Wii Bowling with Grandma!

(Sandy)

March 6, 2010

It was still raining…a lot…our first full day in Hangzhou. Helen came to fetch me at the teacher’s apartment at about 9:30 am to guide me to the school and to meet up with the rest of the “Shanghai Five” and host siblings. I am REALLY glad that I brought waterproof boots. It was pouring and cold most of the day. We were bussed to West Lake and because of the awful weather did not take the boat tour but instead visited the museum across the street. We viewed works of two contemporary Chinese painters. Their work was beautiful but very un-Chinese. Both had studied and painted in Europe and certainly brought the traditional technique back home. One of the artists was from Hangzhou, painted many portraits of his family and figure studies, and has works hanging in some of the great museums. Having painted in Europe mostly, the other artist’s work was interesting because all of his subjects were westerners. We then visited the part of the museum that housed magnificent porcelain pieces from a number of the dynasty eras. Many were in perfect condition with the tiniest details still in tack and included bowls, drinking vessels, incense holders, and a huge dish that had to be close to three feet in diameter. The beautiful matt celadon green glaze was in abundance along with dragons, lotus leaves, little squiggle designs that were meant to be silkworms, and some very humorous animal caricatures. Because it was still raining after the museum visit, we were taken to a teahouse for, of course, some tea but also sunflower seeds and chips that resembled the sweet-potato chips that we can get at home at the grocery store. Many of us were just happy to hold the hot teacup and capture the heat.

Next, I was told that I would have dinner with Lauren and her host family. Let me just say up front that it was the most fun and interesting evening for me since the start of our adventure. After walking up 7 flights of stairs, we arrived at the host’s home. It was a lovely 2-floor apartment with many surprises waiting. First we had some milk tea and then the Dad brought in what appeared to be a lemon about the size of a soccer ball. We were all in awe as he cut away the top and began to use all his might to peel away the very thick tough skin. It had a great citrus-like aroma to it. He gave us each a wedge and then showed us how to break it in half, peel away the membrane and eat the interesting fruit. It had the texture of a somewhat dry orange, but a nice subtle flavor. “Ning”, the daughter, said that her Dad usually never peels this at home, so I’m thinking this was a special performance for us. Little did I know that it would be just the beginning of many performances!

After a few minutes, the house was buzzing with visitors. Ning’s Grandma and Grandpa joined us from their rooms and an Aunt, Uncle, Cousin Frank and good friend knocked at the door. Ning and her friend played the piano for us. They are both very talented and kept us entertained. Lauren and Ning also played a duet they had worked on. I couldn’t even remember how to play chopsticks! Ning then let me know that her Dad played the erhu, the tall 2-stringed violin-like instrument. I asked if he would play and it appeared that he was not shy about performing for us. It was so interesting to see this instrument played up close…how the strings encompass the reed…how the reed is played on each string separately…where his fingers travel to create the notes…how the bow sits on top of the snake skinned barrel part of the instrument…I was fascinated by the mechanics and by how beautifully he played it. He even played the theme from Titanic while Ning sang a bit.

With that part of the concert over, Ning’s friend then unveiled her guzheng, another stringed instrument that looks like strings on a fancy log…played flat across a table. She is fairly new at this instrument, but played a couple of very sweet and soft tunes. Her hands floated over the strings very delicately and yet plucked them with a variety of finger techniques that were very authoritative and guitar-like.  When she finished she tried to teach both Lauren and me a couple of notes. It is much harder than it looks to create the beautiful sounds and look graceful doing it!

As if that wasn’t enough entertainment for the evening, we were then escorted upstairs to compete at Wii Bowling. Ning’s 14 year old cousin, Frank, was very good at this game and was encouraged to show his dominance, so Lauren, Ning, Frank, the Friend and I all competed. We had so much fun and there was a ton of laughter and good sportsmanship. After the first game, Ning’s 77 year old Grandma was encouraged to play me (I knew I was in trouble) so to fill out the second game, four of us played. Let me tell you, Grandma was talking to that TV (in Chinese) and tossing that virtual bowling ball like her life depended on it. Again, we had a great time with lots of good humor and great fun.

