June 28 Xi'an

Train trip of almost thirteen hours to Xi'an was better than most expected. We were in stacked three high and there were no cabins, so lots of ambient noise until lights went out at 10PM. Most of us slept pretty well, or better than we thought.

The Xi'an Hotel is 4 star. Checked in but then went to tour the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Susan has seen it and it is my third time. Same with the Terra Cotta Warriors site. It's still exciting visiting these places.

Dinner at a Hui (ethnic Han Chinese Muslim as opposed to Uighur or Kazakh non-Han Chinese Muslim--if that makes any sense) restaurant. We tore up a just made and still warm piece of thick unleavened bread into a bowl. This took some time, as the pieces were supposed to be small. In the meantime we snacked on crunchy fish skin, slices of beef in aspic, green beans and peppers, marinated lotus root, etc. Then we had a choice of beef or mutton with broth for the bowl of bread pieces. I chose the mutton. Added fresh coriander, hot red pepper paste, and pickled cloves of garlic. Everyone tried it under Chen's admonitions.

Found out yesterday that the tongue numbing ingredient that we have been noticing is Chinese Prickly Ash.

Still problems with my computer, so I'll continue the blog as I can.

Most of the people in the internet cafe I blogged from previously were playing games on the computer.