Xi'an

This ancient city is on most people's China itenaries. Despite being a generally pleasant city, it is nearby army of terracotta warriors that draws people to the cradle of Chinese civilization.

Xi'an is one of the oldest cities in China. The region's fertile soil has been a home of the Chinese for 5000 years. The Qin dynasty made it their capital in about 500BC and it remained there for 1,500 years.

Xi'an was the start/end of the silk road, depending on your vantage point, making one of the most important inland trade routes in China.

The city waslls still surround the city center. It is a museum opent to tourists. It even gives you the chance to rent a bike and ride around the whole wall to the city. I opted for this experience and it was a bumpy ride along the brick road, but quite fun.

At night, many come to the Big Goose Pagota, main symbol of the city, to see the spectactular fountain show. Streams of water are lit up and timed with music. It is the largest fountain show in all of Asia.

The true heart of the city however, is the muslim district. Tucked away behind the old drum tower, this chunk of town is filled with markets, mosques and food vendors selling a variety of delicious treats. Some highlights were fried parsimon filled doughballs, deep fried sweet potato cakes with a cinnamon walnut filling, deep fried sandwiches on flatbreads, and my personal favorite, yangrou paomo, a soup with lots of tiny chunks of flatbread, then filled with noodles and meat with a spicy, rich broth. If this wasn't my last meal in Xi'an, I probably would have eaten it everyday.

It was the food that was the true highlight for me. Beijing had heartier, more subdued, almost mainstream flavor. Xi'an was burst of taste. The food was spicy and rich. The restaurant proprietors, seeing my light complexion would often ask me something, pointing to the chilis. I always gave the thumbs up. A man even said to me in English one day while eating some sweat inducing soup, "I can't believe you are westerner eating this food! Isn't it too flavorfull?" I told him that I just love food and especially "ma" and particular flavor you can't really get in the US. It is a special type of numbing hot that is featured in many inner-China dishes, as oppossed to "la" which is the burning hot we are all familar with. The way these two types of hot are combined defines many of the dishes of Western China.