I think she beat me!

Finally it was time for dinner. We were taken to a really nice buffet-style restaurant at a hotel. The food was good and included spaghetti as well as many of the local Chinese dishes. Lauren and Ning had ice cream for dessert…a cross between gelato and sherbert. While I hopefully ate enough to be polite, I was still stuffed from the huge lunch we had earlier in the day. At the time I didn’t realize that I probably should have “carbo-loaded” because after dinner we were taken to the ping-pong room at the hotel. The host family changed into their ping-pong outfits while Lauren and I were still bundled up in the warm clothes required for the day’s earlier events…I had long underwear on! So you can see where this is going, right? To make a long story short, we again had a great time albeit a very hot one. After just playing for fun for an hour or so, Lauren won one out of two games with Ling…way to go Lauren! I just played for fun. Frank once again showed his athletic ability playing really intensely against his opponents.

Finally it was time to say good-night. I was dropped off at the gate of the school to find my way in the dark back to the apartment. I will admit that I was a little apprehensive, but after just one wrong turn found the right doorway. Thank you Joanne for the flashlight suggestion!

I will end by saying that Lauren is very fortunate to be staying with this family. They are so much fun and the hospitality was abundant.  And, I am glad to be joining them tomorrow morning again. I wonder what Grandma will have in store for me?        

Best, Sandy 

Hangzhou Safe and Sound (but whew!)

(Lauren)

Today was an early day for the five of us.  Because our flight to Hangzhou was scheduled to leave at 8:25 a.m., Richard had decided to play it safe, and asked us to be checked out and ready to go by 6:15.  As we ate a quick breakfast in the car, we fretted somewhat about meeting our host families.  Had we brought enough gifts?  Were we wearing nice enough clothes?  Cassie, Alaina, and I had gone through all of this the previous evening, but felt the need to hear each other's opinions a second time.  Alex found this discussion highly amusing.

We arrived at the Xi'an airport without incident, and checked our bags (sadly overweight by this point).  Once our luggage had been checked, we reluctantly said goodbye to Richard, and headed of through security.  Everything continued to go smoothly for us, and we soon found ourselves aboard the plane.  That was where things started to go somewhat less smoothly.

Shortly after we took off, the plane hit some mild turbulence.  We weren't particularly worried as we received the standard instructions to stay seated and buckled up for safety.  It wasn't until later, when the turbulence became markedly less mild, that we began to wish the plane would land soon.  Several times, the turbulence got so bad that we actually thought the plane had touched the ground, only to be proven wrong!  As our watches struck 10:20, we were relieved, thinking that we would be landing shortly.  That was when the announcement was made.

Since the loudspeaker announcement was first made in Chinese, we had no idea what was going on - but the rather distressed exclamations from our fellow passengers let us know that it was something serious.  We learned soon enough that the plane was actually unable to land due to the severe thunderstorms Hangzhou was experiencing.  Instead, we were being redirected to an airport halfway between Hangzhou and Shanghai.

While we found this redirection inconvenient, we were still not particularly worried.  We assumed it would be easy enough to land, reclaim our luggage, and catch the next bus back to Hangzhou.  We soon found out how wrong we were.  Once we landed in the airport, the flight attendants told us we would not be allowed to leave the plane, which was waiting to hear if the weather in Hangzhou had turned.  We sat on the plane another half an hour waiting for the weather before we were allowed off.  At this point, the airline told us that it was impossible to fly into Hangzhou period.  They suggested we instead fly to Nanjing (tickets we would have to pay for ourselves) and then take a bus to Hangzhou from there.  By this point, we were pretty livid.

The airline soon came back with another solution.  There were buses that would go from our current airport to a bigger bus depot, at which point we could take the bigger bus back to Hangzhou (an hour and a half ride).  Alternatively, we could stay in the airport and wait for the weather to turn, and then fly back (20 minutes).  We decided to wait until we could get ahold of Naichuan, Helen, or Richard to ask their advice.  Unfortunately, neither of our cell phones worked, and nor did a nearby pay phone.

