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OFF THE WALL
VICTOR PAUL BORG MEETS FOUR EXPERT XI’AN RESIDENTS TO FIND OUT THE BEST PLACES IN THE CITY FOR A CULTURAL AND CULINARY FIX
THE EXPERTS
Our panel of four Xi’an insiders
 FU XIAO QI Art journalist |
 JENNY WANG Director, Library Project |
 AURELIEN SAINT REMY Publisher, China Grooves magazine |
 PENNY WANG Tour Manager, Shangri La Hotel |
FU XIAO QI:
Of Manchurian stock, hailing from Heilong Jang province, Fu Xiao Qi arrived in Xi’an eight years ago to study literature. She never left .
“Now my parents have moved here too,” she says. “For a taste of home, we sometimes go to Da Qing Hua Jiaoze – a Manchurian restaurant that does great dumplings, among other things.”
Xiao Qi now works as an art writer for Hua Shang, north-west China’s largest newspaper. “Art has taken off in a big way in the past few years,” she says. “One eminent artist in Xi’an, for example, has had the price of his paintings multiply by 10 since 2003.”
“Tourists should make an effort to visit the Textiles Factory,” she enthuses. “It’s an abandoned factory where several artists have set up their live-in workshops which anyone can visit. There is also a cafe in one of the exhibition spaces.”
Jiao Ye is possibly the best artist in the factory. A haunting, claustrophobic mood permeates throughout his abstract paintings – his foliage pieces are dense and textured, as if the plants are in the early stages of a monstrous metamorphosis.
For a perusal of Chinese traditional paintings, Xiao Qi recommends a visit to the Gao Fu house. The 400-year-old estate – called “yard” in Chinese lexicon – was home to seven consecutive generations of the Gao family, who served as high o[fb03] cials in the imperial assemblage. Now the house has been restored and opened as a historic museum, and incorporates a theatre showing shadow-puppet drama. The drama recounts a love story in a peasant’s village.
“The show stirs ecstatic emotions,” Xiao Qi explains. “The pitches of the traditional instruments, the oration of the story, the movements of the puppets – it’s a great artistic accomplishment.”
Da Qing Hua Jiaoze, Bei Lin Qu, 70 Xi’ang Zhi Miao Street, tel +86 (0)29 8726-1618; Textiles Factory (Fangzi Chen), 238 Fangxi Street, Xi Bei Yi Ying, tel +86 (0)135 7181-3691; Gao Fu House, 200 Bei Yuan Men Xi (Muslim street), tel +86 (0)29 8723-2897
AURELIEN SAINT REMY:
Aurelien moved to China in 2004 to teach his native language, French, before starting the tourist magazine China Grooves last year, a free monthly title found in hotels and other tourist outlets. Its extensive listings are useful to expatriates or visitors – restaurants, cafes, bars, shops, spas, hotels, and so on.
“There are five of us working full-time on the magazine,” Aurelien says. “Now we’re trying to consolidate the venture by improving the publication’s standard.”
The magazine has given Aurelien a nuanced knowledge of Xi’an attractions. “The main street in the Muslim neighbourhood has now become very commercial,” he says, “but visitors can duck into one of the side-streets to observe the community’s way of life. They are full of hole-in-the-wall eateries that do great orange cakes, made from rice and dried persimmons.”
Aurelien recommends making time for the light and water show at the Big Goose Pagoda. “You can make an aft ernoon out of it,” he says. “Visit the pagoda at 5pm before closing, then linger in the park outside watching local residents flying kites, and then catch the synchronised water and light show as darkness falls.”
For an aft ernoon coffee or quick bite near the city centre, Aurelien heads to the Food Loft . It’s a large modern space, serving coffees and cakes, as well as foods cooked up in different booths (there’s Chinese, Thai, Western, Japanese and Malaysian).
“They have great coffee, free wireless internet and waiters who speak English,” Aurelien says. “I like their Malaysian dishes best.”
Funky bars are scattered throughout the city. Aurelian recommends Music Man for its live bands, Train Bar for its train carriage setting and Habana for live Latino music and plush decor.
“Habana is popular with upscale Chinese and expatriates,” he says. “Their cocktails and choice of drinks are excellent.”
