(Nick)Greetings from Beijing! We spent last night on an overnight train so I will be updating you about our last day in Xi'an.
Luckily we had a free morning, with which we spent sleeping in, packing, and the girls went shopping while Drew and I went to the gym. We met our guide, Richard (aka our new favorite person), in the lobby at 12 and checked out of the hotel. We had a minor passport scare (Drew couldn't find his until I realized that I had put HIS passport in my Chairman Mao bag). Richard took us to the Muslim quarter of Xi'an for a delicious Muslim dinner, consisting of two pieces of hard bread that we ripped into tiny pieces that were then cooked in a stew with beef and noodles. Richard and our driver devoured the meal rather quickly while us Americans could barely finish half of the bowl. Xi'an is home to 600,000 Hui people, a minority group that consists of 30 million people in China. They look like the Han majority and speak Mandarin but only differ in that they are Muslim.
After our delicious (but filling) Muslim dinner, we visited the Xi'an Great Mosque in the Muslim quarter which was absolutely beautiful. Lucky for us, we visited during one of five daily prayers. The Xi'an Great Mosque has the largest prayer hall in the entire city of Xi'an, holding up to 1,000 people. When we visited, the entire hall was full and there were people outside of the hall praying as well. We felt a little awkward spectating during one of the daily prayers, so despite Richard's pleas to look into the prayer hall during prayer, we watched from a distance (though we still managed to get the stink eye from a young girl). Once prayer was over, we walked up to the prayer hall, where the koran is mounted on 42 large boards that surround the inside of the hall.
After visiting the Xi'an Great Mosque, we walked through the bazaar, a very long street with many different shops. All the venders were Hui people. Our bargaining skills have improved quite a bit since the beginning of the trip so bought a lot! Emily bought a Communist cap with a red star on it for 10 yuan (down from 85 yuan). Drew bought a crossbow for 240 yuan down from 400 yuan (He's going to have SUCH a great time getting that thing back into the U.S.....looking forward to it). Ms. Viz told us to ask Richard to bring us to his friend's painting shop near the Great Mosque, so we did! The shop had beautiful block prints as well as peasant paintings. We were really glad we went because we all found prints/paintings we liked and our pockets were a little lighter after.
After a couple hours of shopping we admitted to Richard that we were craving soft serve ice cream. I never thought I'd admit it, but you really do crave western food while you are in China! We are loving Chinese food...but boy did we miss soft-service ice cream and french fries. We stopped at McDonalds and got our western fix (Richard was laughing at us the whole time). We then drove to the Cultural street in Xi'an, which specializes in brushes. We didn't buy any brushes, but Drew found a huge Chinese painting of a tiger. It is really cool...I think he's planning on hanging it in his dorm room next year! A young Chinese man asked Cady to get her picture taken with his girlfriend...Cady thought she was being mugged but complied and walked away with a bright red face. We then explained to her that it was probably because she was American...she was still a bit creeped out though!
We then went to dinner at the same hotel that we had a hot pot dinner at a couple nights ago. It was our last meal in Xi'an but we were all still full from the Muslim dinner! After dinner, we headed to the Xi'an train station....we didn't know what we were in for! It is the end of the Chinese new year so all of China is heading back to work after visiting their families. It honestly felt like the entire population of China was at the Xi'an train station. There was a crowd of hundreds outside of the train station, trying to separate into multiple lines to finally reach security. Thank God we had Richard...he led us through the mob of people until we finally got to our platform. Still, though, it took about 30 minutes to get through the crowd. It made it a million times more difficult because we had our rolling suitcases, which managed to roll over little old women's feet, flip over, and trip people. Richard kept telling us to "Push!" through the crowd, but it felt like we would never get there. It was a pretty stressful (not to mention chlostrophobic) experience, and we were all relieved to finally get on the train. We were not very happy, however, about saying goodbye to Richard. Over the course of our four days in Xi'an we grew very close to Richard...he was always laughing and interested in us as individuals rather than a group of four students. We will miss him so much!
Speaking of Richard, it is amazing the impact one man has had on a village. Our visit to Pangliu village showed us how much he has improved the lives of everyone in Pangliu, yet still he manages to be so modest about it! When we tipped him before we left, he told us he would donate most of the money to Pangliu, which I thought was very admirable.Most villages in China, however, are not as lucky as Pangliu. Pangliu village has been so lucky to have someone like Richard.
China is a developing nation (and I am stressing the word developing greatly). Although many are taking notice of their sprawling, modern cities, roughly 70% of Chinese are peasants. Two days ago, we visited Pangliu village, and that night we witnessed the world's largest water movie screen complete with probably millions of dollars of fireworks. There is such a huge difference between the rural life and the city life in China. The standard of living in China is getting better, but Richard made a point of stressing to us that it is nowhere near the United States and poses no threat. At Dover-Sherborn, it is drilled into our heads that China "is the future," and for me it has been very interesting to see if this statement is indeed true; I am still undecided.
We are wrapping up the three week travel portion of our trip and can't wait to get to Hangzhou and meet our host brothers and sisters! I still haven't done any laundry and am still going strong...Hope everyone had a relaxing February vacation!
