Adventures in Xi'an!

Xi'an was awesome! Lots and lots of food, which means lots and lots of fun! Oh, and I guess other things were pretty cool too.

We flew from Beijing to Xi'an Friday afternoon, which meant we had roughly two and a half days of exploring. And they were jammed pack with adventure! And humidity! Xi'an makes Beijing look like an ice cooler. The first night, we walked around a historic district located in the heart of Xi'an and got a lot of yummy street foods! Apparently, Xi'an is famous for its street food (I mean, isn't all of China?), and I made it my personal goal to try anything and everything I could find. Unfortunately, oily fingers means no pictures from that night, but rest assured, the Xi'an street food experience was not wasted on me.

On Saturday, we climbed Huashan! It's the tallest mountain in Xi'an and is considered one of China's five great mountains (for more information, click on this link!). IT WAS TIRING. IT WAS HOT. IT WAS AWESOME. It took me about 3 hours or so, and I climbed the four peaks (the north, south, east, and west peaks). Huashan is absolutely beautiful - I wish I had brought a better camera with me, but all I had at the top was my Nokia phone. 

Beautiful

Beautiful! 

Clouds

Bam! Success!

After climbing Huashan, we drove back to the center of Xi'an and had a delicious meal. We also walked around a nice square and people watched for a while. Lots of people were square dancing and rollerblading and having a nice time. 

Holding up the pagoda. I am so strong. 

We then watched a huge fountain display (the largest in Asia, or so I'm told)! 

Choreographed to various classical pieces. If only I could get my water fountains to do that...

Thus we ended the first full day of our trip. The second day was just as packed as the first! Our first stop was Wu Zetian's tomb. 

And by tomb, I meant mountain

Wu Zetian was China's sole female emperor. Rock on! Her 'tomb' is definitely fit for an empress, to say the least. Upon walking through the entrance, you are greeted by two lines of various statues of exotic animals and belligerent warriors. There are many watchtowers that stand guard atop smaller mounds along the path. The largest mountain in the area (of course) is where she is buried. They say it's bad luck to take a picture of the actual mountain (because the giant mountain will always appear to be squishing you), so we took some pictures of the other notable sights in the area. 

Intimidating 

Afterwards, we visited a popular ethnic minority village. Apparently, this is a very touristy village, as the streets are lined with stalls selling various Xi'an goods and (to my delight) foods! 

Mao, my main man, greeted us at the entrance.

A sugar-drawn tiger! Edible art is my favorite art.

After walking around and sampling the various delights that caught our eye, we got back in the car and drove to see the terra cotta warriors! 

I'd want to be an emperor too if it meant I get a bazillion of these.

Our tour guide told us a lot of really cool things about the place relating to the discovery of the warriors, the history of the area, and current projects pertaining to the warriors. It was hot and humid inside, where the tourists probably outnumbered the warriors, but I'm really glad we got to see this! Another thing to check off the list. 

The last place we visited was the Huaqing Hot Springs. A beautifully scenic area, it used to be a palace under Emperor Xuanzhong during the Tang dynasty. The area's main attractions are these ancient bath areas that were built on top of hot springs. We were also able to catch a really beautiful show depicting the love story between Emperor Xuanzhong and his concubine Yang Guifei. 

Just cooling off by the pond between learning about the hot springs and watching the show!

To be honest, I am exhausted from this trip. We were able to fit so much stuff into our less than 72 hours here. Wouldn't have it any other way! 

Another Weekly Update

Gonna start with the important stuff: food.

Hot pot, meet blog readers. 

Blog readers, meet hotpot. 

Hot pot, get into my mouth. 

This, my dear friends, is the hot pot I've been talking about. Deeeelicious. There's a chain hotpot restaurant right next to my gym, and every time I finish working out, I am tortured by the incredible smells of veggies and meats and all that jazz wafting out of Xiabu Xiabu (the restaurant). A few friends and I went on Monday and nom'ed it hardcore. Man, I wish I had some right now! 

The rest of the week went by pretty smoothly! It was a rough week in terms of the workload - we were warned ahead of time that week 5 of IUP would be the hardest one, due to the activities and requirements that would come in weeks 6, 7, and 8. I've gotten used to a comfortable pattern in terms of how to handle the work, which is really nice. I think my readings this week pretty much doubled in length, which wasn't too hard to handle since, ya know, I've got pretty much nothing else to do all day besides learn Chinese (and occasionally post pictures of food that I eat). 

