北京／／2011

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Sat, 06 Aug 2011 08:42:00 +0800

Coming home today! Just wanted to write a fairly short post, don’t have much time for anything longer. I spent the last week in the Sichuan Province traveling Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong—two absolutely gorgeous places. I’ll post about it once I’m settled back at home. Or maybe if the JFK airport has free wifi, I’ll post during my 6 hour layover there -__-

I’m actually really excited to be coming back to the states. The two lifestyles are entirely different. Not really prepared for the reverse culture shock. Excited to see my family and friends. And eat non-oily foods. And breathe not-smoggy air. But I’m definitely going to miss my family I’ve met here, the food and the daily funnies and amusements China has provided me with. Oh, and also going to miss the ubiquitous Asian babies.

华山

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 23:26:00 +0800

Another great weekend in Xi’an (now two weekends ago). But the saga begins in Beijing, so let it begin.

I do admit that I mismanaged my time and waited until just three days prior to departure to buy my ticket so I can’t complain too much, but just hear me out. At the ticket office, while the guy was telling me there weren’t any sleepers left and I had no choice but to buy a hard seat, he slyly slipped a “慢的车” (slow train) somewhere in there. The ride from Beijing to Xi’an is usually 12 hours, but this trip was a whopping EIGHTEEN. I was sure that I would be the only foreigner in the carriage, and that I could just use my veil of dark hair to hide my otherwise not-so-Chinese facial features as to not attract attention and whatnot, but to my surprise and delight I actually ended up sitting across from a Czech couple. They were nice and entertaining to talk to, and shared some yummy granola with me (key to my heart? Granola). I am so thankful I have the ability to sleep quite literally anywhere regardless of surroundings (I suppose you could consider it some sort of superpower) it wasn’t long before I dozed off. I managed to sleep off the eighteen hours in two hour increments. The guy next to my was very…snuggly. Actually,stnk the whole hard seat passenger carriage was snuggly. The two restrooms in the carriage were formidable. The squat toilets quickly clogged and piled up with all sorts of shit (pun entirely intended). Stank beyond imagination. As for the rest of the carriage, it smelled like a mix of cigarette smoke and curtains. A lot of people actually took the curtains down and used them as blankets, so maybe the curtains just smelled of passengers, in which case I should say the carriage smelled like cigarette smoke and people.

Whatever, it wasn’t all that bad. The rest of my trip made the ride worth it. Arrived in Xi’an, got picked up by my two cousins (Kao Chen and Shen Chao), we returned to my gugu’s apartment, ate lunch, I showered, then we departed for Hua Shan. We (Kao Kao, Chao Chao and myself) drove about 2.5 hours to Hua Shan.

I had a hard time taking in Hua Shan. It just looks so incredibly beautiful it’s hard to believe it’s real. It’s also insanely steep. The hike up was a lot of fun, trekking up 90 and 70 degree stairways, sweating profusely…it was all really fun (no sarcasm here).

We started our ascent at about 3:00 pm. It was completely dark by 8:45, and we ducked into a small eatery/lodging place around 9:30 since it lightning started up pretty ferociously and we knew a storm was definitely coming. Hiking in China is a little strange. When I hike, I like roughing it. If I didn’t bring enough food, enough water, then too bad I’ll fend for myself. In China, along Hua Shan, at least, there are little food stalls and rest stops of sorts along the path up.

Also, I can’t stand seeing some of these Chinese women who think they can hike in little heels or skirts or dresses. I asked Kao Kao why they’re like that and his reasoning is that Chinese women like to look beautiful, which made me even more -__-.

