The Great Mosque 西安大清真寺

The Great Mosque in Xi'an is one of the oldest and most renowned mosques in the country. It was founded in 742, although most of it was built later during the Ming Dynasty. It's still used as a place of worship (by the local Hui people), but it's quite the touristy spot too. You can see that like the other mosque in Xi'an it is completely Chinese in its architecture and construction. 

Around the Xi'an City Wall

We are yet to actually go on top of the city wall, but we took a stroll around the outside of it recently. This wall is one of the oldest and best preserved ones in China. It has been completely
It encircled the center and older part of the city (14 square kilometers in all). It has a very nice walkway and park around it, and it's less than 30 minutes by bus from our place.

We will post more about it once we do visit the top of the wall, but we will have to wait for some nice weather.

 Here's some guys getting their haircut right next to the wall.

Chinese Shadow Play

At the Folk House, Red went to see a Shadow play that uses flat figures (shadow puppets) to create the impression of moving humans and other three-dimensional objects.

It seems like an interesting future project maybe, but it wasn't worth the extra 15 yuan, as the story was very short and not understandable for a non-Chinese speaker. 

Sites to see!

Walking around China you can find all sorts of things. Here's some things we've found lately.

This cute little boy was having an afternoon stroll with his grandparents at Small Goose Pagoda.

 

 

This one's our favorite. This elderly man is staying fit at an exercise park. Look at that flexibility! He's blasting music on his little red speaker as he's doing this crazy workout. It's normal to see people exercising in these parks, maybe one of the reasons why the Chinese are so thin?

Fashion is quite fascinating here. We see lot's of these fake fur coats these days.

 This ensemble is something we've only seen once so far.. No words can explain this one.

 

Here's to the lucky kitty and it's money slogan. Meow!

 



Folk House

In the Muslim Quarter we found this Folk House, which is a restored courtyard home. This historic residence now serves as an art gallery, entertainment center, and teahouse. It was originally the home of the Qing bureaucrat Gao Yuesong. We went with a friend who was visiting from Wuhan and found it to be quite charming. It is very tastefully restored having reception rooms, bedrooms, servants' quarters, an ancestral temple, and a study.  It also has an optional shadow puppet show, which we will reserve for another blog post.