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(Xi'an) |
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Sunday, June 17, 2001 7:22 AM
we are now in xi'an! xi'an used to be the capital of
china, by the way. i would have to say that i think
that xi'an is a nicer city than beijing, and i wish we
were staying here longer. there are about a billion
internet cafes here. and, lots of "tea house and
coffee language" (i have no idea what coffee language
means. it seems logical that they meant lounge, but i
saw it on the signs of so many coffee places...i am
forced to conclude that i do not know!
so anyway at the coffee language place, i had a nice
"capacina" with two of my friends in downtown xi'an.
also, the young people here are much more trendy than
in beijing and chengdu. a lot more like koreans or
japanese young people (i just made that up, by the way
:-p ) <-- (gotta close my parantheses! ok, now i am
getting goofy...)
we went to the old city wall for some sight seeing.
then, some shopping. we visited the muslim mosque as
well, in the musim part of town. it was a very
different part of town and women wore traditional
coverings over their heads and men wore traditional
muslim hats. the temple was beautiful and peaceful on
this nice and cool sunday. there were some great
bargains around the area as well.
after that, we were off to the history museum, where
there were artifacts dating from over 1 million years
ago! it was amazing the kinds of pottery, tools and
artifacts that were made here in china so long ago!
you cannot fathom all those years of civilization. the
funny thing about looking at all the artifacts is that
there are small descriptions. for instance a bowl that
was used to heat wine (how do they know this?). i want
to be the archaeologist who makes up those stories
about things! uhh, yes, this gold piece was a
decorative hoof cover for a unicorn (i am not
kidding--this was one of the items)! i mean, i know
they have some logic behind their stories, but things
are just so old that you have to wonder! (i'll make
sure to watch the discovery channel more as they often
explain this phenomenon on their informative
specials.)
after the museum, we all headed over to a restaurant
just a bit outside the downtown area. our guide (who
is a friend of a friend from chengdu) took us to his
friend's restaurant and it was closed just for us. we
(dreadingly) sang some kareoke. as tomorrow is the last
day of the trip, we were all pretty happy to be having
a night out. soon they had cleared some tables out so
we all had room to see the video screen and sing along
to the music. before we knew it, we had a crowd of
about 300 chinese people (i am not kidding) outside
the restaurant, faces pressed up against the glass. it
felt like we were in a zoo exhibit. we were like pop
stars, as complete strangers are hanging on your every
move. i have no idea what they all thought of us, but
you have to remember that many chinese people have not
seen foreigners, except on tv. (if they own
televisions). it was all slightly bazzaar and a little
overwhelming but at least we were in the group.
speaking of pop stars, you should have seen us at the
grocery store last night. the store has everything,
like super kmart, but with half the population of san
diego in the store at one time. and as our small group
gathered around and grew as people finished their
shopping, the audience of chinese bystanders also
grew. we are quite a sight here!
well, tomorrow is our last day. we are going to see
the "8th wonder of the world"....the terra cotta
soldiers!! a few of the soldiers faces are famous and
i am starting to recognize the 4 different ones they
have in souvenier shops all over. so, i am looking
forward to seeing all the different individual faces
tomorrow. as you may know, each soldier's head is
modeled after a real person (and there are like 4 or 5
different body styles they have). just like the museum
today, i expect it to be unfathomable. luckily, it
will be monday and less busy there!
miss you all,
love,
ingrid
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