When I was studying in other places, a Teacher from Hubei said that digging a handful of soil in Xi'an was all culture. This is somewhat exaggerated, but this sentence contains the assumption of many people that the history and evolution of China's civilization have left traces in every part of the city, and the so-called thickness of culture is accumulated in this layer of history and intensive life. The epic of a city miniature of a nation becomes a collective imagination.
Today's Xi'an is also a modern city with high-rise buildings, but there are thousands of years of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda towering, there are Han and Tang Ruins sleeping underground, there are countless cultural relics on display, the contrast between ancient and modern abounds here, history seems to be in this contrast.
Whether it is the evening of the first illumination, or the foggy morning, at any angle to catch a glimpse of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, people surrounded by high-rise buildings can not help but sigh softly in their hearts. When you are full of ambition, you see the great shore where it stands, and when it is low and depressed, you see the solemnity of its vicissitudes, and the Big Wild Goose Pagoda that has gone through several ups and downs carries people's feelings in different situations. Historical relics like the Big Wild Goose Pagoda are scattered throughout Xi'an City, but the degree of popularity and protection and development is different.
Therefore, if you only go to popular attractions in Xi'an and eat some internet celebrity restaurants, it is really a loss. This time take everyone in the city to see the non-queue but interesting Xi'an, this issue first recommends two routes, blue characters for the route guide.
01 Walking East Gate Route: Immersive experience of Xi'an life
In China's vast land, most of the rural life is based on sunrise and sunset, and there are not many places that have appeared as "cities" for thousands of years. The difference between the city and the countryside lies in its rich functionality and intensive human life, diversified religious beliefs, rich recreational activities, frequent trade exchanges, a large number of personnel exchanges, complex rules and regulations, and Xi'an, which has a long history of city building, contains many urban codes.
Maybe a large courtyard was once an ornate old mansion, a street name was used for hundreds of years, a war that reversed history under a low castle wall, a temple with a flat incense that witnessed large-scale state events, or a bowl of food has an endless story. The recommended route is a few hundred meters away and can be walked completely.
Everything can be clipped, but the bacon meat is the most fragrant
Breakfast can be started from the Dongmen Wang Kui's house. The fat and soft flavor of the bacon meat with the strength and tenderness of the white ji bun is the housekeeper's food of Xi'an snacks.
The soup of bacon meat refers to the old soup. In the thousands of years without refrigerators, people invented various ways to store old soup. This year, if you can come across an authentic bacon butcher shop, the pot of old soup in the shop, you may have cooked fresh meat from the difficult times of the sixties, boiled more than 20 kinds of spices with unique flavors, entertained state leaders, and been close to street pawns.
The meat of the bacon meat, to choose the hard ribs of the superior pig, must be fat and thin, the white meat boiled out of the bright and clear soup, the red meat in this soup sucked enough boiling power, the hard state of the meat shredded boiled soft boiled. The beauty of the bacon meat, lean and slag-free melting in the mouth, fat without greasy lips and teeth to leave a fragrance.
The bun of bacon meat is called Bai Ji Bun. This steamed bun, which is more elaborate than meat, is not easy to find now. Less charcoal stove tweezers, there is less of that kind of crispy outer skin and soft and soft inside of the bun, there are more wholesale buns on the market, machine buns, emphasis on strength, strength, heat, temperament of the "iron circle tiger back chrysanthemum heart" Bai Ji bun is not common. However, Xi'an's old meat sandwich steamed bun shops without large-scale chains still use hand-beaten white steamed buns.
Several famous meat sandwich buns have their own advantages, such as Dongguan auspicious, Meridian Road Zhang Jijian big shop, Qin Yujia and so on. The amount of Wang Kui's meat sandwich is not large, and the meat is a little salty, but the Xi'an people from snacks to large ones are the bites they want most when they are hungry.
Picking up leaks and books: the leisure of old Xi'an
After eating the meat sandwich steamed buns, go to the Eight Immortals An Flea Market not far away to see the leisure ways of the old Xi'an people. This market is dominated by antiques and old books, and usually only sells on Sundays. Antique markets generally appear in the old town with a long history. People in the city will always have a bit of an heirloom, and the second-way dealers will have a bigger market to search.
