Today, we did not leave campus, but instead we had classes! It was a nice break from traveling all day. Our first class we had was with other Chinese students. Their teacher taught us the differences between the architecture of ancient Chinese buildings and what their meanings were. She taught us the differences between pagodas, palaces, temples and so on. She also taught us the different meanings behind the animals that are seen in many Chinese legends and lores. After our lunch break we went martial arts class! The students are some of the nations champions so it was an honor to be taught by them! I got to learn some movements with knife sword! Then we taught them the cha cha slide since they taught us something! All in all, today was an eventful, fulfilling day!
今天，我们没有离开校园，而是上课了！ 这是一整天旅行的好休息。 我们的第一堂课是与其他中国学生一起。 他们的老师告诉我们中国古代建筑的建筑与其意义之间的差异。 她告诉我们宝塔，宫殿，寺庙等之间的差异。 她还教会了我们许多中国传说和传说中看到的动物背后的不同含义。 午休后我们去了武术课！ 学生们是一些国家冠军，所以很荣幸能够被他们教授！ 我用刀剑学习了一些动作！ 然后我们教他们chacha幻灯片，因为他们教我们一些东西！ 总而言之，今天是充实而充实的一天！
The city of Pingyao is one of the most ancient cities in China. We visited this ancient city for an entire day. This was the location of the first ever bank. Pingyao was the most influential and prosperous cities in the Tang Dynasty. In the city, we visited all the sites of where the ranking officials lived. We went up on the city wall so that we could get a vantage point from where the martial artists of the time defended the city. At the end of the tour we went to a performance of how the city of Pingyao was built and the story of how the first bank came to be. This ended with how this ancient city made China become how it is today.
On our first official day at Taigu, we had a run down of the background of the school with one of the professors named Amanda. She asked ya if we knew anything about the college or the province we were staying in and we surely did! This is a private college in the province of Shanxi. It is a flat area but this because they are in a basin, in a valley, surrounded by glorious mountains. Then we had a tour of the campus where the students showed us where the main campus area was, the movie theatre, the strip of convenience stores, and where the swimming pool was located. At the end of our night, we had a banquet dinner with the President and Vice President of the university. It was a beautiful start to Taigu!
On the morning of our last day in Xi’an we went to a mausoleum. It was very hot that day and when we got there the mausoleum was underground! It was a site of about nine burial grounds. They have found over seventy but only nine have been excavated. The rest are still being worked on but they are trying to conserve the materials inside in a better way and need to find a solution. From there it was a long day of travel to Taigu. We went on our second high speed train and it lasted about four hours. But then we were greeted with a fantastic dinner by the students and teachers of Taigu!
In the morning, we went to the city wall of Xi’an. We entered through the east gate. From there we decided we were going to ride bikes all along the city wall of Xi’an. It took us about two hours and fifteen minutes to go around the 8 mile long city wall. It was hot but completely worth it and rewarding to accomplish such a physical activity! We all cheered each other along and moved onto the Wild Goose Pagoda in the afternoon. Here we saw many stairs of Buddha and the learned the history of him and how he came to be the center of major religions. It was a physically demanding day but the beauty of Xi’an out weighed my tired legs.
We went to three museums today!! It was a long day but a fulfilling day as well! At the beginning of our day we went to see the emperor’s favorite concubine statue and where they lived together for eleven years before invaders came in and forced the emperor to choose his power over her. The highlight of our day was the Terracotta Warriors. I was brought to tears when I first saw all those soldiers standing there protecting their emperor. So much history and depth in front of me has me overwhelmed! But then we went to the Banpo museum where we saw skeletal remains of the Banpo people that brought me to tears. But today was a day filled with history and happiness!
On the last day in Chongqing, we went to Diaoyu city, which means fishing city. It took us about thirty minutes to get there. We took a bus and when we got off we realized we would be climbing a mountain! It was a surreal experience! There were about two hundred steps just to get to the start of the tour. It was exhausting but exhilarating! We got to see an amazing view and learn how the city was built and how the people lived there. We also learned about the mongols and their history with the Chinese people at the time the fishing city was built. Then it was off to Xi’an by the afternoon!
Today we had a visiting teacher come and teach us about the Silk Road. He taught us about how it has transformed and has become a big initiative in today’s world. We learned about the government of China and the stereotypes between America and China. The teacher asked us our views on China and we asked him his view on America. We both had a respectable view on each other’s country. Later on we went to a calligraphy class. I leaned that there was more than one version of how to write in calligraphy. It has many different styles and it was fun to learn!
The Dazu Rock Cravings was the biggest site we have been too. The carvings are over 2,000 years old. It was raining very bad at the site. We could not go to every carving which disappointed me. But we did learn a lot about the history of Dazu and how they were made. Later that night, my friends and I went to a student run organization called English Corner. The students introduced us to Beijing Opera. The face changing masks and the performance value of it. We made our own versions of the Beijing opera masks. We also met with Chinese students and helped them with their English skills for an hour and they helped us with our Chinese.
Marisol's China Blog 