On Returning Home

We have been saying goodbyes to lots of friends and familiar places. We've received more going away presents than we deserve and we are spending our days enjoying all of our "lasts"...our last kung pao ji ding (chicken with peanuts), our last hotpot experience (see Hana's blog), and our last visit to Xi'an historical wall.

After saying goodbye to some friends last night, we waded through a crowd of several thousand to find a cab. In the U.S., it would be like New Year's eve in Time's Square. In China, as our cab driver reminded, it is just a normal Saturday night. With cars, motorcyles, bikes and all vehicles bumper to bumper, we crossed several streets. The buses and cars honked while the throngs continued to walk, holding them up, forcing cars to the sidewalk. The sauna-like weather provided just the right touch to make it yet another surreal Chinese experience.

Where do all of these people go? How can they all be laughing and having fun. Families camped out in front of restaurants or on the corner, sharing dinner or a game of Majing. A toddler crossed the road in front of us; I grabbed his hand,looking for a parent. His father walked over and casually took his hand. No one else noticed, no one else cared.

As our cab driver explained that it was just another Saturday night in Xi'an, we went through our traditional story; was this the last time the girls would say how old they were, where they went to school, that I taught at the university?

From the window, we enjoyed the neon lights, pointing at the buildings we somehow missed before and remarking at how exciting X'ian and China are at night.

We so look forward to returning home,but in all honesty, I feel like only now am I starting to understand China, allowing myself the freedom of letting go, being more spontaneous, and learning not to take things and life so personally.

Tomorrow evening (it will be a long day) I will go to sleep in my own bed...there will be no construction to wake me up, no jack hammers, no cranes and no thick dust under my feet as I walk across the floor.

I will be happy and feel safe like I have not felt in many months...but I still will miss China.

My feelings about Home -- Julia

I feel happy and sad at the same time.

While I live in the U.S., I feel like Xi'an is my home. I have lived in Xi'an for so long, I have gotten to know it well and the people are very nice. The friends that we have here include Austrialians, a family from Boulder, and many Chinese people. I miss my friends, my family, my dog, my home and my school.

I will always remember how nice people were here, that they were never mean, and all the attention that they gave us. I will also remember some things that I didn't like so much like: the pollution, construction, how dirty things are, and the beggars. I also won't forgot how some people talk to waiters and waitresses, almost treating them like servants.

Things I will not ever forget in my life: Chinese toilets, baby outfits (split in the bottom area), and how different life is for men and women (men can drink beer but women have to sit and look pretty all the time).

I really miss playing with my friends, being at home, and running with my dog. But I still love all the food in China...!!!

Julia

Going to America

Tomarrow we leave for America, today is our last day, we have already eaten at our favorite hotpot restaurant. If I haven't told you about Chinese hotpot yet then read on, if I have then I apologize for the delay. The Hotpot restaurant is a stuffy room that is filled with vapors from the hot pots. But as soon as you order the meat and vegetables and spices the heat, people, and stuffiness seems to evaporate, because as long as you like vegetables, you like hotpot. You put different meats and vegetables into the pot untill the meats and veggies are cooked, and then drop it into the peanut sauce and of course it is deleicious.
Dipping the vegetables in the savory peanut sauce and eating the fresh vegetables we ate for a consibeaable amount of time for a mere six dollars before dropping by the movie stall and getting the new batman movie Dark Knight with eleven other movies, Dark Knight had come into theatres four days ago. Having completed two tasks we went home.
Their are not many things that I did in China that I regret doing, however I do regret that I did not write more blogs,however instead of blogs my sister and I worked on chinese, and now JUlia who when she first came couldn't read any chinese can now get through her first grade book, and when I came to China I could read little chinese and now I can get through Harry Potter books, though it is still a struggle for some characters. And though I love China I am excited to come back to America tomarrow.
Though my English may now need some inprovements.
By Hana

Going to America

Saying Goodbye to China--LJS Article 7-27-08

Just as the world is descending on Beijing for China’s long anticipated Olympic coming out party, we are on our way back to Lincoln from our semester in Xi’an. If our experiences are any indication, the thousands of Olympic spectators, and the millions tuning in to enjoy this spectacle on television are in for quite the show.