Anyway, a lot of other hikers also took shelter in this little lodge until the storm ended, which coincidentally enough was right before 1 AM, when the owners closed up shop and booted everyone who wasn’t renting a bed for 100 RMB out. We continued our trek to the East Peak (?). On our way up, I saw this enormous yellow orb. I thought it was some sort of light globe or something (I don’t know, I was tired). I felt stupid for asking after Kao Kao told me it was the moon. The moon! I’ve never seen it so beautiful. I guess I’ve grown accustomed to Beijing lack of night sky, or any sky. When we finally reached the peak, we settled down, snuggled up and waited for the sunrise. We literally just fell asleep on a giant rock, which was surprisingly comfortable compared to the benches and chairs we were trying to sleep on a few hours earlier. When I fell asleep there were maybe 10 others on this giant rock. When I awoke, there were about seventy. I just thought, “wow, only in China would you find so many people on top of a freaking mountain.”

The few hours I did get to sleep were chilly, but bearable. The sky was bright around 4:30 AM, but the sun didn’t emerge from the mountains until about 5:15. At the first sight of it, everyone sprung up and rushed to the edge of the mountain peak, elbowing their way to a good spot. It was like the Fourth of July on the National Mall—people were going crazy. The sunrise was stunning though. Well worth the climb and the crowd.

Once the sun found its place, we continued onward to hike the other peaks, South Peak being the highest at 2,314 meters. Still pretty crowded, but still pretty beautiful. Kao kao and I decided to go on this one climb along the side of one of the peaks. I don’t think I’ve ever been closer to the top of the world. Each donning a chest harness and a couple caribbeaners for safety, we shimmied our down a makeshift ladder made of iron rods and across a three-plank-wide wooden ledge. It was exhilarating.

The descent was quite challenging, too. By the end of the trail we in a full fledged sprint. The steep grade took away any self control we had over our legs and how fast they were moving underneath us. Good hike.

Oh, and I’ve got an interesting occurrence during this trip to share. Gufu (my father’s sister’s husband. Family relationships in Chinese are really complex) and I were roaming Muslim Street the night back from Hua Shan looking for flaky peanut cake when I bumped into my friend Brian from UF! Yes, coincidentally bumped into my friend on a street on the other side of the world. Granted I did know he was also in studying in China (in Chengdu), and I did know he was coming to Xi’an that weekend…but still! This world we’ve got here is too small, no? Good gracious.

Thankfully, Gufu managed to nab me a hard sleeper. I was top berth and met a great family sharing the room with me. The girl in the berth across from me was 20 years old, attends Beijing Sports University and is studying English Literature. Her name’s Emily and we had some pretty great conversations. It was fun to talk to a Chinese English Lit major. We talked about our favorite authors, I introduced her to Hemingway’s misogynistic tendencies and treatment of women, we exchanged cultural perceptions on each other’s respective culture, talked of stereotypes, and she practiced Chinese with me, and I English with her. Her English is so great! I brought along an April issue of The New Yorker that I ended up giving to her. Unfortunately it was missing the nice cover that’s currently tacked up in my room here. She gave me a pen in exchange. Emily was traveling with her mother and her grandmother, I believe. The train arrived a little late and I ended up missing two hours of class, but they were really kind in helping me get to the subway station. Good people.

Here’s a picture they snapped and emailed to me:

Also, I’m not sure what’s been wrong with Tumblr in China recently, but there has definitely been some trouble. Are they thinking of blocking it? I’m not sure. At this point, I just finished writing my final paper on media censorship in China, so that’s all that’s on my mind. Of course I think they’re trying to block it! Anyway, a long-winded apology for the delay in posting.

Photo

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 23:07:03 +0800

Photo

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 23:05:39 +0800

The Forbidden City: Imperial Garden

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 23:01:04 +0800

The Forbidden City: Imperial Garden

Th Forbidden City

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 22:57:00 +0800

Th Forbidden City

Trying out Nathalie’s most recent purchase. Looking into...

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:25:00 +0800

Trying out Nathalie’s most recent purchase. Looking into getting one myself. Thoughts?

前门

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:24:21 +0800

前门

SAY IT

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:29:00 +0800

Don’t worry

Bié dānxīn

别担心

humanity

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 20:01:00 +0800

The theme for this past weekend was faith in humanity, and the good workings of life in general.

