XIAN
What a day! We are all exhausted and, at the time I’m writing this, the day isn’t even over. We have a couple of hours of downtime before heading to a show tonight. It’s a scorcher today – over 100 degrees. At least in Xian the heat is dry…no humidity like Beijing. After a day of travel yesterday, it felt good to be active.
We started the day by meeting the group at the West Gate of the old city wall. The city wall is incredible; at least 50 feet wide and overlooks the entire city. It completely circles the old city – 8 miles of wall, some sections dating back 1,300 years. So what do you do on an intact and ancient city wall in modern China? You rent bicycles to tourists so they can ride around it. So that’s what we did! We started out early, before the heat got bad. It was still nearly too much for us. The bikes weren't the greatest quality and the heat got to the girls. We spent too much time taking photos and playing around and quickly lost track of time. We had to really push it to make it back to the meeting point…and ended up being about 20 minutes late. I was really proud of the family and all of us can say we rode the entire length of the wall. Jing and I rented a tandem and it was so fun! Xixi took a turn on it as well, especially after she almost passed out from the heat.
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| Xian Wall |
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| Xian Wall Bike Ride |
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| Xian Drum Tower |
After the wall tour we went to the Muslim quarter of the city. It’s one of our favorite parts of the city. There is a large Muslim community that descends from the original Silk Road traders. There are rows upon rows of vendors and restaurants, large crowds and a fun atmosphere. We’ll head back there tonight after it cools down, to shop, eat and just people watch. We all did some souvenir shopping. Xixi bought an embroidered silk wall hanging of her Chinese zodiac (the horse). Jing bought a Michael Jordan jersey and shorts (figures).
Xian is known for its noodles and dumplings and we had lunch at one of its famous dumpling restaurants. It was so good. I think the staff brought out 20 different kinds of dumplings and we tried them all. After the morning’s bike ride – nobody felt guilty about the quantity of food being consumed. My favorite – the dumplings stuffed with duck meat (the dumpling was formed in the shape of a duck).
After lunch we headed to a local school where a class of 3rd through 5th graders showed us their English skills by singing and performing skits for us in English. The group really enjoyed their performances and getting to know these kids. We spent about an hour with them just hanging out and playing sports with them in their school courtyard. Xixi played badminton with a few of the girls. Dawn got pulled into a game of jump rode (which she later regretted when she was near heat stroke). Jing brought out her baseball gloves and a baseball and showed a few of the kids how to play catch. It meant much to us all to spend time with these children.
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| Jing Teaching Baseball |
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| Xixi Playing Badminton |
After the school visit, we broke from the larger tour group as they headed to their hotel…and we headed to ours. It was another adventure – our first time on a Chinese subway during rush hour. It was a mad scramble of pushing and shoving to get on and off the trains – so fun! Dawn and I each had a vise-grip on our girls and followed our guide, Michael, as he guided us through the chaos.
I haven’t talked about our guides much, but they are part of our family. Like when we adopted the girls, their commitment to service, their warm hearts and adventurous spirits make these trips memorable (for all the good reasons). Michael is a very experienced guide and has been with us in Xuan’en, Beijing, and Xian. His expertise and concern for our family removes so much stress from our travels. He’s the man. He was totally willing to explore the back roads in Xixi’s city. And we were rewarded with a home visit that we’ll never forget. He believed we were serious about wanting to eat actual Chinese food (not what they prepare for tourists) and our meals were unbelievably good. Like us, Michael joined the big group in Beijing. Today on the bus ride from the restaurant to the school – he surprised us with an en-route karaoke performance. Who knew the dude could sing as well! We’ll miss him when he takes another family to their orphanage near Shanghai, but we know that someone great will be waiting for us in Chengdu.
Tomorrow it’s off to visit the Terra Cotta Warriors and a provincial museum.
I look forward to these posts every day, thank you so much for sharing. I can only imagine how the baseball lessons went, but thought how perfect for Jing to interact with them.
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