Today we walked around downtown. We were looking for a store that does Chinese calligraphy. To be specific, a particular store that is in the Muslim part of town. There is a part of town with around 30,000 Muslims. So, we went around town to look around, and in search of that store. We first went to a little side road of the main East-West. This was not the Muslim part of town, it was actually a road that led to a Buddhist temple. There were quite a few shops and things on the sides of the road. It was interesting going down that road.
After walking around there, we went to the Muslim part of town. We started out in the slums of town. It wasn't really that bad, but it was not one of the places that has been picked up for the tourists. We walked around there for a bit. There were fruit markets around there. We got a YoZeh, it's like a big grapefruit, but tastes better. there are also the fish markets on the side of the street. So, you see a lot of decapitated fish on the sidewalk...
I saw one guy get two fish out for this lady, and he had to weigh them. You can't weigh squirming fish. So, he takes out this baton and just whacks the fish on the head. Boom! The fish is now knocked out. That is not a foreign sight, it's not like a murder or something. I just thought it was a good part of the atmosphere.
Then, we went to the city center to look at the bell tower and the drum tower. Back when everyone did not have a way of telling time. They used to ring the bell every hour during the morning, and beat the drum every hour at night. That way, everyone knew what time it was. We didn't actually go in the towers, as you had to pay money to get in.
In that area though, there were a lot of stores in the alleys and roads. You could find lots of know off cloths brands. You could get Rolex, Brentling, and Omega watches. Lot's of those designer cloths brands, whatever they are. Anyway, it was fun just looking around at all of the shops and things.
We did find the calligraphy shop. This is a shop that specializes in writing Bible versus. So, the whole shop is hung with Bible versus in Chinese. It is something you would not expect to see in China, but there is was.
After that we went back to take some pictures in front of the drum tower. The lighting is pretty cool at night. then we took a taxi back to our house. It was a pretty fun day. We are going to stay in Xian for one more day. We planned on leaving today, but, since we did not buy plane tickets until today, and the prices were so expensive for today, we decided (my parents did) to leave tomorrow.
We are going to be leaving at 6:00pm, I think, for Qingdao. We will get in at 8:00 or so. That will be the start of some new adventures!
-Aaron
Ther are more photos on the album.
The arch leading to the Buhdist temple road.
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| From China Day 21 |
Chinese chess is intense.
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| From China Day 21 |
This is a Yozeh.
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| From China Day 21 |
Inside
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| From China Day 21 |
Later on in the night, the street turned into a night market.
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| From China Day 21 |
There were lots of meat skewers to choose from on the street.
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| From China Day 21 |
The drum tower
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| From China Day 21 |
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| From China Day 21 |
This is the bell tower, I think it is in the middle of the entire city.
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| From China Day 21 |
2 comments:
Hi Krive family! You are experiencing so much, so quickly. You are blessed to have a photographer documenting it all to enjoy later. BTW, the photos are getting very artsy-craftsy. Fabulous, picking up the 'flavor' of the culture for us. Yozeh in hand, street artist, leaning bikes, garage (?) doors, calligraphy shop, and horse's head with shoulder of soldier - great composition and color. You really could submit some of these to National Geographic Mag!
Thanks for your comment. We are blessed to have Aaron as our photographer. Who are you?
-Chris
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