Sounds like I had a good weekend, right? Meh.

I’ll start off on the upside of things. Saturday I had planned to go up north of Beijing via bus to see the sunflower sea. It’s on my bucket list to see a sunflower sea — I can’t even fathom how awe-inspiring it would be. At the last minute, Nathalie decided to join me, which I was happy for since the adventures ahead are definitely better enjoyed with company. Although Beijing’s public transit network is expansive, it sure isn’t easy to research or plan by. I got all the transportation info about the sunflower fields from forums online and such. Bus 919 to the Yanqing station, switch to 925 branch 2 and get off at Hongshiwan. Finding 919 wasn’t a problem, but confirming that it was the right one was where our confusion began. The workers at the bus station downtown suggested bus 883 when I asked them about Yanqing and the sunflowers. I found it strange that I hadn’t read anything about 883 in any of the forums, but Nathalie and I checked it out anyway. For these buses that depart every 20 minutes, 883 looked to be at least an hour and a half’s wait. Mouths agape, gawking at the line to infinity, we caught a glimpse of a 919 pull up nearby. Its line consisted of a few backpackers and some other locals, so we figured we’d just take that bus, see where it goes and try to figure things out from there. This 919’s line initially seemed benign, but as soon as those doors folded open a swarm of people flung themselves inside, pushing and shoving and grunting. The Chinese are merciless when it comes to public transit.

A little more than an hour’s ride brought us to Yanqing, our transfer stop. We waited there for a solid two hours before the unmarked 925 branch 2 arrived. Seriously, this bus didn’t have any marquees or plaques indicating its number or terminal stops and there was no route map inside, either. Most inconvenient indeed.

Boarding 925 was a story in itself. This tussle made boarding 919 seem effortless, even enjoyable. Nathalie managed to propel her way through (the locals always seem to be either intimidated by or respectful of her blonde hair, height, and generally more Western appearance — that’s what we suspect anyway), but I got a little overtaken by the crowd. Everyone was yelling “别挤了!” (Bié jǐ le, don’t shove) and squishing my arm against the door and gliding against each other’s sweat-veiled skin. There actually was a point when I started to worry I wouldn’t make it on the bus. That’s when I activated survival mode, used my pointy elbows (thanks mom) as weapons, and bolted my feet to the ground, enabling a rather uncomfortable, but successful board nevertheless. Needless to say, no seats were available and the people who were lucky enough to have squeezed onto the bus stood in the aisle.

The mountains and villages were beautiful, a much appreciated change of scenery. Since there was no route map in the bus, I just asked a couple people if they’d heard of Hongshiwan. They hadn’t. We caught a few glimpses of the 925 route as we stopped at some of the stops along the way, but alas still no sight of Hongshiwan. Everything out here was absolutely stunning, so we just figured we’d get off at whichever stop we felt like, judging on the surrounding scenery and whatnot (to my family reading this: you guys know I have good judgement, this all was safe—no worries). We got off at stop in a small town nestled in some small mountains, rocky hills and lush greenery.

We strolled around for a short bit until we saw another, entirely different stop for 925 branch 2 going in the opposite direction from the one we were just on…confusing. An older couple (early 70s?) were waiting there, so I asked them about the sunflower fields. They said the flowers probably still weren’t in bloom and they were even confused as to why I’d travel all they way out here “just to look at flowers.” We continued to talk more and to my surprise, the man, I’ll just call him yeye (grandpa), spoke a bit of English! He has been teaching himself via TV and radio. I was so impressed, he was quite good. The couple suggested we go check out this park that they came into the area to visit. So, we waited around for this other 925, bought some peanuts in case we ended up getting stranded somewhere, boarded the bus and journeyed onward. I thought I heard yeye say that was the only bus for the day, but that this park’s surrounding village had places to stay for cheap. I was honestly [mentally] prepared to spend the night out in some field, which would have been really fun, but we later found out the there was actually one last Yanqing-bound bus at 6:00 PM so we just took that one back.

