We had three pagodas on the agenda: The Drum, Bell, and Giant Wild Goose Pagodas. It was a hot day, and we weren't all that thrilled at the prospect of being shuttled from pagoda to pagoda, so we checked out the first two from the outside. Pictured on the right, is the Drum Pagoda.After the pagodas, we had about an hour to explore Muslim Street. Fun Fact: There is a small population of about 80,000 Muslim Hui People (who are Chinese but practice Islam) living in Xi'an. Most are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers. It was really quite interesting; most of the signs had, of course, English, but there were translations in Arabic as well. I got a kick out of it. File that under "things I never expected to see in China."
Muslim street could be called a smaller version of Silk Street: lots of shops with plenty of souvenirs, t-shirts, and designer knockoffs. And, just like at the Silk Market, you can bargain!
Though at first I was intimidated by whole concept of bargaining, I've become quite a tough negotiator. Dad-you would be so proud.
I think I've also benefited from being in China for so long. We've done A LOT of shopping, so I know what is a fair price and what isn't. I've started to build up my arsenal of bargaining techniques. The old "I paid 10 quai less for the same thing at such and such market" is always an effective tactic. Or even something as simple as walking away. When the vendors come chasing after me, I know I've gained the upper-hand.When we had finished shopping, it was on to the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. Though, like its name implies, this Buddhist pagoda is giant, it is neither wild nor shaped like a goose. Needless to say, I was disappointed. We walked around for a bit, but since it was a sweltering day and we'd already visited a few Buddhist temples, the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda was kind of old news.
We took a long break in a beautiful, shady pavilion, and recharged for the long day of traveling we had ahead of us. After some persuasion, we convinced
our guide (who was a little high-strung) that we had time to stop at the Dairy Queen in the nearby "Happy Mall."As you might imagine, DQ on a hot summer day was the perfect pick-me-up.Our guide was worried about making it to the train station on time, so we ended up waiting for nearly two hours to board our train. Since I had neglected to pack anything to entertain myself, Sara was kind enough to loan me her extra book, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. It made for quite an interesting read. If you're a frat boy, you'd probably really enjoy it.
Once we'd boarded our train, we spent the few hours we had before lights out reading, snacking, chatting, and hanging out. We were all in the same compartment this time around, so it had that fun, junior-high-sleepover feel. Around 10:00 PM I took a Nyquil and called it a day.
Our train arrived in Beijing around 6:30 AM, we piled into cabs, and arrived back on campus around 7:30 AM. I barely had time to shower and eat breakfast before I had to be at Chinese class at 9:00. With a few strong cups of coffee, I made it through an entire day of class, but only barely.
And so ended our midterm trip to Xi'an. Back to the reality of class and homework and dining halls.
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