Our Week in Xi'an

We have had an eventful week. Early in the week while we were preparing for classes we were startled by what sounded like a bomb going off outside our building. I ran to the kitchen window to discover a long line of black decorated Mercedes and BMWs lining our alley parked right beneath me. The bomb was a huge number of firecrackers announcing the arrival of the groom to pick up his bride. After sometime she descended our very dirty stairs in her white gown before being carried to the lead car to be taken to the restaurant for the wedding festivities (including more fireworks!)
After a full week of teaching we enjoyed a Halloween party with our branch on Friday night, to which we took a couple of fellow teachers. Costumes were in order so our friends, one with whom John works (from the University of Washington) and one from Germany (with whom John LOVEs to practice his German!)went with us dressed as "foreign teachers"--right from school. John was a debonair Chinese gentleman in his new ultrasuede jacket we bought for 180 Kaui (about $28) at the Muslim market, Conrad and his tiny little Chinese wife showed up as doctors (costumes readily available to Ning Ning, an opthamologist), and one fellow made do with what was readily at hand by gathering this or that (maybe from our stairwell--plenty there) showed up as "white trash."

Among the Brittons, President looked worse for wear as an accident victim of Xi'an traffic--bandaged from head to toe, Elisa was a charming chimney sweep, and their children were a butcher, a cereal killer,and a facial-mask beauty. I was a witch (so appropriate to those who think of me as one anyway:). Earlier in the day I had introduced my students to Halloween wearing my hat and cape while we practiced pronunciation of Halloween words, learned Halloween idioms, and played Halloween bingo before I made the students earn their Trick or Treat goodies by speaking hard words and sentences. They and I had a fun time.

The adventure for the evening began en route as I got to balance a pie plate of bean dip in a plastic bag on top of my head on a crowded bus. We arrived without mishap, climbed the upteem steps up to the Brittons' flat and enjoyed a warm evening of friendship.

John and I have decided to work each Saturday morning and then go out and see something in Xi'an each week so after my reading tons of student journals and John getting branch work caught up, while we were also having a new toilet installed thanks to our wonderful Mr. Chen. (We had put up with the old one's constant running since we came. Chen finally went to the school and requested a new one for us and arranged for it to be put in this morning). Oh happy day! We will give proper honor to this event by including a photo!

After the banging while our old one was literally beaten off the wall and from the floor, broken apart, and hauled away, the new one was put in place, we headed for the Big Wild Goose Pagoda park—one of Xi’an wonderful, ancient sites (the pagoda was built in AD 648). We went by bus (of course) hoping to see its Las Vegas style Biaggi-like musical water show that goes off twice a day.

We waited for what we thought was a 2:00 event, and waited and waited. We finally learned that it was at 12:00 and 8:00 pm so we missed it, but the day was not a loss anyway. The Chinese love to go to parks and wander around and visit with family and friends. We, and they, enjoyed the perfectly lovely autumn day, crisp and clear, with the sun shinning—a rare occurrence in Xi’an. We sat and watched people—while we were watched ourselves.

Until we went over to the Pagoda entrance itself (which the locals probably could not afford to visit)with its tour buses with an odd group or two of foreign visitors there were no white faces to be found but our own and we became a hit wherever we walked or sat. I suppose those who live up by our university get used to the foreign faces here and there but that wasn’t the case at the park.

One grandmother sitting not far from us encouraged her little granddaughter to come show off for us. The brave little mite came and sang to us “Ye like oranges, Yum, Yum, Yum” “Ye like banana, yum, yum, yum” and said “Hello, how are you” and then ran away to the protection of her grandma.
While we walked around the grounds a group of school girls and their teacher saw us and came running up with their cameras in hand to take pictures of us and then of them with us, then threw their arms around us while we hugged them back.

A young woman came up to ask if her mother and aunt could have a picture taken with us. We were happy to oblige them and then talked with the bashful young lady, who had graduated as an English major in July but had not found an opportunity to say one word of English to anyone in the last four months.

We talked at length encouraging her to do what it took to keep her skills (which were very good) and then got her email address to connect her up with a friend of ours in Australia who was anxious to be a pen pal to a Chinese young person who needed help with English.

We loved our day, came home tired but happy, grateful once more to have this wonderful opportunity in this remarkable place. Happy Halloween everyone! We can't believe tomorrow begins November.

Outfitting our Hovel--At Light Industry Wholesale

One of the interesting challenges we had when first arriving in Xi'an has been outfitting our apartment so that it is a little more homey for us. Xi'an, like Salt Lake City can get pretty chilly in the fall and the Chinese government doesn't allow heat to be turned on until November 15 (and turned off March 15) so meanwhile figuring how to stay comfy is something we started dealing with early on.

