Xi'an: Saturday

Saturday: The morning starts at 0500. I threw some stuff in my backpack and we headed off to the airport. We had trouble going through security. We reached Xi'an at 0900 and met Daniel, our tour guide. We went to the factory where replica terra cotta soldiers are made. Then we went to see the terra cotta warriors themselves. They were simply amazing! Apparently the pits themselves are still booby-trapped. The farmer that found the pits was there signing autographs as well. We then went to the Huaqing hot springs and walked around the Xi'an city wall. I bought some jade directly from the state. We then went to a theatre where they served several rounds of dumplings and put on performance on the Tang dynasty for us! The other groups sitting at our table just happened to be from Michigan also. We're off to the hotel to get some sleep...

Peking Opera

Friday was the start to a great weekend. We had our final language lesson that morning and we had an interesting cultural lesson. We learned the basics of Chinese calligraphy and traditional paper cutting. We then went to the Liulichang antiques street. Our guide was able to bargain down for some hand-painted fans and pictures. I bought a few of those. We went to eat Peking duck just down the street from there. It was absolutely delicious! We also went to see the Peking Opera and that was pretty cool. I got some photos and videos of that. Now we're off to Xi'an tomorrow morning!

Wild Wednesday/Thursday

So Wednesday was wild. We packed up our stuff and moved to the building next door. We are the only ones living in the building now and security isn't great. Apparently PKU charged everyone (but me) for "ruining the towels" and other offenses. If only they had told us what the rules were. But we have American toilets (yay!) and a micro-kitchen that's smaller than the bathroom. We saw the Chinese acrobats that night. It was pretty exciting.

Thursday was uneventful. It was more language and culture classes. I went on an adventure that evening to this gigantic shopping mall (one of the largest in the world). I couldn't afford anything there except a few t-shirts at the grocery store in the basement.

We will be eating Peking duck and seeing the Peking Opera Friday then flying to Xi'an to see the terracotta soldiers.

More adventures...

Monday: We got the morning off to recover from our grueling trek to the Great Wall. We had our usual language lesson and then went to Ya Xiu clothing market. It's a typical American tourist trap where they jack up the prices for counterfeit items. The group split up into different factions and the group I went with ate at a restaurant chosen at random. It turned out to be very good. We went back and tried to laundry.

Tuesday: More language and culture...I wasn't a big fan of the culture class. The presenter simply read off the Powerpoint slides. Tom and I met two of my lab mates for lunch. It was excellent (and expensive, 212 RMB). Dr. Coppola drug us to a U. Michigan alumni event that evening. They had great food and I even got my picture taken with Lloyd Carr (football coach from 1995-2007). He actually knew where my school was; he's from the Tri-Cities (where I live).

We'll be moving into another apartment next door tomorrow. I'm also booked on a weekend expedition to Xi'an to see the Terracotta soldiers.

Viewing pictures

I've posted pictures at for everyone to see at http://picasaweb.google.com/sleong06. I'm trying to edit my blog to put the pictures directly on here. I may need to make them larger...let me know what you think about them.

Note: these pictures are compressed and smaller than the real ones. I can send the originals upon request.

June 3 UPDATE: The pictures should now appear as a slideshow on the blog. Since I can't easily view my own blog, let me know if you can't see them. The link should work now if it hasn't worked before.

More sightseeing

I guess I'll start with Friday's events before we hit sightseeing. We tried to eat in the PKU cafeteria but apparently we can't do so since we haven't passed the national entrance exams (so therefore we aren't students officially). But we haven't failed the exam either, so I think we should be allowed to eat there, esp. if we can sleep in their residences and study in their labs. Otherwise Friday was uneventful.

Saturday: We went all over Beijing today. We visited the Yonghe (Lama) temple, an important Buddhist monastery and also visited the Temple of Confucius. That afternoon, we went to the Houhai area just to the north of the Forbidden City. This area has a beautiful lake and many bars. We took a guided bicycle tour around the area and climbed a drum tower and saw a performance there. We went to the Laoshe Tea House that evening for dinner. The food is excellent. There was a musical performance and a short skit about the history of tea house during dinner. We saw another performance at tea house afterward where they featured a bunch of various acts, including two men that can replicate different sounds (cars, trains, etc) quite well using only their voices. The performance was quite amazing!

Sunday: We assembled at 08:00 to make the journey out to the Great Wall. It's about a 3 hr trip out to see the wall at Jinshanling. We took a cable car up to the top and walked around the wall. Parts of the wall are hard to climb and there are old ladies there to help the foreigners walk around (but primarily sell souvenirs). I tried to get a t-shirt for 80 RMB but the lady jacked up the price to 100 RMB after Zhaleh (from Cornell) paid that price for the t-shirt (and she already had my cash). But I got a picture book for another 50 RMB, a good deal considering that most folks would have to pay 200 RMB for both.
We went to lunch at some hole in the wall in a nearby town and then continued on to the wall at Simatai. The cable car here only takes you up about halfway and the rest of the ascent is essentially straight up. It's a hell of a long way up to the top. My knees were killing me but the views are absolutely worth it.

Note to tourists: Don't use the public toilets at the Great Wall. They are the most dirty toilets I have ever seen anywhere in the world.