M-whY

I woke up for good maybe an hour later. Glancing out the window told me it'd be an overcast day with light rain. It was too late to catch any of the day trips - they had all left earlier and we would've had to have booked them the night before anyways. "What do you want to do today?" I asked. Jon had about as much of a plan as I. Until noon, we just dallied about, him hard at work, me reading guidebooks, while the drizzle slowly came to a stop.

We eventually got our act together, lacing up our shoes and heading out for a light day. After spending half an hour at a travel agent to plan the following day, we flagged down a cab to take us to some of Xi'an's sights.

"[Big Goose Temple]" I told the driver.

"[What?]" "[Big Goose Temple.]" "[Big Goose Pagoda?]?" "[Oh, right.]"

"If you need any help with your chinese, let me know," cracked Jon from the back. Whatever... we got there, didn't we?

Big Goose Pagoda was located inside Daci'en Temple (Temple of Grace), which is why I sort of mixed things up. The temple's most famous resident was the Tang dynasty monk, Xuan Zang, on whom the 16th century novel Journey to the West was loosely based. I remember being forced to read the children's version of it - I never knew until coming to China that there actually was such a person. The Xuan Zang in the book (and television shows) differs greatly from the historical figure: In the stories, he's a hopelessly clueless monk who constantly gets into trouble and relies on the help of his three students-followers. The biographical account depicts him as a dignified and stately figure, who spent a year on a pilgrammage to India, 15 more acquiring Buddhist relics, statues, and texts, and finally returning home a hero. At his request, Big Goose Pagoda was erected to store his trove of knowledge.

View obstructing mist defeated the purpose of climbing to the top, but we did it anyways, passing footprints and scrolls until we reached the seventh (highest) story. I won't even begin to guess why they chose the name Big Goose - the authors of my guidebook admitted ignorance too - but it must have some significance, because also around the city was the Small Goose Pagoda. We gave this a miss though, the view would've been the same (uninspiring) and after seeing the Big Goose, who wants to see the Small Goose?

Back in town, near the central Bell Tower, I stopped at a 'modern pagoda' in hopes of finding a food court. Jon will attest to the fact that I rarely eat breakfast, and so usually by lunchtime, I'm pretty starved. There wasn't one though, and I ended up eating at an adjoining McDonalds.

"You're not going to eat?" I asked between mouthfuls.

"I didn't come to China to eat McDonalds," he grinned. Makes sense. If I were on a two week vacation, I'd want to try as much local food as possible too. In the Muslim Quarter of Xi'an, food stands were everywhere, and he picked up a bite to eat there. The main sight in this area (other than the sheep brains) was the Great Mosque. Initially, it wasn't on my 'must-see' list, after all, I didn't think it could compare to the mosques of, say, Indonesia or Malaysia, but it turned out to be an interesting spectacle.

What struck me was that it didn't look like a mosque at all. The architecture was distinctly Chinese, from the pagoda like tower sitting in the center to the main prayer hall in the back. Coincidentally, we had arrived during prayer time, and at the conclusion, the mass of skull capped Chinese Muslims made it even more surreal. Definately something different.

We ran the gauntlet of souvenir stands (many of them hawking decks of cards featuring Saddam Hussein as the ace!) and headed back to the hostel. Jon picked up where he left off on my laptop, I sort of dozed off a bit to the sound of keys being pressed, bringing an end to a light day in light rain.

Thanks to everyone for their support and comments! Knowing people are reading keeps me motivated to continue the updates!