It's been two days since I came back to the States, and I think I'm finally starting to get over the jet lag. I am not only very glad to be back home, but I am also shamelessly happy to be back in a place where 1) the sky is blue, 2) traffic jams are not the norm, and 3) toilet paper in bathroom stalls is a given.
But, I am also very sad that the past 8 weeks went by so quickly.
After going through PiB, my Chinese has significantly improved. I still can't read random Chinese newspaper articles, but my recent conversations with my parents have moved far beyond telling them that I want rice or noodles for lunch. While I did not memorize every single vocabulary word at PiB, I have gotten to the point where even if I don't fully understand, I can often infer the meaning.
Although I'm sure that locking myself up in a room with the books for 8 weeks might have improved my vocabulary and grammar even more, I do not think that there is any adequate replacement for experiencing the country that speaks the language you are studying. Even the tai chi and calligraphy classes that PiB offered, while definitely interesting, were still only a very small part of a much larger equation.
Speaking with the baozi man or the jianbing lady, getting crammed into the subway car with a bajillion other people, seeing old men with their t-shirts up and bellies hanging out, bargaining with the shopkeepers, hailing a taxi with other American students very late in the evening, watching someone being told to give up their seat for the elderly on the bus, speaking with college students while riding the hard seat -- every event seemingly trivial, but when you add them all up, it makes for an experience that surpasses reading any textbook that discusses Chinese culture, even PiB's 3rd year book, which covered a number of strange topics.
This summer was quite fantastic. I not only improved my Chinese and got a glimpse of Chinese culture today, but I also made gains on a very personal level as well, all of which will likely influence my plans for the future. On going to China, I have no regrets, except perhaps that I did not go earlier and did not stay longer.
Although admittedly I am unsure of exactly when I will be able to remedy this problem, another trip to China is certainly in the works.
-艾琳
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
沃尔玛: Walmart in China
This evening, a friend and I took a trip to Walmart (we primarily went to buy some green tea Oreos and other Asian-ified snacks for our friends back in the States). While we were at Walmart, we noticed that they were also selling roast duck, bing, and other some other snacks.
Since it was around dinner time, we decided to buy some baozi. We asked one of the workers what types of baozi were available, and they told us to look at the sign. Not having a iPod touch or a translator on hand, we managed to figure out about half of the entries. However, wanting to know everything that was available, my friend asked the worker again to tell us what was available. Since the store clerk seemed a bit irritable and unwilling to answer our question, my friend then explained that we were exchange students, that we were still learning Chinese, and that no, we did not recognize some of the characters. The store clerk then proceeded to laugh at us.
Eventually, one of the other workers took pity on us and told us what was on the menu. But even after we got our baozi, we could hear the workers snickering and discussing our inability to speak Chinese.
To clarify the situation, both my friend and I are huayi's. My friend, a 4th year student at PiB, speaks conversational Chinese extremely well and doesn't have an American accent. While we buying baozi, I let her do all of the talking. But despite my friend being able to speak so well, the store clerk still gave us a lot of trouble for being "illiterate". It was really frustrating to realize that although this summer I have learned quite a bit in terms of being able to discuss politics, economics, environmental concerns, and traditional gender roles in China, I'm still quite unfamiliar with how to converse with others regarding day-to-day tasks. Additionally, while I have no doubt that non-Chinese students constantly run into other problems, as a huayi I sometimes find it difficult to reconcile with the fact that while I am ethnically Chinese (and some might expect me to act accordingly so), I am still very much a English-speaking foreign student that will run into problems while studying in China.
Fortunately, I will mention that despite the debacle, the baozi still tasted quite alright.
-艾琳
Since it was around dinner time, we decided to buy some baozi. We asked one of the workers what types of baozi were available, and they told us to look at the sign. Not having a iPod touch or a translator on hand, we managed to figure out about half of the entries. However, wanting to know everything that was available, my friend asked the worker again to tell us what was available. Since the store clerk seemed a bit irritable and unwilling to answer our question, my friend then explained that we were exchange students, that we were still learning Chinese, and that no, we did not recognize some of the characters. The store clerk then proceeded to laugh at us.
Eventually, one of the other workers took pity on us and told us what was on the menu. But even after we got our baozi, we could hear the workers snickering and discussing our inability to speak Chinese.
