalent rice dish costs 5 yuan which is about 30 pence, even locals splash out on more per meal) . The seller very kindly tells us we can even eat upstairs. We walk up to find a section of the hotel restaurant where people can eat their purchased lunches in air conditioned comfort. Lunch was really good.