Xian, China
July 10th

We started the day with a leisurely bicycle rickshaw ride on the 600 year old city wall of Xian. Our driver spoke excellent English and we had a blast with him. He was able to give us a lot of facts about the history of wall and the city of Xian. We were a small guy but were able to pull the rickshaw with two people inside it. He even let me drive the rickshaw a little bit. At the end of the ride he challenged my roommate Paul to an arm wrestling match and kind of killed him. The guy was small but strong as hell; his job is to pull people on a bike all day. We taught him what a “high five” and we are pretty sure he liked it because as we walking to our group’s meeting place we heard him yell, “High Five!” to a passing American and saw him slap him some skin. What have we done?

Paul and I on our Rickshaw ride on the city wall of Xian

My new buddy

Afterwards we went to a Lacquer factory and shop in Xian. It is one of the art specialties of the Chinese and seeing the skilled work of the artisans was quite impressive. One of the more “interesting” art works I saw was inside a jewelry box. It had people engaged in various coital positions. Having the maturity of a thirteen year old, I took a picture of it. There is a poem, supposedly quite famous among the Chinese, about a guy who wrote a poem about missing his friends, who gets very drunk while sitting alongside a lake. During his bender he sees the reflection of the moon in the water and is afraid it drowning so he dives in after it and subsequently drowns. It is an interesting take on the story of Narcissus; the Chinese story is much older.

Chinese poem about missed friends and a few too many drinks

From there we went to the Shaanxi History Museum, which is hailed as one of China’s best museums and after visiting the place I whole heartedly concur. The museum had artifacts from all periods of China’s 5,000 year old history. Everything from pottery to paintings to weapons. One of my favorites was a leopard piece that came into halves. The piece was used to pass on orders from generals to lower ranking officers. The interesting thing is that it had two pieces which were delivered separately on the orders could only be authenticated when both pieces were put together. Kind of like to missile launch keys. Very cool.

Leopard piece with military oders

One of the highlights of the trip for me so far was the Wild Goose Pagoda which is a Buddhist monastery in Xian. The place was very relaxing, despite the numerous tourists (mostly Chinese). We even saw a few monks at the place. In fact I caught one monk on his cell phone. Talk about a clash of culture. The grounds had birds in cages everywhere. I even wrote a Buddhist “wish card” for the health of family and friends. Not only does the Chinese government not discourage this they assist with repairs and upkeep. Our tour guide basically said that when most Chinese visit a monastery, no matter the philosophy, they always say a prayer. I would hedge my bets also. I was even able to enjoy a leisurely Tsingtao beer with Deb, one of fellow teachers, on the grounds.

Which one is the true Budhha?

Can you ear me now?

After the visit to the temple we left for the airport to catch another domestic flight to Wuhan, home of Hubei University, where we be living and studying for the next three weeks.

Link to more photos of Day 2 in Xian