Our source of most good things is Mr. Chen, our foreign teachers' contact at JiaoDa. I email Chen and say "HELP" we need a . . . and he emails back and sends me a bus number, where to get on it, and a series of Chinese characters that tell someone who can read them where I am hoping to end up. Then I walk into the unknown, trusting my welfare to some kind soul on the bus or the street to point me in the right direction. It is always an adventure. Thus far it has turned out well each time.

One of my favorite places Mr. Chen sent me was to the Light Industry Wholesale Market--an enormous building packed with little shops selling everything including buttons, clothes, electric appliances, gas stoves, computer equipment, vacuums, foam rubber, rubber boots, rugs, flowers and on and on. It is an amazing place. We have yet to discover all it has to offer but our repeated trips there have resulted in our hauling home a piece of 4" foam rubber to convert our box spring (ala Chinese mattress) to something that makes sleeping bearable, rubber-backed carpet runner to warm our chilly tile floors, grain-filled bags to heat in the microwave to warm our feet on a chilly Shaanxi night, an area heater to cut through the cold, a shoe rack, speakers for John's baby notebook, and a flashlight for the times our power goes out (or is turned off). We have been back many times and each time we have experienced something to write home about.

I think our most memorable trip was to buy carpet runners. After a concerted effort we found the most ideal item for our purposes and I began my usual dickering for how much we were going to have to pay. The entrepreneur gets out his calculator and punches in the price to which I wave my hand and say Tai guile (too much) and then I punch in another number to which he laughs and says whatever Chinese means--"not a chance lady!" Little by little I inch up and he inches down until we agree and we go about measuring the meters I need. The trick is there is no place to roll out the product to measure and cut but on the cement floor.

Part of the charm of the Light Industry shops, however, is that bikes and motor bikes ride through the narrow paths and if you happen to be measuring rubber-backed carpet runner on the path they need to cross, they just drive on over your new carpet leaving their tire tracks on the rubber. Once our tire-tracked goods are rolled up and our yuan have been handed over we have the challenge of getting it home. Goodness, rubber-backed carpet runner is heavy! Getting it out to the street is the first challenge, easily overcome by the shop assistant's brawn who is directed to help the old foreign lady out to the street with her purchase.


Once there the trick is to find a taxi, a bus, or a motorized trike who is willing to take you and your load home. One little problem I should mention is that no taxis will take you anywhere between about 3-6. That's when the shift changes and if you need one then it is just tough. Buses work, IF you can pick up the stuff you bought and crowd on with the masses, but my favorite mode of transport is one particular little modernized version of a rickshaw driver who has twice brought me and my purchases home--right to my front door. He is delighted to have his picture taken by the crazy foreigners.

Our apartment is looking very spruced up these days--much better than when we first arrived, much in large measure to the Light Industry shops. We have also made progress in other creature comforts now that we have hot water now installed in the kitchen. (Though I should mention that Mr. Zhao's positioning left a little to be desired since he put it right on the edge of the sink so that when turned on water splashed as much out of the sink as in it. Yesterday I got a bit of inspiration to take the screws out and redirect the facet more toward the middle of the sink. I originally thought maybe I could get him to mount it over further, but we have since found that by simply taking the screws out and setting it on top of the washer hose it works just great--perfect placement--so we probably won't bother Mr. Zhao. Hey, this is China! we do with whatever works. This picture is for Lorenz to see how fine Chinese workmanship is done:) Have a great week everyone.

Food in Xi'an

Shopping for food in Xi'an is always an adventure and it is at the top of our list of must dos. After all we like to eat. Within a block or so we have great little green grocers that we visit every couple of days. We bring home our fresh produce and after a 15-minute soak in disinfectant water, we have good things to cook with.

We also visit a little hole-in-the wall where we buy fresh eggs, a shop on the street which actually has a fridge! where we buy fresh beef and have it ground for us on the spot. If we get desperate we head to Walmart or Vanguard--larger grocery stores, though to tell the truth so little is recognizable it is a bit of a challenge there as well. In the grocery store with all the labels in Chinese it is a process of hunt and peck to find the necessities. I make use of a little audio Chinese dictionary and when my pantomiming doesn't get through I look up a word and play it for a clerk and generally--if I have chosen the right meaning of the word to play her--see a light bulb come on and am led around the store to find what I need or am told (in Chinese, of course) that they don't have it--at least that is what I am guessing I am being told.