Within an hour of our landing at the airport, the airline came back to tell us that the weather had changed, and that we could fly back to Hangzhou.  Elated, we rushed to get on the plane.  We then learned that the weather had not actually changed at all...so we had to continue waiting for the plane to take off.  2 hours later, we were still sitting on the runway.

Tired and grumpy, we thought longingly of our layover at the Chengdu airport.  At Chengdu, the airline officials gave each of us 100 yuan as compensation for the 6 hours we waited in the airport.  Since the situation on the plane was far less comfortable than in Chengdu, several of us felt that we deserved 200 yuan!  Unfortunately, this was a different airline, and they seemed to feel that seaweed-covered peanuts would satisfy people.  Alaina and Cassie tried the peanuts and said that they certainly were satisfactory - but not as much as money would have been!

Once the plane finally took off, we were told that the ride back to Hangzhou would take half an hour.  An hour later, we were finally landing in the Hangzhou airport.  It was four o'clock in the afternoon.

We met up with the Hangzhou delegation, who had had an equally unenjoyable day waiting in the airport for us to show up.  I was thrilled to be introduced to my host sister, Ning.  She is a sophomore, and is a wonderfully sweet, friendly person.  Ning and I struck up a fast friendship on our bus ride back to the school, where we met up with her parents.  Ning's parents didn't speak much English, but we had fun communicating in a mix of English and Chinese (with the help of Ning, whose English was excellent).  After dinner, we returned to their appartment, where I met Ning's grandparents.  She and I had a lot of fun playing piano together, even though I can't actually play piano.  We sounded pretty good, all things being equal!  After we finished playing, Ning's dad sent her to go do her homework (she had extra, since she'd missed school today).

I have been completely thrilled with the hospitality that Ning and her family have shown me already.  I feel certain that I will have a great time with her family - and suspect that Alaina, Cassie, and Alex feel similarly!  Tomorrow, we tour the West Lake during our first full day at Hangzhou.  The real adventure has begun!

Terracotta Warriors to Dumplings

(Alex)

Hello once again America. This is our second day out and about in Xian, and today we all had a blast! After having a good western styled breakfast (similar to that of our Hong Kong one) we left the hotel at 9:30 and headed off to the Terracotta excavation site. Along the way we stopped at a pottery and ceramics factory and toured the area. We saw them make Terracotta warrior replicas ranging from life sized to finger sized; it was really fascinating. The tri-color ceramic work there was also truly beautiful and highly intricate. There was a piece that caught all of our eyes in particular due to the fact that it was very dragon-esque, but not a dragon. It was called Pi Xiu which is one of the nine sons of the dragon. It brings good fortune to those who hold it, so of course we were all interested, but after spending an hour perusing the shop, we drove to the Terracotta museum.

Now to start, it was our coldest day in China yet so we were all sniffling like it was nobody’s business, but we are all okay and not very sick despite some malaria medication side effects. We all got student discounts with our school IDs so we took that opportunity to catch a go cart up with the money we saved! In this cold, we couldn’t have used it in a better time. Once at the top of the hill, Sandy and Richard talked about how just ten years ago the museum looked totally different and not nearly as clean as it is today. I find it intriguing to hear Sandy talk about her experiences of China ten years ago because I look around try to see it how she has. This just shows how much China has modernized in the last 30-40 years and how quickly and efficiently too! From the courtyard, we walked into a 360-degree movie theatre that was a thirty minute action-documentary about the history and discovery of the Terracotta warrior pits. There are three main pits at the Museum that were all excavated very close to one another, but the main area of the excavation site is 56 square km! This area is actually the tomb and mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang Di, the first emperor of the Qin dynasty. He was the first emperor to fight war to unite China from the 7 states into one kingdom, and he did so successfully. He came to power around 350 BCE and the Terracotta warriors were made shortly there after. He also was the first emperor to construct the Great Wall. The Great Wall had four construction periods and this was the very beginning. But after his powerful reign, Xiang Ji, a mercenary leader overthrew him and ended the Qin Dynasty. When he found his tomb, he set it ablaze and destroyed much of the Terracotta army (which took 40 years to build). It wasn’t until 1974 that peasants discovered the remains while farming and the government began excavating. Since then excavations are still going on, but upwards of 8000 Terracotta soldiers and horses have been found and preserved. The museum was awesome and I recommend it to anyone who visits China.