In "Abandoned Capital", Zhuang Zhidi brought home a brick that was known as a Han brick, and Madame Niu said, "A city wall brick is said to be from the Han Dynasty, and the flies in the house should also be from the Tang Dynasty!" "He also complained that the family had been piled up with these things. The joke about Zhuang Zhidi is actually the Xi'an people's love of antiques, a little self-enjoyment. There is a friend from Qinghai who wants to settle in Xi'an after retirement because there are many antique markets here.
The Yasen-an Flea Market is a more professional numismatic market, from cloth coins and knife coins to square hole coins, copper plates, paper money, silver dollars, silver ingots of various dynasties... Almost all forms of money in Chinese history can be seen here. Common antiques such as chapters, vintage clocks, antique furniture, porcelain, jade, bronze and even calligraphy and painting are also available.
The significance of the old book stall is that many books are not bought in regular bookstores, and they cannot be seen. Even if there is a Confucius old book network now, it is interesting to casually flip through the bookshow one by one and bargain with the boss, of course, if you pick up a leak, you will be happier. Old books often have notes scribbled at random, like an extra book lover. The used book market is really enjoyed by ordinary readers.
After visiting the flea market, you can also stop by the Hachisen-an. Because the main shrine enshrined in the Taoist temple is the eight immortals who "cross the sea of the eight immortals", it is called the Eight Immortals Temple. Although the entrance fee is only three yuan, it was created in the Song Dynasty, and the existing building was basically built during the Qing Dynasty, and the incense is very popular.
Princess blessing method: build a temple
From the Hachisen-an Flea Market, further west you will go to Yukiji Temple. In the Tang Dynasty, it was an imperial temple that was "poor and gorgeous, the temple is the name of Kyoto", and today's Yiji Temple is only a municipal cultural protection unit, but its completion and rise and fall are buried with rich historical details.
If there had been no rebellion by the chancellor and Wu Zetian's serious illness, there would have been no Princess Taiping's Prayer Fujian Temple. In the first year of shenlong (705 AD), when Wu Zetian was seriously ill, the imperial court Zhang Kamzhi and others rebelled and forced the crown prince to restore the Li clan. Subsequently, Emperor Zhongzong succeeded to the throne, and Wu Zetian's condition worsened. Princess Taiping built this royal temple by building a temple to pray for blessings. The name of the temple is taken from the verse of the Book of Poetry, "If you want to repay virtue, Hao Tian is reckless", in order to express the children's infinite filial piety to their parents.
Without the fusion of Confucianism and Buddhism and the flourishing of Buddhism, there would have been no Tang Xuanzong's devout belief in Buddhism. There is a royal commentary "Diamond Temple" built in the Temple, which is an annotated Buddhist scripture completed by Xuanzong himself, and in the Tang Dynasty, the two capital monasteries were specially built to provide for the "Royal Commentary diamond sutra", and the only surviving historical materials is the Yiji Temple. At the same time, xuanzong's statue of the buddha is also enshrined in the temple.
Without the Tang Dynasty's ruling ideology of "ruling the world with filial piety", there would have been no Yiji Temple in the Tang Dynasty. During the expansion of the Temple, Emperor Xuanzong ordered the demolition of the Xingqing Palace and the Daming Palace to expand it to improve the specifications of the Temple. Therefore, the Heavenly Ancestral Hall of the Yiji Temple is the Tongxian Hall of the Improvisational Qing Palace, the gate tower is the Chengyun Pavilion of the Daming Palace, the Jingsi Hall is the White Lotus Hall, and the Laojun Hall is the Ganquan Hall. At that time, many important activities were held at the Yiji Temple, the most famous of which was the "Changqinghui Alliance", the Tang Dynasty and the Tubo Monument to repair the alliance, the alliance ceremony was held here, and now the Changqinghui Alliance Monument is still well preserved in the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, Tibet.