We occasionally buy hot food on the street or even go to a restaurant when I simply don't have it in me to cook, though that is more rare than not.

As soon as we arrived I added a number of items to our very sparse kitchen to help me in preparing food that we might recognize. We bought a little toaster oven in which I produce heavenly artisan bread in pint-sized loaves (the Chinese bread is terrible--worse than Wonder bread even). My branch president kindly hauled an immersion blender back from Hong Kong for me that a friend bought and dropped off at the temple for him to pick up. Now we have the luxury of pureeing many wonderful soups and I can whip cream (when I can find it . . . another adventure in a trip to the restaurant supply shops where I can find a quart in a fridge tucked between lots of fresh fish shops that also have other squirming things in baskets. Ugh). Just this week I also bought a little pressure cooker to speed things up at the Laings.

Our university recently took us to get our faculty cards that allow us to put RMB on the card and use it in the cafeterias on campus. We went for the first time Friday for lunch. The food was very tasty and very cheap, 5.50 RMB (about $.75) for a wonderful flavorful bowl of noodles, veggies, and broth. The Chinese really know how to blend flavors. It isn't like American Chinese food but much of what we have tasted is really good. The cafeterias have a huge variety of items which we simply don't recognize but are timidly trying one by one. At least there we can see what we are getting.

My favorite way to go shopping is on my bike since I have a basket that can be loaded up with a BIG can of Italian tomatoes when I stumble across one as I did at the cream shop yesterday. Eggplant Parmesan coming up! Each discovery is a huge accomplishment for which I am justifiably proud of myself.

One of our favorite ways of eating is sharing food with friends in our hovel or theirs. We have three plates and a pie plate but have managed to feed a neighbor once and CTP friends once. We also enjoyed dinner at the Monsons in their apartment (which they refer to as a boxcar. Ours is spacious by comparison--WE have a dining room table afterall! When Dave Monson asked our CTP directors if they thought he should ask his school for a second tiny desk, he was told that when they were in China they just used their dining room table for a desk, to which Dave responded "We would too, if we had one!") Still we enjoyed a wonderful dinner on their coffee table which Julie had produced in her pint-sized kitchen. Good friends, good food, good fun! We laugh a lot about our mis-matched dishes and utinsels which are few in number in both our apartments. It is amazing what you don't really need when you don't have them.



No one is starving here so all is good in our little Chinese corner of the world. Hope it is for you too

Xi’an—the End of the Silk Road and Home Sweet Home

We ended the trip showing off Xi’an to the other teachers with a visit to our own city wall where I climbed aboard a "wedding sedan" which John is lifting (there should actually be 8 men to carry it if proper respect is being shown the bride!).
The highlight of the trip was seeing the Terracotta Warriors, dating from AD 221. We have seen replicas and read of them, but seeing them for real was something else again. Thousands and thousands of uniquely molded full-sized figures, infantry, archers, cavalry, and generals together with magnificent horses all made from the terracotta clay. It is estimated that the project took some 720,000 workers to create the tomb project, all to honor the emperor who unified China, who wished to go into the next world surrounded by all the comforts of this world.

Our last event was a wonderful dumpling dinner followed by a stunning celebration of the Tang Dynasty through music and costumes that took our breath away.

Everyone else returned to their 5 star (this one was nice) hotel to sleep before flying out to their home cities the following morning, but John and I and the Monsons, hopped cabs and headed for our respective hovels. So nice to be home again.

Dunhuang Sites and Shopping

Before leaving Dunhuang to fly to Xi’an, the easternmost point of the Silk Road and home again for us, we visited the amazing Buddha, Mogoa Caves, dating from the 6th to the 11th century and had fun in Dunhuang’s night market, still bargaining our way through the shops on all sides. I’m getting pretty good at setting a low, low price (about 20% of whatever is asked for) and then walking away when the proprietor shakes his head “no” only to have him reconsider and follow after me to avoid losing his sale.