Before heading to our next destination, we stopped in a local restaurant for lunch. Richard loves to take us to places with lots of western people, and this was no exception. The food was great, but you could tell that mainly westerners eat here. From here we made our way to the Huaqing Hot springs. On a cold day like today this was perfect! We learned about the recent history at the springs along with the palace that is constructed around it. The Palace was first made in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and since then has been a relaxation place for emperors and high power figures. Jiang Kaishek, the leader of the Chinese Nationalist party, was actually kidnapped here in 1936 in what has now become known as the Xian incident. The Communists were pressing him to join forces to defeat the Japanese, but he was being extremely stubborn. He eventually gave in after months of pressure, helping the Chinese take a stand against the Japanese. We saw where he was found hiding between rocks on a mountain side. We also saw his private field HQ that looked more like a retreat than a military complex. The springs and bathhouses were really cool looking and amazing to see how they worked. The emperor used to come here with his concubine and spend a lot of time with her (the wife wasn’t too happy). Each bathhouse looked like something out of ancient Rome, but of course was Chinese. The palace has been partially destroyed from wars and deterioration, but the rest of it has been preserved perfectly and made a great stop today.

We then headed back to town for a dumpling dinner! We all looked forward to this so much since getting here, and it paid off! We ate so may different types of dumplings ranging from pumpkin pork to sweet walnut dumplings. Alaina loves to take pictures of our meals, so look forward to seeing them all.

Tomorrow we head to Pangliu village to see the children, so I leave you here. Goodnight and you will hear from us again soon.

Noodles mmm ...

(Cassie)

After a very late night, we woke up luxuriously late this morning for our first day in Xi’an.  We all skipped breakfast, as the breakfast service ended at ten and we weren’t meeting Richard until eleven.  He greeted us in the lobby with a smile, and we headed on our way.

On the way to Big Goose Pagoda, which is located in a park outside of the city’s center, Richard gave us a bit of background on Xi’an.  Originally, the city’s name was Chang’an, meaning long peace.  The city’s current population is about eight million.  The city has a very rich past – it was the capital of thirteen dynasties and is known as the cradle of Chinese culture.  It was the original starting point of the Silk Road as well.  The Han Chinese nationality, which makes up ninety-two percent of China’s population, was born in Xi’an. 

During our drive, Sandy couldn’t get over the changes Xi’an has undertaken since she was last here in 2001.  The government, apparently, is trying to restore Xi’an to its Tang style of architecture.  Thousands of villagers were relocated in order to make room for high-rises and hotels.  Among the buildings being constructed was what will eventually be the tallest in northwestern China.  It will have fifty-six floors – one for each nationality in China. 

When we arrived at the park we made our way through its northern square to the pagoda at its center.  Called Big Goose Pagoda, it was constructed in 652 B.C.  It is a Buddhist temple built for a monk named Tripitaka.  He made a long and dangerous journey to India in order to find scriptures that he could bring back to China.  His travels were the inspiration for the book and movie Journey to the West.  The pagoda was eight stories tall, and surprisingly sturdy for its age.  It managed to survive a major earthquake in the sixteenth century because of the building materials used – the bricks are made out of finely ground dirt, limestone, and sticky rice juice.  We walked around and explored the small temple buildings surrounding the park before proceeding to a greatly anticipated lunch. 

We had our first noodles at lunch!  We’ve been having lots of rice, but no noodles or dumplings because we’ve spent most of our trip in the south of China.  It was well worth the wait! We had two different varieties of noodles.  One set was wide and flat and came with a meat sauce with chives and scrambled egg, while the other was spaghetti-like noodles with a very strong and pleasant flavor that came with mushrooms.  We also had non-alcoholic pear beer, which was interesting but a little weird. 

