A night in China

Crowds swarm everywhere, you can barely take a breath when another one comes
Then you see the lights, like little snowflakes staying in one place
They are so colorful: red, blue, yellow, green... They are so pretty
you can almost imagine, the little snowflakes falling on top of your head
You go on to the wall, where you can see the whole city of Xi'an
There you can see lamps everywhere, then you see the people, crowds swarming in the road
The people give way to the traffic, traffic is like little ants swarming around their colony.

Xingqing Park

Perhaps the most interesting facet of my routine is the daily feast of eye candy I consume during jogs and walks in Xingqing park. Every morning this park, located just around the corner from our apartment on the site of a former royal palace, is packed with thousands of Chinese, coming primarily from the 50 - 80 year old set, exercising.



As you pass through the gate you enter the park's largest plaza and find it overflowing with couples and individuals engaged in dance classes drawing from an array of traditions. These are mass, public classes that seem to follow some sort of routine, but hard for me to discern. The different styles integrate and blur with competing sound systems cranking out various fast paced dance tunes that merge into a rhythmic, moving mass of humanity.




As you dive further in the dance music fades and is replaced by the swish of ad hoc badminton courts which are squeezed into any available open space or path. This is probably China’s main outdoor sport and you see couples engaged in what look like long standing court dates all over the park.



Tai chi and kung fu classes are another regular, with tai chi sometimes in smaller groupings in rather serene, woody settings; while at other times featuring their own traditional sound accompaniment piped in and featuring larger clusters of practitioners in similar, traditional dress. Spread out rather evenly throughout the park, these more mass tai chi groups battle with the dance classes for the title of Xingqing’s most popular exercise form.



There is also the occasion 50+ person singing group working on a piece, random collections of flute players, kite fliers, paddle exercisers, sword enthusiasts, and even a jazz corner on a dirt path going up to the park's central temple. One of my favorite activities takes place on the trail surrounding the pool on the park's northwest corner where people come alone, face the lake and yell out single syllable words at the top of their lungs.




There is also the spinning top area, where people manipulate low-toned, humming tops on strings around their bodies or the huge floor top that the master keeps spinning with a perfectly positioned lash from his bull whip. Then there are the random artists working water brushes on beautiful lines of calligraphy that fade before they are completed, bird enthusiasts that descend on a woody area to tease songs out of their caged pets with the false hope of a return to nature, and the clusters of what appear to be religious practitioners of some sort, reading lines from delicately drawn text around the park’s central fountain.



All these activities intersect along the Xingqing’s meandering trails which are highlighted by beautiful stone benches, ornate light features, and a few carefully placed temple buildings / cafes. The winter has taken the edge off the foliage, but given their attention to detail in the other features of the park, I'm sure spring in Xingqing will be spectacular.