From Beijing’s dramatic new monumental architecture that has remade the city’s skyline to the investment of billions of dollars to improve the quality of the air that will fill the athletes’ and spectators’ lungs, China’s leaders have given their capitol an Olympic makeover. Yet, extrapolating Beijing’s modernity onto the rest of China would be a mistake.

While visiting Beijing’s Olympic sites and traveling along China’s well-trodden tourist circuit, it is easy to forget that China remains a vast, developing country with a per capita GDP of around $2,500. Indeed, part of China’s allure is that it combines both of these extremes in one setting. In many ways, China is more a continent than a country, containing within its borders a diversity that rivals Europe’s. The expanse, both geographic and ideological, separating the eastern coastal boom cities that are driving so much of China’s modernization to the western provinces of Tibet and Xinjiang is immense and this, no doubt, poses one of the greatest threats to Chinese stability in the coming decades.

During our last two last trips out of Xian we tasted a bit of this diversity. We first headed northwest to Zhongwei, an outpost on the edge of the series of deserts which have historically formed part of China’s border with Mongolia. For centuries, desertification has plagued northern China and it continues today as growing population and urbanization places increasing strains on limited water supplies. Laid back Zhongwei allowed us an opportunity to combine the excitement of an overnight camel trek into the desert dunes with a leisurely afternoon river rafting excursion down the Yellow River.

Water scarcity is clearly not a problem in water-rich southern China. Our last excursion was to Dali and Lijiang, picturesque towns nestled in the lush mountains of the Yunnan province. Located at the crossroads of the Sichuan and Tibet provinces, this remote area has much in common with neighboring Laos and Burma.

While part of China for centuries, it is easy to see that many of the people in these cities are not ethnically Han Chinese, but one of China’s 55 minority groups. Around Dali, local Bai and Naxia peoples still wear bright blue or red traditional garb and buy and sell their goods in small markets with wicker baskets or babies strapped on their backs. It is a far cry from these timeless village markets and camel camps, to faraway Beijing’s Olympic stadium.

Along with geography, food was a constant reminder of China’s diversity. From Xian’s noodle-rich, somewhat saucy fare to Sichuan’s renowned spicy dishes, we found that both the general Chinese foods and the various regional specialties to be delectable, more diverse and fresher than we had imagined. In the mountain valleys of Yunnan, for example, restaurants are supplied with locally grown produce daily. After choosing our fresh vegetables, they were expertly prepared with just the right balance of garlic, ginger, vinegar, peppers and spices.

Our stay coincided with a year of challenges for the Chinese people. They struggled with uncommonly harsh winter (ice storms that paralyzed parts of the country) and spring storms (that continue to flood the south), but nothing compared to the tragedy associated with the horrific Sichuan earthquake. The Chinese resolve in the face of this tragedy was both heartfelt and inspiring.

It is this spirit of resolve that the government and its people have brought to the Olympic preparations. Wherever we traveled in China, we were met by unbridled enthusiasm and pride for the Olympics. The Chinese government has invested an incredible amount of energy building up the public’s anticipation for these Games as validation of the country’s place as an emerging power. And the people we met seem genuinely excited that the world is embracing China once again.

With our time here drawing to a close, we leave with a deeper appreciation for Chinese hospitality, their unfathomable fascination with Western children, but also a better understanding of the serious issues that await this country. And while it is easy to assume that China’s rise will inevitably lead to conflict with the US, we should not forget that over the past decade China and the United States have developed a deep rooted and mutually beneficial relationship that neither of us can afford to take for granted.

So, it is our hope that China’s coming out celebration this summer will be a huge success and that Americans, while cheering on our own athletes, will tip a glass and offer a traditional Chinese “gumbei” toast to celebrate the accomplishments of the Chinese -- both on the sports field and across the this amazingly diverse country, and will offer them our hope for continued peaceful growth and development in the years to come.