Goodbye, Beijing!

We're finally done with our classes! This morning, we leave for Xi'an. It's time to move out of our dorm room, but I am being slow. I should have moved faster, as it would have kept me from a 10-minute argument with 3 dorm maids about why my roommate's teacup is missing. I finally end up just paying for it, because they won't take "We don't know where it is, and it is obviously not in here," for an answer, even in Chinese.

GMU students load up a bus with luggage and drive to the airport. When we get there, we find out that the airline doesn't want us to check two bags each, because we are "overloading the plane". Somehow, it's OK to take these "extra" bags as carryon luggage. I have a 30 pound duffel bag that I definitely expected to check with me and am not happy, especially when I realize that it is full of liquids. I don't know what the rules are about liquids on Chinese domestic flights. Apparently they're fine. But the knife I packed is not, and it's confiscated. Then the security people laugh at my Harry Potter book (why???) and let me go.

The flight is short, but when we land, we're very tired. Fortunately, our new tour guide has arranged lunch at the airport. It is surprisingly good food. Afterward, our day get a little too fast-paced. We drive into Xi'an, and go to the city wall. It's a really nice-looking wall, with red lanterns all across it. There's a bike rental place, and Zhang Laoshi tells people they can ride down the wall if they want to. Unfortunately, he forgets we only have 15 minutes before we're supposed to be back at the bus. In the craziness, 2 people go AWOL and another falls on his face and breaks a front tooth in half. It's pretty crazy for our first hour in Xi'an. Adding to the craziness is the ridiculous price of ice cream, at 15元, more than a 300% increase from Beijing. We continutally discover that this city is much more based on tourism than anywhere else we go, and that they charge crazy American prices because they consistently get away with it.

Our tour guide also has a bad habit of addressing the group as "Boys and girls!!", as he waves his tour group flag and walks too fast down the street. This may have been OK on our arrival in the country, but now we've been here too long to tolerate feeling rushed and talked down to.

Our next stop is the belltower in the middle of the city. I must say, despite being here for about 2 hours and not having the best time, the center of Xi'an is quite nice. Inside the tower, a traditional Chinese concert is happening among many spectators. When it ends, vendors who are very good at playing ocarinas try to sell them to the tourists, knowing that most of them probably wouldn't be able to get a sound out of the instruments.

Our dinner is touristy, as our entire experience thus far has been. It actually takes place in a theater, and we watch an hour-long Tang dynasty music and dance performance before eating. It's interesting, but employs a narrarator, who, in barely decipherable English speaks before every scene, and doesn't really make any sense.

When it's over, we eat dumplings! They are the most interestingly prepared ones I've ever seen. The dumplings with fish are shaped like little fish...and there are walnuts, flowers, vegetables, pumpkins, chickens, pigs...it's craziness. Even though half of the meal isn't vegetarian, I'm full by the time they finish bringing us the 15 courses of dumplings they've prepared. After the meal, our waitress, who explained a lot of our meal in English before finding out that we speak Chinese, and trying to communicate that way, brings us a comment card for us to critique the meal and her service. This is something I will only see in Xi'an. Our table's card gets filled out in characters and smiley faces.

I'd forgotten that I don't like being on tour.