To clarify the situation, both my friend and I are huayi's. My friend, a 4th year student at PiB, speaks conversational Chinese extremely well and doesn't have an American accent. While we buying baozi, I let her do all of the talking. But despite my friend being able to speak so well, the store clerk still gave us a lot of trouble for being "illiterate". It was really frustrating to realize that although this summer I have learned quite a bit in terms of being able to discuss politics, economics, environmental concerns, and traditional gender roles in China, I'm still quite unfamiliar with how to converse with others regarding day-to-day tasks. Additionally, while I have no doubt that non-Chinese students constantly run into other problems, as a huayi I sometimes find it difficult to reconcile with the fact that while I am ethnically Chinese (and some might expect me to act accordingly so), I am still very much a English-speaking foreign student that will run into problems while studying in China.
Fortunately, I will mention that despite the debacle, the baozi still tasted quite alright.
-艾琳
奧林匹克公園与故宫： Olympic Park & the Forbidden City
The end of PiB is fast approaching, and this week, just about everyone is cramming for Friday's final exam. I hope to give a more thorough evaluation of my time here in China once PiB is over, but for now, here are some pictures from my adventures during last week.
8/2/11, Tuesday evening at the Beijing Olympic Park:
8/4/11, Thursday afternoon at the Forbidden City:
8/2/11, Tuesday evening at the Beijing Olympic Park:
8/4/11, Thursday afternoon at the Forbidden City:
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
第六个周末: Weekend #6
This past weekend I had a chance to dabble in all sorts of things. Although I feel like I've done quite a bit (in terms of not being cooped up in Xinsong Gongyu), I'm definitely cramming as much as I can into remaining time that I have.
On Friday (7/29/11), I went with the rest of PiB to watch some pretty awesome acrobatics. Of all the acts, perhaps the most exciting were the ten acrobats piled on top of each other riding a single bike. It's interesting to note, however, that just like the Kungfu theater PiB went to see weeks ago, the acrobatic theater also had marquees with Chinese and English, examples of not only Chinese business accommodating Western foreigners, but also how translations often cannot fully embody the meaning of the original text. Particularly because Chinese is very pithy, the English translations of the acrobatic acts often seemed very crude. However, with regards to the show itself, it was definitely fun to watch, and I'm certainly glad that I went.
The next Saturday morning, I and a few other PiB'ers met up with a Chinese student (whom we met through the Yale-PKU Friends Connection Mixer) to go visit the Capital Museum.
Not only was the building amazing, the exhibits themselves were also pretty cool. The museum covered Beijing's history (up until 1949), and also had huge collections of porcelain as well as other objects. Particularly because everything in the museum was primarily explained in Chinese, I found it really helpful that we had someone to talk to and ask questions.
After lunch, we headed over to Jingshan Park (景山公园), which is right next to the Forbidden City. Although it was quite unfortunate that it had rained really hard the day before, that also meant that on Saturday, the sky was very clear, and from the hill within the park, we were able to see this . . .
In the evening, we went to Nanluoguxiang (南锣鼓巷), essentially a commercialized hutong. The road is filled with small shops, bars, and restaurants，and for dinner, we actually had hamburgers. The area is an interesting mix of East and West; there were even churro stands along the street. (Although, rumor has it that churros were created as a misunderstanding of making youtiao (油条).) Anyways, although this doesn't relate to hamburgers, churros, or cultural exchange, below is a video of one of the street vendors making sugar-blown animals.
Finally, this past Sunday I also went with another friend to check out the Silk Market, filled with plenty of tourists ready to try their hand at bargaining. It was quite an experience, watching other people attempting to haggle for fake Coach and Prada purses. As a huayi, I certainly appreciated the the change in shopkeeper tactics. I was pretty satisfied and left Silk Market with a qipao, a stone seal (for calligraphy), and a couple of hair clips.
Overall, a really good weekend (although I can't believe I only have one more left in Beijing)!
-艾琳
On Friday (7/29/11), I went with the rest of PiB to watch some pretty awesome acrobatics. Of all the acts, perhaps the most exciting were the ten acrobats piled on top of each other riding a single bike. It's interesting to note, however, that just like the Kungfu theater PiB went to see weeks ago, the acrobatic theater also had marquees with Chinese and English, examples of not only Chinese business accommodating Western foreigners, but also how translations often cannot fully embody the meaning of the original text. Particularly because Chinese is very pithy, the English translations of the acrobatic acts often seemed very crude. However, with regards to the show itself, it was definitely fun to watch, and I'm certainly glad that I went.
