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Published: June 28th 2006
Questions-
1)Someone asked about accupuncture being only available in hospitals or in specified areas. Actually, when we were in Beijing, accupuncture was available in the hotel. I thought about trying it, but I have been very careful about trying not to get sick. And accupuncture from a hotel whether Chinese or American just doesn't fit my idea of caution.
2)Someone asked about coins and I said their were no coins. I was wrong. I know for sure there are coins equal to 1 yuan. The same value as the paper yuan because I got it as change today. There is also a smaller unit, but it is worth less than our penny.
We visited another school today in Xi'an. It was a technical college very much like our college. We also met with a representative from the Ministry of Education for Xi'an. I have notes from the meetings, but unfortunately the notes are upstairs and this hotel I am in do not have Internet access from the room. I am in the business center with one computer. If I leave it I may lose it. So I will write about some other things and fill you in on the schools later.
In the morning some of us went for a walk. Just down from the hotel you can see the elderly in parks doing tai chi together. One group looked like they are doing a form of line dancing. We visited a farmers market. These are open stalls one right after the other for several rows. The smells from the vegetables and the spices were interesting. The butchers have their food hanging from the stalls. Most everyone here seems friendly and many people will "hallo". I know the chinese word for hello is "ne how". I also know the word for no is "boo", thank you is "shay shay".
During our walk we went down a small alley. This is probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. It looks like something from an travel channel. Here the poorer chinese vendors are out. They are cooking down the alley and selling to each other. There was corn on the cob and when I looked up at the top of what looked to be maybe a five floor apartment I saw corn planted. There were all kinds of things frying and steaming in these bamboo containers.
The chinese rest by squatting down. People were squatted eating their breakfast beside their doors. There were also small heaps of trash down the sides at places. There were others sweeping their entrances. Their brooms are interesting because they look to be made of branches tied together with some other type of plant branches included. It reminds me of the brooms my grandmother would make from the straw like weeds on the farm.
Many of the toddlers wear pants with a split down the crotch. When they need to go to the bathroom they just squat down. I have read that the Chinese government is discouraging this as the Olympics arrive. I have not seen any sign of feces though so mom's must be cleaning up behind them pretty good.
There are bicycles, tricycles, tricycles with covers, mopeds, tripeds, tripeds with covers all over. I have also seen horses with carts on several occassions downtown which is a stark contrast with the many cars.
There are also a few beggars which are different from the vendors I wrote about earlier. There are people holding babies, there was also a little boy with a baby strapped to his back, people who look to have deformities and some very old people who will follow you begging for money. It is very disconcerting. I asked our tour guide how to handle this and she said some of the people are professional beggars and it is best not to give money.
On the other hand.
Downtown Xi'an is beautiful with huge plasma displays everywhere. At night every where you look are these displays. It is very modern. We went in one department store that had escalators that looked to go up at least 10 stories. I can not get over how friendly everyone is. The Chinese are very open and helpful. Quite interesting.
We have ate pretty much the same thing for the entire time we have been here including breakfast, lunch and dinner so I had a strong desire for all things pizza. So about five of us went on a quest for pizza. It was hard to find but after approaching various people who looked to be young and professional and just saying "pizza hut" we finally were led by a group of young men there. I can not tell you how good it was. There was a section that was labelled "American Pizza". I got a cheese pizza and a coke (no ice). It had to be the best pizza I ever ate. I could have gotten pizza with tuna, or salmon or various other toppings though. Thank goodness for standardization.
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Betty Hatcher
non-member comment
diversity of lifestyles
The farmers market and alley sound wonderful - how nice that you're able to see such a wide spectrum of daily life!