It must have been something I ate . . .

I suppose it had to happen but I thought that after lasting this long - over three weeks now - I might have avoided the dreaded Chinese equivalent to Delhi Belly. I presume there is a name for it but I don't know what it is. Anyway, I was invited to dinner with some of Laura's father's friends at this really flash hotel restaurant - he has friends who are business people, on the state Chamber of Commerce etc - and when I got home it was all on. I don't actually think it was something at the restaurant; that would not have had time to affect me. It's more likely something from earlier. Still, I can't complain. I slept OK and feel alright so far today.

I didn't do too much on the 2nd. I went and bought a pair of jeans and a shirt, and had dinner at the home of a different one of Laura's father's friends. He has lots of friends and being new year, it's the visiting season. One of the other people there was an 18 year old (actually it was her 18th birthday) who's studying Chinese Traditional dancing. We didn't get a demo though. Another was a young guy who's studying classical double bass in Malaysia of all places!

Yesterday I went to see the Drum and Bell Towers. The Bell Tower is right in the centre of the old city and it took me just under an hour to walk to it from Laura's place. I was lucky enough to time my visit to coincide with a performance of traditional instruments, including a reconstruction of a Qin dynasty (200s BC) array of bells. That was cool, although a bit tacky when they finished with Auld Lang Syne. Then over to the Drum Tower where they also have a display of old furniture. They used to beat the drum at about 9pm to signal the closing of the gates, again at about 11pm to inform everyone that all was well, and finally at about 7am to indicate the reopening of the gates. Daytime signalling was from the Bell Tower about 200m away.

Right behind the Drum Tower is Beiyuan Men, a Muslim street close to the Xi'an Grand Mosque. You can get all sorts of food there. Actually it's possible that that was the source of my subsequent sickness although I've been being pretty adventurous (read reckless I suppose but what's the point of going to a place with a 5000 year history of food and not trying some of it?) with food generally so it could have been something else. The oddest looking thing so far would have to be the food (I'm not sure what) that comes stuffed inside a sheep's skull. I took a useless photo so I'll try to get a better one on another day.

I had an oil-fried chilli stuffed pancake thing (the culprit?) which was pretty yummy, then went to look at the mosque. It dates back to the 7th Century (Tang) but has been added to progressively ever since. It's the biggest and most significant, as well as, I think, oldest mosque in China. It's a blend of traditional Islamic and Chinese architectural styles, so it has carved dragons and the small animals that you see on the roofs of Chinese buildings, even though it's a mosque, which wouldn't usually depict animals - maybe because they're mythical animals it's OK. I don't know.

From there, I went to see the "Forest of Stone Stelae", really a museum of engraved standing stones. They're all indoors now or at least under shelter, but they started being assembled there in the Song Dynasty (began 907AD) and include stuff from the Han pariod (220BC to 220AD or something) onwards. All the classical Confucian texts are written on these stones. While I can't read the writing, it was worth a visit because I could get some sense of the changing styles over the centuries.

After this pretty full day, I headed back into the city centre where I lurked around just watching people go by while I waited for Laura to meet me. She'd spent the day with friends. I've indicated that I'm more than happy for her to go and do her own thing rather than feel she needs to keep me company. Of course the fact that I then got sick only made her feel bad . . .

Well, I just went and got a haircut this morning at the local, old style, barber. The woman who cut my hair had never had a Western customer before so that was cause for great hilarity, especially when she gave me a shave with a cut throat razor. I know, you can get all kinds of nasty diseases (like Hep B or C) from cuts from these things, but I only thought of that later. Anyway, she did a good job and didn't cut my skin at all, so I should live to see another day. It also turned out that she wasn't a Chinese Sweeney Todd, although I felt pretty vulnerable with my head tilted right back and the chair tilted too so that I was more or less horizontal. Anyway, all good, and I'm off to visit another pagoda with a good museum attached, and then I hope to walk the 13.8km of the city wall. More on that next time.