Without the eastward shift of the political center and the change of religious beliefs, there would have been no long silence after the peak of the temple. In 846, "Emperor Wuzong destroyed the Buddha", and the temple was greatly damaged, although it was still re-purchased, but it was not as good as before. During the Ming Dynasty, the Temple evolved from an imperial temple to a general jungle for four pilgrimages during the Ming Dynasty. During the Qing Dynasty, the size of the temple was greatly reduced. In 1930, it was hit by a fire, and the stone stele at the entrance of the temple, "Wanting to repay the virtue, Hao Tian's recklessness" was burned black. In 1935, the temple was changed to a nunnery temple, becoming the only "female jungle" in the northwest region. During the Cultural Revolution, the religious circles were greatly impacted, and the Yiji Temple did not escape the disaster, like many temples, the Buddhist hall houses were occupied by organs and residents, and after the Cultural Revolution, they were gradually restored and returned, and successively renovated and expanded.
The current Temple still preserves precious cultural relics. The existing unicorns were made in the Tang Dynasty and are regarded as the treasures of the lock temple; the flower patterns on the Ming Tablets are strangely conceived and extremely rare; there are two stupas and reconstructed monuments from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Before the Cultural Revolution, the temple still preserved many cultural relics of great historical value, such as the portrait of the Ten Lands Bodhisattva painted in the Ming Dynasty and a statue of the Bodhisattva, but it is now missing. Also destroyed was Tallinn behind the courtyard. The monks of the past dynasties were buried here after their death, and the Yuanshan Pagoda was built, because it was a temple, so the Yuanshan Pagoda was built very magnificently, and because the dynasties built were different, so the hundred towers had their own characteristics, but unfortunately it was destroyed in 1958 when the whole people smelted steel.
Gun house street, there is no inn
The street that comes out of the Yiji Temple is called Gunfang Street, which is almost the most distinctive street name in Xi'an, but it is not what you think. Gunfang Street got its name very early, and it is said that during the Ming Chongzhen period, it was named after the fact that there were more paper cannon workshops on the street. At that time, almost every household in the small street made a living by hand-rubbing firecracker twisters and pasting matchboxes. There are special merchants who will process firecracker twists and paper rolls and then transport the gun body to other places to load gunpowder. This tradition of livelihood continued from the Ming and Qing dynasties to the Republic of China, and although fewer and fewer people did this kind of livelihood in the 1950s and 1960s, place names have always been retained.
Dongyue Temple: Layers of frescoes from multiple ages
Exit the Gunfang Street and enter the East Gate (Changle Gate) and arrive at the Dongyue Temple. The murals of Dongyue Temple are well worth seeing. Dongyue Temple was built in the sixth year of the Northern Song Dynasty (1116), the current murals are from the early Qing Dynasty, but the Dongyue Temple has a long history of building temples, in the repair and expansion of various periods, the murals are also accumulated and layered, and what you see now is the murals of the early Qing Dynasty, but according to the examination, there should be a Ming Dynasty mural layer under the examination.
The mural painting of the main hall of Dongyue Temple is the largest unit system in the existing palace mural system in Shaanxi. The content of the mural is complex in composition, magnificent, and the majesty of the picture coupled with the tall and far-reaching temple form a visual effect with a full field of vision and multi-dimensional strongness, which can only be felt by being immersed in the scene.
Shuncheng Lane: The daily life of Xi'an people
After visiting the Dongyue Temple, walk along the city wall in the direction of the Small East Gate and visit Shuncheng Lane. Shuncheng Lane was originally an old street with a great taste of Xi'an life, although it was transformed into an antique street and a consumption place, but the indigenous people and various small vendors reached a tacit understanding.
The practice stalls of the stalls, the hanging out, the grandmothers dancing square dance under the city wall, the grandfathers watching the craftsmen who set up stalls on the road teeth, the calligraphy enthusiasts practicing in the square, in this alley of commercial transformation, the aborigines still retain the previous state of life, with the most enviable idleness of the "lying flat era", the lively city life in Shuncheng Lane and the transformed commercial blocks coexist in the same space, which is also the integration of old Xi'an and the metropolis.
