We are a bit of a curiosity around here

Not the most exciting day on Friday, but still interesting enough just as we made our way through another day in China.

We had read of the Daming Palace National Heritage Park, and the fact that it's located in a massive park in the middle of the city of Xi'an. Comparable in size to New York's Central Park.

But it was also supposed to be hot... calling for 36C (97F). So we figured maybe a stroll in the park and check out the palace in the morning before it got too hot.

We walked to the metro and took the subway about 7 stops toward the center of the city. Cost was 2 yuan ($0.42 CAD, $0.29 USD) each.

It's already getting hot and people were trying to find shade.

I like this photo.

Paddle boats available for rent, but nobody was using them.

There were a few interesting statues.

Ruth.

So the problem with this "palace" is that you expect some kind of grand building to explore. Or at least a guided tour or something. But the palace doesn't exist anymore, All of the buildings are long gone!

There used to be some fancy buildings on top of this mound.

The best you get is a model display of what they think it used to look like.

This was a kind of a neat statue display.

There were several of these on the edge of the huge plaza. Not sure if they were floats in a parade.

Huge empty plaza. The building is a museum.

The Gate Museum is also huge. Look at the size compared to the man walking. But it was closed.

The old city wall.

The central train station.

It was baking hot, so we decided to find an airconditioned shopping mall and see if we could get some lunch. Which we did. Lunch was just okay... we are quickly tiring of noodles and rice. There are a lot of other dishes available, but often the translation means you're not quite sure what you're getting and it's difficult with Ruth's gluten free needs. Rice, and rice noodles are always easy.

Anyhow, we won't starve. By the way, there are also quite a few KFC and McDonald's locations! We're not fans of either of those brands, although I wouldn't mind a burger and fries!

After lunch, we decided to do some shopping. Neither one of us enjoys shopping, but Ruth needed some t-shirts, leggings, and hiking pants. We browsed a few shops in the mall, and then noticed that there is a big Decathlon (France based sporting goods) store across the road.

I couldn't help picking up a new cap for myself.

And we had quite a successful shop there. Many Decathlon items are actually made in China, so the prices were very reasonable. 

Interesting to note, that we haven't seen ANY visible foreigners in Xi'an until we got into the Decathlon store and saw a couple who looked European. We didn't speak to them, so not sure, but they definitely weren't Chinese. 

We get a lot of Chinese people staring at us, or doing a double take. We just smile at them and they smile back. Or we say hello in Chinese, which often surprises them. The children are especially funny because many will have never seen a white person. We're not in a touristy area, and most tourists who come here still do group or organized tours. 

We went to a very local restaurant for dinner. The hostess and the people working there were very friendly, but guaranteed they have never served tourists before. It was kind of funny. I caught one of the waitresses videoing us, and she was a little embarrassed, but we just laugh about it. We're a curiosity in this neighborhood, that's for sure.

Dinner. Some kind of soup... it was a huge bowl!

Next up... on Saturday we are heading into the mountains south of here to try and do some hiking and escape the heat!

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