After lunch, we made our way to the Shaanxi History Museum.  It had begun to get pretty chilly, so we were happy to be going inside.  We went through three galleries, which basically provided a window into ancient Chinese civilization through artifacts and artwork.  It was pretty fascinating.  The first gallery held the prehistoric, Qin, and Zhou exhibit.  There were a lot of Neolithic pottery and tools, as well as copious amounts of jade (unsurprisingly).  I found the Zhou particularly intriguing because Richard told us that they made ritual sacrifices for tombs, much like the Egyptians.  Slaves were buried alive with their dead masters so that he would be prepared in the afterlife.  When they weren’t killing slaves, the people living during the Zhou dynasty were making lots of bronze tools and intricate urns.  In the second gallery, we saw artifacts from the Han, Wei, and Jin dynasties, which mainly consisted of decorative tile ends, green glazed ceramic animals, and beautiful bronze mirrors.  Finally, we got to the third gallery, which held all of the pieces from the Sui and Tang dynasties.  These two dynasties ruled during China’s golden age, and this period of time marked Xi’an’s time as one of the largest ad most prosperous metropolises in the world.  Apparently (on a random tangent) the royalty often played polo during these two dynasties.  The Sui and Tang made a lot of gilded bronzeware, delicate silver urn and drinkware, and tri-colored glazed pottery (of which the horses in particular are world renowned).  With the end of this third gallery we piled back into the van for some rest time at the hotel before dinner.  Outside of the museum, we saw some of the most remarkable kite flying I have ever seen! A man was flying a line of small kites which stretched at least three hundred meters into the foggy sky above Xi’an. 

After a wonderful nap, we went to a hot pot dinner.  Similar to fondue, hot pot means that you cook your own food in a small individual pot of boiling water.  While the food wasn’t great (probably partially because we were cooking it ourselves) Alex had fun boiling eggs and Alaina managed to successfully poach one!  We did, however, get very excited when the amazing fried bread and cheesy frosting sauce we had fallen in love with in Yuanyang appeared again.  We all had second helpings. 

Full of eggs and cheesy sauce, we made our way to our final destination for the day – Xi’an’s old city wall.  This wall is now the tallest and thickest city wall remaining in China.  Richard told us it would be lit up for the New Year, but we weren’t prepared for how stunningly beautiful it was.  Frankly, I was a bit awestruck.  Even before we had gotten into the small square within the wall, we were starry eyed with lights and colors.  All of the trees were strung with twinkling lights, as well as a type of light I’ve never seen that looked light dripping water.  On the grass were 3D figures of flowers and bugs to complete the spring theme (Chinese New Year is also known as chun jie, or Spring Festival).  Banners of light arced over the entrance into the park.  We were met by more flowers within the wall. They were both mounted on the walls and on the ground.  Just when we thought the lights couldn’t be more gorgeous, we climbed up the stairs onto the wall, and were met by a solid half mile of 3D lit structures and classic red lanterns.  These structures included Beijing opera masks, peach trees, the Sphinx, Native American totem poles, and giant yellow hanging lanterns.  There were far more spectacles than these, but they were too numerous to chronicle.  I was reminded of the 4^th of July as children walked by holding blinking glow wands and fake glasses with glowing smiley faces.  Tired from our busy and a late bedtime the night before, we came back to the hotel for an early night. 

I can’t believe this is my last traveling blog! Talk to you when we get to Hangzhou!

Yakking It Up, Close and Personal

(Sandy)

First, we can’t believe it’s already March!

