On one of Xi'an's first sunny, nice days, I went to a BBQ my friends were having on a rooftop of a Xi'an bar. As the BBQ was being held by Europeans, I wasn't quite sure what we were going to eat. Of course, your typical American BBQ would have hot dogs and hamburgers, but since the rest of the world always makes fun of our great national food, I assumed we'd be grilling something else. But I was wrong- we had delicious hamburgers and burritos! None of the Europeans and the Chinese knew how to eat a hamburger properly and were even more baffled by the concept of rolling up a burrito. But don't worry Fulbright, I showed them how to do it! #spreadingAmericanculture
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| The italian failing at eating a burger |
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| Giulia and I on the rooftop, with a view of the Xi'an city wall behind us! |
On Friday, Emily arrived in Beijing looking surprisingly good after the long flight. After some relaxation time at Zan and Kate's (our lovely hosts!) house, we ventured out for dinner to "Roast Leg of Lamb" Restaurant. (yes, that's really the name) The speciality is, of course, roast lamb on a spit that you carve yourself. Zan and Shu were our expert carvers:
From there, we headed to KTV, which was epic as always.
The next day, Emily and I headed to DinTaiFeng, my favorite dumpling place in the world. Emily loved it too! Then we went to Silk Street, where Emily picked up a few souvenirs. After we were worn out shopping, we met up with Kate at Great Leap Brewing, my favorite brewery in Beijing, where I enjoyed a glass of their delicious "Honey Ma Gold", a beer flavored with the numbing Sichuan peppercorn spice. We tried to explore Nanluoguxiang, a cute shopping hutong, but it was too packed with people so instead we grabbed a bubble tea at Cocos and escaped the crowds. Saturday night, Emily and I went to Haidilao, my favorite hot pot restaurant, where Emily was dazzled by all the free services, including manicures and shoe shines:
Unfortunately, Emily wasn't used to the 麻辣, the Sichuan numbing peppercorn, so she didn't feel too hot afterwards. From there, we headed to my friend, Peter's, house, where we forced
白酒, China's grain liquor, on Emily. Fortunately, it was infused with figs and goji berries so it wasn't as bad as the regular stuff. And as always, we went dancing!
白酒, China's grain liquor, on Emily. Fortunately, it was infused with figs and goji berries so it wasn't as bad as the regular stuff. And as always, we went dancing!
Sunday, Emily and I got up early and went to the Lama Temple, Beijing's largest active Buddhist temple. I hadn't been before so it was cool for me to see too. Then we had a delicious brunch with Shu, Kate, and Zan at Vine Leaf, a cute little cafe/restaurant near their house in the hutongs. Once we had stuffed our faces full of delicious western brunch food, Emily and I walked around Tiananmen Square. Then we did a tour of the Forbidden City through Newman Tours, which was awesome! I HIGHLY recommend them. I've always found the Forbidden City to be kind of boring since it's just a collection of rooms with little furniture, and no signage. Thus having a tour guide gave made it much more exciting. He told us about all the scandalous and crazy stories from the days of the Emperors. Also, John Kerry was totally touring the Forbidden City at the same time! (Well, that's what we think since he was in town to discuss the crazies in North Korea, and half the Forbidden City was temporarily blocked off by police guards). Totally exhausted by walking for 3 hours, Emily and I met up with Zan for afternoon tea/cocktails at Capital M in Qianmen, an old walking street that has been remodeled and invaded by major western chain stores. For dinner, we met Rebecca for Beijing Duck at Made in China, the best Peking Duck in my opinion.
Monday, Emily and I woke up bright and early for our Great Wall adventure. First we had to take a bus from the confusing DongZhiMen station. Luckily, a nice old lady who worked at the station led us, literally by the hand, to the bus she thought we should take, which turned out to be different from our original plan, but it worked out anyways. When we got off the bus an hr later, we hired a great driver, who turned out to be friends with the bus lady. It was about 200rmb round trip from the bus stop, including the waiting time while we climbed. So if anyone wants to hike 经山岭长城 (JingShanLing), call 贺强(He Qiang) at 13366020714. This was my 3rd great wall trip, but I've gone to a different part of the wall each time so it was still quite fun.
