My Week of Adventures, Part 5: Cycling the city walls

National Week vacation was almost a month ago, and I'm still blogging about it. Hopefully it's worth the wait.

The next day of our vacation we went to visit the city walls of Xi'an. Xi'an has some of the oldest and best preserved city walls in all of China. There are only a handful of other cities in China with existing city walls, like Pingyao 平遥 and Nanjing 南京. The first city walls in Chang'an (the ancient name of Xi'an) were built starting in 194 BCE. The existing walls, however, were built during the Ming Dynasty in 1370. They encircle about 12 square kilometers, which is just the center of the modern-day Xi'an metropolis.

This is one of the gates near the south entrance on top of the wall. The height of the walls offers a pretty good view of Xi'an from above, but in all honesty there's not too much to see. The coolest part is that you can rent bikes and turn the 3-4 hours it takes to circle the walls by foot into an hour and a half pleasure cruise!

Here's the gang about halfway through our ride.

Shelby and I are looking fierce on a bicycle built for two.

My Week of Adventures, Part 4: Shaaanxi History Museum

First of all, I have to apologize for my highly sporadic updates. I'm still alive and well, just really busy. Secondly, I have to post this picture of my niece Brenna because it's absolutely the most adorable thing I've ever seen.
So, back to my week of vacation. Before we made our way to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, we stopped at the Shaanxi History Museum (陕西历史博物馆 Shaanxi Lishi Bowuguan), which I had heard from more than one source is the best museum in all of China. See below: That's quite a boast if you ask me, but it did not disappoint. It houses over 300,000 items in four galleries, including murals, paintings, pottery, coins, and silver objects.

It was all very nice but the best part by far was this picture below:
The gold piece on the right is explained as "Taxation gold in shape of a horse hoof", while the piece on the right is "Taxation gold in shape of a unicorn hoof".
How do they know what a unicorn hoof looks like? And why does it differ so drastically from the horse hoof? The world may never know...

My Week of Adventures, Part 3: 大雁塔 Revisited

The second day of our travels, we went to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda (大雁塔 Dayanta), but this time I actually paid the 40 yuan to get inside. Turns out, though, there is a separate ticket to get into the tower itself, so we just walked around the grounds.

The Big Pagoda in all its glory.

Elinor and David looking like all the Japanese tourists at the Pagoda that day (who just happened to be members of the Japanese Special Olympics team!)

I love the contrast between the serenity of the Buddhist temple and the numerous cranes lining the sky in the background.

A student recently told me that the Big Wild Goose Pagoda is the same building that is pictured on Chinese take-out cartons.
Do you see the resemblance?

My Week of Adventures, Part 2: 大清真寺

On the first day of our vacation, we headed to the Muslim district of Xi'an, located in the center of the city, just near the Drum Tower. After winding through streets lined with vendors selling all kinds of Chinese souvenirs (I picked up a Mao lighter for a reasonable price), we made our way to the Great Mosque (大清真寺 Da Qingzhensi). Here's some information courtesy of Archnet.com:

"The Great Mosque of Xian is the largest and best preserved of the early mosques of China. Built primarily in the Ming Dynasty when Chinese architectural elements were synthesized into mosque architecture, the mosque resembles a fifteenth century Buddhist temple with its single axis lined with courtyards and pavilions.

The Great Mosque of Xian is thought to have existed as early as the seventh century. The mosque that stands today, however, was begun in 1392 in the twenty-fifth year of the Ming Dynasty. It was ostensibly founded by naval admiral and hajji Cheng Ho, the son of a prestigious Muslim family and famous for clearing the China Sea of pirates. Since the fourteenth century, the mosque has undergone numerous reconstructions. Most of the buildings existing today are from the Ming and Qing Dynasties of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The mosque was constructed on Hua Jue Lane just outside the city walls built by the Ming Dynasty, in what was once the jiao-fang neighborhood for foreigners to the northwest of the city. Today, this neighborhood is part of Xian proper, with the city's famous Drum Tower a block away.

The mosque occupies a narrow lot about 48 meters by 248 meters, and the precinct walls enclose a total area of 12,000 square meters. Unlike many Chinese mosques, it has the layout of a Chinese temple: successive courtyards on a single axis with pavilions and pagodas adapted to suit Islamic function. Unlike a typical Buddhist temple, however, the grand axis of the Great Mosque of Xian is aligned from east to west, facing Mecca. Five successive courtyards, each with a signature pavilion, screen, or freestanding gateway, lead to the prayer hall located at the western end of the axis. "

The mosque provided an interesting mix of Chinese architecture and Muslim functionality.

