Goodbye Xi'an!

Iona

The Sisterhood had a later start to their day but checked out of the hotel in Xi’an at 10:30 am and left Huiming Jie, which is the Muslim region of the city. Here, we saw most of the women wearing hijabs and learned that they tend to speak Mandarin, their local language, and sometimes Arabic. Lining the street were many food vendors selling tofu, soup, meat, and fried foods; there was this one instance we saw where saw a lady purchasing some soup and she was given the soup in a plastic bag- very interesting. The walk along Huiming Jie continued as we went into the Great Mosque of Xi’an where we noticed that Mecca was to the west of us, as opposed to the east of us in America. There were courtyards and stone archways, and also pavilions painted with vibrant green roofs that were reflective of the theme of peace in Islam. After further exploration, we went to a restaurant that served us beef, chicken, and vegetable soup dumplings which made for a very filling lunch. After the soup dumplings, we went shopping on the street across from the Muslim corner, which was East St.

[VLOG#23] Xi'an Day 4

Iona

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[VLOG#22] Visit to Pang Liu Elementary School

Iona

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This Land Is Your Land

Ms Waterman
(teacher)

We were lucky to visit the elementary school in Pang Liu village today, and we finally got to meet the famous Richard Wang! Richard has been the tour coordinator for the DS China Exchange for 15 years and Ms. Viz has always spoken highly of him and his work. He accompanied us to the school because Pang Liu is the village where he grew up.

The Pang Liu school is quite small- there are 11 teachers and 130 students ages 4-11 (there used to be 350 students 15 years ago when Nancy, our guide, taught English at the school). Since the school is in a rural village that is not wealthy by any means, all students receive breakfast and a hot lunch every day. It is interesting that this meal program is not available to students in urban schools, and the girls and I talked about how there is just as much (if not more) of a need for subsidized meal programs in urban as well as in rural settings in the US.

Xi'an Day 2

Elizabeth (Liz)

Greetings and salutations everyone!

Quote of the Day

        "Quack, quack!"

Day two here in Xian and thank god there is no more rain! Kelby, Iona and I got up around 7:30 and decided to head down to breakfast in order to get ready for our busy day! Our first stop was a Shanxi History Museum, which contained collections of bronze artifacts dating back to the Tang dynasty. Nancy showed us three galleries, all containing various relics such as masks, lamps and statues (one was of a hedgehog!). Very cool! Afterwards we headed over to a park that was recently built that has little fountains on these multiple granite steps and everyday they turn them on to the tune of classical orchestral music creating a splendid little show for all to see. We then headed over to a buffet lunch in order to prepare ourselves to bike on the cities wall.

[VLOG#21] Xi'an Day 2

Iona

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Xi'an Dumpling Duck

Elizabeth (Liz)

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[VLOG#20] Xi'an Day 1

Iona

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But How Much More is There?

Kelby

I feel as though I always get the best days to blog. Today was our first day in Xian, a “small” city in Northern China that is known for its pottery. You’ll hear why in a minute.

The start of our day began quickly. Iona, Liz, and I had about 20 minutes after breakfast to take showers, get dressed, clean our room, pack our day bags, and meet Mrs. Waterman downstairs. Naturally we were late, but relatively quick for the three of us. Our guide, Nancy, took our group to an ancient civilization that was excavated, and then created into a museum. The site we visited was the Banpo Site, a village that consisted of about 300 people, and was excavated in the early 1950’s.

Sisterhood Travels to Xian

Iona

Started off our fourth day in Chengdu at 7:45am, opening with a buffet styled breakfast that would fuel us for the busy day ahead. We went back into our rooms to pack and organise all of our belongings as we were checking out of the hotel promptly at 9am. Maya and Mr. Wong came to pick us up, and we went on our way to the Wuhou Shrine. This shrine was built in 1672, during the Qin Dynasty and was one of two graves above ground that had not been broken into/ tampered with in history. The shrine was right next to Jinli, a shopping street filled with different stores and stands, and so the Sisterhood spent the rest of the morning walking through the street and found a few things to bring home which we are all very excited about.

[VLOG#19] Chengdu Day 4

Iona

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[VLOG#18] Chengdu Day 3

Iona

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Pandas (finally!)

Elizabeth (Liz)

Quote of the day

        "It's cow stomach"

                       -Iona Steven

The day has come. The moment I have been waiting for. We finally saw pandas and it was sooooo worth it!!! They were so cute!! We saw Pandas climbing trees and rolling around eating bamboo! We even got a chance to see two cubs play with eachother in the Panda Kindergarden! After today it became quite obvious why the animal is regarded so highly in China.

Sichuan History Highlights

Ms Waterman
(teacher)

Today we visited the Du Jiang Yan irrigation system. The name means “capital river wier” and the system was built by Li Bing during the Qing dynasty 2,200 years ago to unify 6 competing states. It took 25 years for Li Bing to build it and it was built without any concrete piping (and still has none today!). We walked with Maya to see the different parts of the system which filters water for 7 million hectares in Sichuan. Since the rainy season doesn’t start until July, the river was relatively calm and we could walk across the floor of the human-made canal.

We spent the rainy afternoon outside at Mt. Qingcheng, a mountain with 36 peaks which is also the center of Daoism in China. Daoism (or Taoism), as the girls reminded me, is focused on human’s worship of nature and search for harmony with nature. The pavilions we passed were all made of and decorated with natural materials - wood, bark, and moss. We noticed that there are trees growing through some of the temple roofs, and Maya told us that Daoists seek harmony with nature in all ways, including in their construction. The park was very peaceful even though there were many other visitors. We could hear birdsong and at several points, I smelled jasmine flowers but couldn’t locate them.

[VLOG#17] Chengdu Day 1

Iona

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