Today included a few interesting turn of events. The first being that our guide’s official company itinerary listed only the second leg of our two flight trip to Xian…so she thought we had a lot more time to explore before leaving for the airport. It was a good thing I chatted with her about the day’s events early in the morning. With the correct timing worked out, we left the hotel at 9am for a 20 minute ride to the base of Yulong Xue Shan (Jade Dragon Snow Mountain) to catch a very, very large shuttle bus that would wind its way up and around many unguarded hair-pin turns to a chairlift. The chairlift carried us further to about 3600 meters to “Yak Meadow”. We were all very excited at the expectation of seeing these amazing and beautiful creatures that give so much back to the people – meat, fur, bone, leather, Yak butter sculptures and tourist income (more on this later). So after a fairly cold 20 minute chairlift ride, we arrived at the meadow and NO yaks were to be seen anywhere. There was a tiny monastery off in the distance and we were told that we would have to walk further up the mountain to see the Yaks…no time for either. To help warm the chilled bones, some bought hot chocolate from an elderly woman manning the mountain-side counter which also sold Yak bone chopsticks, dried flower pods picked from somewhere on the mountain and Dove chocolate bars. When our guide, Diana, asked for just hot water, the old woman replied that it would cost 5 yuan! She stated that she was the one who carried the water up the mountain and payment was due for the effort. We jumped back on the chairlift to head back down the mountain to a spot that we noticed previously. It was a lovely green mineral-tinted lake/river that housed a tourist destination which offered Yak rides and picture taking…for a price. Of course, those of us who are enamored with Yaks wanted to stop, so we did, and lots of “cheesy” pictures were taken of us on Yakback. For me, it was the next best thing to seeing “Yak butter sculptures” which are evidently mostly in Tibet (I haven’t given up, yet, though). Alex, Lauren, Cassie and Alaina waded into the shallow water, which by the way, was where the Yaks were standing…watch where you step!

After the up close and personal special Yak moments, we headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and to eat a quick lunch at KFC! Alex and friends discovered how to say “no mayo” which made Alex very happy! There was no time to spare as we needed to get to the airport. At the airport we said our farewells to the driver and guide and headed for security. This process, we have discovered, is VERY random with no rhyme or reason to the varied searches that have occurred. We are always frisked, sometimes let through with liquids, sometimes not…sometimes asked to open a bag, sometimes not. Only once have I been asked to show my computer, but a certain bag of candy seems to send security into a frenzy. At one airport, some of us were wisked off in one “secure” direction and others in a different “unsecured” direction. It’s all very exciting and keeps us wondering what kind of an adventure we’ll have at the next departure.

And speaking of airports, our storyteller, Alex, now has new fodder for a great tale. While there have been many (accidental) legitimate reasons for having our carry-ons searched, today, Alex was asked to open his checked luggage! It appears that his newly purchased antique Chinese bayonet could not be transported even in checked baggage. Fortunately our guide was still with us and authoritatively took the reigns of the situation. Alex was forgiven, but the bayonet will meet up with us in Hangzhou via the mail with thanks to our guide.

Okay, so here we are ready to board the first leg of our flight and Richard (Viz’s Chinese buddy) confirms to us by phone that the second flight is delayed by 2 hours. No problem, we’ll eat at the Chengdu airport to waste time, we thought. Once we arrived, we discovered that our flight had been delayed even longer. When we tried to inquire about the rescheduled time we were handed free passes to a hotel and nearly herded into a group to leave the airport…which none of us felt was a good thing to do. We finally made our wish to remain in the airport understood and were directed to a KFC…yes, another KFC! We had the no mayo thing down AND there was ice cream, so everyone was happy. We found a cozy spot on the floor near a door and proceeded to make camp. I used a luggage trolley as a seat and found it quite comfy and fun…could wheel around a bit like a crab. During our wait, we chatted about our happiest moments ever and reviewed the trip so far rating events and guides from one to three. To be sure that we did not miss the rescheduled flight, we later changed our camp location to the gate area and discovered that many, many flights had been cancelled due to bad northeast weather. Ours was one of very few that was still scheduled albeit, very late. They even gave each passenger a 100 yuan cash refund because of inconvenience. Finally, after a six hour wait, we boarded the plane for our relatively short flight to Xian. It was great to see Richard’s smiling face waiting for us as we finally arrived at about 1:30am. He zoomed us off to the hotel for a good night’s sleep and suggested an 11am meeting time…thank goodness.


Talk to you soon….

