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Jun. 3rd, 2010 01:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ximenEl has posted photos from Xi'an!
Here is the Bell Tower, which is located at the center of the old city. The old city is a big rectangle, and the Bell Tower is right in the middle where the north-south and east-west main roads intersect. Right in the middle, so you have to go underground to reach it, because there's no way to cross all the lanes of traffic.
This is why it's called the Bell Tower. Nowadays you can pay to ring it, and when people do, you can hear it from several blocks away, even over all the noise of the city.
Here's the view from the tower:
And here's the Bell Tower's counterpart, the Drum Tower:
Drums!
You can see the Bell Tower from the Drum Tower balcony. Note the horrible air quality-- Xi'an not only has all the normal Chinese pollution issues, it's also right near the desert and so has lots of natural dust and grit too.
This is a picture El took of the Drum Tower at night. Those glowing lines are kites for sale. I don't know how they're kept aloft, given that it wasn't even windy that day.
The Muslim Quarter is right behind the Drum Tower, and full of delicious food!
This is the yangroupaomo I mentioned, a type of lamb soup with bread soaked in it. Sadly, we forgot to take a picture until we were almost done eating. But you can see the giant garlic cloves and little chunks of bread.
This guy was one of several vendors selling fried quail eggs on a stick. They fried them in little iron molds, then covered them in sesame and/or chili sauce. El got a stick and let me try some-- it was weird, but tasty.
These are little cakes of sticky rice, rolled in peanut and sesame, then spread with a little bit of red bean paste and drizzled in rose syrup.
This is the fried pita-like bread filled with bits of cabbage, onion, and red pepper. I miss this stuff already.
Here's our first hostel, the one with the reservation I messed up. It's a converted old courtyard house.
Here's the hostel's dog and adorable puppy.
Puppy!
Alas, we had to move to a different hostel the next day, so no more puppy. The next hostel did have kittens, though:
And here's the entrance to the city walls:
The walls had lots of guard towers, and larger ones at each gate.
Hey look, it's the Bell Tower again. This was taken from the top of the South Gate tower.
And here's a view of top of the city walls, from the same tower.
El and I attempt to strike heroic bicycle poses:
Thanks again to El for sharing her photos. Since I kept forgetting my camera in Xi'an, there would be no photos at all without her. At some point I'll upload my own photos from Chengdu, most of which are of pandas, but that will require remembering to bring my camera to the library or coffee shop.
Here is the Bell Tower, which is located at the center of the old city. The old city is a big rectangle, and the Bell Tower is right in the middle where the north-south and east-west main roads intersect. Right in the middle, so you have to go underground to reach it, because there's no way to cross all the lanes of traffic.
This is why it's called the Bell Tower. Nowadays you can pay to ring it, and when people do, you can hear it from several blocks away, even over all the noise of the city.
Here's the view from the tower:
And here's the Bell Tower's counterpart, the Drum Tower:
Drums!
You can see the Bell Tower from the Drum Tower balcony. Note the horrible air quality-- Xi'an not only has all the normal Chinese pollution issues, it's also right near the desert and so has lots of natural dust and grit too.
This is a picture El took of the Drum Tower at night. Those glowing lines are kites for sale. I don't know how they're kept aloft, given that it wasn't even windy that day.
The Muslim Quarter is right behind the Drum Tower, and full of delicious food!
This is the yangroupaomo I mentioned, a type of lamb soup with bread soaked in it. Sadly, we forgot to take a picture until we were almost done eating. But you can see the giant garlic cloves and little chunks of bread.
This guy was one of several vendors selling fried quail eggs on a stick. They fried them in little iron molds, then covered them in sesame and/or chili sauce. El got a stick and let me try some-- it was weird, but tasty.
These are little cakes of sticky rice, rolled in peanut and sesame, then spread with a little bit of red bean paste and drizzled in rose syrup.
This is the fried pita-like bread filled with bits of cabbage, onion, and red pepper. I miss this stuff already.
Here's our first hostel, the one with the reservation I messed up. It's a converted old courtyard house.
Here's the hostel's dog and adorable puppy.
Puppy!
Alas, we had to move to a different hostel the next day, so no more puppy. The next hostel did have kittens, though:
And here's the entrance to the city walls:
The walls had lots of guard towers, and larger ones at each gate.
Hey look, it's the Bell Tower again. This was taken from the top of the South Gate tower.
And here's a view of top of the city walls, from the same tower.
El and I attempt to strike heroic bicycle poses:
Thanks again to El for sharing her photos. Since I kept forgetting my camera in Xi'an, there would be no photos at all without her. At some point I'll upload my own photos from Chengdu, most of which are of pandas, but that will require remembering to bring my camera to the library or coffee shop.