China Grooves, www.chinagrooves.com; Food Loft, 6Thfloor, Xing Zheng Yuan Shopping Mall, 1 Luo Ma Shi, tel +86 (0)29 8728-7558; Music Man, SouThGate, Fu Chen He Nan An (about 30m to the right of the SouThGate as you face the gate); Habana Club, 319 Dong Xin Street, tel +86 (0)29 8792-8888; Train Bar, 1 Chang An Bei Road (opposite the Shaanxi Library)
JENNY WANG:
“I like eating out,” smiles Jenny, “and Xi’an has good restaurants. My favourites are Chengdu Ying Xi’ang, which does great Sichuan food, and Little Sheep, a Mongolian hotspot which serves excellent lamb dumplings and many-flavoured pancakes.”
after studying English literature, and a stint teaching English, Jenny got involved with the Library Project last year. Now she runs the charity that raises funds to purchase books for schools in rural undeveloped regions of Shaanxi province.
“The government supplies textbooks to all the schools,” Jenny explains. “Then we go in and give something extra – supplying them with colourful books that enhance the children’s general knowledge.”
Jenny directs the whole operation, leading a small team of four employees. “As we’re a small outfit, we have to be multi-functional,” she says. “So far, we have donated books to three libraries, and our goal is to expand to cover 80 libraries by the end of 2008.”
In her free time, Jenny returns again and again to the city wall. “Now that broken sections of the wall have been rebuilt, it’s possible to cycle all around the wall on top. It takes an hour to walk the circuit,” she says. “You’ll get the best overview of the city, and can see how it’s evolving – the older sections with in the wall contrast with the high-rises and wide avenues of the modern city outside.” Bicycles can be rented from many of the city’s gates.
Jenny recommends tea drinking at the teahouse called Fu Bao Ge, situated in “bar street”, a strip full of bars near Xi’an’s centre.
“They have a vast range of exquisite teas,” Jenny says, “and customers can drink it in private booths.”
Chengdu Ying Xi’ang, Chen Shi Hao Xing Building, Jian Guo Men Wai Dong 50 metres (near southeast corner of the city wall), tel +86 (0)29 6269-9999; The Library Project, www.library-project.org; Fu Bao Ge Teahouse, 66 De Fu Xi’ang, tel +86 (0)29 8721-1031; Little Sheep, Wei Er Street (near Big Goose Pagoda), tel +86 (0)29 8526-6555
PENNY WANG:
after working in hospitality for 20 years, mostly designing and leading tours for Shangri-La Hotel, Penny knows the intricate details of tourist attractions in Xi’an better than anyone.
“Last year, I introduced a tour of a local farmer’s village called Hu, where the farmers have a history of doubling as artists,” says Penny. “They paint the world around them in bright-coloured semi-abstracts on rice paper. I take my guests to visit the farmers’ homes where they paint, then we take a walk around the village and lunch at a local household. This programme has been very well received.”
“with in Xi’an, there are many excellent attractions that most visitors don’t even hear of,” she points out. “For example, everyone goes to the Big Goose Pagoda, but the Small Goose Pagoda is less popular and yet has more to offer. There is the pagoda itself, the setting in a park full of water features, and in the same grounds, the Xi’an Museum, which recounts the history of the city, and holds, among other things, an absorbing collection of tri-colour glazed pottery.”
And in the Shaanxi Historical Museum, which is a major draw, Penny recommends the lesser-known separate section where murals unearthed from royal tombs are on display.
“You have to book in advance to visit the murals as the number of visitors is limited for conservation purposes. But it’s worth the double trek to the museum: the murals are vivid depictions of the fantastic rituals that took place 1,300 years ago.”
For Xi’an dumplings – the best-known local speciality – Penny loves De Fa Chang Jiaozi in the city centre. “Go for a dumpling banquet,” says Penny, “and you can sample about 14 different varieties of dumplings.”
But the ultimate experience can be had at the Archaeology Institute. with prior arrangement – organised through a tour operator – visitors are given the chance to wear gloves and handle archaeological relics unearthed from tombs.
Shangri-La Tours, tel +86 (0)29 8875-8888, www.shangri-la.com; Murals Museum, Shaanxi Historical Museum, 91 Xiao Zhai Dong Road, tel +86 (0)29 8525-4727; Small Goose Pagoda, Xiaoyan Ta, Youyi Xi Road; De Fa Chang Jiaozi, West Street, tel +86 (0)29 8721-8187
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