Welcome to this, the third and final episode in our three part miniseries: Me catching up.

So back home in Beijing, I feel like I’m actually learning things in Chinese class, which is really nice. I am often, now, in situations where I hear folks saying something in Mandarin and I go ‘oh they’re talking about…’
I still feel a little overwhelmed, but class this week has been a lot of review so I feel like it’s been a good chance to solidify the things that we’ve learned.
Mind you, I was at a temple today and the man at the ticket counter asked where I was from – something we’ve specifically learned in class – and it still took longer than it should of for me to come up with a response (which, by the way, is Wo shi mei guo ren (with tones omitted for simplicity), which is just ‘I’m American’).

It’s interesting, but being gone for so long (a week, which isn’t long at all) from Beijing makes one realize how much like ‘home’ it’s become. I missed my room here, and the bakery down the street, and all sorts of little things you don’t expect to miss from a place that isn’t technically your home. It struck me though, during our Chinese class today, that this really is home, at least for the time being. Our professor was asking us (in Chinese) where we lived, and someone responded with (in Chinese) America, and she smiled and said ‘well two months ago, but now?’ and then we went on to the element that, two months from now, we’ll be living in Japan. And it was just a fascinating moment to realize that, at least for the time being, this is indeed home.

I have a map of Beijing on the wall of my room here, and on it are three kinds of post it notes. Green ones are spots were I’ve been, and orange ones are places I want to go (I also have labels for both kinds, because little green squares on a big map are only so descriptive). And as orange is gradually taken over by green, I realize that I’ve seen a lot in this city, and there is still tons more to see. And I’m really glad for that, because this is an amazing place, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to see so many great things in it.

In that spirit, today I went to the White Clouds Temple, which is an active Taoist temple, but – unlike the Temple of the Eight Immortals – the temple complex is huge. I always like seeing active temples, and this one was unique in those that there were a number of people with big bundles of burning incense. The complex was organized (generally) around buildings that housed some deity or another. There was even one that protected and helped students and scholars – I paid my respects.
The place was really interesting, and I’m definitely glad I went.

It’s getting late around these parts, so I thank you all and I look forward to posting again soon.

Thanks!
-me

From the Saturday before last to last Saturday, six of our North Central group went to Mongolia for our week vacation. We went there (and back) via a thirty hour train ride, and I while I did spend an uncomfortable amount of time with the Count of Monte Cristo (which I still haven’t finished so don’t ruin the end), I really enjoyed traveling that way. We were able to see a lot of the countryside, which is a whole lot more interesting on the Chinese side of the border, and that was really nice. Taking pictures of said countryside from a moving train at an unflattering angle through an incredibly reflective window was just as difficult as it sounds, but some turned out all right.

A couple notes about Mongolia, in case you should ever find yourself there:
A lot of the Western chains you find in Beijing or even in Xi’an, like McDonald’s or Starbucks or Walmart, are not to be found in the capital of Ulan Bator (or Ulaan Baatar, depending on how you spell it). There are, however, more Western products, like peanut butter and Lucky Charms (twenty dollar Lucky Charms, but they were there nonetheless).
Ulan Bator is… how shall I put it? Well, how about this. It is, at present, underdeveloped. An Israeli woman staying in our hostile kept describing it as the ugliest city she had ever seen, but I don’t think I would go that far. It is, however, much smaller than Beijing (isn’t everything?) and Xi’an, though it does hold a full third of Mongolia’s three million people.
Ulan Bator isn’t the reason anyone goes to Mongolia (I hope), because what you really should be seeing in Mongolia is Mongolia, which is to say that the sights outside the city, including the vast and empty countryside, is really what is amazing about Mongolia.

Mongolia is, in truth, and interesting combination of landscapes. I keep wanting to compare it to the South Dakota badlands, but it’s not quite like that. We did visit when it was chilly, and so that may have made the landscape look a little bleaker than it should have been, but much of the terrain directly outside of the city was simply short grass and hills. However, on the two trips that we went on outside of the city, we reached places that were absolutely gorgeous. It was almost cinematic, in one area, how we drove for almost an hour in this generally uninspiring hilly landscape and, behind the next hill, was a valley full of strange rock formations and trees of every color.
Every tree color, you witty people. Not like, neon pink and aquamarine.
I would recommend Mongolia, and really I would like to visit again (for longer, next time) because when you finally got there (there being the amazing place you were headed, of which Mongolia has no shortage) it was entirely worth it.

By far my favorite excursion was our trip to Tereji National Park. Not only was everything phenomenal, but we also were able to ride horses for about an hour or so, and some of us joked that we would come back to the US and say to our friends: ‘I rode horses in Mongolia. What did you do your Fall Term?”

