Hello all,
I would like to start this post out by apologizing for not posting earlier. I had initially intended to post once a week, but due to the inconvenience of accessing a large number of sites in China, and my limited time to blog, that is not always possible. I will instead try to continue posting on a more regular basis, so I don't have a full week's worth of activities to cover. I would also like to apologize for any grammatical errors that might appear in this post.
Every day here here starts with breakfast. Out of all the things American culture has been able to invade in China, home cuisine is definitely not one of them. Every meal consists of genuine Chinese food, which is not the Chinese food most Americans are used to. I have attached some pictures below, but it consists of a lot more fungus (there is no other translation), steamed buns, sticky rice, spicy red pepper sauce, as well as much more, that one does not traditionally see in Chinese restaurants in the U.S. What's more, not only are fortune cookies not served in China, the word 签语饼 (fortune cookie) does not even resonate with them, and it takes a while to explain the single food that most Americans use to identify Chinese cuisine. Chinese people also often eat a lot more than I do, and are constantly reminding me that I eat too little, and putting too much food on my plate.
Following breakfast, I have a 40 minute walk to school, past a number of pedestrians, wagons, and speeding cars, as well as a large number of people cleaning the street with brooms. These people are everywhere, but don't really seem to actually help the general cleanliness level of China's roadways. Following the longish walk to school, I then attend Chinese class for four hours with other American students. The class is taught in a very Chinese method, with lots of rote memorization and repetition, though I am told my class can't be compared in any way to a Chinese class. I do find it interesting that a language can drive a culture's views on education, since the Chinese language itself requires lots of rote memorization to learn Chinese characters, creating a cycle engrained in teachers and students alike. Linguistically, I usually don't agree that one's language drive's one's entire mindset, but in this particular facet, I believe it does.
Following class, all the American students eat lunch in the school's cafeteria. I usually try to eat with other Chinese students, who all are unusually shy and usually refuse to talk to me for the first five minutes, which is unusual even for a foreigner in China. After a while, they usually begin to talk some, giggling the whole time. The past two days, however, I have eaten lunch with other American students, because the Shaanxi Provincial Government told the school they have to give the students who are busy preparing for the 中考 high school entrance examination at least some vacation. They received two days.
Lunch is then followed by a culture class, which changes topic each week. This week's was on Chinese music and opera. I most enjoyed, however, learning about modern Chinese songs, so I can have some new material to get stuck in my head.
After 2:00, activities vary from day to day. On Monday, we went to Xijing University for "community service" that ended up being several hours of interacting with college students. It was still very fun, and I managed to talk in Chinese with some students the entire time, who then took my QQ number. It also felt very cool being the one translating for other American students who didn't understand. They were very friendly, and obsessed with American culture, especially dating culture, which they asked me many questions about.
On Tuesday, I accompanied other American students to Xiaozhai, a fairly modern neighborhood with many malls and bright shiny stores. My favorite parts of Xiaozhai however, are not those modern stores, but its large bookstore, which consists of four stories of Chinese books. I take great pleasure in browsing there, even if I don't understand everything I read. I especially enjoy their translations of English books, and bought a copy of Charlotte's web in Chinese, which I am currently attempting to read. Next to the bookstore, I also really enjoy a maze of narrow alleyways that are filled with motorcycles and street vendors, and not a single tourist. There also is a neat eastern pharmacy. These alleyways never seem to end, and are a great place for practicing my Chinese, although they have scared the other American students I have brought there.
On Wednesday, I got on a bus by myself to the Xi'an city wall, intending to go exploring and get myself hopelessly lost, both of which I succeeded in doing. From the City Wall, I walked several miles to the 钟楼, or bell tower, through narrow streets far away from the main touristy areas. From the Bell Tower, I took the subway, and then a bus home. My map skills were very useful here, as they have been during this whole trip. Using a Chinese map is a great skill to have in China
I'll skip Thursday, which wasn't particularly interesting.
Friday consisted of a trip to the Beilin Stele Forest, a beautiful museum, consisting of many steles engraved in Chinese writing, from the Tang Dynasty to the present, as well as many ancient Chinese artifacts. My favorite was the stele that informed patrons about Nestorian Christianity arriving in China, and the emperor's welcome of the Christians. Engraved next to the Chinese was a piece of Syriac script. Equally interesting, next to the museum was Xi'an's calligraphy street, a marketplace somewhat similar to the Muslim Quarter, but not quite as crowded, and selling more art and calligraphy supplies, as well as artifacts more traditionally associated with Chinese culture.