We rushed home from the Great Wall to catch our flight that night to Huangshan, Anhui Province. Due to our late arrival, we had to take a cab, who of course WAY over charged us, but we didn't have much choice. Then in the middle of our 1 hr drive to the town at the base of the mountain, he stopped on the highway and made us get in his friend's car behind us. Very weird. The 2nd driver really wanted to talk to me, but he had that "marbles-in-your-mouth" kind of Chinese accent so I didn't really know what he was saying. I did however understand some of his racist comments:
Driver: "Why is your president's skin so dark?"
Me: "He's from Africa so he's black."
Driver: "So he's not American?!"
Me: "No, in America we have many immigrants from all over the way. You don't have to be white to be an American."
Driver: "Oh really? Wow. And what about his wife? She has dark skin too, right?"
Me: "Yes, she's also black."
Driver: "Uh, so ugly! I hate black skin. They should really stay out of the sun."
I tried my best to explain skin pigmentation to him, but I don't think I really got anywhere...
The next morning, Emily and I hoped on a bus for our overnight adventure on Huangshan! There are 3 different ways to get up the mountain: 1) the Cable Car, for whimps; 2) the Eastern stairs- "short, hard way" (Lonely Planet); and 3) Western stairs- "longer, harder way". Emily and I were feeling hard core and fit so we originally wanted to do the western stairs. However since it was raining the day we were hiking up, we were advised by many people not to do the western stairs because it's too dangerous. So instead we hiked the eastern stairs, which proved to be plenty hard core for me. Emily didn't have much trouble with the hiking (or should I say, the stair master), but I was dying from about 45 minutes in. It took us about 4 hours to hike up to the first peak. Meanwhile hiking alongside us were laborers carrying food, water, drinks, and other supplies up the mountain on poles balanced on their shoulders. It was pretty hard to watch them, as it was clearly not a humane job. The poor men had to stop every 20 feet or so to take a break, despite being clearly conditioned and ripped from doing this every day. Also while hiking, we had many people stop to shake our hands, and take our sweaty gross pictures. It got pretty irritating after awhile.
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| Views along the way up |
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| Victory! We made it to the first peak! |
Once we reached the first peak, we began another adventure to explore some of the other peaks, but got too tired so we finally collapsed at our mountaintop hotel around 3pm (we started hiking around 9am).
The food on Huangshan was overpriced and disappointing. Poor Emily, still weirded out by Chinese snacks and some of the "undetermined, weird China flavors", was fueled on our trip almost entirely by snickers bars. I mostly ate peanuts, freeze-dried tofu, and "weird" China bread. Due to the rain, there was no sunset or sunrise. We got up for the sunrise anyways though:
Then we began the 6 hour hike down the Western stairs, which was absolutely beautiful!!!
After we made the 6 hr descent down the mountain, we took a bus over to 西递 Xidi Village, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was really adorable. And we stayed at the cutest place ever, the Pig Inn. It used to be a pig sty, but was renovated by a couple from Shanghai, and is now an inn! The "restaurant" at the Inn is all home-cooked food by the owner of the Inn, who uses all local ingredients! On Thursday, we explored the town, where there were tons of students doing painting and photography.
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| Sunset from the 3rd floor courtyard of the Inn |
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| Xidi Poolhall, the craziest place in Xidi on a Wednesday night |
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| City guide, protected from destruction during the Cultural Revolution because it was covered in Pro-Mao slogans |
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| Winding alleyway |
That evening, we returned to good old Xi'an. Friday, Emily went to the Terracotta Warriors while I caught up on some work and emails from traveling. Unfortunately, the rain and the lack of her translator (aka me) caused Emily's terracotta experience to be cold and frustrating. After we reunited, we got massages and dinner with Allie.
Then we showed Emily Xi'an amazing (ha) nightlife. Saturday, Emily and I explored 书院门, a cute art street, the muslim quarter, and the Great Mosque.
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| A pavilion at The Great Mosque |
Sunday, Emily's last day in Xi'an, we went to the Shaanxi Provincial History Museum, written up as one of China's best museums. I found the museum to be totally overrated. Mostly, there were displays of pottery, ancient tools, and jewelry but there was so little signage that nothing really meant anything to us. So basically, it was your typical Chinese museum. From there, we visited Xi'an's city wall and chilled there for awhile.
Monday morning Emily left me!! :( We had a great trip together overall! It's SO fun to show people who's never been to China around, especially after they've been hearing me talk about it for 5 years. It's also a nice way to rediscover all the amazing things you love about China that you've started to take for granted. I can't wait for my next visitor, Jillian, in June! Miss you EM!!!
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