The next Saturday morning, I and a few other PiB'ers met up with a Chinese student (whom we met through the Yale-PKU Friends Connection Mixer) to go visit the Capital Museum.
Not only was the building amazing, the exhibits themselves were also pretty cool. The museum covered Beijing's history (up until 1949), and also had huge collections of porcelain as well as other objects. Particularly because everything in the museum was primarily explained in Chinese, I found it really helpful that we had someone to talk to and ask questions.
After lunch, we headed over to Jingshan Park (景山公园), which is right next to the Forbidden City. Although it was quite unfortunate that it had rained really hard the day before, that also meant that on Saturday, the sky was very clear, and from the hill within the park, we were able to see this . . .
In the evening, we went to Nanluoguxiang (南锣鼓巷), essentially a commercialized hutong. The road is filled with small shops, bars, and restaurants，and for dinner, we actually had hamburgers. The area is an interesting mix of East and West; there were even churro stands along the street. (Although, rumor has it that churros were created as a misunderstanding of making youtiao (油条).) Anyways, although this doesn't relate to hamburgers, churros, or cultural exchange, below is a video of one of the street vendors making sugar-blown animals.
Finally, this past Sunday I also went with another friend to check out the Silk Market, filled with plenty of tourists ready to try their hand at bargaining. It was quite an experience, watching other people attempting to haggle for fake Coach and Prada purses. As a huayi, I certainly appreciated the the change in shopkeeper tactics. I was pretty satisfied and left Silk Market with a qipao, a stone seal (for calligraphy), and a couple of hair clips.
Overall, a really good weekend (although I can't believe I only have one more left in Beijing)!
-艾琳
银山塔林: Yinshan Pagoda Forest
Time has gone by so quickly! (And there are only less than two weeks left of PiB!)
PiB organized a trip to the Yinshan Pagoda Forest quite a while ago; I've posted some photos below from our journey.
7/23/11, Saturday:
After our long bus ride to the countryside, we first stopped by a restaurant and ate a ton of food--lots of vegetable dishes, as well as some beef and chicken (regarding chicken heads, see the end of the previous post).
After looking at the Buddhist pagodas surrounding Yinshan, . . .
. . . we then started to make our way up the mountain.
On our way up, we passed a cool looking waterfall . . .
. . . as well as a huge bell.
After climbing up for what seemed like forever . . .
. . .we eventually reached the top!
And although it was very hot, disgustingly humid, and unfortunately hazy, . . .
. . . the trek up and down the mountain that day was pretty awesome.
-艾琳
PiB organized a trip to the Yinshan Pagoda Forest quite a while ago; I've posted some photos below from our journey.
7/23/11, Saturday:
After our long bus ride to the countryside, we first stopped by a restaurant and ate a ton of food--lots of vegetable dishes, as well as some beef and chicken (regarding chicken heads, see the end of the previous post).
 |
| [off to Yinshan Talin!] |
. . . we then started to make our way up the mountain.
 |
[I guarantee we climbed up a mountain, although admittedly I can't say if it's the one in this background.] |
. . . as well as a huge bell.
After climbing up for what seemed like forever . . .
. . .we eventually reached the top!
And although it was very hot, disgustingly humid, and unfortunately hazy, . . .
. . . the trek up and down the mountain that day was pretty awesome.
-艾琳
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
西安: Part 4
7/17/11, Sunday:
On our last day in Xi'an, we decided to take it easy. However, before we left for Beijing, we still made it out to the Big (Wild) Goose Pagoda (大雁塔).
In front of the pagoda, there was also a huge fountain.
It's hard to tell, but the fountain was so large these pictures don't really do it justice.
When we dropped by, we also had the fortune of being able to watch the music and water show at the fountain. Below is just a short segment.
Afterwards, we climbed to the top of the pagoda and saw the view from up top.
After our final excursion, we finished off our trip by eating biang biang mian, a Xi'an specialty. It's a wide noodle dish typically topped with eggs, tomatoes, and beef (and it's all delicious). The character for "biang" is so complicated that you can't just type it into the computer, but I've posted a picture of the character (from the wall of the restaurant) below. (I'm very thankful that PiB has not made us memorize any characters this complicated.)