Saturday was probably the most eventful day this week. My host brother informed me that he had too much homework, so I instead asked if I could go to Xi'an's old city by myself. I took a bus to the old city, and walked many, many streets in Xi'an's muslim quarter, trying many foods, and bargaining along the way. I eventually made it to a narrow park north of the Muslim Quarter, which reminded me in many ways of Central Park, with its large number of performers and various city-goers resting. Most interesting here was a women's choir, that sounded very much like a church choir, but played with an Erhu. After my walk around the park's lake, I walked back to the Calligraphy street to 卧龙寺, an active Buddhist temple in the middle of Xi'an. I saw almost no tourists here, but instead mostly monks, who asked me if I was Buddhist. The complex is enormous as well, with well over 20 incense filled temples with many statues of the Buddha, and prayer cushions. Steles in the temple date it to be over 1,800 years old. That night, my host brother took me to the largest fountain in Asia, in Qujiang, to watch this crazy music coordinated light show, that apparently takes place every night.
Sunday consisted mostly of driving. I went with my host brother and another American student's host family to the Huang Di mausoleum. Although I'm not positive if Huang Di actually existed, since he lived before the possibly mythical Xia dynasty, his Mausoleum is quite impressive, complete with steles from many Ming and Qing Emperors, Huang Di's two foot footprings, and many, many Chinese tourists. Any Chinese person you ask, will tell you that everything we know about Huang Di and that ancient period of Chinese history is true, without questioning it. The site is in a beautiful spot though, several hours away from Xi'an, in the middle of Shaanxi's mountains. Following the Mausoleum, we went to the Hukou waterfall, which is yellow from all the silt. The falls were very impressive, however again overridden with many, many Chinese tourists. The beautiful drive back made the trip worth it though.
Again, sorry for making this post very long and nearly unreadable, and I hope to update this blog more frequently in the future.
Until next time,
Ben Weinstein
I would like to start this post out by apologizing for not posting earlier. I had initially intended to post once a week, but due to the inconvenience of accessing a large number of sites in China, and my limited time to blog, that is not always possible. I will instead try to continue posting on a more regular basis, so I don't have a full week's worth of activities to cover. I would also like to apologize for any grammatical errors that might appear in this post.
Every day here here starts with breakfast. Out of all the things American culture has been able to invade in China, home cuisine is definitely not one of them. Every meal consists of genuine Chinese food, which is not the Chinese food most Americans are used to. I have attached some pictures below, but it consists of a lot more fungus (there is no other translation), steamed buns, sticky rice, spicy red pepper sauce, as well as much more, that one does not traditionally see in Chinese restaurants in the U.S. What's more, not only are fortune cookies not served in China, the word 签语饼 (fortune cookie) does not even resonate with them, and it takes a while to explain the single food that most Americans use to identify Chinese cuisine. Chinese people also often eat a lot more than I do, and are constantly reminding me that I eat too little, and putting too much food on my plate.
Following breakfast, I have a 40 minute walk to school, past a number of pedestrians, wagons, and speeding cars, as well as a large number of people cleaning the street with brooms. These people are everywhere, but don't really seem to actually help the general cleanliness level of China's roadways. Following the longish walk to school, I then attend Chinese class for four hours with other American students. The class is taught in a very Chinese method, with lots of rote memorization and repetition, though I am told my class can't be compared in any way to a Chinese class. I do find it interesting that a language can drive a culture's views on education, since the Chinese language itself requires lots of rote memorization to learn Chinese characters, creating a cycle engrained in teachers and students alike. Linguistically, I usually don't agree that one's language drive's one's entire mindset, but in this particular facet, I believe it does.
Following class, all the American students eat lunch in the school's cafeteria. I usually try to eat with other Chinese students, who all are unusually shy and usually refuse to talk to me for the first five minutes, which is unusual even for a foreigner in China. After a while, they usually begin to talk some, giggling the whole time. The past two days, however, I have eaten lunch with other American students, because the Shaanxi Provincial Government told the school they have to give the students who are busy preparing for the 中考 high school entrance examination at least some vacation. They received two days.