My weekend

Last weekend, we had the newest adventure going out of the city. First we rode in a long and tiring bus, that made me feel constantly ill, and finally arrived at a tea pot factory where they made the old green tea pot there was a whole museum which we eagerly went into only to find out it was a waste of fifty yuan or 7 dollars. Where we looked at countless rows of the same green pottery. The back on a bus and heading towards a temple. WE were let of f the bus to my relief and emptyied into a town where 50000 of our favorite friends had all decided to take the same outings as we had. Before visiting the temple we decided to break our fast, for we had missed the majority of breakfast feasting hour. And we continued onward with a German family who now lived in the US and had daughters that were younger then us. We stopped at a good looking place, where a man we shaving noodles into a blubbling pot, we proceeded on to the seats, and found on our way, a huge rusty pot filled with the leftovers of someones soup. Half price we nervously joked, but little did we no that half price would mean one yuan or 20 cents. We were growing more anxious as we inspected the floor were an inch of grime lay. And it was also showered with spilled soup and then with a fine layer of trash. However we were all starving and so we went on to the seat and tried to avoid sitting on the gum plastered to an edge. It was the easiest place to order at. For you needn't order everyone got the same thing, a bowl of shaved noodles in a fantastic sauce. It was the best noodles we had had in all of or time here. SO far. ANd it was the cheapest. 30 cents per bowl. Our stomaches satified for now we raced into the throngs of chinese. We were pushed everyway, and then fell into a dozen more people because someone had stopped to stare at us, however this time there was another person who could take away some of the attention, the girl whose mother was from germany and father who was from America. We pushed them in front of us, and didnt gather quite as much attention. We hurried from side to side trying to avoid the mass of people, but even going to one side to great frogger[the videogame] skills, doggin each person five more taking there place. When finally we reached the temple. And it turned out bveing closed, of course we could wade in though the mass of black heads for a least another 30 minutes and make it to the othertemple, but we were already exausted by all the sounds ringing in our ears. WE went back the way wehad come dogging people surging forward before someone could take your place, then came the horses, the stallions surged forward in the crowd as well, summing up all the chaos that there already was to making it unreasonable chaotic[is that spelled right?] We hurriedly bought some popcicles and sucked on them while my dad got his first two pictures and Julia another picture taken and I got a picture request. WE continued back to the restaurant more to avoid the crowds then to eat more soup, but julia and I still gulped down spoonfuls of the spicy soup. Then we continued on to a park, hoping for a quieter place to talk. We were assulted by a massave throng of chinese who wanted to know everything they could know about the pretty doll[julia] and the beautiful barbie[me]. We hurried back to the bus even though we had an hour to spare. On to vineyard. Where countless wines were tasted by my mom and dad before being bought, and I was allowed a simple sip, and I must comment that wine does not have any good taste to it at all and it is my opinion that I think no one should even drink it! We visited the factory where the wine was made and everywhere you glanced there were 6000 bottle of full wine ready to be carted off to grocery stores. Then we played a spot of badmitten[ I was getting fairly good] and played several games before returning to our apartment at JiaoDa DongMein or the Zhaotong university east gate. At ten. Exausted we fell asleep immediately.

In that day I also found out that my favorite park the one by our house was 2000 years old and was made by the tang emporer, and was a royal courtyard.
Hana

Today was as normal a day as comes in china, i survived through 6 hours of pure chinese school except for the 45 minute break for english class, we got out early today and so we strolled around the streets that were around the wall. we got caught in some bargaining trouble in which we argued the fact that we did not have a lot of money right now and the sellers demanded that it was very cheap in which we were forced to say we had NO money. WE walked onwards and stepped on to a street in a moment a car drove past, breaking around five traffic laws, because he was speeding and partly on the side walk while smoking and talking on a cell phone, my dad ot yet realizing he was there walked into the car. THe driver didnt even blink, then we arrived back home.
Hana

Our first trip outside of Xi'an

We had a busy weekend. I'll let the girls give you some of the details but wanted to remind myself of the huge gap that exists between cities and rural areas. On Sunday we took a bus trip with a German/Australian group to a nearby town. First we went to a pottery museum and then a temple and finally, to a local wine distribution center. We had a long and interesting day. Most of the time however was spent on the bus and in traffic. The "little town" we went to vist that housed the temple was chuck full of no fewer than 40,000 people...and maybe more. Instead of a relaxing day in the country, we were fighting the crowds. When we stopped and tried to find a bit of space outside the throng, we were almost immediately surrounded by a large group of people who found us (mostly our children) incredibly fascinating to watch. All of the blonde Germans/Australians helped diffuse the attention away from our girls but when all the children were together, it made for almost a zoo like experience for the Chinese...dusty, crowded streets lined with garbage, the best "shaved noodles" we could imagine. We liked our restaurant so much we went back again for noodles. After the hours of crowding, we all needed some wine tasting. After tasting a least ten different bottles and purchasing a case at least each, the adults joined the kids for some games...the flying dutchman..(I think..taught to us by a sweet German woman)...tag and Simon says...on the journey home Marko, the fun-loving German, took out his harmonica and played for the kids. Back at school and work on Monday. Hope everyone had a good weekend too.

