@thisthread

Three unique memories I bring back from Xi'an, totally unrelated to Bing ma yong:

Every day when I got back to the hotel in central Xi'an, I noticed how my socks had turned yellow, and how, when washing them in the shower as I did every night, the water turned the same yellow - the yellow of Yellow sea and the Huanghe and the Gebi shamo 

Not far from the hotel I discovered a noodle restaurant with the most wonderful wide wheat lamian - the name I think was 'di yi lamian' or 'di yi ming lamian'.  I took photos meaning to research these noodles, two or three times as wide as 'daxiaomian' - it was 2013 I think, a new HTC Android.I'd been transferring to Flashdrive regularly, but when I arrived in pingyao I discovered that 300 photos had been totally wiped without trace.... But the xi'an noodles and the restaurant have firmly stuck in my memory.  Map and web searches haven't helped so far

Queueing at a very busy bus-stop in sight of the Xi'an drum tower one night, buses arriving every 3 minutes, a long queue ... when the bus arrived and we moved to get on, from the shadows behind rushed about 30 mostly well dressed office workers, and mostly females in their 20s and they all barged onto the bus.  There was almost a riot and violence came very close.  This gave a need dimension to Chinese Queue-jumping.  I had thought it was much better than 20 years ago, but there you go.

These are three trivial experiences from Xi'an but all part of my experience and memory. I'd love to find the noodles again

jumping in ahead in lines in China has always pissed me off. It does not seem to matter what or where the drive to jump ahead is deep in this culture. Being a westerner I find it quite disrespectful and undignified. I have since learned thast my loud voice and some well placed shoulder checks works out well. It can ruin many of the sightseeing trips one takes while in China. Have not yet been to Xian, hopefully ion the next yeat if all goes well.