So all in all, it was a truly incredible experience, and this is why you people should study abroad.

Was that a good enough ad?

Well, it appears as though I owe you folks a few posts. If you’ll allow me, I’ll just write two (or do I owe you three?) about the past couple of weeks. And by allow me, I mean humor my colloquial, conversational style, because I intend to fill you in regardless. :-p

Right! So not this past week end, or the one that preceded it, but the one that preceded that weekend, many of the people in our North Central group (ten or twelve of us, I think?) went to Xi’an, which I believe I have mentioned in posts past. Xi’an is one of China’s landmark cities, known as the start and end of the Silk Road, but probably better known as the site of the Terracotta Warriors. For those of you that are not aware, these warriors were made to protect the emperor Qin Shi Huan in the afterlife. Qin Shi Huan, the man who first unified China (though an interesting combination of military action and a legalist governing philosophy), is buried relatively nearby the Terracotta Warriors, but his tomb has not been excavated yet.
The site itself was a fair distance outside of the city, and it was very tourist oriented, which is to say that yes, the Terracotta Warriors is an iconic sight not only for Xi’an but also for China and yes, some argue it’s a must-see for either Xi’an or China, but the site itself, while cool (and I certainly don’t regret going to see it) is mainly the pits (there are three excavation sites, or pits, with terracotta soldiers inside) and little else. There are actually several sites around Xi’an, of which the warriors are only one, and these sites include a hot spring and a paleolithic village, but we didn’t see these on our excursion.
On a side note, when we left the gated area around the terracotta warriors, we were – impressively, I feel – inundated with salespeople trying to sell us souvenir warriors. We literally walked out of the gates and a wave of salespeople ran up to us with identical merchandise and all talking at once.

So I admit I was a little disappointed in the Terracotta Warriors, because while I absolutely believe that not seeing iconic sights is downright silly, I often feel they are not as interesting as the lesser known and lesser visited sights. To this end, I have to say that the city of Xi’an did not disappoint in the least.

I had the pleasure of visiting quite a few incredible places, some more heavily trafficked than others. One of the iconic sights of Xi’an city proper is the Big Goose Pagoda, but as you may be able to guess from me, I was a little underwhelmed. However, the Little Goose Pagoda had dramatically less people, and I felt the grounds around the pagoda were much more beautiful. Additionally, walking up the thirteen flights of narrow, poorly lit stairs was pretty amazing, especially as the ceiling in some places became much too low for someone of my height. It was rewarding though, as being at the top gave a good view of that section of the city.

There were actually a lot of places in Xi’an that I loved that were not the most iconic sights. The Great Mosque was a lot of fun to visit, both because I had never been to a mosque before and because the complex was a really neat mixture of Chinese and Arabic architectural influences. The path to the mosque, actually, was through a series of covered alleyways full of street vendors hawking their wares. This alone was worth visiting the area for, because it was an experience that I haven’t been able to find in Beijing (I am told this is in no small part due to the ‘cleaning up of the city’ for the Olympics).

The streets leading to and all around those covered alleyways were also full of street vendors, and this was really where the Muslim Quarter (as it is called) really shines. Many folks are in traditional head coverings, and there is just street after street of vendors with souvenirs, lamb on a stick, flat bread, and pretty much anything else you might want to eat.

One of the neatest places I went in Xi’an, though, was the Temple of the Eight Immortals: a Taoist temple still in active use. This place was very small, but it gave a very good view of what an active temple looks like (lots of incense, in case you were wondering), and it was really neat to see Taoist monks kind of doing their thing.

A few of the people in our group rode around the city wall on a bicycle. Xi’an is actually one of the few Chinese cities with it’s city wall still standing (Beijing has had several, but they’ve been torn down and replaced with major thoroughfares) though the city has expanded beyond them since it was built. You could rent a bike on the wall and just ride around it, which was a lot of fun (though some parts were unpleasantly rough).

Before we left, I was in one of the streets with street vendors (not in the Muslim Quarter) that were focused on selling art. I found one person (I think he was an art student at a nearby college) that was painting in the traditional Chinese style on the spot, and while I didn’t have time for him to paint a custom one for me (which I would have really liked, and which he offered) I did pick up one of the scrolls he had painted at some earlier time. I wish I could find someone like this in Beijing, but my search has been, as of yet, fruitless.

So that was our stay in Xi’an.

Oh, and the hostel we stayed at (located very near the South Gate) was incredibly clean, with very helpful staff and very reasonable prices.

Stay tuned for what I assume will be my next post.