Communication in China

Yesterday one of my colleagues asked me how I was managing, how was I feeding my family? Given that no society has much patience for those who are both illiterate and mute, I could kind of understand her question and concern. Yet, I communicate a lot in China, as I do in all the places I have been and can barely say hello (I can by the way, say more than hello and Jeff and I have been faithful about listen to our language tape, having a tutor at least three times a week, and practising a lot. If I can use Chinese here, when will I use it?) At the university, my collegues speak decent English but elsewhere and other than "hello, what is your name?) it is a bit challenging finding someone who speaks English, especially in stores or restaurants. Grunting and pointing is always effective but by far the best way to communicate is with a smile. It is amazing how much I actually communicate with a smile. Children and family here provides many opportunities for discussion; yesterday morning on the way to school, I told a grandmother how beautiful the baby was on her back; at the girls' school, I hope all the kids I smiled at realized that I appreciated how cute they were and loved sharing this morning ritual with their parents (I am no longer teary-eyed when I drop them off -- it is starting to seem rather normal. Plus, sometimes I get to see them at noon so it is not such a long stretch).

A fabulous restaurant

I woke up late, at seven, becauswe I still was suffering slightly from lack of rest. WE quickly readied for school, and set out at a fast pace, struggling to keep up with the mass of chinese children. It is needless to say that the first 2 hours of school were not irrelevant, they were jam packed with the normal chinese school day except for one thing there was the american odditiy with brings us to the morning exersizes, usually you do a long string of movements, however today we had to perform a different task. WE were instructed to salute the chinese flag, I used the wrong hand, using it to shield my face from the murderous gaze of the sun. Immediately about five chinese girls abandoned saluting the flag in order to correct me, my fingers were straited once I had switched hands and I had to raise my salute over my eyes, so that still the sun was staring at me, the rest of the stretcfhes continued in a wave of heat, in fact it was not very hot when in the shadows,k however when facing the sun, the heat was like a wave, the rest of the day continued, until at last I was finished with school, and I lumbered behiknd my family as we went to a store to take photos which we needed to make sure we were the correct person or something like that. Then we combed our hair, brushed our teeth, and then we hurried to play badmitten, (JUlia's birthday present) before my moms student arrived. Soon we had to abandon an amusing game of badmitten in which I played horribly with my left hand, for my mothers student. We walked down to a hot pot place that we had walked past almost every day, and wondered if someone would help us order there. WE arrived in the restaurant stepping into a steamy crowded restaurant, we were escorted to a grate where they now placed a large bowl filled with on one side spicy spitting water and on the other side salty seafoody and also spitting hot water. Bother sides bubbled with equal venom. Then me and my father got up and walked to area where there were pans filled with vegtables and meat on sticks. There were around 80 different pans, alll holding siome unique kind of vegtable [or a very very unique kind of meat] all of which you could choose from. My dad and I loaded our pan, with mushrooms, cauliflower, tofu, and whatever we saw that looked good. Then we strutted back towards our table, barely able to see over the piles of vegtables and meat dangling dangerously off the ends of sticks. We set the down, my moms eyes became wide, we had already a pan filled with more lettuce and mushrooms, and now we had all this. My moms student, seeing us not doing anything, grabbed several sticks and shoved them into the boiled liquid. It cackled and steamed, but it could do nothing against the rush of hands that all hurried to place vegtables in the hot pot. After that we sampled the spices, and my sister and I agreed apon a peanutty spice that we them showered apon all of the cooked vegetables, all in all, it was a great dinner, one of our better ones, however we always end up saying that. After finishing, we left full and exausted having spent only 11 dollars and collapsed into our apartment, nmy sister and I weary from another monday in my chinese school.
Hana