Xi'an Adventures

  Xi'an, China
Wednesday, July 16, 2008

I have arrived in Beijing, where I once again am connected to full internet access. Oh to return to the information age! But although I have not had have the ability to post (or even email a post to someone else), I have not forgotten about you guys, and have continued to document my travels. Get ready for an onslaught of blogs of my adventures in the last week. What follows is what I have been working on:
 
I know that this blog will not be posted for some time from now (maybe not until I return to St. Louis as I am currently in the middle of the Yangtze river and have no idea when I will next have internet), but I still have massive catching up to do, especially since I have written very little about Xi'an. Last Sunday we went to see the Terracotta Warriors. The Emperor of the Qin dynasty, who is considered to be the father of civilization in China, had built a tomb with these thousands of warriors positioned to guard his tomb. This site, which is now one of the most famous in China, had not been discovered until the 1970's when a local farmer accidently stumbled upon some of the artifacts. It resulted in a massive archeological dig, which is still in progress. The emperor had had all the warriors carved to be handsome, but they all have single eyelids. In China, it is said that double eyelids are more beautiful than single eyelids. This particular emperor, however, had single eyelids which is why all of the warriors were carved that way. There is a rumor that he had all the artisans that worked on these warriors sacrificed, although it seems the validity of that is still up for debate. After visiting the warriors, we had hoped that we might get a chance to meet the farmer that had stumbled upon the dig thirty some years ago - but he wasn't there.
On Monday classes started again, so from 9 to 5 we were inside the classroom. Although I was very happy to see that the classroom had some instant coffee and hot water outside. With so many early mornings and late nights it has been hard to go without coffee - or very little of it. On some mornings I have resorted to regular soda.
But I am getting off track. Monday night was our commencement dinner, otherwise known as the night of the million pictures. We had a very nice Chinese dinner, complete with the 10 courses on a lazy Susan turn table (and all of them delicious).

Me and Yufei

The profs from Poly U, Peking, and Wash U presented gifts to the other students as souvenirs to remember the event by. It was sort of treated like our last night there, although we still had four days of classes left. That was because most of the Peking students were returning to Beijing on Friday night.
During the rest of the week I was pleased that Wash U and Peking/Poly U students started to hangout more together. A couple of our new friends from Beijing showed us a traditional Chinese breakfast, which was some fried bread (think Chorro) and spicy tofu soup. They cook the food in giant pots at the front of the restaurant and we (actually those of us who spoke Chinese) just pointed to some pots to order dishes. Most of the time I let my Chinese friends order for me and just expect that it is likely to be spicy. I have always ended up with good food, and the spice is rarely too much for me to handle.  Anyways, we had a great and filling breakfast and all for 1.5 RMB. That is the equivalent of about ten cents! God bless China.
Meal time together can actually be seen as representative of one of the major things I have learned about living in Chinese culture: get used to people doing things for you. The Chinese students are very mindful of the fact that we are guests in their country and treat us as if we were guests in their home. Often at meals they will serve us noodles. Jaydee and I joked that we were like little kids that needed to be served, but we later found out that for the Chinese students this was a sign of respect to their guests. I have had to learn how to forgo some American style independence as it could even be seen as offensive here.
Language is another thing that is very different than in Hong Kong. Although the use of Cantonese in Hong Kong is increasing as they distance themselves from the days of Brittish rule, it is still relatively easy to find people who speak English and all signs are in English. Technically, it is still one of the official languages there. Mainland China has been a different story. When we go into a restaurant, our Chinese friends order for us, or if we are on our own, we only get things we can point to. Booking the rest of our trip after Xi'an would have been completely impossible if it were not for the amazingly generous help of several friends here. One experience that will stick in my mind long after getting back to the states is that of going into China Construction Bank to try and put a deposit on the cruise that we are on now (more on that later). Yi had said that she thought people in there would speak English, so Jaydee and I went to a teller and asked if anyone there did. The tellers kind of looked around and smirked at each other before pointing to a woman at the last desk. I had been a foreigner in another country before, but I had never felt so much like a foreigner. It gives me an appreciation for what immigrants to America must go through, an essential experience to have if I end up working with immigrants and refugees in the future.