Muslim Quarter, Xi'an

Beiyuanmen, the tree-lined main street of Xi'an's Muslim Quarter, glowing with lit shopfronts and food stands after dark in 2011. This is the old Hui neighborhood near the Drum Tower, and its food is northwestern China's, built on lamb, beef, flatbread and cumin rather than the pork-heavy snacks of the markets further east. Eat roujiamo, braised meat stuffed into a crisp flatbread, cumin lamb skewers off the grill and yangrou paomo, the lamb soup you thicken by tearing bread into it. The side alleys around Beiyuanmen are quieter and often cheaper.