May 19 photos

May 19

The first night at the new hotel in Xi'an went very well. We were happy when we walked into breakfast and saw bacon and some other western breakfast foods.  We started out our day by taking a bus ride to Shaanxi Kingbull Livestock Development Company.  They breed, feed, and slaughter their beef cattle; they slaughter 100,000 head a year.  They sell their beef to high-class restaurants and export to other countries.  The beef sells for 140 dollars a pound.  They breed their local breed called the Qingchaun with Angus cattle that are imported from Australia.  These crosses are then bred to Wagu cattle to produce the Kingbull cattle breed.  An interesting fact is that 20% of the cattles liquid intake is beer because the managers believe it helps with fat deposition. 

               On the way to the next stop we had to drive through a market on the side of the road.  They were selling everything from vegetables to clothing.  Then we arrived at the Qingchaun Beef Cattle Breeding Center, which is the biggest owner of Qingchaun cattle in China.  All the cows are dry-lotted in pens with brick floors. They have the biggest silage bunker in the area.  The diets consisted of silage, soybean meal, and wheat byproducts. It was interesting to see the differences in the body type of the local Chinese cattle as compared with those from home. 

               We headed to our next stop, which was a dairy breeding center nearby.  They had 500 cattle on the place but only 200 were producing milk at the time.  The pens were very empty and they weren't close to their full capacity at all.  The milking parlor wasn't a parlor at all and was actually done by a portable milker that was hooked to vacuum lines that took it to the milk tank.  The cows looked in good health but they were different than what we are used to seeing when it came to conformation. Students and faculty with a plant-based interest were also engaged with identifying crop and local plant varieties throughout the farm.

               Next we ate at the Northwest Ag and Forestry campus cafe and the headed to Besun group base for pig production and processing.  Here they finish and slaughter 4,500,000 pigs a year.  We got to see the processing plant but we weren't allowed to take pictures, which shows their lack of transparency for production. 

Our afternoon fun continued at the Xi'an city wall.  Everyone decided to ride the tandem bikes around the wall, which soon turned into a race between most of the boys.  Stetson and Adam were the first ones to make it around the 9-mile city wall.  The entire group enjoyed the cityscape during this much appreciated surprise outdoor fun.

               For supper we had traditional dumpling dinner.  We got to try 18 different types of dumplings, which are a specialty in the Xi'an area, dating back to an empress from Xi’an who had a keen liking for elaborate dumplings designed to look like the food source they contained.  The dinner was followed by a traditional dance show that displayed historic dances from the different dynasties that ruled the Xi'an area. 

Until tomorrow!

Blog by Kyle, Justin and Kelsey S.

May 18 photos

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

May 17 photos

 

 

May 17

This morning we traveled to the center of Beijing to visit Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The crowds were so dense that even Chelsey and Matt who have frequented the Minnesota State Fair which is famous for large crowds, were amazed by the number of people. Since it would be easy for the group to be swept away by the mass of people, our guide Michelle, reminded us that we needed to stay together like "sticky rice." We followed a flag she carried and then Jordan, one of the seminar leaders, attached a large flower to his bag for us to find our group. We were impressed by the number of Chinese people who were visiting the site. Michelle told us that many of these people were visiting the square and city for the first time.

In class were learned about the political protests that took place in 1989. However, Michelle warned us that in Beijing they want to put this event behind them. So she said we were not allowed to talk or ask about it while we were there.  The square and the city were magnificent and full of old history. Michelle explained that all of the artifacts in the city were all original pieces of jade, gold, silver, flowers, and enamel. Michelle also explained that there are over 900,000 treasures, but only 10,000 -20,000 of them are available for the public to see. We have all heard about the impressiveness of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden city, but not until you see it, can you really understand the magnificence of its beauty.

This visit involved much walking and with as warm as it was today, we were very ready to get on the bus and have water. Following this visit, we took part in a traditional Chinese Tea Ceremony. We watched as Chinese women prepared the tea and had a chance to smell and sample each kind. We tried six categories of tea: green, white, black, yellow, flower, and oolong. We learned proper Chinese etiquette for holding the glass and were told to drink each of our small cups in 3 sips. Each category has a special purpose. For example, oolong is believed to help regain energy while black tea is supposed to cure beer belly and constipation. Many of us enjoyed the tea so much that we purchased several varieties to bring home.

For lunch we went to a local Chinese restaurant for noodles that were highly recommended by Michelle. The meal was a hit with a majority of the group. Following this meal, we visited the Hoch Ung area and rode on "rickshaws", which are basically a cart attached to a bicycle that seated two. The ride gave us a new perspective of the culture in China. The highlight was being welcomed into the home of a local Hoch Ung family. The woman of the family proudly shared with us the history of her 200-year-old home which has been in the family for four generations.  This area has a vast array of economic worth.  One home in particular which was one of only a few owned by the family rather than the Chinese government was valued at $40,000 per square meter. This home, located on the "dragon line" which we learned runs through the center of Beijing, was worth millions of US dollars. By contrast, many other homes in the area had two rooms and several homes shared a communal bath facility.  We were all impressed when the woman of the home, her daughter, and Michelle all played the Gu Zheng, an ancient string instrument.

P.S. We only experienced one minor hiccup throughout this day when Kyle, Stetson, and Matt were late to the bus after stopping at the Olympic Boulevard. However, thanks to their hustle back to the bus they were only 15 minutes late after touring the Bird Nest from the 2008 Olympics. We still had time to go to a Silk Factory and see how silk is made and had the chance to purchase some genuine silk items.

Submitted by Chelsey, Michelle and Matt

May 16 photos