Visit to Xian

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This weekend we visited Xian, the nearest big city for a coffee and a culture fix! At the youth hostel we were staying in, we bumped into some other VSO volunteers and had our evening meal with them. I felt quite a fraud as we ended up eating pizza! Not very Chinese! Later on, we met up with another volunteer and ended up going down “Bar Street” for a few drinks. It all felt rather strange as the day was spent doing “western things” and here we were in China. It felt far removed from our daily life in Xifeng.
The next day, we visited an animal research centre. The centre rescues pandas, bears, golden takins and ibis from the nearby mountains which are all endangered. The conditions were mixed but the aim was to release them back into their natural habitat. The pandas were cute and their dens even had air con! Whilst there, I got bitten by a bear……….. No need to panic, it was only a baby bear and was more of a scratch than a bite, but it sounds good!
Work is quite busy with doing training workshops with other departments and preparing for the four day training session at the weekend.
The running is going well too. Two 10K in one week. Personal best so far!
Sabine

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