Dragons and 600-Year Old Camellias

(Lauren)


Lijiang Day 2

We began our second day in Lijiang with an early morning tour of the beautiful Black Dragon Park and nearby pool.  In ancient times, according to local folklore, the water of the pool was generated by the constant splashing of the Black Dragon, whose job it was to keep the people supplied with water.  Unfortunately, the dragon was a bit of a “playboy” in the words of our guide, Diana, and often neglected to work in order to spend time with his girlfriend, the Snow Princess.  One day, the Black Dragon abandoned the pool completely to move in with the Princess, and there was a terrible drought.  The people prayed to the dragon’s father for help.  When the father arrived on the scene, he was furious to learn that his son had stopped working.  He trapped the dragon in a temple, so that it would be forced to splash water for the people.  The Snow Princess turned into the Snow Mountain in her grief for her lost love, which is why now the Chinese find it romantic that water from the melted snow from the mountain feeds the dragon’s pool – proving that the Princess and the dragon are still together. 

While walking around the park, we visited the temple where the father imprisoned the Black Dragon.  Inside the temple was a little wishing well of sorts.  Throwing a few yuan into the well was supposed to guarantee longevity, but we found it difficult to get our yuan to sink into the water!

We then stopped by a Naxi Minority Cultural Museum, to learn about the customs and traditions of the local Naxi people.  The museum had many exhibits featuring Naxi clothing and handicrafts, but one of the most interesting was a study of the Naxi written language.  Naxi writing features a complex system of pictographs, similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics.  We learned that few Naxi people are actually capable of reading their script, since only the local Dongba (Naxi religious leaders) are permitted to read and write.  The Dongba then act as interpreters for the rest of the Naxi.  We were fortunate enough to be able to see one of the local Dongba writing scrolls.  Although Naxi script is different from traditional Chinese writing, the beauty in the calligraphy was the same.

Once we finished looking through the museum, we headed out into the countryside to visit some of the villages.  We stopped at a little village where the local women were famous for their embroidery.  To create a piece of embroidery, the women would have to pain a watercolor of the design that they wanted to stitch, trace it over, and then embroider it.  The embroidery work alone could take over a month, but the finished product was amazing.  Because of the tightness of the stitching, the finished products seemed to shimmer – from a distance, they actually seemed to be painted!  Even more impressive, each of the designs used was completely unique, since the women never kept the original watercolor pattern (those tended to be given to whoever bought the final embroidered product). 

We left the embroidery shop and headed for lunch.  Cassie was especially thrilled to be offered fried goat cheese, and we were all happy to receive fried potatoes that seemed similar to hash browns.  We ate quickly, because we wanted to check out a local market just outside the door.  We spent quite a while haggling over the local goods, such as yak bone bracelets and singing bowls.

Done haggling, we traveled to another village.  This village was particularly famous for its frescoes.  The biggest, most famous fresco was unusual for its mixed disciplines: Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian beliefs all coexisted.  Diana explained that in many ways, the fresco was a metaphor for China itself, where many people believed in a blend of these three philosophies. 

Our last stop of the day was a monastery containing a rare camellia plant.  This camellia was over 600 years old, although it only bloomed once a year.  Fortunately, we were able to see it in bloom.  We also met the lama who was the caretaker of the camellia, and had even saved it from destruction during the Cultural Revolution.  Diana explained that the locals joked that the camellia was the child that the lama had never had.

We returned to our hotel for a brief rest, where Alaina, Cassie, and I caught up on the Olympics.  We were also exposed to a taste of Chinese television.  As far as we could tell, Chinese TV shows are meant to be melodramatic with hilariously poor special effects.  The overdone acting and lighting made it seems as if a stage show had been poorly adapted for television, but we were amused nevertheless.

Refreshed, we went back out for a quick dinner.  We then decided to go a world famous Naxi Concert.  The Naxi music played at the concert dated back to the Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties, and was played entirely by old men (many of whom were in their eighties, and one of whom was blind!).


Once the concert finished, we decided to buy some plastic flowers with candles in the center.  We lit the candles, and then let the flowers go sailing down the river that runs throughout Lijiang – although all of us were sure to make a wish before we let go!  Spent, we called it a night, and went back to the hotel for the evening.