Had we not bumped into the elder couple, I really would have no idea how the rest of the day would’ve unfolded. It was so nice of them to help us. I kind of felt like they were our adopted parents for the day. Oh, they were so adorable. I still don’t know the name of the geological park we ended up exploring, but it was stunning!

And we encountered a sweet cave on our ascent.

Climbing a mountain you never expected to even see in the first place makes for a pretty good Saturday, I’d say.

We then caught the last bus back into Yanqing at 6:00, but found out from these other people waiting for the bus that the Yanqing-Beijing bus stops running at 3:30 PM and that we’d have to take the train. No problem, except we didn’t know how to get to the Yanqing station.

When you get off of any bus anywhere in China, there’s usually taxi drivers who’ll try to convince you to hire them and I’ve read to not trust them or pay attention to them, as these approaching type aren’t from legitimate taxi services. As soon as we got off the bus in Yanqing, this happened, as expected. One of the drivers started talking to us, or rather “at” us, about the train station, etc. So I lent him half an ear as he offered to drive us to the station for ¥10, less than $2. Nathalie and I decided this guy seemed fairly trustworthy and the situation seemed stable, so we hopped in the back seat, exchanged a few cautious/wtf-are-we-doing-right-now? looks and made our way to the railway station (again, family reading this: I have solid judgement). The guys was nice and we had fun letting him guess our nationality. He guessed European, Russian, and “Reika” which was actually him trying to say “America,” but we initially understood it as “Africa.” I asked him a few questions along the way to let him know that I was wary of this situation, but he said he honestly just wants to help us, seeing that we’re foreigners and we had apparently stepped off the bus with “WORRIED” written all over our faces. He was a good guy. We boarded the train just in time, and for only ¥5, too! So, that was Saturday and it totally shone a big ol’ optimistic light on the innate goodness of humanity, yadda, yadda.

And then there was Sunday. My camera got stolen on Sunday. Nathalie and I were walking to the antique market when I saw the cutest, chunkiest little Chinese baby. So, naturally, I whipped out my camera and snuck a golden photo. I wanted to be ready just in case I saw another cute baby or a matching couple or any of the other numerous daily happenings of China life that I like taking pictures of, so I just slipped my camera in my backpack’s side pocket, the water bottle pocket. Ten minutes later I see a REALLY chubby baby and go to grab my camera only to find it missing. And I don’t need to drawl this out any longer, but I basically went into cardiac arrest which ignited a mental hatred of humanity spree in my tiny little brain that already felt like it was going to explode. Yes, I was mad about the actual camera being gone, but even more so the pictures on it! I hadn’t gotten a chance to upload them for a while because of some computer issues and now they’re gone! Luckily my friend Barbara grabbed the Mongolia pics off my memory card earlier that week, so all that I’m really missing are the geological park photos and some other random, but still special ones. And that photo I so sneakily snapped of the baby just moments before the theft.

So, a big thank you to Nathalie—all the photos in this post are hers. I’m getting a dSLR later this week or early next, but I won’t have it for this weekend’s adventure of hiking Hua Shan.

Also, a note about Mongolia: it was unbelievably awesome and I’ll post about it once I get my pics from Barbara and my life simmers down a bit, which should be next week.

'merica

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:30:00 +0800

I’ve acquired two cowboy hats within the past four days. One, the more ridiculous of the two, I have been wearing for the past five hours, along with a red bandana swankily tied around my neck. (If you’re wondering, I got the other hat in Inner Mongolia—that story to come in a later post).

I just got back from the U.S. Embassy’s Independence Day party and I’ve got to say it was quite the party.