The only worshipers in the mosque were men who wandered around the grounds wearing white linen caps.

Here we are situated in front of the prayer hall at the west end of the mosque (facing Mecca). We were lucky enough to arrive right before the Muslim prayer time (Salaah) began. There was a microphone in the hall so that worshipers could hear the prayer instructions, but whoever was nearest kept on coughing and burping, which was broadcast for the whole mosque to hear. It didn't quite facilitate a spiritually transcendent atmosphere.

My Week of Adventures, Part 1: 白酒

After a week of vacation, I'm back to the daily grind. Because of my busy schedule as of late, I'll slowly be catching up on all our amazing activities during the National Day holiday.

David and Elinor arrived Friday night in Xi'an where we greeted them with cheap beer and 白酒or Baijiu, a kind of Chinese alcohol. Baijiu, just like any other alcohol, runs the gambit on quality, from fancy and pretty delicious to cheap and smelling of formaldehyde. I'm sorry to say the particular kind we had that night was more of the latter, being that it only cost 3 yuan, or approximately 40 cents.

This picture captures the various reactions quite nicely, although this was even before we drank any.

Let's Beer!

Vacation! (And it's about time)

Tomorrow starts my week-long vacation in honor of National Day!
Although most Chinese spend their time off traveling around the country, I'll be staying put in Xi'an due to contractual obligations. Thankfully, some other Whitties in China, who are currently teaching in Shantou, are coming to Xi'an to crash on our couches and take advantage of our hospitality. Many adventures are in store for the week, including climbing a mountain, bathing in hot springs, and more KTV, of course.
I'll catch up with the blog in a week!

中秋快乐! (Happy Mid-Autumn Day!)

So it was actually two days ago (September 25) but I was up to my eyes in moon cakes and couldn't be bothered to post a blog.

So what exactly is Mid-Autumn Day?

"The custom of celebrating the moon for both the Han and minority nationalities, can be traced as far back as the ancient Xian Dynasty and Shang Dynasty of China (20th century BC-1060s BC). In the Zhou Dynasty (1066 BCE-221 BCE), the people celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival to worship the moon.

"The practice became very prevalent in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) that people enjoyed and worshipped the full moon. In the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), however, people started making round moon cakes, as gifts to their relatives in expression of their best wishes of family reunion. At night, they came out to watch the full moon to celebrate the festival. Since the Ming (1368-1644), and Qing Dynasties (1644-1911), the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival celebration has become unprecedentedly popular."

(Thanks Wikipedia, David)

In a perfect world, we would have spent the night watching the round moon while enjoying some delicious moon cakes with our loved ones. The foreign office even gave all the foreign teachers a box of moon cakes (complete with knife and fancy toothpicks) for the event.


In reality, the air in Xi'an was too polluted and we couldn't see the sky. So instead, Ali, Shelby and I played Moonopoly (get it?) while choking down 8 strangely flavored fruit cakes until we felt sick.

Tourism, continued

Every week I see a few more of the monuments that make up Xi'an's rich 7000 year history (a fact which any good citizen will be quick to tell you).

Xi'an is the starting point of the Silk Road, the route that allowed for one of the first multi-national trade agreements. The picture below is a monument commemorating this passage to the West.
The Silk Road allowed for the entrance of new ideas, as well as goods, into China. In 652 A.D. a man named Xuan Zang returned from India where he had spent 18 years studying Buddhism, bring Buddhist texts to translate into Chinese. The crown prince built the Big Wild Goose Pagoda in honor of his return. Xuan Zang's journey is also the basis of a classic folk tale called Journey to the West.

Hooray for Wikipedia.

KTV, How I love thee

We spent 3 hours last Friday in a private karaoke room at a place called Party Heaven. Here are the results:

The selection of English songs is pretty limited: think Spice Girls and 80s hits.

During the obligatory rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody.

Our inspirational performance of We Are The World.

If I can ever figure out how to upload it, I will post some pretty hilarious video of the night.

Tourism, for beginners

I did some minor sight seeing last weekend. Here is the Bell Tower, located in the center of Xi'an.

Global Warming Debates!

We had debates about global warming in class this week, concerning developing countries' role in efforts to control green house gases. Here are a few favorite quotes:

"As Spiderman says, great power and great responsibility."
"Today is today, not the day after tomorrow."
"When I was 12, I broke a vase and my dad said me to go outside and stand for one hour. When God and heaven see greenhouse gases, he makes developed countries have a meeting."

