We didn't order this dish, but after a morning at the Lama Temple it sounded tempting. Other dish names were similarly funny: "Harmonious Excellence" and "Blotch soup" are fairly representative. We started the day by taking Jen to the Beijing Union Hospital to have her throat and ear checked. We're not sure how the locals are treated, but Jen was seen asap by a doctor who spoke English and prescribed ... something. We were surprised to be in and out of the hospital in half an hour and very very glad that Jen wasn't quarantined. (They took our temperatures three times before we were allowed to leave the Beijing airport).
After testing the Chinese medical system, we headed to Lama Temple, a Buddhist temple to the north. The temple was beautiful and people were praying and burning incense. The final hall had a huge gold statue of Buddha that is 28 meters high and was carved from one piece of sandalwood. After lunch we headed to the Confucian temple and Imperial college where students studied to take the exams to become officials in earlier Chinese dynasties. The college was pleasantly serene and surprisingly modern in its design, with a central quad, lecture halls, and study rooms. We felt like we were back at school. Cornell, however, lacked a moat and the emperor never lectured there (hint for improving alumni donations perhaps?).
We then took the subway back to the hostel, picked up our stuff, caught the 52 bus to Beijing West Station, and caught the overnight train to Xi'an. The train was nice -- 2 bunks per room, electric outlets, bedding, etc. Our fellow travelers looked like they were planning on climbing Everest: everyone had a big bag of food with fruit, noodles, sausage, cookies, and more.
And that brings us to Xi'an, a smaller city than Beijing but equally cosmopolitan with lots of construction, Gucci, and traffic jams. But there's less pollution because we can see the sky. It's blue. Xi'an has a significant Muslim population. We sampled the fare at the Islamic market (including mung cake and the dried fruit we're currently snacking on) and visited the Great Mosque, which was built in the 700s AD during the Tang Dynasty. We also visited the Bell Tower and Drum Towers found in the center of the old city which were used to ring in the morning and evening. They look rather out of place now -- the Bell Tower serves as the center of a 4 lane roundabout.
We're posting this from an enormous internet cafe called T8 where we should apparently be smoking and playing World of Warcraft. The photos are taking a while to post, but we're trying to add them a few at a time. Tomorrow we plan to see the Terracotta Army and on the 22nd we're off to Lijiang.