The embassy was calling upon certain scholarship recipients (shout out to the Gilman Scholarship) to volunteer to mingle with guests and converse in Chinese. The party was exceptionally impressive, although the theme could’ve been better. This year’s was “The American West.” Last year’s played up on America as a melting pot, elaborating upon and celebrating all the different ethnicities we’ve got going on over there. In October, the United States will be bringing a hootin’ tootin’ wild west rodeo to the Bird’s Nest Stadium. It’s called Rodeo China and I think I heard it was the first ever rodeo to be held in China (or at least that’s what I was telling everyone). I don’t want to know how they’re transporting the horses and bulls from the states to here, but it can’t be that humane. I don’t even approve of rodeos in the first place, but I’ll keep my animal activist comments to myself for this post, lest I rant on forever.

Anyway, this year’s theme brought cowboy hats, bandanas, barbeque and tex-mex to the embassy. I also satisfied my guacamole craving, did some major munching on the most amazing mango salsa and enjoyed some wonderful wine and microbrews as well.

There were about 600 people there from all over the world. I was pretty nervous about mingling in Chinese, but obviously a lot of guests weren’t Chinese nor was their grasp on the language conversational, so I was able to speak some English, too. I also invited Nathalie along since they allowed us to bring guests. We met a man who worked at the Kenyan Embassy whom, after her telling him how much she loves Africa and about her travels to Kenya, invited us for drinks at the embassy. So, that’s on next week’s agenda!

I’ve spent the past however many July 4ths at my dad’s near Washington, D.C. so we’d always go into town, bring a watermelon and cleaver to picnic underneath the Department of Energy and then spend the night watching the grand fireworks show. No fireworks this time, but awesome regardless. I do miss Kevin, my dad and my post-watermelon feast nap, though.

Hoorah for independence.

And for the shmoozing politicians, more red, more white and more blue? Check out the rest of the photos here.

SAY IT

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:51:40 +0800

Cheers!

Gān bēi

干杯

And on that note—spending the weekend in Inner Mongolia! Waking up to begin the journey in four hours. 干杯!

teachers

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 19:57:00 +0800

Oof, feels like it’s been forever since I last posted.

Summer’s here in full swing and I’ve seen my fair share of Chinese man-belly. It’s sweltering out. The sun’s in full bloom at 4:30 a.m. and I’m eating watermelon just near everyday now. I have to make a special effort to step aside and realize that I’ve become so accustomed to life here. I can’t remember what the first day of class was like anymore. I’m going to film a short video this week so I can show you what my typical day is like.

And let me share a bit about my teachers here while I’m taking a jab at the mundane.

To be bluntly honest, Beijing History and Culture class is the bane of my existence here. Monday, Wednesday, Friday. One hour. Facepalm. It’s taught in English, but I’d rather it be taught in Chinese. It might even be more productive that way. And I think my teacher thinks she’s still 16, or at least she dresses that way (Chinese fashion still confuses me). Her collection of probing questions include “How do you be a brilliant diplomat?” and “How to make all religions live peacefully together?” Okay, fine. It’s not fair for me to poke fun at her English. And as for the latter question, if we knew then just about all the world’s problems would be solved. I mean, I definitely wouldn’t be able to teach an entire class in Chinese. However, even if her questions were translated back into Chinese, they wouldn’t be any less strange or more pertinent.

I’ve got two Chinese teachers— Li Laoshi and Liu Lasohi. The former is a man, the latter, a woman. They’re both graduate students here at Tsinghua and they might just be two of the best teachers I’ve ever had. Each day’s three hour class is instructed entirely in Chinese and I can tell they’re both genuinely good-hearted people who truly care about our understanding of their language. Their awesomeness makes up for Swallow’s (History and Culture teacher) lack thereof. Li Laoshi lived in Hungary for 20 years (he claims he’s 40, but we’re all fairly certain he’s actually 27) and sometimes his Hungarian accent slips into his Chinese or English. Sometimes entire Hungarian words even manage to sneak their way in. Today he insisted he was saying what he though was “billion,” but was actually “milliard.” You could imagine everyone’s crumply, confused faces as we tried again and again to guess his meaning. Li Laoshi also likes complimenting our Chinese. My favorite of his token compliments is “very standard!” It’s just funny to hear him say that because in English, standard tends to have a very “meh” connotation. He interprets “standard” as “model and ideal.” Today I taught him how to casually clip “super” onto the front of any adjective as an intensifier. My newest favorite compliment of his?