This weekend, I will be going to Xi'an with my aunt and cousin! I'm super pumped because I've never traveled around China outside of Beijing and Tianjin! Brace yourselves, terra cotta warriors. 

Halfway There

(Oooh oh! Livin' on a prayer!)

We had midterms this morning - whoohoo! Love you, academia. The exam started at 8:10 and ended officially at 10:30. The test was not bad at all; you sit in a small room with a couple other people and quietly work on your own exams. Each of my three classes gave me a written exam, so I had an extra thick stack of papers to get through. Luckily, the material was not too difficult to comprehend, and the 2.5 hours we were given to finish the test proved to be more than enough. In the afternoon, we met with our teachers individually to go over our test scores (our teachers are speed demons when it comes to grading!) and to discuss areas of improvement; it was an excellent way to evaluate ourselves! 

After the exam, a few friends and I decided went to a pool bar and shot some pool. My friend and I were the only two girls at the pool bar, which was pretty interesting. I am really really really really really terrible at pool, but it was still a lot of fun to play nonetheless. Nothing like some friendly 'competition' in an activity that you suck at to relax you after a nice long week of studying. 

Look that that form. We should go to Vegas.

After pool, my roommates and I got dinner at this really awesome small Xinjiang restaurant. Wish I remembered to take pictures, but alas, I did not. 

Because I Have Yet to Do a Proper Food Post

Friends, if you know me (or even if you don't, really), you'll know that I like to eat. A lot. So, since I've got nothing super exciting to report on the academic front (we are currently learning about Starbucks' invasion of China in Business Chinese for Success and the Chinese blog frenzy in Talk of the Times!), now's a great time to introduce one of my favorite things about China. 

In China, there are tea places pretty much everywhere. One that is particularly popular is called "It's Time To". 

Time to what? Don't ask me!

Offering a modern twist on the traditional Chinese tea, It's Time To serves lots of delicious cold beverages, usually of the fruity/tea-y variety. At the bottom of the drink are usually tapioca balls or chunks of aloe. At 12 kuai per drink (give or take a few kuai), it's by far the most enjoyable refreshment to beat the Beijing summer heat. 

YES I WANT

What is that strange bowl of food above, you ask? That, my friend, is mala, which translates into numb and spicy. AND BOY IS IT NUMBING AND SPICY! There's a great place in the Ucenter at Wudakou (right next to my apartment) that my roommates and I frequent. You get to choose what you want to eat and the level of spiciness, and in about 20 minutes, you are presented with a huge bowl of spicy, numbing whatever-you-ordered. Delicious.

Along the same lines is xiangguo, which is also spicy and slightly numbing. This can be described as a combination of mala and hot pot. It's also available at the Tsinghua dining halls, which means I've been eating it for lunch for the past month. 

I LOVE YOU XIANGGUO DON'T EVER LEAVE ME

And, of course, no dining experience anywhere is complete without some Italian food. 

Lamb chops! Such a delicious way to have lamb, second only to skewers! 

Unfortunately, I often forget to document the awesome foods I encounter, so this post has to end here, but hopefully, I will get more chances to post some food pictures in the future!

'Some wine before you go?'

Midterm exams are tomorrow! Boy time sure flies when you're having fun...

Recap of the Week

You know what they say, no news is good news! 

In line with that, it has been a pretty good week. I'm getting more and more used to the schedule we have at IUP, and with that comes a healthy dose of work. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I have class starting at 8:00, but for the rest of the week, I don't have class until 10:00. For most people, this would mean that they get to sleep in an extra hour or two, but for me, it means that I can procrastinate an extra hour or two the night before and get up early to finish my academic duties. Perhaps not the best method of learning, but it definitely works for me!

Earlier this week, my Chinese class from Yale (well, those of us in Beijing anyway) met up for dinner! It was nice reuniting as a Chinese class again, especially when it's over food. 

What a delicious looking table

On Friday night, I got to experience KTV for the first time. Many classics, both Chinese and foreign, were belted out as we struggled with lyrics, both Chinese and foreign. This (below) has become my new favorite song. 

We also went out for dinner with a bunch of friends in Sanlitun, and this time, I remembered to take pictures before I inhaled my food! Success!

Olive spread and ox bone marrow paired with some nice South African wines. Feels like that expat life. 

I also made friends with a monkey while in Sanlitun. His name is Baobao. He does flips on command and likes to eat fruit.

Just your average pet, nothing to see here folks. 