Transportation and Accommodations on the Silk Road

One of the most interesting aspects of our journey has been the multiple ways of getting from one place to another. We flew from Xi'an to Urumqi on China Eastern Airlines, which was very nice. We were even served a full meal, not just tiny packets of peanuts. We then went from where the airport was, some ways out of Urumqi into town by tour bus, a very nice new tour bus. We were taken to a 3 star hotel which was more like a .3 star hotel, but the next day we were moved to a very nice 5 star hotel (by Chinese, not American standards). It was pretty classy--we even had tiny orchids floating in our western-stype potty and two yellow rubber duckys on the side of the tub! Can you get classier than that? From Urumqi we went by bus to Turpan, then took donkey carts to an ancient city's ruin dating from some 2,000 years back. Our next adventure was to take the train overnight from Turpan to Dunhuang. You wouldn't think it but that was a highlight of our trip! The train station was as old as dirt and for the holiday travel it was crowded beyond belief. Though we had soft-sleeper coaches reserved for us but in the station we had to all group together with the masses and believe me our 49 pale faces stood out amongst the Chinese, Mongols, Uyghurs, and other minorities crushed together. Every pair of eyes was riveted on us as though no one in that station had ever seen a Caucasian before. Maybe they hadn't. We decided we would sing to them and so we did. We sang rounds in Chinese (thanks to our one returned missionary from Taiwan who led out), then sang popcorn popping and finally "If You're Happy and You Know it"--by the time we had clapped, stamped our feet, and shouted Hurrah! through all the verses we actually had a good number of our fellow travels joining in with us in a lovely bonding time. They began crowding up around us bringing their children to touch us and have pictures taken with us. It was a priceless moment of connection and we felt the Light in that dim station.

Our 4-bunk soft sleeper compartments were great--best beds of the trip, though a bit narrow. Julie Monson joined me on the top bunks (though had a challenge to fit her junk in!) since we didn't trust either John or her husband, Dave, not to fall off and hurt themselves.

Both of them have had some mishaps since we have been here--John falling off his bike on the city wall and Dave missing the last step from the Branch president's house and leaving a puddle of blood from his head (which still adorns the landing each time we go there.) I loved being rocked to sleep by the motion of the train. It was great. We arrived VERY early outside of Dunhuang and had a 40 minute bus ride into town. What a trip that was! It was like traveling through heavy air turbulence. The shocks on the bus must have been totally shot and the road felt as if we were riding over speed bumps of drifted sand or the worst case of potholes that exist this side of hell. After a couple of hours we made it to our 4 star hotel (which was pretty nice, though each morning after we showered the tub wouldn't drain and the water came up from the floor drain to flood the bathroom floor so it provided us with a chance to clean the bottoms of our shoes. Fortunately our bathroom floor had a inch high tile lip into the bedroom so the flood was self contained.



Dunhuang is on the edge of the singing sands of the Gobi so our next mode of transport was by camel train. What an experience that was, from our bright orange camel boots, to a ride up the sand hills and over mountains and hills. I have never seen so many camels in my life. I didn't think I'd ever get John to go but he was a good sport and did so. It was awesome! From Dunhuang we walked out on the tarmack to broad our 1 1/2 hour flight on Southern China back to Xi'an and "home" for us. This was the end of the Silk Road and a chance to show off our city to the rest of the group.

Turpan and Ancient Ruins

From Urumqi we went by bus to Turpan and to a number of ancient ruins like JiaoHe, some 1,700—2,000 years old, areas showing an amazing underground irrigation system bringing water under the desert from the snow capped mountains to provide water for the hardy souls who lived on the edges of the Gobi. We visited a Uyghur family who raised and sold a huge variety of raisins (to us for double the price we found them in the store, we later learned!). But still we loved the little light green ones, very different than regular American raisins (which I don't like!). All along the way, we, of course, poked around in the local shops enjoying seeing and bargaining for Pashima shawls, jade pendants, and dryed peaches, aprocots, and raisins.

Our Silk Road Adventure

October 1st is the celebration of National Day in China—in commemoration of the Communist Party defeating the Nationals in 1949--a Chinese version of our Fourth of July. What that meant to us is that we had a week’s holiday from classes. In China over the holiday nearly everyone goes traveling somewhere. We joined in and traveled with some 47 other CTP teachers who all flew from their home cities to meet up in the far west of China, in Urumqi (pronounced like Urumche), to begin our exploration of the Silk Road, a route that played such an important role in the history of the world. The Silk Road was important for cultural, commercial and technological exchange between traders, merchants, pilgrims, missionaries, soldiers, nomads and urban dwellers from Ancient China, Ancient India, Ancient Tibet, Persia and Mediterranean countries for almost 3,000 years. It gets its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade, which began during the Han Dynasty starting in 206 BC. In Urumqi we felt a more European flavor mixed up with Chinese than we see in Xi’an. Signs were in Chinese, Arabic, and Russian! We enjoyed the flavor of the Muslim market but our favorite memories were the people, like this little family, all on the same motorbike. The Chinese love their children and out here in the far west you see minority families who aren't limited by the one-child policy required of the Han Chinese, especially in the cities.