“SUPER STANDARD.”

I can’t even articulate how hilarious I find that. Bringing that one back to the states for sure.

Just came back from dinner with our class and Li Laoshi. He treated us, ordered way too much food, and made sure everyone’s cups were never without at least a little drank—白酒. The most famous alcoholic beverage in China is 白酒 (Bái jiǔ). I personally detest its petrol-esque flavor. It just darts to the back of your throat, strangles your uvula and then shoots down to the bottom of your stomach and…eughgh. Just another cultural experience, I suppose.

CULTURE YO'SELF

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 16:35:00 +0800

“I love you”

我爱你。(Wǒ ài nǐ)

Americans say it fairly frequently, some say it more than others. Some just throw it around, almost like an empty compliment. The Chinese rarely say it because, according to my uncle, they’re too shy to say it. According to my dad, they don’t say it because it’s just not part of their culture to say it. ((By the way, happy Father’s Day!))

Chinese seem to show their love more with service than anything else. This “service” includes cooking, cleaning, giving gifts (very important), etc.

I’ve noticed that Chinese couples are really cuddly, and PDA-y. And they like to match.

Also interesting note: I recently learned the word 心 (xīn). Its meaning is “heart; mind.” Synonymous?

By the way, this is where I live. I can’t believe I...

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 19:44:00 +0800

By the way, this is where I live. I can’t believe I haven’t told you guys about my room yet! Seems like it’d be one of the first things I’d post about, huh? Well, at long last, here it is.

I’m really happy with the dorm setup here. I have my own room, small but very comfortable, and I share a bathroom and a small kitchenette (sink + microwave +some cabinets) with my suitemate. After a day out and about Beijing, fighting my way through crowds here and there, it’s so nice to come back to my quiet, humble room and just hang solo for however long. It makes for a lovely retreat after the day’s intensive hours of Chinese class, too. Seriously, my mind doesn’t wander off track for a mere second in that class. It’s never been so well-behaved.

And now, seeing as I just finished another day’s yummy dinner, I’m gong to rave about the on-campus dining halls. THE FOOD IS SO DELICIOUS HERE. AND CHEAP. IT’S RIDICULOUS. I LOVE IT. No shortage of vegetarian options, although sometimes they add meat to a predominantly tofu dish, which annoys me (if you can eat meat why do you have to come steppin’ all over my turf and pollute my tofu too?! Just go eat your damn meat). Anyway, meat-adulteration rants aside, Tsinghua’s dining halls are supreme. My meals have never been more than $1.00. They have every sort of Chinese dish you could imagine, or can’t imagine. For breakfast, I usually have a bowl of Xīfàn 稀饭 which is a very watery and bland rice soup, sometimes with bits of pumpkin or some mung beans floating around in it, and a scallion pancake. For lunch/dinner, I like to switch it up each day, but generally it’s a bowl rice accompanied by some delicious veggies and sometimes an egg. Or some tasty handpulled noodles. I also eat watermelon at least once a day. My tummy is so happy after every meal, like right now ^_^

I learned a bit of calligraphy today. Don’t know what this...

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:06:28 +0800

I learned a bit of calligraphy today. Don’t know what this says, but it looks pretty. I’ll find out eventually. My translations so far say something about Germany. Um…definitely not as probing and inspirational as I thought it’d be.

Photo

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 23:18:59 +0800

xi'an

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0800

Recuperated from the Xi’an trip last weekend, but already ready to go back.

