is there poodle in my noodle

Xi’an is one of China’s oldest cities with a history spanning over 3,000 years. The city was the eastern starting point of the Silk Road, served as the Chinese capital for 13 dynasties, and is also famous for being the location of the Terracotta Army. 

The city walls, which started construction in 194BC and were reconstructed in their present form in the 1500s, are the oldest preserved city walls in the world.

Muslim merchants arrived via the Silk Road in the 7th Century. Nowadays, the city has a vibrant Muslim Quarter and hosts the oldest pre-modern mosque in China, originally built in 742AD.

An evening out in the Muslim Quarter is pretty wild.

It is interesting that in Xi’An, counterculture is alive in comparison to the repressed Beijing. And despite being off the beaten track of the more metropolitan and wealthy eastern seaboard, it hosts its fair share of tourists – and locals, in our experience, speak more English. We have been doing our best with the Chinese and mostly get pitiful and amused looks. I am not yet sure if they are judging our language skills, table manners, or dress sense. Probably all of the above.