Day 5: To Xi'an!

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Today I flew 'China Eastern' from Beijing to Xi'an. Its a two hour flight, cost about $75 US and had a warm meal (rice or noodles) served during the flight. You can't beat that. The flight attendants even go around turning on reading lights and closing shades to make you more comfortable. What ever happened to that kind of hospitality on US flights?

The sheer size and quantity of housing high-rises in Xi’an is almost more impressive than in Beijing. Its just unfathomable how that many people can reside on one building, and then to top it off, there are a dozen of the same building in a row! We were even told that apparently these buildings have no elevators! I plan on writing an ‘afterward’ blog on things I love in China and things I am thankful for in the US. Tall buildings with elevators is one of them.

After arriving in Xi'an (and finding out one of Liang's checked bags had been left in Beijing), we headed to Xijing Hospital and Fourth Military Medical University for a tour. The medical complex which includes the hospital and many other clinics is very large. The hospital has 3000 in-patient beds and sees about 10,000 out-patient visits per day. We were given a tour of the orthopedic clinic and research areas where they showed us new biomedical products they are developing and marketing. That was a very neat experience and I wish that we had more time to visit the labs.

Liang was asked to give a presentation to the hospital administrators about electronic medical records. Since this is a military complex, the administrators and doctors present were all in full military uniform. We sat around a big board room table lined with bowls of fresh fruit and warm Chinese tea, as they discussed EMR implementation. Liang did a great job since he only had about 24-hours notice to prepare the presentation. The only thing I had to correct him on afterwards was that he used an example of giving a patient dioxen instead of digoxen (my Tox friends will know why I found that pretty funny). Apparently this visit was a big deal because we had a photographer following us around the whole time!

From here we went directly to dinner, with our hosts from Beijing (who are from Xi’an) and the hospital administrators from the meeting. This was by far the most impressive meal we have had here. The rooms and tables seem to get bigger and bigger and the selections of food more and more overwhelming. The automatic rotating carousel on the table was filled with food, none of which I could name, but many of which I enjoyed (including pig’s ear!). We had many private servers for our group and they kept bringing soups, beverages and other special dishes, some of which I never even had time to sample. As I mentioned before toasting is big at these dinners. We were toasted to many times, each time the men egging Liang on to consume his entire glass of rice wine. We then made our “rounds” to each person at the table (something very different from the US, its fine to get up from a big sit down meal and walk around and talk to people), thanking and toasting them. I was lucky to get away with a glass of fruit juice. Liang drank. And drank. And drank some more. Needless to say I was a little worried. But I am happy to report that several hours later he is feeling fine. At these meals I am always relieved to see the fruit platters because that signals that the dinner is coming to a close. Its refreshing to end a meal with xī guā (watermelon) instead of a sweet dessert.

Then came the trip to our hotel. Our hotel is, um, interesting. Yes, interesting, that is a nice way to put it. I miss Beijing. Maybe I am becoming spoiled but who can blame me for enjoying fresh air? This hotel is supposedly a 4-star hotel but apparently even prompted my mother-in-law to tell them flat-out “you should not be a 4-star hotel”- wow! I think I will make Liang sleep on the side near the door (my mom will appreciate this remark). At least they have měiguórén toilets- more on that another time.

Now I am heading to ‘bed’ on something akin to sleeping on a smelly sidewalk. Tomorrow we are off to see the Terracotta Warriors. Then one more night of monk-like sleeping sacrifice and we are heading to Shanghai!

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Photos

Skyscrapers in Xi'an
The number of these buildings in process of being constructed is mind boggling!