The bowl wine of Yongxingfang began
Xi'an was shaken into an Internet celebrity
At noon, you can walk to Yongxingfang for lunch. Chang'an City in the Tang Dynasty was a standard fangzhuang planning, the legendary "one hundred and eight fangs", Yongxingfang is in accordance with the "fang, wanton" construction of antique building complexes. There have been many people who come to Xi'an to travel, but what makes Xi'an become "net red" overnight is the bowl wine of Yongxingfang, the May Day holiday of 2018, the number of tourists in Xi'an increased by nearly 70%, while in previous years, it was only stable at less than 30%, and there were nearly 10 million people traveling to Xi'an, equivalent to the permanent population of Xi'an at that time, and the number of people who traveled to Yongxingfang that year was three times that of the Terracotta Warriors.
The rise of Douyin and the popularity of Xi'an appeared almost at the same time, whether it is the travel industry that racked its brains to attract more tourists, or the government leaders who wanted to increase the city's popularity, they did not expect that Xi'an became the hottest tourist city, and it was actually promoted by an APP.
Compared with Xi'an's new Internet celebrities, Yongxingfang is no longer trendy enough, but as a collection place for Shaanxi snacks, it is still worth visiting. Once the classic cuisine of any place is separated from the region, it will be distorted and tasteless, and the advantage of Yongxingfang is precisely that almost all the local chefs from various cities and counties are in charge. Yongxingfang has at least proved one thing to the southerners: even in the north, where there is a shortage of materials, it can make thousands of simple ingredients into a thousand tricks.
02 Huifang Route: What else can you do besides eating?
Speaking of Xi'an, we must talk about the "Muslim Street" dominated by Beiyuanmen Street, which is the widest street in Huifang, with a lot of signs, but in recent years, not only has there been less authentic food, and even most of them have begun to sell food from other places. But Huifang still hides too many authentic delicacies, as long as you leave the most lively main street, and go deep into the neighborhood alleys of this area, you can find the real Xi'an characteristics.
The only remaining street in Xi'an with a place name that matches the goods
Takeshi City
The second route can start from Takeshi City. Xi'an traditional neighborhood, in the "Xi'an Historical and Cultural City Protection Regulations", refers to "Beiyuanmen, Sanxue Street, Zhuzhen City, Defu Lane, Xiangzimiao Block", so these places are worth visiting. Zhuzhen City is not very famous, but this street of less than 500 meters is very Characteristic of Xi'an because of its original ecology. The first is this street name, which has been used since the Ming Dynasty, and is the only street in Xi'an that has the same place name and goods, and there are still some old craftsmen who open small shops selling bamboo products. The cuisines that belong to the old Xi'an people, such as Fan Ji bacon meat sandwich steamed buns, Zhao Ji mung bean pie, Fang Zhongshan Hu spicy soup, Hairong Pot Sticker Restaurant, etc. are also famous from here.
The earliest museum in Xi'an
Bright Treasure Building
After visiting Zhuzhen City, you can go to the Liangbao Building at the South Courtyard Gate not far away. In 1900, Cixi "Tour of the West", all over the world have paid tribute to gold and silver and rare treasures, returned to Beijing to fashion 3,000 large cars, the part left in Xi'an is hidden in this specially built two-story building, and later the collection was opened to the public, named Liangbao Building. After that, LiangbaoLou became a comprehensive institution of Shaanxi Provincial Library, integrating books, museums and excursions. The earliest museum in Shaanxi once treasured national treasure-level cultural relics such as the Zhaoling Liujun stone carvings and Jingyun Bells, and also treasured the most complete "Moraine Sand Collection" in the country.
parking lot
The original site of the Xi'an Bell Tower
After the Liangbao Building is turned, go to the entrance next to Parkson on West Avenue, and there is a parking lot more than 100 meters to the east, which has the original site of the Xi'an Bell Tower. Xi'an Bell Tower is the largest and most completely preserved bell tower that can be seen in China, and the current Xi'an City is also centered on the bell tower to form a crisscrossing urban structure.
Today's bell tower has been baptized by more than six hundred years of wind and rain, but she was not originally built in today's location. The bell tower was originally built in the seventeenth year of Hongwu (1384 AD), and it was only in the tenth year of the Wanli Calendar of emperor Mingshen (1528 AD) that it was moved to its current site due to the expansion of Xi'an City and the subsequent eastward shift of the city center. When it was moved, "the building was built outside the foundation, and nothing was changed", which shows the development of construction technology at that time. The original site of the bell tower is in the current parking lot.
