We were supposed to meet at the hotel lobby at 9am but as usual the others were late, and then they were faffing around at the Bank of China trying to change some money. So after a longer-than-expected journey, we finally got to the South Gate of the Xi'an city wall. We climbed up to the top of the city wall and first went to the Calligraphy museum in the South Gate Tower. Then we rented a few bikes and rode along the southern part of the city wall towards the western part of the city - it was fun, as this was probably the first time in 20 years that I rode a bike.
We
returned to the hotel at 11am to have a quick shower before heading off to
a Muslim restaurant next to Da Fa Chang. This restaurant was famous for its
mutton soup with pancakes (actually looked more like bread). First of all
each of us had to break the half-baked bread into very small pieces (at least
one and a half pancakes per person) into a large bowl. Then the bowl was taken
away, and the soup base, noodles and meat (lamb or beef - I went for the lamb)
was added. Served with coriander, some unknown red sauce (looked like chilli
oil but it was not spicy) and pickled garlic. A rather filling and delicious
meal.
After lunch, we walked to the Great Mosque in the Muslim quarter, passing
in front of the Drum Tower. The mosque looked more like a Chinese temple in
achitectural style. The arch as we entered the front courtyard was over 1000
years old (from the Tang dynasty). Also the muslims were called "Hui"
(meaning return) people in Chinese because the ancestors wanted to remind
their descendents that they were originally from Central Asia and would one
day return to the homeland. I spent about an hour in the mosque exploring
the various sections. 
Clumsy
me managed to drop the digital camera while taking a self-portrait photo -
fortunately the camera seemed to have survived the ordeal.
Then I did a bit of bargain-hunting in the street-market near the mosque. Nancie was looking at some paper-cutting crafts which the shopkeeper was asking for 18 yuans, but I said to the shopkeeper in Chinese that it was too expensive and I, on behalf of Nancie, lowered the price to 12 yuans. The shopkeeper had a moment of thoughts and agreed to my price, thinking that I was the tour guide! But later at another shop I managed to buy the same stuff for 5 yuans - even when it was 7.5 yuans I managed to convince the shopkeeper to sell it to me for 5 yuans.
While I was walking along the muslim food street, my left eye was attacked by a mosquito and so it spoilt my time there. My left eye got rather uncomfortable, and with the hot weather making me sweating like a pig, I rushed back to the hotel to give my left eye a good clean. After all, the last thing I wanted was to have an infected eye.
We left the hotel at about 4.30pm, to go to the train station - we were going
to catch an overnight train to Lanzhou. Wayhay! The train station was as usual
in complete chaos, with people trying to carry the oversized luggage and passengers
squeezing their way through the station entrance. After a 30-minute wait at
the VIP waiting room, we boarded the train (we could board up to an hour prior
to departure) - so another chaotic afair but I managed. Not quite so for Ross
who already had a heavy suitcase in this early leg of the journey - a porter
(not sure if he was genuine or not) carried the suitcase up the stairs and
then onto the train for Ross, and demanded money.
I shared the compartment with Andy, Judy and Nancie, while the two Aussie couples were in the next compartment. We had fun trying to figure out how to put all our luggage into the compartment. Most of ours managed to fit under the beds, but Judy's suitcase was was too big for that - so it ended up on her bed.
Andy bought a good variety of food for dinner - beef instant noodles, sausages, five-spiced eggs, bread with jam, fruits etc. He's just so organised! He also bought a bottle of Chinese red wine - 1999 Great Wall - it was rather drinkable too.
I was pretty tired with all the sightseeing and the rocking motion of the train - so fell asleep on the upper bed by about 9pm. I woke up a few times by the jerking motion of the train as it made its stops on the way (unfortunately it's a slow train to Lanzhou).
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