Big Wild Goose Pagoda

Yesterday, we went to Big Wild Goose Pagoda (BWGP). We had been meaning to go to a museum, but we got there around 11 to find it closed for lunch, even though nothing in our guide book, on the web, or even on the museum's signs said that it did. After a guard offered to sell is tickets even though the ticket office was closed (can we say bribe), we went for a walk. On our walk, we got to the fountain in front of BWGP in the middle of an orchestral water performance, which involved very loud classical music with the water in the fountain accompanying it. Its most distinctive feature was the guards, both male and female, dotted around the fountain, wearing the strangest uniforms. Well, the style of the uniforms wasn't all that weird, but the colors were. The men were dressed in blue jackets, black knee high boots, with white pants tucked into them, and yellow shoulder ropes. The women were wearing hot-pink jackets with yellow shoulder ropes, white skirts, and white knee high, high heel boots.

When the show was done, we walked around the outer wall of BWGP until we got to the entrance. We paid our fees and went into the complex. We first saw the bell and drum towers, which I didn't think were very impressive except for the amount of money on the floor. Then, we went to the entrance of the seven storey main tower and bought separate entrance tickets. Then we climbed the 251 steps to the top and admired the view, which was OK except for Xi'an's pollution haze. Then we left the complex, wandering past the guard dogs (either Shepard, Leonburgers, or Shepard-Golden crosses, but any way, big). Declan and I did a balloon shooting fair stall thing, which was easy because we were about five feet from the balloons. Then we went to lunch and got a taxi back to the hostel.