Sitting Tang Dynasty stone lion
Eat back to the dark cuisine
Parkson this back to the entrance, go into the small learning lane, eat the old He family marinade cold powder. Although his family is already famous, it is called different to sit on the corner of the door with a bowl and eat.
Why? It is said that Xi'an is full of cultural relics, but the seemingly inconspicuous lions around the corner are relics of the Tang Dynasty. The stone lion was ground from curly hair to flat head, and the hair color also changed from grandma gray to shiny black. Once, I met an old grandfather who said that he had been playing on stone lions since he was a child. When taking pictures, you must sit on the Tang Lion and serve a bowl of dark dishes to eat the meaning that only Xi'an has.
In the Huifang Courtyard
See the Top Ten Ancient Houses
Not far from eating the cold powder, it is the former residence of Nian Qianyao. The real Huifang streets are narrow, and the former bungalows have been built into two or three floors, not only inhabited by generations of Hui aborigines, but also attracted a large number of migrant workers with low rents and convenient lives. Nian Qianyao's former residence is hidden in this chaotic and crowded alley, and it is difficult to imagine that a thrilling historical story has taken place here.
Nian Qianyao was made the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, equivalent to the first in command of two provinces, and he made great military achievements and won the trust of the emperor, but was eventually ordered to commit suicide. After Yongzheng became suspicious of Nian, Nian Qianyao transported the treasures from Xi'an to various places to hide, and in only two or three months there were more than 2,000 mules, more than 200 mules, and hundreds of large cars. It is conceivable that more than three hundred years ago, this famous Qing Dynasty general built a three-entry mansion for himself, and I don't know how many rare treasures have been treasured, and how many people who seek fame and profit have come and gone.
The magnificent general's mansion is now a large courtyard. What is still preserved is a tall theater building in the backyard, with wood carvings and paintings that can still be faintly recognized, and wooden frames on the roof and stone carvings of columns are still preserved. The fate of this house is as lamentable as the tragedy of its owner. The picture above is the Li family compound that has been demolished not long ago, and the old houses can only be seen and cherished.
In The West Warehouse
I don't buy anything and I see it for a long time
After seeing the former residence and visiting the Huifang, the most interesting thing is the West Warehouse. Someone who lays a rag and places a few walnuts can shout a price of several thousand, and there are really people who know how to squat around and bargain. This is almost a Taobao Pinduoduo offline market, you can think of almost everything you can think of in life, and you can buy things you can't think of at an unexpected price.
Locals like to visit Xicang, just like young people like to brush Taobao, and they can have fun without buying things. I remember that Nishikura only went out on Thursdays and Sundays.
Let the stove himself make you a bowl of lamb steamed buns
After visiting Xicang, eat bubble buns in Huifang, to be carefully screened, here is not specially recommended. A steamed bun shop can be opened for many years without any problem. If you're lucky, let the stove do it yourself. In fact, the price is the same, just look at luck, as long as you sincerely ask the boss to do it for you personally, in most cases you will still agree.
Eat the steamed bun must be broken by yourself, do not rush. Bun breaking is a social way to rest and chat while breaking buns. In the 1980s and 1990s, when the stove head looked at the color of the bun, it knew whether it was a person who understood, and if the bun was broken well, it would attract the attention of the stove heads, so as to cook this bowl of buns more carefully, the smaller the bun, the more it was necessary for the stove to have exquisite skills. However, now the ordinary steamed bun restaurant inevitably has all the wholesale mass production shops, the level of the stove is worrying, really want to break the bun too small may be boiled into a bowl of paste.
Make a few more turns
Go eat three-turn oil tea
This shop should be specially visited, and it is also in the back shop, because the name is strange, so sell a pass, turn a few more corners. Oil tea with boiled eggs, the color matching is very modern. There is also a fried twist flower at the bend, which looks ordinary, but it is actually distributed to major stores, and you can also buy a little along the way.
Eat soup buns
See how many celebrities the boss has taken pictures with
Jia San Guan Soup Bun is on the most lively Muslim street, one of the few old brands that have survived. If nothing else, look at the photos and feast your eyes.