Where I stayed nearby was a taoist temple dedicated to one of the goddess from 八仙’s 韩湘子。Thus the street 湘子庙街 was named.  However, except for few tourist,  few local visited the temple unlike temples in taiwan or SE asia which was always crowded.

I met an elder who revisited this temple for the wrong reason.  He has stayed in the temple during the 50s and it was the HQ for the city cleanning service.  He revisited the this place as he spent his youth in this city cleaning the city. There werent any goddess figures then as it was solely an office for the cleaning HQ.

I asked him whether he belived in any religion.  Like many elders I met, he mentioned it was useless turning to religions or taoist.  ‘没有用‘。

However, It seem there were revivial of religion faciltities in Xi’ an but mostly was dedicated to 财神爷/庙。 If you ever happened to see one popular one， you will be ‘extorted’ into getting blessings from the goddess. 

The muslim here seem to preserve their root better than the majority chinese.

I wander what would the peoples here turns to when they felt uncertain about the future or living?  Maybe other forms of religion such as few cathedrals I found here or the taoist monestries found in the mountain? 

If not I really pitty this cultural link of the chinese which was badly suffered during the revoluation period.

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