Xian!

This weekend was a long one! We had our last class of the week on Thursday dressing up in Jingju (Beijing Opera) costumes - I was dressed up as an Emperor at first and then a drummer boy - and later that night we went to KTV. It was a blast, we played some crucial oldies and modern hits, including Thriller, Toxic, Bye Bye Bye, and a bunch of Maroon 5 songs. After the party a bunch of us continued to Coco for an after party where some man bit me....

The next morning we were all on time for our ride to the local airport. We flew high and far to Xian, a flight that felt like an hour or two. Once we got there we went to through the Muslim quarter and learned about the local tension between the Muslims - 6% of the Xian population - and the non-Muslims - the rest. In fact, in Xian the language changed to reflect this tension I believe. Apparently Pork is called Da roe in Xian, instead of Zhu ro, da meaning big and zhu meaning pig. We saw the Mosque on the Sunday, and it was quite the site, built in 725 AD, it has quite a history.

After the Muslim quarter we happened upon the Bell Tower and Drum Tower. Justin and I both split some drum and bell action. We banged on the big drum and big bell quite hard. Apparently we will both now be the recipients of great health, peace, and happiness.

After the Bells and Drums, we wandered on our own and came upon a nice Koaya (peking duck) place. We ate there, and then later in the night went to a club entitled, "Make Friends at Half Past 8". It was a ripoff and very expensive, but you could put your name and details into a rotating electronic billboard that looked a bit like the NYSE.

The next day we went to see the Terracotta warrior factory (where they try to sell you outrageously priced mini warriors), and then the excavation site. They were pretty cool, and I made sure to pick up a couple of tiny ones and haggle hard!

After the Terracotta warrior excavation area - by the way it's a blue sky in Xian!!!! - we walked back through a beautiful garden-like area and went to the hot spring bath for concubines of the Emperor where one of China's four beauties bathed.

We then watched an excellent Tai Chi performance and met with an 83 year old international Grand Master who performed for us that day! We also all received t-shirts and were asked to come back and learn Tai Chi! I am pretty sure I am going to go to the Tai Chi club at the Language House this coming year!

That night we had a variety of dumplings and my favorite was a duck flavored dumpling... mhmmm. Wo ugh ce le.

Fast forward to the next day. We went on top of the old Xian city wall and were able to rent bikes and bicycle around the entire wall. It was 13.67 Km and it was 13.67 km of of fun! Who knew that soon the fun would end (relatively speaking, it was still a great experience to ride a train..... but not much fun).

We left at 2:30 pm and arrived at Nankai 10:30 am and were supposed to be in class at 10:45. The ride was dirty, and I had to sleep on the top bunk on a bed that was too small... :-(. But in all it was quite the weekend. And a fun weekend it was.

Yes, yes, sure... no problem.

Signing out,

卜山俊
(zhe shi wo de zhonguo mingtze)