German bierhaus in Xi’an
Long name beer
The Chinese occasionally have a habit of running words together when they put the Pinyin translation of a phrase or name in print. That might explain why this beer’s name is so long. Still I can’t recall drinking a beer with a longer name than Landaijituanlanshi Pijiu or Beer. Nice bit of Chinglish on the can, which ends up promising to make you feel well. Even the presence of the “best quality Australian grain” doesn’t separate this bevvy from the very large pack of bland Chinese pale lagers. Still, drink enough of these and you won’t feel much at all.
Xi’an has a ton of places to see and a highlight for me was the Big Goose Pagoda (yes, there’s a Little Goose Pagoda and no, I don’t know why it’s called Big Goose). It’s in the middle of a very large public space and there are acres of fountains in front of the temple wall and large pedestrian strip at the back where many kites are flown. There’s also an impressive statue of a buddhist bloke. It was built in 652AD and offers awesome North, East, South and West views from the top floor. A must do on any trip to Xi’an.
View East from the Goose
The stair climb and all the other walking around the temple left me parched and I didn’t expect to find a bar until we travelled the 4km back to the city centre. We randomly took a road looking for a cab and was delighted to find found a great little strip of bars with views of the Pagoda. Most were small Chinese bars serving Chinese Budweiser and Chinese Carlsberg. I chose the Bierhaus, which served genuine Paulaner and even had a crowd of genuine ruddy faced Germans enjoying some steins. The menu offered Bavarian fare including white veal sausage and Schnitzel. Amazing what you stumble across.
back of the ferry 
