the•truth•shall•set•you•free

And as you can see here, the food on the china airlines.. erm, isn't that palatable eh.. (esp after eating the sumptuous feast on SIA)

Finally, we reached Xi'an. A very beautiful place - everywhere, you could see ancient buildings from days of old juxtaposed with modern skyscrapers. It was truly a modern city, no doubt, with its fair share of Macs and Starbucks and night markets and shopping malls. Yet it also presented a certain sense of mystery and antiquity, with its hundreds-of-years-old city gates still intact and folks still residing in houses with carved stone roofs. Truly amazing. You know how I marvel at the beauty of the Forbidden City. However, the Xi'an skyline of the old and new comes a very close second, if not first. Above: 2 important landmarks of Xi'an city - Bell Tower (above) & Drum Tower (below). [There are many other towers to behold, like the famous (big and small) Goose Pagoda. However, our itinerary was too tight to allow us to visit them all.]

As mentioned, they have night markets with very happening food. Here we are at the Muslim street. Yes, you heard me right - a Muslim street. They actually have quite a no. of Muslim folks over there and you can actually see some mosques standing blatantly along the streets. So Xi'an is probably one of the few places in China where you can buy halal food back for your Muslim friends at home.

Yup, these are the old buildings I described earlier on. The bottom pix shows my tripmates walking on top of the city gates - where generals and infantry and calvary and artillery used to set foot on eons ago. It stretches for hundreds of metres and is actually quite well-preserved.

Ok, more to come.. soon.