7/17/11, Sunday evening through 7:25 am, 7/18-11, Monday :
Later that afternoon we made our way back to train station. In some ways, the train ride back to Beijing was very similar to our earlier train ride. However, the train actually seemed to be less crowded in our section and everyone on the train seemed to be pretty young (perhaps there's something to be said about the demographic who comes to or leaves the city).
The attendant (fúwùyuán, 服务员) for our train car was also super cool and friendly, although apparently, for the entire train ride, he thought I didn't speak Chinese. While I was fortunately able to rectify this mistake before I got off the train, it was certainly a reminder that perhaps it wouldn't hurt to speak a bit more Chinese in public (even if I've got a ways to go before I'm completely fluent).
As I mentioned earlier, most everyone on the train was pretty young, so riding the train turned out to be a really nice opportunity to talk with students our own age. We ended up discussing things such as China's traffic problems (e.g. overbooking on trains), how our (PiB students) accents were very "biāozhǔn“ (标准), as well as their aspirations for after college, among other topics. They were actually pretty eager to practice their English, so we ended up speaking in half English and half Chinese.
Although the entire conversation was pretty interesting, there was one thing that stuck out to me in particular. One of the Chinese college students (let's call him Steve, although I never actually got his real name, Chinese or English) had been on another train a few days earlier, and that train had also been quite crowded. On that train there was another Chinese student who had a standing ticket, and he were so tired that he ended up sleeping under one of the seats. Steve watched some foreign students take pictures of the student sleeping under the seat, and he thought that it was really shameless of them to do so, especially because the Chinese student really didn't have any better alternatives for a place to sleep. Steve seemed really upset by this, and I certainly sympathized with him.
As an aside, I had an experience similar to Steve's this past weekend, when PiB took us to the countryside. When the restaurant we went to served the chicken, they included the head (comb included) in the dish. While even I myself was a bit taken aback by this (I've seen duck heads before, but never a chicken head), I couldn't help but cringe when one of the students wouldn't stop taking pictures of the chicken head, adjusting her camera settings every now and then, repositioning the chicken head several times, and moving the plate around, before finally stopping so we could all actually eat the chicken. To be fair, I'm sure she was just very curious and didn't have any hurtful intentions.
However, these situations have served as reminders that as a foreigner, although it's important to learn about different cultures and their histories, visiting a country is not the same as visiting a zoo. While China is definitely not an exception to the general trend that we tend to see the good parts of our own country and the bad/weird/strange parts of other countries, I think it's important that we maintain at least some respect for any culture. I feel particularly strongly about this primarily because of all the stigmatized questions I've come across as a kid: "Do Chinese people eat dogs? Cats? Monkeys? Frogs? Females broke their feet from foot binding, right?" Of course, these questions do have some reasoning behind them. But fortunately, I think that over the past 15 years, America's view of China has changed, and it's all been for the better.
Anyways (lest I continue to digress), we finally arrived back in Beijing around 6:30 am on Monday (7/18/11). We had a bit of an issue of finding a taxi that would take us back to Beijing Normal University, but eventually we found a driver, who was also very sympathetic to our need to get to class on time. We arrived on campus at 7:25 am, just in time for my fellow 4th year students to take their tīngxiě (听写) at 7:30 am.
The trip to Xi'an was awesome.
. . . And now, life at PiB continues.
-艾琳
(in addition to photos from recent posts, you can check more photos from this summer at https://picasaweb.google.com/IreneCCai/Beijing2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCP23zIW8gdTuugE)
On our last day in Xi'an, we decided to take it easy. However, before we left for Beijing, we still made it out to the Big (Wild) Goose Pagoda (大雁塔).
In front of the pagoda, there was also a huge fountain.
[pictures of the pagoda and the fountain]
It's hard to tell, but the fountain was so large these pictures don't really do it justice.
When we dropped by, we also had the fortune of being able to watch the music and water show at the fountain. Below is just a short segment.
Afterwards, we climbed to the top of the pagoda and saw the view from up top.
[view of the city from the pagoda in all four directions]
After our final excursion, we finished off our trip by eating biang biang mian, a Xi'an specialty. It's a wide noodle dish typically topped with eggs, tomatoes, and beef (and it's all delicious). The character for "biang" is so complicated that you can't just type it into the computer, but I've posted a picture of the character (from the wall of the restaurant) below. (I'm very thankful that PiB has not made us memorize any characters this complicated.)