I love my job, but sometimes it's hard to keep a straight face.

My new foreign friend

I found this slipped under my door on Sunday.

Europa Yoyo Bar

We wandered into some place called Europa Yoyo Bar and decided to try our hand at karaoke after listening to some French people mangle Rolling Stones songs for half an hour.



This is Ali and Shelby looking too sexy for their shirts while singing I'm Too Sexy.







This is the German businessman named Marco who proposed to Ali (and/or Shelby) during our rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody.

Happy Teacher's Day! : Updated

Yesterday was Teacher's Day in China! A fact of which I was unaware until I was greeted with banners and flowers as I arrived at class.

The students also signed cards for us and here are a few of my favorites:
One thing. I don't know why. It doesn't even matter how hard you try. Just do it. -Sonic
I'm sure you have spent the Teacher's day in the way of artists. -Jack
Day day happy and up! HAHA -Roy
Kitty Beauty, May You Lucky! -Well
The first time I saw you, I was attracted. By the way, It's a fact that you are much more beautiful than the photo above! -Lewis

I have to add something Shelby's student wrote to her because it is the most fantasically bizarre compliment ever.
I think in China you will be regarded as a boy. A lovely and naughty boy.

My worst enemy

My life as a professional

Teaching has been, well, entertaining to say the least. At this point, I have five sections of the same class, which means I make one lesson plan and do the same thing five times during the week; although that is bound to change at some point in the semester and probably with very little notice. The first week I did a short introduction about myself and showed them pictures of my life in the states. Some students had actually heard of Minnesota and the “Wolftimbers.” There are a lot of basketball fans in this country, believe it or not. The English names that some students have come up with are absolutely priceless. Some of my favorites: Killer, Upward, Rocfella, Scofield, Plutown, Rainbow and Sunshine (both boys). After introductions, we moved onto the topic of Global Warming (or Unit 8: Our Globe is in Danger!). The textbook they’ve given us is basically worthless, but I did enjoy watching the video of two Americans speaking “Special English” and talking about how carbon monoxide from aerosol sprays is contributing to global warming. Is it just me, or isn’t that completely scientifically inaccurate? It all went over pretty well, though, and in general, the students are very articulate and thoughtful in their responses. They think I am just some crazy foreign person, which is just fine with me.

The most entertaining moment of the week was definitely the two hour conversation we had with a student about how hard it is to get a girlfriend. (This is the Chinese version of Rueben, for those who know him!). Apparently, the male-female ratio is 8 to 1 at this school. Not very encouraging odds. I think I’ll try my hand at some matchmaking this year.

In other news, we finally got to meet some of the other foreign teachers (who are actually our age). One of them even lives in the same hotel as us, right below Shelby, and we never even knew. There is a young couple who just graduated from Cambridge. Jens is from Denmark but speaks English incredibly well and has the most posh accent. He actually said "jolly good" at one point. I consider him to be my own version of Prince William. Sarah, his girlfriend, is from Surry. Jan is a German teacher here but has basically mastered English and also speaks Chinese with surprising fluency. This is his second year at NPU (or 西工大 Xi Gong Da in Chinese). Ali, the guy who lives in our hotel, is from Scotland, although he spent last year teaching in Korea. We attended a banquet for all the foreign teachers (where we were given forks), and afterwards, we all went out to a cozy place called Jennifer’s Cafe. I successfully ordered beer and asked where the bathroom was in Chinese, which is all I really need to accomplish.

More things that don't make sense

The internet in my hotel room has been out of order due to the fact that someone leaked some state secrets (2 years ago) and now the administration is searching through everyone’s e-mail or something like that. It should be up and working soon, but there’s really no way to know in this place. Apparently, we’ll be getting usernames and passwords so they can keep track of all the classified info I’ve been leaking on the internet.

In more exciting news, I got a cell phone! I will be having all kinds of good luck because there are no 4s in the number (the number four si is the same word for dead in Chinese). The phone company will actually pay you money if your phone number has a 4 in it. Please call me at (011)(86)(29)13379269206. But also remember there is probably a major time difference between wherever you are and me.

Settling In

I've been in China for almost one week, and I'm finally starting to feel comfortable. My apartment feels lived in, despite the fact that it's actually a hotel room. There is a maid that comes to my room every day to make my bed and sterilize my toilet, which I'm glad about because I hate unsterilized toilets. Besides that, I'm in charge of keeping the place clean myself, like keeping things organized and doing the dishes.

