Jiatai Hotel Xi'an

... nice and right next to the South wall of Xi'an. Xi'an is one of the only cities in China that still has the wall around the perimeter of the city.

We walked around with Jake and ate dinner. After dinner we went to a part of the city called Muslim Quarter. Apparently many years ago there was a group of Muslims that migrated to Xi'an and they have a HUGE marketplace filled with cool stuff. We walked through ...

... is written and no one has ever told them it is wrong and that the E is silent.

Though my school and its teachers try so hard they are in one of China's least educated areas which is sadly also a very VERY poor area and this of course means that the Chinese English teachers will be the same. I try to never compare my current school to my last school in Fujian Province as the areas are as different as the English levels of the Chinese English teachers in ...

Today we woke up early, thanks to the Aurum International Hotel's morning wake-up call to our room... Thanks guys... We had breakfast in the hotel buffet, which was twice as busy as the buffet in Beijing, although the food is similar. We went back up to the rooms before meeting Mr. Niu, our guide in the hotel lobby. The bus ride was going to be two and a half hours, so we all got our own areas to listen to our iPods, or talk or read. We also looked outside, and ...

... find a way to enter the site without the area creating some sort of self combustion due to the complex water system underground made up of mercury. The warriors themselves have also lost much of their coloring due to exposure to air, so this has also hampered the excavations. I just found it really exciting that I was able to get a close look at something over two thousand years old that was never meant to have been found by anyone. We got back to Xi'an mid afternoon and decided to ...

When I returned to Xi'an from the terra-cotta army museum, I went to visit the Islamic quarter of Xi'an. I already got to see Chinese Muslims in my previous visit to China, but this was the first time I went to see an Islamic quarter. I must say that, at least to my eyes, the Islamic quarter is pretty much the same as any other Chinese quarter. Anyhow, Chinese Muslims are much more similiar to the rest of the Chinese than to the Muslims of the middle east. There are few exceptions ...

... has been too busy with her work and family and the Japanese dad thinks little about it either. My aunt told me that her grand daughter hates Chinese food, Chinese language, Chinese culture, Chinese events. The young girl developed a strong anti-Chinese attitude, politically and culturally, from living in Japan isolated from her parent's homeland. As a result, seeing Joseph understanding and speaking Chinese ...

... a rather subjective definition on the word 'speak' when people say they speak English. Well, both sides (we and the Chinese officials) talked some more, although I don't think either side understood the other. Just as we realized how confused everyone was, and that we were better off sitting on the floor, Maggie showed up. "Where were you?" She asked. We tried to explain what happened, but whatever. They were trying to be helpful, we thought they knew what they were doing, they ...

... spot for 9! March Madness, American style, also greeted us when we were in Xi'an and Kevin attempted to experience this by heading overnight to an internet bar for streamed action. However, because of filters on non-Chinese sites the streamed material from CBS was pitifully inadequate and succeeded in nothing more than producing a bleary-eyed foreigner. Luckily, he's been able to rebound and find alternate online means to catching almost all the ...

... top of on a glass ceiling. The entire area surrounding Xian has been X-rayed to look for more archeological discoveries and they think they've found them all. The Chinese consult with archeologists from all over the world (mainly Germany Michael said) in order to determine the best methods of preservation. From there we headed off to Xian airport to board our 32 seater plane (yikes!) to Yichang, gateway to the Yangtze River...

... Several baked, thick pita like breads with garlic and salt arrived and were promptly devoured. This bread was incredible. Following were broiled skewers of cumin seasoned beef which were gamey and very tasty. With the broths coming to a boil, ramen and thin cuts of frozen lamb in plastic bags were put in the middle of the table for all who were daring enough to skewer and throw them in. It was very good and ready after only about 30 seconds ...