7/17/11, Sunday evening through 7:25 am, 7/18-11, Monday :
Later that afternoon we made our way back to train station. In some ways, the train ride back to Beijing was very similar to our earlier train ride. However, the train actually seemed to be less crowded in our section and everyone on the train seemed to be pretty young (perhaps there's something to be said about the demographic who comes to or leaves the city).
The attendant (fúwùyuán, 服务员) for our train car was also super cool and friendly, although apparently, for the entire train ride, he thought I didn't speak Chinese. While I was fortunately able to rectify this mistake before I got off the train, it was certainly a reminder that perhaps it wouldn't hurt to speak a bit more Chinese in public (even if I've got a ways to go before I'm completely fluent).
As I mentioned earlier, most everyone on the train was pretty young, so riding the train turned out to be a really nice opportunity to talk with students our own age. We ended up discussing things such as China's traffic problems (e.g. overbooking on trains), how our (PiB students) accents were very "biāozhǔn“ (标准), as well as their aspirations for after college, among other topics. They were actually pretty eager to practice their English, so we ended up speaking in half English and half Chinese.
Although the entire conversation was pretty interesting, there was one thing that stuck out to me in particular. One of the Chinese college students (let's call him Steve, although I never actually got his real name, Chinese or English) had been on another train a few days earlier, and that train had also been quite crowded. On that train there was another Chinese student who had a standing ticket, and he were so tired that he ended up sleeping under one of the seats. Steve watched some foreign students take pictures of the student sleeping under the seat, and he thought that it was really shameless of them to do so, especially because the Chinese student really didn't have any better alternatives for a place to sleep. Steve seemed really upset by this, and I certainly sympathized with him.
As an aside, I had an experience similar to Steve's this past weekend, when PiB took us to the countryside. When the restaurant we went to served the chicken, they included the head (comb included) in the dish. While even I myself was a bit taken aback by this (I've seen duck heads before, but never a chicken head), I couldn't help but cringe when one of the students wouldn't stop taking pictures of the chicken head, adjusting her camera settings every now and then, repositioning the chicken head several times, and moving the plate around, before finally stopping so we could all actually eat the chicken. To be fair, I'm sure she was just very curious and didn't have any hurtful intentions.
However, these situations have served as reminders that as a foreigner, although it's important to learn about different cultures and their histories, visiting a country is not the same as visiting a zoo. While China is definitely not an exception to the general trend that we tend to see the good parts of our own country and the bad/weird/strange parts of other countries, I think it's important that we maintain at least some respect for any culture. I feel particularly strongly about this primarily because of all the stigmatized questions I've come across as a kid: "Do Chinese people eat dogs? Cats? Monkeys? Frogs? Females broke their feet from foot binding, right?" Of course, these questions do have some reasoning behind them. But fortunately, I think that over the past 15 years, America's view of China has changed, and it's all been for the better.
Anyways (lest I continue to digress), we finally arrived back in Beijing around 6:30 am on Monday (7/18/11). We had a bit of an issue of finding a taxi that would take us back to Beijing Normal University, but eventually we found a driver, who was also very sympathetic to our need to get to class on time. We arrived on campus at 7:25 am, just in time for my fellow 4th year students to take their tīngxiě (听写) at 7:30 am.
The trip to Xi'an was awesome.
. . . And now, life at PiB continues.
-艾琳
(in addition to photos from recent posts, you can check more photos from this summer at https://picasaweb.google.com/IreneCCai/Beijing2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCP23zIW8gdTuugE)
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
西安: Part 3 (Terracotta Army!)
Like most other tourists who come to Xi'an, I primarily came to see the Terracotta Army.
7/16/11, Saturday:
So our friend who was able to hook us up with free lodging also got all of us a pretty decent deal on a tour package of sites around Xi'an. Although we were a bit restricted on the tour, it definitely gave some insight into Chinese tourism. I figured Asian tour groups in the States (e.g. at Yale) would make some sense, but I didn't realize that even within China, tour groups are really popular.
Around 8 am, we headed out on our tour. Adhering to PiB's language pledge, we chose a tour completely conducted in Mandarin. Although at each stop we tended not to stay with the tour group, on the bus, the tour guide (导游,dǎoyóu) certainly had some interesting things to say. For the most part, I was able to get the general gist of what the tour guide was saying, but there were instances when I had no clue. One example in particular was when the tour guide kept saying "wenzi." Now, when pronounced "wénzi," this actually means mosquito (蚊子). I'm actually still unsure of what the tour guide was saying at that time, but I'm fairly sure she wasn't talking about nasty blood-sucking insects which happen to coexist with us in Xinsong Gongyu.