Luckily we had a free morning, with which we spent sleeping in, packing, and the girls went shopping while Drew and I went to the gym. We met our guide, Richard (aka our new favorite person), in the lobby at 12 and checked out of the hotel. We had a minor passport scare (Drew couldn't find his until I realized that I had put HIS passport in my Chairman Mao bag). Richard took us to the Muslim quarter of Xi'an for a delicious Muslim dinner, consisting of two pieces of hard bread that we ripped into tiny pieces that were then cooked in a stew with beef and noodles. Richard and our driver devoured the meal rather quickly while us Americans could barely finish half of the bowl. Xi'an is home to 600,000 Hui people, a minority group that consists of 30 million people in China. They look like the Han majority and speak Mandarin but only differ in that they are Muslim.
After our delicious (but filling) Muslim dinner, we visited the Xi'an Great Mosque in the Muslim quarter which was absolutely beautiful. Lucky for us, we visited during one of five daily prayers. The Xi'an Great Mosque has the largest prayer hall in the entire city of Xi'an, holding up to 1,000 people. When we visited, the entire hall was full and there were people outside of the hall praying as well. We felt a little awkward spectating during one of the daily prayers, so despite Richard's pleas to look into the prayer hall during prayer, we watched from a distance (though we still managed to get the stink eye from a young girl). Once prayer was over, we walked up to the prayer hall, where the koran is mounted on 42 large boards that surround the inside of the hall.
After visiting the Xi'an Great Mosque, we walked through the bazaar, a very long street with many different shops. All the venders were Hui people. Our bargaining skills have improved quite a bit since the beginning of the trip so bought a lot! Emily bought a Communist cap with a red star on it for 10 yuan (down from 85 yuan). Drew bought a crossbow for 240 yuan down from 400 yuan (He's going to have SUCH a great time getting that thing back into the U.S.....looking forward to it). Ms. Viz told us to ask Richard to bring us to his friend's painting shop near the Great Mosque, so we did! The shop had beautiful block prints as well as peasant paintings. We were really glad we went because we all found prints/paintings we liked and our pockets were a little lighter after.
After a couple hours of shopping we admitted to Richard that we were craving soft serve ice cream. I never thought I'd admit it, but you really do crave western food while you are in China! We are loving Chinese food...but boy did we miss soft-service ice cream and french fries. We stopped at McDonalds and got our western fix (Richard was laughing at us the whole time). We then drove to the Cultural street in Xi'an, which specializes in brushes. We didn't buy any brushes, but Drew found a huge Chinese painting of a tiger. It is really cool...I think he's planning on hanging it in his dorm room next year! A young Chinese man asked Cady to get her picture taken with his girlfriend...Cady thought she was being mugged but complied and walked away with a bright red face. We then explained to her that it was probably because she was American...she was still a bit creeped out though!
We then went to dinner at the same hotel that we had a hot pot dinner at a couple nights ago. It was our last meal in Xi'an but we were all still full from the Muslim dinner! After dinner, we headed to the Xi'an train station....we didn't know what we were in for! It is the end of the Chinese new year so all of China is heading back to work after visiting their families. It honestly felt like the entire population of China was at the Xi'an train station. There was a crowd of hundreds outside of the train station, trying to separate into multiple lines to finally reach security. Thank God we had Richard...he led us through the mob of people until we finally got to our platform. Still, though, it took about 30 minutes to get through the crowd. It made it a million times more difficult because we had our rolling suitcases, which managed to roll over little old women's feet, flip over, and trip people. Richard kept telling us to "Push!" through the crowd, but it felt like we would never get there. It was a pretty stressful (not to mention chlostrophobic) experience, and we were all relieved to finally get on the train. We were not very happy, however, about saying goodbye to Richard. Over the course of our four days in Xi'an we grew very close to Richard...he was always laughing and interested in us as individuals rather than a group of four students. We will miss him so much!
Speaking of Richard, it is amazing the impact one man has had on a village. Our visit to Pangliu village showed us how much he has improved the lives of everyone in Pangliu, yet still he manages to be so modest about it! When we tipped him before we left, he told us he would donate most of the money to Pangliu, which I thought was very admirable.Most villages in China, however, are not as lucky as Pangliu. Pangliu village has been so lucky to have someone like Richard.
China is a developing nation (and I am stressing the word developing greatly). Although many are taking notice of their sprawling, modern cities, roughly 70% of Chinese are peasants. Two days ago, we visited Pangliu village, and that night we witnessed the world's largest water movie screen complete with probably millions of dollars of fireworks. There is such a huge difference between the rural life and the city life in China. The standard of living in China is getting better, but Richard made a point of stressing to us that it is nowhere near the United States and poses no threat. At Dover-Sherborn, it is drilled into our heads that China "is the future," and for me it has been very interesting to see if this statement is indeed true; I am still undecided.
We are wrapping up the three week travel portion of our trip and can't wait to get to Hangzhou and meet our host brothers and sisters! I still haven't done any laundry and am still going strong...Hope everyone had a relaxing February vacation!
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