Rest Day in Xi'An

I decided to take a day to rest and relax.  Which meant only about a half day wandering around the city, followed by an afternoon nap.

I decided to try one of the "western style breakfasts" at my hostel (which seems to be their specialty, along with "western style prices").  Anyways I had French Toast and fruit, to go with my green tea.  The French Toast turned out to be served as a sandwich with a jam center.  Yum!  Although I normally have syrup with my French Toast, and jam with my pancakes (like normal people).

(No pic of my French Toast, sorry :-()

For lunch I had beef noodles.  I was going to have beef (or lamb) dumplings, but the noodles were advertised as "special high quality beef noodles" so how could I refuse.  Good choice, yum!!!

For dinner I had biang biang mian again, only this time I got the "special" version with extra beef &etc (whatever else is in there).  I also got to watch the cook make the noodles, it's quite a sight!  They roll out the noodles to a certain point and then whip the dough up and down - Biang!  Biang! - until the noodles are stretched out and thin, and then they toss them in boiling water.

It's quite a sight in hui Min Jie (the Muslim quarter), I'll do a photo essay on it at some point.

In the afternoon I visited the Lama Temple, apparently the only Tibetan Buddhist temple in Xi-An.

Or maybe the last in all of China, I don't know.  The way things are going:

http://www.thetibetpost.com/en/news/tibet/3382-china-destroys-the-ancient-buddhist-symbol-of-lhasa-city-in-tibet#

I think it might be too late already to visit Lhasa.  It was on my mind when I came over here, to make the trip to Tibet if at all possible.  Now that I'm here, and it seems like the visa situation has opened up a bit, I've decided I'm not interested in making the trip to see the carnage :-(

As an interesting aside though, according to the above article the damage has already been done to places like Lijiang.  This was on my original itinerary, and has now been replaced with an extra week in Kunming, who as we can see are fighting to keep their clean air and water:

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22411012

Keep up the good work, Kunmingers!

My plan for tomorrow is: depending on how I feel in the morning (I feel like I'm coming down with a cold) I'll either get up early and hop on the first bus (7am) to Hua Shan (!), or I'll lay in bed sick all day feeling sorry for myself.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!