Lunch is then followed by a culture class, which changes topic each week. This week's was on Chinese music and opera. I most enjoyed, however, learning about modern Chinese songs, so I can have some new material to get stuck in my head.
After 2:00, activities vary from day to day. On Monday, we went to Xijing University for "community service" that ended up being several hours of interacting with college students. It was still very fun, and I managed to talk in Chinese with some students the entire time, who then took my QQ number. It also felt very cool being the one translating for other American students who didn't understand. They were very friendly, and obsessed with American culture, especially dating culture, which they asked me many questions about.
On Tuesday, I accompanied other American students to Xiaozhai, a fairly modern neighborhood with many malls and bright shiny stores. My favorite parts of Xiaozhai however, are not those modern stores, but its large bookstore, which consists of four stories of Chinese books. I take great pleasure in browsing there, even if I don't understand everything I read. I especially enjoy their translations of English books, and bought a copy of Charlotte's web in Chinese, which I am currently attempting to read. Next to the bookstore, I also really enjoy a maze of narrow alleyways that are filled with motorcycles and street vendors, and not a single tourist. There also is a neat eastern pharmacy. These alleyways never seem to end, and are a great place for practicing my Chinese, although they have scared the other American students I have brought there.
On Wednesday, I got on a bus by myself to the Xi'an city wall, intending to go exploring and get myself hopelessly lost, both of which I succeeded in doing. From the City Wall, I walked several miles to the 钟楼, or bell tower, through narrow streets far away from the main touristy areas. From the Bell Tower, I took the subway, and then a bus home. My map skills were very useful here, as they have been during this whole trip. Using a Chinese map is a great skill to have in China
I'll skip Thursday, which wasn't particularly interesting.
Friday consisted of a trip to the Beilin Stele Forest, a beautiful museum, consisting of many steles engraved in Chinese writing, from the Tang Dynasty to the present, as well as many ancient Chinese artifacts. My favorite was the stele that informed patrons about Nestorian Christianity arriving in China, and the emperor's welcome of the Christians. Engraved next to the Chinese was a piece of Syriac script. Equally interesting, next to the museum was Xi'an's calligraphy street, a marketplace somewhat similar to the Muslim Quarter, but not quite as crowded, and selling more art and calligraphy supplies, as well as artifacts more traditionally associated with Chinese culture.
Saturday was probably the most eventful day this week. My host brother informed me that he had too much homework, so I instead asked if I could go to Xi'an's old city by myself. I took a bus to the old city, and walked many, many streets in Xi'an's muslim quarter, trying many foods, and bargaining along the way. I eventually made it to a narrow park north of the Muslim Quarter, which reminded me in many ways of Central Park, with its large number of performers and various city-goers resting. Most interesting here was a women's choir, that sounded very much like a church choir, but played with an Erhu. After my walk around the park's lake, I walked back to the Calligraphy street to 卧龙寺, an active Buddhist temple in the middle of Xi'an. I saw almost no tourists here, but instead mostly monks, who asked me if I was Buddhist. The complex is enormous as well, with well over 20 incense filled temples with many statues of the Buddha, and prayer cushions. Steles in the temple date it to be over 1,800 years old. That night, my host brother took me to the largest fountain in Asia, in Qujiang, to watch this crazy music coordinated light show, that apparently takes place every night.
Sunday consisted mostly of driving. I went with my host brother and another American student's host family to the Huang Di mausoleum. Although I'm not positive if Huang Di actually existed, since he lived before the possibly mythical Xia dynasty, his Mausoleum is quite impressive, complete with steles from many Ming and Qing Emperors, Huang Di's two foot footprings, and many, many Chinese tourists. Any Chinese person you ask, will tell you that everything we know about Huang Di and that ancient period of Chinese history is true, without questioning it. The site is in a beautiful spot though, several hours away from Xi'an, in the middle of Shaanxi's mountains. Following the Mausoleum, we went to the Hukou waterfall, which is yellow from all the silt. The falls were very impressive, however again overridden with many, many Chinese tourists. The beautiful drive back made the trip worth it though.
Again, sorry for making this post very long and nearly unreadable, and I hope to update this blog more frequently in the future.
Until next time,
Ben Weinstein