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old downtown neighborhoods

Walk the city and explore the old downtown neighborhoods. Narrow alleys and old 小区 (xiao qu) give access to hundred year old wet markets neighboring temporary encampments of migrant workers and traveling farmers, one room restaurants without menus (don't worry, they'll tell you what they've got, or you can glance at other tables), dog meat butchers, public toilets, backstreet whorehouses with eerie blue lights, arcades in scavenged brick huts with corrugated tin roofs.

New Yellow River

Then, walk along the New Yellow River, a diverted portion of the river created by the floods of 1938, when Nationalist forces bombed dykes to stymie the Japanese (instead, they succeeded only in killing millions of their own country's farmers). You can have your fortune told, buy most kinds of medications (that are prescription-only in Western countries) and raw tobacco, get something good to eat, and catch small traveling musicians performing on traditional instruments.

Xi'an's Terracotta Warriors

Xuzhou is home to its own miniature version of Xi'an's Terracotta Warriors. The site features three pavillions featuring the warriors (three foot tall statues) in various states of excavation. Replicas are also sold. (Most people in the city have never seen the site and are only vaguely familiar with it).

January - April
October - December

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