"Educational" 10 Day Trip

Haha...so yea, the trip is supposed to be educational (which it is, you can learn a lot about China almost anywhere you go). Pretty much it was another big break right in the middle of the semester full of playing. Right up my alley...I'm good at the whole playing thing. Right, so the trip was planned and pre-paid for by the program (the good chunk of money I paid besides tuition). It was nice though to have traveling and hotel arrangments all taken care of for you. The trip was to three different places 1) Luoyang (洛阳), 2) Xian (西安) and 3) Beijing (北京). We left on Thursday right after our last midterm (which I thought went pretty well but we'll see soon enough). We trained it up to Luoyang on an overnighter (the hard sleepers again, they're real popular here). The first day was spent in Luoyang, we got there in the morning, threw our stuff under the bus and then took off for the day. First we went to Baimasi (白马寺) or Whitehorse Temple which is the first Buddhist temple after Buddhism was introduced to China in the first couple hundred of years after Christs' Death. The day we were there was a huge holiday so there were people paying respects all over the place. They do this in a few ways but to sum it up they burn incense and sacrifice food to Buddha.
The second place we went to was the Shaolin Temple (少林寺), which was absolutely awesome. I could have gone home after seeing that and been happy. This specific temple is the temple where the art of Kungfu was mastered. They also have a huge pagoda forest which is basically a graveyard for all of the more reknowned monks. We saw a performance while we were there which was short but pretty awesome. Then 8 of us got a pretty cool pic with the performers that I can't put on here because I have no scanner, but you have to take my word for it. Oh yea, and the meal we had there was freakin amazing-probably the most Americanish Chinese food I've had in Taiwan/China. Ha, it sounds funny that that would be the best meal, but you'd understand-Chinese food can get bland real fast. American anything is nice everyonce in a while. Just wait til I get to the Beijing part of the trip...
So by the time evening rolled around we were pretty beat having been up since early and not sleeping well on the train the night before. But we weren't done, we went to see the Longmen Grottoes (龙门石窟) after the Shaolin Temple. It was pretty cool, but only for like 10 mins, ha. I mean how long can you expect a million different buddhas (that all look the same) that are carved into caves in the rock to entertain me? Seriously...

The next morning we got on the train again and went to Xian. If you know nothing about these places I'm talking about may I suggest a quick trip to Wikipedia?? Its very informative and fairly accurate. I wish they'd pay me for advertising for them.
Anyway, Xian was a very interesting place. It was a bigger city in China, but it seemed like it was not quite as modern as other places, like there was some catching up to do. That night we watched a cultural presentation taken from the Tang dynasty that at the time was reserved for only Emperors and their concubines...hehe. It was interesting, the dancing was kinda wierd but there was a part that was awesome. The Chinese have these things that are like yoyos but not, Scott knows what I'm talking about. Anyway, they were basically amazing. The next day was Sunday so we went to the Xian Branch which was small but kinda cool to see that there was a branch even in Xian, China. I also randomly ran into a guy there that I had met in the Singles Branch in Montana. Later that day we went to the old wall that goes all the way around the city. We also went to see the Hot Springs that the emperor used in the Tang Dynasty. There's a cute little story that goes with it too but honestly, I'm just too lazy to look it all up. If you want you can check it out-look up Huanqing Chi (华清池). Monday we went to the Terracotta Soldiers. Pretty awesome sight...thousands of clay men, horses and chariots that were thousands of years old.
That same night we got on another train and traveled to Beijing. We got there about 6:30 in the morning, checked in, showered, got breakfast and then went to Temple of Heavan, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. They were all pretty awesome. Especially when you know a little bit of the history behind them, then they are all the more impressive. Again, some more things you could learn on wikipedia. That first night we also went to the Pearl Market and to make a long story short, it was similiar to the Silk Market and one other one we went to. These are the stores where you bargain everything down. And because you're a foreigner you have to figure they're gonna try to get all the money you can so you try to get it down to a quarter of their starting price. Pretty ridiculous. I'm not good at it but I can do it. They have some pretty awesome fake stuff. On Wednesday (the day Scott came home for me, it was Tuesday for you) we went to the Great Wall, a part of it called Badaling, if I could go to the great wall again I would got to a different part. It was cool, but all touristed out, if that makes any sense. There are other cooler parts that are more original. On Thursday we went and checked two of the Olympic Venues-the Water Cube and the Bird's Nest. Then we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. Pretty sick. Friday and Saturday were free days consisting of shopping, eating at good American restaurants and playing around Beijing. Saturday night we got on a train and came back and were at church by 12 on Sunday. Pretty awesome trip with a lot goin on in 10 days. I'll post pics later.