May 18

               This morning was a pretty fast paced morning in order to make the high speed train to Xi'an. We are done with our Beijing part of the trip and moved on to Xi'an, where we will be until Wednesday, May 21. We ran a little behind to start the morning, trying to get money exchanged for the Pearl Market. After getting our money and checking out of the hotel, we headed to the Pearl Market. The Pearl Market was a huge hit with everybody. It was a fun time bargaining with the venders, and a lot of people came back with some great items, including pearls! We were a little behind for leaving the Pearl Market because people were still trying to get good deals.

               After the Pearl Market, we went to a five star restaurant for lunch. This lunch was great and included eating duck! The waitresses showed us how to make duck tacos. You started by taking the "taco shell", which was almost like a thin crepe, and dunking the duck into soy sauce to spread it on the shell. After getting the duck and soy sauce on the shell, you could add cucumber and onions to the shell and enjoy.

               Following lunch, we went to catch our high speed train to Xi'an. The train ride to Xi'an took 4 hours and 40 minutes and the train travels at 300 km/h, which is roughly 180 mph. It is interesting to note that China's technology is behind the United States. Instead of scanning our tickets to get on the train, they used a hole-punch to mark our tickets. Their technology is very much so behind ours in many different ways and we have noticed that on our trip.  Also, while on the train, many students/faculty enjoyed watching Frozen. As we traveled from Beijing to Xi'an, we noticed that the landscape changed from flatland to a very mountainous region. There are many more farmers and villages than we were able to see in Beijing. The main crop that we noticed farmers were growing was rice. Each farmer has only a very small patch of ground to farm that is often not much bigger than a large room. As we moved into the more mountainous region closer to Xi'an, most farmers were growing their crops on terraces. Also, there are many skyscrapers just randomly being built in the countryside, which is interesting to see.

               Once the train arrived in Xi'an, we collected our luggage and met our new local tour guide Maggie. Maggie has been super nice and helpful so far, and she gave us a quick history on the city of Xi'an while the bus drove to our restaurant. Our restaurant was another traditional Chinese meal including chicken, rice, vegetables, pot roast, noodles, sweet lemon bread, watermelon, and tea. After we left the restaurant, we got back on the bus and drove to the hotel. The hotel is very tall, and many of us are staying on the 26th floor. The hotel rooms are very fancy and have elegant lighting and wood finishings. There is a walk-in shower, and there are even bath robes provided in the closet. Each room is equipped with its own computer for surfing the internet, and there is even a button to open and close the window curtains automatically! It was a great way to be able to relax and end another great day in China.

 

Blog by Jordan and Tasha