The Bell and Drum Tower

 

 Both the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower are located in the center of the city. Historically a bell was struck at dawn from the Bell Tower and a drum was beat at sunset.

Here is the Bell Tower which is now surrounded by a huge roundabout. This is a huge intersection both above ground and underground as there's a gigantic pedestrian underpass here too. It also has access to get to the Bell Tower.

 

And of course there's a McDonald's not so far. Notice the store called Mona Lisa behind it.

 

This is the Drum Tower lit up at night. The Chinese really know how to give a good night view.

 



 

And a glimpse of the Bell Tower by night.

 

The Muslim Market

In Xi'an there is a Muslim market which has been home to city's Hui (Chinese Muslims) for centuries. There are tons of shops selling nuts, dried fruits, sesame oil, meat, souvenirs, and noodle restaurants everywhere. There are also mosques behind big wooden doors, men wearing white caps, and women wearing colorful scarves.  We visited and got our share of souvenirs and dried fruits. 



 

 

 

You can see that as evening arrived so did a lot more people. Here are some night shots.

 

The New Campus

 So we live on the old campus which is close to the downtown of the city, but we work on the new campus which is southwest of the city at the foothills of the Qingling mountain range. These pictures were taken on a beautifully clear day after a very heavy rain. Unfortunately the mountains can't be seen like this everyday.

 

 

 

This is the new library which boasts to be the biggest library building in Asia. Not sure about their book collection.

 

The East Gate Market

There's a fresh vegetable market every morning just outside the east gate of our university. It's about a 5 minute walk for us, so we have been frequenting several times a week. We are surprised, but we have been enjoying lots a fresh grapes, kiwis, and apples. Yum!

 

 

Around Our Place

 

We already told you that our apartment is overlooking an elementary school, so here are some of the activities that we encounter throughout the school day. At 9am they line up an exercise every morning, which involves lots of chanting.

 



 

Sometimes there are music lessons too. Here are some boys learning to play the trumpet.

 

This is the view from our kitchen window on an average day. 

 

Here's the change of view after a wonderful rain, which is not very common. Thankfully we are still in the rain season here in Xi'an.

 



 

In front of our building you can find a garden and a resident cat.  

 

This one's for your artistic side from the stairwell.

 



Our New Place in Xi'an 西安

As many of you know, we've moved to Xi'an. We got here almost 2 weeks ago now. We (well Red at least) started working right away when we arrived. We've been settling in and are starting to feel at home in our new place.

First of all, we were very happy to find out that we could move into an apartment on the old campus that has lots of markets, super markets, and food options close by. We are only a couple minute walk to the but shuttle that takes us to the new campus where we both work. The shuttle is about 45 minutes to an hour long. We were also very surprised to move in and see that the previous foreign teachers had left lots of useful things for us. It's great that we didn't have to buy dishes, plastic containers, a crockpot, a device to hang our clothes on OR a futon. They were just here waiting for us! We also have quite a bit of furniture that is extra. So we are definitely very blessed here. Here's some pics to give you an idea of our apartment.

We'll start with the most important: the kitchen.

 A view of the bathroom:

 

This is the living room. You can only see a glimpse of the couch, which is also a futon.

 

Here's our bedroom with our overly large king-size bed.

  

 The view from our window of the elementary school, which starts blasting music around 7:42 am every morning.

 

Here's our office and our "his" and "her" desks that they have provided for us.

 

 Here's the extra room where we will be putting up guests passing through.:)

Yep, so that's home sweet home.