On Elinor and David's first full day visiting Xi'an, we visited the Great Mosque in the Muslim Quarter. The grounds were really cool and had a lot of interesting Chinese/Muslim architecture, as you will see in the pictures to come.
Kitty, David, and Elinor at the Great Mosque.
The Wooden Memorial Archway
Looking through the Wooden Memorial Archway towards the Five-Room Hall.
Yes, there are palm trees in Xi'an. Weird, huh?
The Wooden Memorial Gateway, again.
David photographs a trilingual trashcan.
Kitty and Elinor photograph and explore.
Kitty in one of many excellent doorways.
I am completely baffled now as to what I thought I was taking a picture of. Small tree? Two manholes so close together? Jumbly stone pathway? Distant bathroom sign?
Elinor walking through the Stone Memorial Gateways.
Bonsai cactus!
Elinor approaches a pavilion.
Bikes at the temple.
A view of the Stone Memorial Gateway from inside the Five-Room Hall.
Check out the amazing faces on the ends of these tiles!
I wonder what's up there...
The Phoenix Pavilion
Turtles holding up steles.
And finally -- the Great Mosque!
Small animals on the Great Mosque.
Solar water heaters on neighboring roofs!
Protect the environment, whatever language you speak.
Kitty eats some of our exciting food.
Ali, Kitty, and David at the restaurant that used to be a Tibetan restaurant. Now a hotpot restaurant, but it has kept the old decorations.
Jens and Sarah
Pat looks suspiciously at the fuwuyuan while Misa and Lily eye the hotpot.
Allen startles Ali.
Misa looks on; Lily approaches the steaming hotpot.
Allen successfully retrieves a noodle.
Sarah tries to put some noodle in her bowl. Disaster!
Elinor laughs at the big mess they've made.
Allen and Ali converse while Elinor makes a morose face. We're at the Back Nook Bar's 3rd anniversary celebration.
The Back Nook Bar is notable for the astounding number of Jack Daniels advertisements crammed inside. They even have a girl in a Jack Daniels Dress. Check out how many bottles of the stuff they have up above the bar!
A blurry moment at the Back Nook.
Ali, making one of his usual faces.
This is the sort of amazing photo that happens when you don't use a flash. Kitty seems to have about 8 fingers on her right hand.
Allen, Elinor, and Ali during a rousing game of Kings.
Elinor, Ali, David, and a hand.
Elinor looks nonchalant while something strange happens between Ali and David.
Elinor and Kitty make good use of their single bus seat.
At the city walls.
City walls
Kitty and some exciting decorations.
Ali and Kitty share a tender moment.
Elinor biking on top of the city walls. Between the five us, we rented three regular bikes and one tandem for the 12 km ride around the top.
A view from the back of the tandem, with Kitty driving.
Ali, hang up and ride!
Elinor, still biking.
Another view from the backseat of the tandem, which happens to be the best place to take pictures from a bike.
A blurry David and Ali. This photo taken while biking.
Kitty and Elinor on the tandem.
Elinor and Kitty taken a break at a corner of the city.
A festive corner tower.
Kitty models the tandem.
David and Elinor, our Shantou contingent.
Ali in front of China's national bird.
Another photo taken while biking.
A traditional performance for National Day.
People watching the performance over the south gate of the city.
Sounds delicious, huh?
Another awesome store name, brought to you by China.
Elinor and Kitty, bowing at the thought of Korean food?
Ali waits for our Korean food to arrive.
A very crowded bus, not uncommon.
Kitty, David, and Elinor on the bus to Hua Shan.
David orders with the help of our awesome waitress, while we try to kill time before starting our midnight ascent.
Various locks and ribbons for sale on Hua Shan, which can be locked or tied to chains on the top of the mountain to commemorate and preserve strong family relationships.
A chain full of locks and ribbons.
The map to the top of the mountain. I think they told me we were about at the halfway point here, but it's really not to scale.
All the way up the mountain there were locks for sale, locks being engraved, stands selling cucumbers, Red Bull, noodles, and other snacks. I never expected to climb a mountain surrounded by people in dress shoes smoking cigarettes and drinking Red Bull all night, but I guess you can't predict things like that.
It was hard to get a decent picture of this, but this is a line of people climbing a near-vertical "stairway," with chains on the sides to help you pull yourself up.
The same view, with more flash and less intrigue.
Elinor and I at the top of the mountain waiting for the sunrise, so tired we can barely keep our eyes open! (We tried this picture multiple times, with no more success.)
The view from the top, pre-sunrise.
Getting lighter, but still no sun.
Clouds obscuring the sunrise we climbed all night for.
Crowded mountaintop.
Elinor hoards some hiking fuel.
Pretty mountains!
The sunrise starting to get good.
Pink clouds above the steep mountains.
Spectators crowding the mountaintop to see the sunrise.
So many people! This was entirely unlike any hiking experience I have had in the States.
More crowds on the East Peak.
Waiting for the perfect sunrise.
Morning has broken!
The sunrise was so gorgeous that, despite trying to cut out as many photos as possible, you're still going to see a lot of it.
This was when it got really good. I think the clouds worked in our favor.
David, Kitty, and Ali after the long climb.
Now it is morning and the sun has risen and the mountain is covered in people who all want to go down at once.
Ribbons and locks at the top of the mountain.
Small world!! Kitty and I ran into two of my students, Bird and Henry, on Mount Hua!
David contemplates something.
Mountains!
Another Chinglish treasure!
We were so exhausted from climbing all night that we decided to talk the gondola down the bottom half of the mountain. Definitely a wise choice.
All the way down, which we won't have to walk this time.
So happy to be on the gondola!
David in the gondola.
Ali gives the gondola a big thumbs up.
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Looking down.
The end of the line.
Looking back where we came from. You can't see the top.
Fancy chandelier at Party World KTV.
David models Kitty's scarf.
Elinor likes her beverage.
Kitty sings a solo.
Ali helps David sing.
Kitty and I sing A Whole New World.
KTV!
David and Kitty sing with the best of 'em.
Kitty demonstrates her great strength.
David is like a really big kid.
Charge!
Double decker!
A fun time was had by all at KTV.
Karaoke masters!
Another hilarious moment at KTV.
Some really awesome eggplant.
Ali kisses the chicken head.
Jens, Sarah, Gaelle, and David enjoy our feast.
Kitty and Ali, feisty and sleepy, respectively, as always.
Beth, Elinor, Philippe, and I at the restaurant it took us forever to find.
An amazing money-folding trick that allows Mao to smile and frown more drastically than you ever thought possible.
