DISPENCE

Today we visited the City Wall of Xi’an. It is the only fully intact city wall remaining in all of China. It was designed to keep out enemies. Inside, we found some Chinese women playing some instruments and listened for a while. On top of the wall is a great view of the Xi’an skyline. It was cloudy again today but the pollution wasn’t nearly as bad.

After the wall and lunch we headed for the country. After a while in the buses we stopped at a village 40 km outside Xi’an. The Don Yau Village is where farmers live. I’m told it is a pretty standard middle class neighborhood. Snow covered dirt streets. The residents all came out and watched as our tour guide led us down the narrow street. Marble entryways and gates on some houses contrasted the run-down wooden houses next door.

We found some old men playing a traditional Chinese game. It is cold now in the winter so they’re not spending much time out in the fields.

The children found us especially interesting. We were told to bring gifts for them. Most students brought pens or stickers. I handed out Oregon postcards I brought from home. They liked them. I handed more out to adults, too. They seemed to really like them and smiled wide looking at it.

We were walking down the street when an old lady started speaking to us from her porch. In this village they speak a dialect different than regular Mandarin, but Caroline (the Beijing Director) understood her. The woman was inviting us to come inside her home. So we did. It was cold inside, unheated, like all the other houses. The floor was hard stone.

Our last stop in the village was the house of a famous painter. She is respected by the whole village and is elected to the local congress. I bought a painting for 100Y.

Soon we left the village and headed back to Xi’an. I napped on the bus and upon waking I still couldn’t believe I’m actually in China.

Before dinner we checked out an old mosque. Monks were everywhere.

Dinner was good, we had 18 rounds of different dumplings. All 80 of us ate.
Tomorrow we fly back to Beijing to continue the seminar. (View more photos)

Yesterday we checked out the famous Terracotta Soldiers. Built in 221 B.C., they were purposely buried to protect China’s first Emperor, Qin (Chin). He believed that upon death, he would live underground. So nearby his tomb a massive army stands waiting at his command.

About 720,000 people built the soldiers, horses and other battle armaments over 40 years. Each piece is unique, with each soldier having distinct faces and garb. Qin became Emperor at age 13, but didn’t start really ruling until he was 22. He ruled for 37 years and died of heat exhaustion during an inspection visit somewhere in China away from Xi’an. Xi’an was China’s first capitol and the Qin dynasty was the first to unify the country. Qin standardized the money, made Confucianism widely taught and created Civil Service exams for everyone.

Today we flew from Beijing to Xi’an (she-ahn) to being the two week traveling seminar. Xi’an is the ancient capital of China and the start of the famous Silk Road. It’s population is about 8 million. We took a tour bus from Tsinghua to the airport. On the way we passed some real Beijing neighborhoods. At the airport the check in counters were arranged by what looked to be gate numbers, although our check in point and gate didn’t match. For Air China alone, there were dozens of check in counters. The flight to Xi’an was only about 90 minutes, much better than the 11 from Vancouver to Beijing.

We arrived in Xi’an to the same foggy cold as Beijing, although there is much more snow on the ground here. The bus ride form the airport to hotel (the Hotel Royal Xi’an) was about an hour. The bus had chains on and we stayed on the snowy parts of the road. I sat in the very back and it felt like the bus was swaying a bit.

After checking in, we walked across the street and checked out a cool market. Counterfeit purses and wallets, fresh sea food, little trinket things and even lingerie was for sale. I found a awesome, red Mao lighter and bought it for 25 Yuan. There was a heavy sent in the air of fresh fish, pollution and fecal matter and the ground covered in a thick, brown slime.

We went to a nice restaurant for dinner. It was the best meal I’ve had so far because I actually got a good amount of meat. There was some good chicken and some sweet tasting fish. We all got some sort of tea and there was one waitress who’s only job was to keep our tea glasses filled to the brim.

Nine of us sat around a big, round table. Everyone has tiny little plates and the food is served on a glass lazy susan in the middle of the table. Tonight, we found donkey penis on the menu and I suggested we order it, so we did. It wasn’t bad. It was in an algae broth that was really good. The meat was rubbery and kind of had an aftertaste of crab. Some people had trouble eating it, but I thought it wasn’t bad and finished my cup of soup.

After dinner we walked around the area near out hotel. There’s basically a bunch of shops all over the place with wild lights. We walked around for awhile before going to McDonalds for an after dinner snack. The food tasted just like McDonalds in the States. It was right near a big roundabout. In the center was the Bell Tower, a 600 year old tower.

Tomorrow we head off to check out the Terracotta soldiers. (More photos from today)