Over the past week, many more exciting and interesting things have happened as the days here blow by. Once again, I apologize for any grammatical errors this post might contain.
The week started out with a trip to a Chinese assisted living center, where each class was expected to put on some form of performance for the center's residents. After pondering what we could plan in fifteen minutes for way too long considering our limited time, we eventually decided on singing 朋友, a famous Chinese song by Wakin Chau that we all have now by and large learned the lyrics to. This was followed by us singing I'll Make a Man Out of You, from Disney's Mulan, a song that 4/5 of us knew the words too. It went pretty well, considering we decided on singing ten seconds prior to actually singing it. After each class performed their little acts, we went on to watch four of the residents perform a dance that repeated itself every twenty seconds, and lasted seven minutes (nonetheless, it was very cute). This was then followed by the singing of a nationalist song (not the national anthem) that everybody but me seemed to know the words to. My favorite part of this afternoon however, was interacting with the residents themselves, talking with them about various aspects of Xi'an's culture, their grandchildren studying in the United States, and my opinions of Chinese culture. One woman went so far as to recite an eight stanza poem on Shaanxi's history to me, after I asked her if she was interested in Chinese history. After arriving home that day, I wandered to a narrow alleyway near school, where I looked at all the local cafes, and watched several very crowded games of Chinese chess.
That night, I went to Haidi Lao, an incredibly famous hot pot restaurant in China. I had never been to a hot pot restaurant, seeing as I have never been able to find any in New York City's many Chinatowns. In China, however, they are everywhere. Heidi Lao is known for its excellent food and service, with patrons sometimes waiting over an hour for a seat. It is so popular, that there are eight in the city of Xi'an alone (and one in Los Angeles as well.) The essence of hot pot, is that patrons will order various items, but not full dishes, and can place them in boiling pots of soup, while you cook them at your table. While interesting, this hot pot restaurant was incredibly special, featuring certain things that were more reminiscent of a performance than of a meal. Every menu is contained within an ipad brought to every table, and instead of waiters, you order directly from the ipad. There is a man in the restaurant, whose sole job is to make ten foot noodles in front of patrons, by twirling them over his head. The night finished with a show from a famous Beijing Opera character, known for changing his masks repeatedly and in the blink of an eye. On top of these spectacles, the food was also delicious.
On Wednesday, I took a bus to the Qinglong temple, which was not nearly as interesting as the other temples I've been to. Although the gardens were nice, most of the temple looked like it had been built in the 1990's and probably was, despite the fact that it was advertised as a original Tang Dynasty temple, and had markers describing the temple's history everywhere. This notion was strengthened by the fact that half the temple was still under construction. Despite the modernity, I found this fact to be quite humorous. Parts of it were still very peaceful though.
On Thursday, after a Taiji class, it was too hot to do anything of interest, so I accompanied two of my classmates (a rare occurrence), to the supermarket to purchase some bubble tea and ice cream. I hope to join one of those very large Taiji groups in the park one day, however.
Friday was one of the most interesting afternoons this week, since we did not have any afternoon activities, giving me ample time to explore a new site. This was a refreshing break after our midterm, which I spent a considerable amount of time studying for, considering it was on all the material from the past three weeks, and is taken very seriously. After the midterm and lunch, I took a bus to 小雁塔, or the Small Wild Goose Pagoda. The "small" pagoda, while smaller than 大雁塔, or the Large Wild Goose pagoda is still very large,and quite a spectacle, considering it was built in the Tang Dynasty. It also sits in the middle of Jianfu Temple, a once functioning temple, also from the Tang Dynasty. The pagoda was built as per the request of Gaozong, the first Tang Emperor one hundred days after his death. After purchasing my ticket, I wandered into one of the temple buildings, where I spent a long time talking with two temple workers, and a young recent graduate student about my life in China, and their opinions about foreigners. The young graduate then accompanied me to the pagoda (he had not paid for pagoda entrance), where I entered, and climbed up a series of narrow staircases, through a variety of stone rooms and a trapdoor to the top, which is now open, due to a 16th century earthquake. The view from the top of a 1500 year old structure was really quite spectacular, especially considering its age. After descending the pagoda, I proceeded to walk around the surrounding temple, and adjacent Xi'an museum with my friend, who was very nice and chatty (I got his QQ number), but unfortunately had to return to his hometown of Shenzhen the next day. I then arrived home rather early to play with Maomao, my three year old host brother, and my new 16 year old host brother, who is also very nice, and just arrived from his grandparents in Zhejiang on Wednesday.
I woke early Saturday to board a bus to Hua shan for a day trip. Hua Shan is one of China's five great mountains, very holy to Daoism, and quite a majestic site. The views from the top were quite beautiful, and despite the crowds, it was a very peaceful environment. I very much enjoyed walking around at 7,000 feet above sea level after having taken a cable car (despite having rather climbed). After scouring the city of Xi'an though, it is good we only got the go to one peak, since next time I arrive in China, I will have far more of Huashan to see, and independently discover. After arriving that afternoon, and spending more time with Maomao, we went out for dinner. This dinner was Shanbei cuisine, from the northern part of Shaanxi province, and very, very spicy. This dinner was also accompanied by a performance from four performers who were very talented, but sang in a dialect even my host siblings could not understand without subtitles.
Sunday was probably the most eventful and strenuous day of my week. After having a great time at the Children's library/ English center, I asked my host brother if I could return, and he brought me there again on Sunday morning. I once again greatly enjoyed reading various picture books with the children, (and some by myself to help my own Chinese), and teaching them various English words, while letting them teach me Chinese ones. My favorite was probably reading the Sneeches by Dr. Seuss with two young first grade students (they read the Chinese on the bottom, I read the English on top and explained it), especially since this was always one of my favorite books as a small child. It was also interesting to see, despite their similar ages, they had very varied reading levels. I've always wondered how an authentic Chinese classroom starts out teaching characters to elementary schoolers. At noon, I left the library, and took the subway north to the city wall, grabbing some street food along the way. The city wall is quite a majestic creation, and despite seeing it so frequently, as one of the longest walls in the world, and a medieval wall at that, glimpsing it never gets old. This time however, I brought a ticket to ascend the city wall, and walk along its parapets, and view its Ming Dynasty fortresses and towers. This brought an especially cool view of the City Wall of Xi'an from above, and a new perspective of the city Wall, from its wide upper brick pathway. I then rented a bicycle on the wall, and rode it along the wall in its entirety, stopping at nearly every sign, which definitely prolonged the trip. Despite the heat, the trip was definitely worth it, as it taught me a lot about Xi'an's history, and provided me with some great new views of the city, especially of the Guangren Tibetan Monastery, with its golden roofs. Also interesting was the City Wall Museum, which is inside of, and only accessible from the City Wall itself. This museum has many artifacts from the city's Tang Dynasty past. What was especially unique though, were The Tang Dynasty city wall remains within the temple, including two 1500 year old guard towers and roadways, since the more modern and current Ming Dynasty wall was built along the former Tang Dynasty walls. After completing a full loop of the city wall, I got off the wall, and took a bus home. The weekend was then completed with another walk to Qujiang Nanhu, which is always very relaxing.
At least at that point I thought my weekend was over, however a power outage soon proved that wrong, and provided a much more amusing end to my weekend. According to my host brother, and judging by the fact that they were the only house on the street to not have power, this outage was because, they forgot to pay the power bill, and their power would come on at 8:00 the next morning (which indeed it did). Perhaps most disconcerting was the means that were used to light a stubborn candle, which consisted first of a burning tissue, and later, a burning pencil.
Enjoying Xi'an,
Ben Weinstein