Before we actually made it to the Terracotta Army, there were a few stops on the way, a sort of tour group pre-game if you will. We first stopped by the 6,000 year old Banpo Village Ruins (半坡遗址博物馆). It's interesting to note that both at Banpo and the Terracotta Army, infrastructure was built over these excavation sites. Because Banpo is so old, not very much remains; having a good imagination seems to be key while visiting the ruins.
We then dropped by the Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Museum (秦始皇陵的缩影), which had a miniature replica of the mausoleum . I'm not sure if it was the lighting, the fact that everything was miniature, or both, but the display was slightly reminiscent of Disney's "It's a small world."
The next part of the tour was probably one of the most characteristic of Asian tour groups. On the bus, the tour guide first gave us some tips on bargaining in shopping in Beijing, and she also talked about the history surrounding jade. The bus then proceeded to take us to a store that sold jewelry and art pieces made with authentic jade.
After the stop at the store, we were then also taken to a relatively expensive restaurant to try Xi'an specialties (being the frugal college students we are, we decided to bring lunch and eat outside). Having the authentic Asian tour group experience aside, I wouldn't have minded not having the built-in tourist traps. I was a bit surprised that our fellow Chinese tourists didn't seem to mind these extra stops too much. Admittedly I've also been under the impression that the Chinese are always pretty thrifty, but going on this tour was certainly a reminder that China's economic boom still has to rely on massive consumption.
After lunch, we took a cable car up Mount Li (骊山); besides the mountain itself, the view was pretty amazing.
At the foot of the mountain, we walked over to Huaqing Palace (华清池), which was also very pleasant.
And FINALLY, just when I thought we actual might not make it, we arrived at Army of Terracotta Warriors and Horses (兵马俑).
Admittedly, at first I was slightly concerned. (The site has several pits, and Pits 2 and 3 was the first ones we entered.) The pits were relatively bare, and many of the soldiers had already broken into pieces.
But then we entered Pit 1. And it was amazing, just like how you would expect the Terracotta Army to look like from all those travel guide pictures.
Quite honestly, I'm not sure what I expected to see. On the surface, just the sheer size of the Terracotta Army was overwhelming. If I had only gone into to see Pit 1, I think I would have been pretty satisfied. But seeing Pits 2 and 3 made me realize that the Pit 1 in its current condition probably required a lot of manpower, and there's still so much within Pit 1 that remains to be excavated. Moreover, it's so crazy that an emperor would be crazy enough to construct something of this size more than 2,000 years ago.
Seeing the Terracotta Army was definitely one of the highlights of trip, so much that I'd say seeing the real thing in person was worth 26-hour round-trip train ride.
7/16/11, Saturday:
So our friend who was able to hook us up with free lodging also got all of us a pretty decent deal on a tour package of sites around Xi'an. Although we were a bit restricted on the tour, it definitely gave some insight into Chinese tourism. I figured Asian tour groups in the States (e.g. at Yale) would make some sense, but I didn't realize that even within China, tour groups are really popular.
 |
| [Asian tour group! (on the bus that morning)] |
Before we actually made it to the Terracotta Army, there were a few stops on the way, a sort of tour group pre-game if you will. We first stopped by the 6,000 year old Banpo Village Ruins (半坡遗址博物馆). It's interesting to note that both at Banpo and the Terracotta Army, infrastructure was built over these excavation sites. Because Banpo is so old, not very much remains; having a good imagination seems to be key while visiting the ruins.
 |
| [part of the Banpo Village Ruins] |
 |
| [replica of Qinshihuang's Mausoleum] |
 | |
| [one year's worth of Yale tuition (actual price unknown)] |
After lunch, we took a cable car up Mount Li (骊山); besides the mountain itself, the view was pretty amazing.
 |
| [view from Mount Li] |
 |
| [sign on the way to the palace] |
 |
| [at Huaqing Palace] |
Admittedly, at first I was slightly concerned. (The site has several pits, and Pits 2 and 3 was the first ones we entered.) The pits were relatively bare, and many of the soldiers had already broken into pieces.
But then we entered Pit 1. And it was amazing, just like how you would expect the Terracotta Army to look like from all those travel guide pictures.
 |
| [Terracotta Army, Pit 1] |
 |
| [soldiers in Pit 1, still in the process of being repaired] |
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