Edit 7/28: I’ve added photos and video to this entry.  Many photos courtesy of Pierre Combes.  Thanks Pierre!

Thursday, July 24, 2009

Our bus ride from the Shaolin Temple to Xi’an was pretty interesting.  I’ve taken buses across parts of China before, but not quite like this.  A tour bus is much more comfortable than one of the long-distance coaches that you can take here.  Our journey took us through some mountains that ran parallel to the Yellow River.  Some of the views we got were just breathtaking, and I was able to grab a few shots that don’t do it justice.

We stopped a few times along the way to get gas or relieve ourselves, but 6 hours later we arrived in Xi’an.  Now, I should mention that my time in Xi’an wasn’t spent with the Wushu West group.  As a result, this blog isn’t so much about what they did.  I will ask one of them to write up what they did in Xi’an, but if the previous requests for blogs are any indication, don’t hold your breath.

Here is a look around a Chinese truck/rest stop:

I was actually just in Xi’an 8 months ago during last year’s China Wushu Nationals (perhaps you read my blogs back then?) so it was very familiar to me.  I really like Xi’an a lot for its combination of new and old, and my time this trip didn’t change that opinion at all.

We were all staying for the night at the super nice Grand Park hotel, located just across from the South Gate of the city.  The view was fantastic, since we were on the 9th floor, and the amenties were spectaular, especially in comparison to the hotel at the Shaolin Temple.

The first evening we ate dinner together at the buffet downstairs in the hotel.  Very good food, very fresh and lots of choices, so everyone was pretty happy.  The normal rate for that dinner is 118 RMB, and the rooms run around 800 RMB, so I think the tour group definitely arranged a discount.

After dinner some of us went for a walk around the South Gate.  We saw some street vendors and performances, and then walked by a wine store that James said was stocked with some of the best wines in the world.  He said that very few wine stores in the U.S. would be able to have the selection of wines this place had.  One bottle was over $14,000 USD!  A little pricey, if you ask me, but James is the professional wine expert, not me.

Ruhi had also met us in Beijing.  She lives in Xi’an and had gone there a few days before us.  Since we will be living in Xi’an after getting married I wanted to check out the apartment and see the neighborhood I would be moving to.  First we went to see her place and then we grabbed a quick foot massage, which I slept through entirely.  Then I went back to the hotel and slept.

The other funny thing that happened is that we randomly ran in to an old student of Ruhi’s, named Phoenix, who works at the hotel.  I guess living in Xi’an for 8 years means you tend to randomly run in to old friends.

Friday, July 25, 2009

This is the day where paths diverged.  Everyone else spent the day going and seeing the Terracotta Warriors, the South Gate or the Goose Whatchamacallit.  I had some errands to run (first of which was to post up that blog entry that we were alive) and then I went with Ruhi to Xi Gao Xin (West High Tech Zone in Xi’an) to get measured for a ring.  We also went to a nice place for a quick bite.  We did meet up with the Wushu West group during both lunch and dinner.

Here are several photos that Pierre took of their trip to the Terracotta Warriors.  Enjoy!

The lunch was at a nice dumpling restaurant next to the Bell Tower.  Amazing dumplings, of which I took many photos.  Here are a few:

At the lunch two things happened.

First, it was Travis’ birthday.  He turned 7 years old, so we had a cake and a song for him.  He seemed to enjoy it.

Second, there was a performance/competition by children of employees of the restaurant.  It actually got started as everyone left, but while they were testing the sound system, this boy played a flute song that was freaking amazing.  I uploaded a video of it, but I’m not sure I will be able to post it here until after I leave China.  Be sure to come back to check it out in a few days.

Edit (7/28): Here are two videos of him playing.  First is a mic check, and second is the end of his actual performance.

It was actually a competition of story telling.  All the kids (about 10 of them) were judged on how well they recited a story that was pre-written about dumplings.  The skills ranged from super nervous kids reading from the paper, to well-composed, confident children that had arms movements and great vocal skill.

Ruhi and I stayed to watch it after everyone left for the next leg of their tour.  Here are some videos:

And here is one of one of the girls singing.  Believe it or not, I think it is English.

We had to pick up the ring and run a few other errands.  We finally met up with the Wushu West folks again at their dinner stop: hot pot near the city center.

The meal was good and afterward we all piled in to the bus and headed across town in terrible traffic to the train station.  This was my second or third time at the Xi’an train station so at least I wasn’t super overwhelmed.  I have to say that it IS a bit more disorganized than the Beijing West station (or the central one, for that matter).

After a while we were tour-guided in to the terminal and made our way to the train.  Once again it was an overnight trip to Beijing.  We watched some videos on my laptop (Futurama, Bolt) before going to bed.