The Muslim Quarter

There is a Muslim Quarter in the city of Xi’an where many people sell things, like knick-knacks. Before I went there, I didn’t know there were Muslims in China. But there are. They came as traders. They have been in China for more than a thousand years.

Walking down the main street you see all sorts of things you want to buy. It smells good, too. You hear people talking fast in Chinese. You’re always getting pushed around, because it’s so crowded. There are also rides that take you around places. When one of them comes up behind you, it honks at you. All those feelings put together feels really, really good.

Muslims don’t eat pork, you know. I don’t like that, because I really, really like pork. We were in a restaurant, and I wanted to eat a snack sausage I brought with me, but the waitress told me I had to put it away, because it was pork.

Most of the people on the street selling things had covered heads. The women wore head coverings and the men wore hats.

There were lots of different foods.

Beef, lamb and chicken on skewers. They grilled them, and put them in a sandwich with special bread.

Quail eggs on skewers too.

Sticky rice candies. 

Are these potatoes? Mom and Dad thought they were. But then they ordered some, and they turned out to be a kind of jelly.

What are the things at the back of the stall? Would you eat that soup?

After we did a little exploring, we went to a Muslim temple called the Grand Mosque. It is the largest mosque in China. Unlike the streets, the mosque was peaceful.

Yet another stuck kite. There were stuck kites everywhere in Xi’an, because there were a lot of people selling kites.

The sellers had a lot of little kites on long strings. They were almost like snake kites. It was kind of fun. What if I was the leading kite? I wouldn’t want to get stuck on a roof, though.

The mosque also had a lot of dragons.

All of a sudden, when I was walking, I felt something rough under my feet. I looked down and it was a dragon. It rained a lot yesterday, and there were two pools of water. I thought the dragon looked dry. So I got out my paintbrush, dipped it in the water and painted.

What did I write?

 I slid down another ramp.

Woah! I didn’t realize there was a little stubby thing at the end. Maybe they put it there to keep skateboarders off.

 I had to get up and jump.

Wheeeeeeeeeee!

That night, we celebrated Dad’s 51^st birthday at a teahouse in the Muslim Quarter. We dressed him up to look like a Chinese scholar.

I put on Dad’s hat.

Then we watched a shadow puppet show.

When we left the tea house, there was a lot of hustle and bustle.

As we were leaving the Muslim Quarter, we saw beautiful kites and birds, all lit up by the lights on the Drum Town. It was the most beautiful sight I’ve seen in China so far.