And, of course, no week is complete without a visit to my favorite fruit stand, located not-so-conveniently two blocks away from my apartment (hey, it seems like an unreasonable complaint now, but walk two blocks in my shoes while carrying a watermelon and then we'll talk). 

My fruit guy rocks.

And now, to prepare for the week ahead! 

Hong Luo Si

This weekend, we took an IUP field trip to Hong Luo Si, or Red Snail Temple. The temple was a 2.5 hour bus ride from Tsinghua, and we got there just in time for lunch (mmm lunch). After eating, we were allowed to explore all that the park (I'm going to call it a park because that's the best comparison I can make) had to offer. 

Some pre-temple adventure happiness

One of the first things we visited was the garden of zodiac statues. Throughout the park, there were many different carvings of zodiac animals, and everyone was very keen on finding the ones that represented his or her own birth year.

Unfortunately, none of us were born in the year of the horse. Which is why we all decided to get into this photo. 

Aside from cool animal carvings, there were also cool human carvings! Hong Luo Si is home to the "Forest of 500 Monks", which is a vast hillside covered with you guessed it! 500 monk statues. I didn't quite have the time to go around and verify, but from what we discerned, each statue was unique and had its own personality. 

Such as this sassy angry guy. 

After making friends with the monk statues, we took the Alpine Coaster up the mountain and climbed what seemed to be a gazillion stairs to get to the GATE OF HEAVEN. 

Look at these excited fresh faces! 

We walked around for a bit, taking in the awesomeness of being surrounded by green (green!). Then, it was time to Alpine Coaster down the mountain.

WAHOO!

Shortly afterwards, it was time to meet up with everyone at the entrance of the temple, but before we left, we spotted a fruit market nearby and bought some snacks.

Photo courtesy of an IUP friend

Aaaand shortly after, it was time to get back on our air-conditioned bus and head back home, where the tired out little IUP students went to bed, dreaming of sugarplums and monk statues. 

What a great looking bunch of friends! 

Aobo Rides a Bike

Despite having had a bike in Beijing since May 2013 (I bought one via email from a previous IUP student who left in May), it has taken me until today to ride it. Reasons are as follows:

Reasons why Aobo has not yet ridden a bike in Beijing:

1. I have a hard enough time trying to navigate through the Beijing traffic without giving up control of my motor abilities.
2. My bike has had a flat tire and a much-too-high-for-my-small-body seat until today. 
3. I quite enjoy the 30-minute walk from my apartment to our building, thank you very much. 
4. I have not ridden a bike since middle school.

After enduring many rounds of ridicule from my roommates, I finally bought myself a bike lock, got some air pumped into my tires, and said my prayers, and I biked to school. 

Whoowhee! was that an experience. I managed to almost crash into not 1, not 2, but 6 pedestrians! Whoever said 'you never forget how to ride a bike' wasn't lying, but should add 'but it'll feel as if you have if you haven't been on one in more than 4 years'. I am, however, pleased to say that it took me less than 15 minutes to get to class, which is enough reason for me to continue this reckless, hazardous activity. Oh, the things crazy things I do for knowledge...

Trip to Tianjin

This past weekend was so much fun! I went to Tianjin to visit family, and I actually ended up bringing one of my friends (another student in the program) on the trip because he had never been before. We were only there for a day, so we didn't get to do too much, but it was still nice to get out of Beijing and explore a different city. 

We first went to a rather large mall to grab some coffee. We also took a picture with a giant plush pig.

Eggplant! (What Chinese people say instead of "cheese")

The second place we visited was...

...and I forget the name.

It was an area with lots of historic-looking buildings; I think my aunt mentioned something about it being a cultural site, and it has some kind of larger significance than just a bunch of cool looking old Chinese buildings. The streets there are filled with vendors selling hats, candied fruits, strange soups, and (of course) pictures of Mao. Very cool area! 

Because every historic area in China has a dragon.

After walking around, we got hotpot for dinner! In case I didn't make it clear enough, food in China is awesome, and hotpot is probably one of the best examples of awesome Chinese food. You have a giant pot of boiling water (with or without spices, depending on how adventurous your tastebuds are feeling). You add vegetables, rice noodles, various thin slices of meat, tofu, shrimp, everything except for the kitchen sink. You wait a few minutes. You fish out the edibles and dump it into a bowl of sesame sauce (flavored with or without spices, again depending on your preferences). You enjoy. Simple. 

Overall, a successful and fun trip. I'm planning on visiting during other weekends and getting to experience other aspects of the city. Until next time, Tianjin!