My living room is comfortably furnished with a couch, another chair, and a TV. There are two English channels, HBO and Star Movies. Star Movies plays the most obscure American movies, and it's been rather amusing seeing what manage to find in the bargain bin. Right now Red Sonja circa 1985 is playing, starring Arnold the Governator and Brigitte Nielsen. I'm so glad the Chinese get to see that side of American culture.




The living room opens up to my kitchen, which is rather modest but sufficient for my needs. I have a small fridge that is filled with water that has been boiled (the water from the tap is filled with "poison") and peach nectar. Not juice, nectar. There is also a microwave, a toaster oven and a hot plate that I have yet to figure out how to work. Some Whitties from last year left us some bowls and utensils, which has been very helpful, although there were still some things I had to buy at this amazing store 人人乐 (Ren Ren Le) which translates into Person Person Happy (but more about that in a later post).



My bedroom, besides the bed, has a little sitting area, a dresser, a closet and a vanity. The bed is extremely uncomfortable in that it has no cushion whatsoever. It's like sleeping on the floor. In fact, sleeping on the floor might be better because at least the carpet has a give to it. I'm still giving the bed a try though, in hopes that it will be a cheap alternative to the chiropractor.



The bathroom. We are very lucky to be housed in the foreign teachers' rooms, otherwise the toilet would be no more than a hole in the ground with foot holds on either side. All the public restrooms are like that, and they don't even provide toilet paper. That is my least favorite part of China so far.The paper strip across the toilet in the picture indicates that it has been sterilized. Hooray! Also, the bathroom periodically emits a strange smell kind of like gasoline. When I asked about it, Ma Jing said that it was probably some kind of "poison" and that I should keep the room aired out as much as possible. Okay, I guess, no big deal.


Besides that, I started teaching on Monday, and it went surprisingly well. All the students are very well behaved and eager to learn, but I'll write more about my experiences at the end of the week. In other good news, my lost bag finally arrived in Xi'an. Apparently, it made a side trip to New Delhi before arriving in China. I'm just surprised it made it here at all.

I'm finally here, and what a journey it's been

First things first, Brenna Anne Hallin was born yesterday morning, August 31 at 9:30. I'm an aunt! Or Ayi as they say over here.




My travel time to China was very long and overwhelmingly complicated at times. I flew threw four different carriers and managed to lose my bag somewhere between Denver and Vancouver. Now word yet on if it will ever arrive in China. I almost didn't get my second bag on the flight to Beijing, which meant I would have been naked and smelly in a strange land. Fortunately though, a nice woman from Air Canada was able to get my bag on the plane at the last minute. Other than that, the flights went smoothly and I didn't get hassled at all through customs, so I would say it all went pretty successfully.

We were met in Xi'an by an English professor from the University named Ma Jing. She escorted us to our new apartments, which are actually hotel rooms in the University hotel. The place has everything that I could need, a little kitchen, a living room with a TV, a large bed and a bathroom. I'll post pictures from my new place a little later.

The next day we had a lot to do to get established on campus. We had to get a medical exam in order to process our long term visas that will allow us to stay here longer than 30 days. This was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. A Chinese student who spoke very good English brought us to the medical exam office so that he could translate for us. We had forms that we brought into several different rooms that didn't seem to be labeled in any particular way. The workers would gesture to us because most didn't speak English, perform their evaluation, and then sign off on our sheet. We were required to get blood tests, chest X-rays, EKGs, and an ultrasound. Very thorough.

After that, we went to look at the office where the English department is housed. I got the textbooks for the classes I will be teaching. The first unit in the book is, "With Alzheimer's, you meet a lot of new people". I'm not kidding. There is also a dialogue in which one person can't remember someone's phone number and the other suggests he might be developing Alzheimer's. I wonder if any other foreign teacher has remarked on the inappropriateness of this topic.

For lunch, we went to a banquet with the entire English department for the University. The food was absolutely amazing. We sat at a table with other English teachers, and they preferred to speak in Chinese, so I concentrated mostly on eating.

Everyone here has been very friendly so far, but I have encountered problems in understanding Chinese. I pick out a few words here and there, but that doesn't make for communication. Today is our first day without Ma Jing's help and translation abilities, and we at least plan to go to the supermarket. I start teaching Monday, so I need to spend some time figuring out what I'm going to do with these people.