It’s not so much that the city itself is so wonderful, I just really liked spending time with my family there. Xi’an is a nice city, but I feel it’s similar to Beijing in the this-city-is-kind-of-one-big-sprawl-of-brown factor. There seemed to be a lot of landscaping around the city, lots of pretty flowers and lush trees. The city probably stepped up their floral game for the 2011 International Horticultural Expo being hosted by Xi’an (April-October), actually. Anyway, my aunt (姑姑) and uncle (姑父) live in Xi’an along with my two cousins (哥哥), both around my age. They met me at the train station Saturday morning, and to be honest I was kind of nervous/embarrassed because I was afraid I wouldn’t recognize them since I hadn’t seen them in 16 years. Here we are (at Giant Wild Goose Pagoda):

I figured a flock of Americans exiting the station would grab their attention amongst the other travelers pouring through the station exit. Luckily, it did. I heard someone call my name from my right (my cousin), shortly followed by my aunt and uncle to my right. It was a little hectic, but happy-hectic. I was also happy to part from the UF group because I was looking forward to spending a day with my family, re-meeting them and not being dragged around the city by a tour guide.

We spent the day at the Expo, which was pretty neat! It was extremely hot, and quite crowded so that was unpleasant, but the actual flowers, landscaping, and other exhibits were impressive. We decided to wait in the 90-minute line to see the pandas, and even though we only got to see them for hardly ten minutes, I’d say it was worth it. The pandas were cute, I got to know my cousins a little better, and even witnessed a brawl between two elderly women who grew too irritated and impatient in the heat. We also got to see Golden Monkeys, Takins (best described as a graceful mountain cow, if you can imagine that), and Crested Ibises. I wish I had a chance to visit the Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center in Chengdu. D’oh man, those pandas are so cute. I could watch them for hours.

I joined back up with the group for an afternoon at Muslim Street and then a disapointing, meaty dinner afterwards. Muslim Street was cool; Dinner, not so much.Then my family, Nathalie and I roamed around this one beautiful park for the remainder of the night. It was especially enjoyable because there were hardly any people there. Instead, the park was populated with many large boulders that were really fun to climb and mess around on.

I stayed with the group through Sunday and visited Huanqing Hot Springs (deceivingly cool name) and the Terracotta Army (pretty darn amazing). The springs were situated snug up against a mountain that would’ve been more beautiful had it not been partially faded by smoggy/hazy air. I understand the historical significance and grandeur of these hot springs, but it’s difficult for me to actually appreciate their beauty and authenticity through the site’s heavy renovation. I’m sure the Chinese see it as “preservation,” but honestly, I think Huanqing was too well preserved. They are trying so hard to hold onto the history that they’re ruining it by maintaining it too much, past the point of preservation, bordering on the line of renovation. Killing time at Huanqing, I realized that I really don’t like this aspect of China that I’ve seen so far. Sites are almost too well kept and look artificial. If someone were to tell me Huanqing Hot Springs had been built two years ago, I’d believe them.

Obviously the Terracotta Warriors were crowded with tourists, Chinese and foreigners alike. Regardless, it was neat to see all three pits of soldiers—superficially replicas, but no two actually identical. The dude who found them was even there himself! A publishing company apparently owns the rights to his face so photos weren’t allowed, but I snuck one anyway (to be fair, you can’t even see his face in my picture).

After the long, tiring, super sweaty day we headed to the train station. My family met me there to see me off. It was actually really sad saying goodbye to them. I wish I had hung out with them for the entire weekend instead of sightseeing. Hoping to figure out a weekend to go back and visit again before going back to the U.S. So, if you guys are reading this—see you in July (hopefully)!

SAY IT

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 22:33:00 +0800

S’all good. Doesn’t matter, anything’s fine with me, I don’t have a preference.

Wúsuǒwèi

无所谓

Just returned from Xi’an today. It was a fun trip, mostly...

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 22:13:09 +0800

Just returned from Xi’an today. It was a fun trip, mostly because of my family there. More to come tomorrow (I’m serious this time, unlike last time when it took me a week to post about Shanghai).