Huaqing Hot Springs

Way back when, when concubines flourished in Imperial China, a stone pool was built around a hot spring at the base of Li Mountain. This was somewhere between 221-206 B.C. in the Qin Dynasty. Throughout the next 1000 and some years, emperors kept enlarging this pool and building others around it, making more space for their beautiful ladies to bathe. Today, the restored hot springs palace is another tourist attraction close to the tomb of Qin Shihuang, the first emperor who united China 2200 years ago.

I loved visiting the hot springs because of the mountains surrounding them! We’d been stuck in the city for 2 weeks, so it was refreshing to get out and see some natural beauty. The Qinling Range was green, luscious, and misty, just like I was hoping to see in China. There was a ski-lift transporting people to the top of the mountain where there is a Taoist temple. I would have absolutely loved to go up there, but alas, we didn’t have enough time scheduled into our day for that. We just got to wander around and see the various pools and reconstructed buildings.

Pancake Soup and Tang Paradise

One thing I’ve learned in China is to never expect what you want. We were told we were eating pancake soup, but our dreams of Western pancakes swimming in maple syrup with fresh fruit floating on top were far from the truth. Probably a good thing, too. This specialty dish was amazing. You start by taking this dense, undercooked bread, shaped round like a pancake, and ripping it into tiny little pieces in your own bowl. We were so hungry by this step that we ate the bread. Pretty tasteless, but it was the only thing on the table. After our teacher saw us chowing down on the bread, she told us we would all get sick because the undercooked bread would expand in our stomachs. That turned out to be false, but we stopped eating the bread and waited for our soup. The waitresses take your bowl of bread pieces and go fill it up with lamb soup. Then, you add your own spices and cilantro. It was one of my favorite meals we have had in China so far, and that could be because of the cilantro.

Our next stop was a reconstructed Tang Dynasty palace. Not much of the architecture was actually antique, but it was absolutely beautiful with the landscaping and gardens to wander through.


Before we left, they had a water and light show on one of the man-made lakes. They play an epic cartoon movie on the wall of mist they shoot up out of the lake. The main character—the Chinese equivalent of Mickey Mouse—was an orange jack-a-loupe who helped three soldiers defeat a creepy witch woman. The effects they created with water and lights were really amazing. I’d never seen anything like it.

Real Love

When our Chinese friends said they wanted to take us to sing karaoke, we had totally the wrong idea. We were hoping for the classic bar/restaurant setting with the possibility of just laughing at other people singing. We were so wrong. After a short walk, we came to a nice, tall building and were greeted by a young guy in a really nice suit. He took us up in an elevator that opened up into this trendy, empty lounge area. Then we walked down a black hallway and he opened a door into our own personal room with a huge couch, and TV.

Turns out, we get to just sing out hearts out privately—they don’t want to hear us anyway. They had a very extensive list of English songs (Taylor Swift, Backstreet Boys, Michael Jackson) along with plenty of songs in Chinese. We sang for about an hour and a half, but then had to go back for dinner. It was a strange experience, kind of like the Pleasure Palace: a big building that you can’t see into, people dressed really well escorting you around, and the overall feel like you are in Vegas and you don’t really know what you might find behind the next door.

Moslem Street and the Great Mosque

China is made up of 56 nationalities. The majority, which is the largest majority of people in the world, are the Han people. They make up 90-some percent of the population in China. The rest of the population is made up of various other minority groups. One of these groups is the Hui people, and they are Muslim. Islam was introduced to China during the 7^th century when Persian and Afghan merchants came to China and started settling in and marrying local women. A mosque was built in Xi’an in 742 during the Tang Dynasty because of the growing Muslim community. It is the oldest mosque in China. Now, surrounding the mosque is Moslem Street, vendors that sell snacks, clothes, and souvenirs.

The problem was that it was dark, so the pictures aren’t the greatest, but here are some of the better ones.

Small Wild Goose Pagoda

Right behind our campus is the Small Wild Goose Pagoda. It was built in 707 A.D. in the Tang Dynasty. There is a Big Wild Goose Pagoda, so the “small” is only relative. It’s still pretty big—142 feet (43.38 meters) tall, in fact. That’s 13 stories of sequentially smaller levels, to make it looked curved, kind of like an upside down beehive. Supposedly, an earthquake split the pagoda in two. Fortunately it was built in some special way (something about a semi-circle under the ground) and it didn’t collapse, just cracked. Then, another earthquake magically brought the two sides back together again…so the story goes.



We found a secret garden filled with Buddhist statues and beautiful roses.



A probably ancient table where Rock, Paper, Scissors was definitely invented.



Gotta have a jumping picture…



We rang a giant iron bell that weighs 10 tons. Supposedly, the sound is supposed to travel to your distant loved ones and let them know you are thinking of them. Did you hear it, Mom?



And, we rode a horse. I’ve never ridden a horse, which according to many, is a great travesty. So if a stone horse counts…check that off the list!

Dancing in Xi’an

I’ve never taken classes Spring or Summer term in Provo, but in China, 7 credits is intense. We start every day with improvisation, and the Chinese dance faculty takes the class with us. It’s kind of a strange class—moving from your feelings, being abstract, doing things you’ve never done before. It is really interesting to see the Chinese teachers move. They have such a different sense of time, space, and energy than we Westerners do. For the most part, they got the hang of it really well and some of the improvisations were really nice.

Then we have a lecture class, taught by our own professor, and soon each of us will be giving reports on different aspects of Chinese culture.

After lunch we have composition, which the Chinese come to as well. They don’t participate as much, but they watch and observe. In all our classes, there are a slew of Chinese students just sitting along the edges watching. It’s a nice gesture of them to come and watch, but I feel like they must have better things to do! This group of cheerleaders saw us walking past their room and hollered for us to come watch them perform.

The next class is the wild card. Mostly we’ve been doing various forms of martial arts, taught to us by local teachers. We did Long Fist, Tai-Chi, Five Animals, and Mixed Martial Arts. One of our favorites was Five Animals. Originally, this form was a Taoist practice to cultivate and purify the body. For example, the fingers relate with the kidneys, so using the fingers brings health to your kidneys. The Five Animal practice uses beliefs like this to bring health to the body. Nowadays, this form is mostly for keeping aging bodies from becoming immobile and decrepit. There are sets of movements associated with each of the 5 animals: tiger, bear, monkey, deer, and bird. One of our favorites was the deer, because of the hand gesture.



We also learned a Chinese folk dance, called the Ansai Drum dance. The school gave us our own drums (and awesome gold Aladin pants) as gifts. The dance originated from farmers working in the fields, celebrating life, and worshiping the Yellow River. We tried to capture that spirit, but the Chinese did it so much better. I realize how much culture America lacks being in China.

Markets in Xi’an

Since Xi’an is (relatively) small and safe, we had a couple chances to just walk around and see what we could find. The best treasures were alley markets filled with vendors, shops, and people.


The kids running around always made us smile, especially the ones that would respond to our attempts at interaction.



We kept our eyes open for ridiculous t-shirts that didn’t make any sense in English.



And most of us always would end up buying some of the delicious looking fruit.

A Little Bit about Xi’an

First of all, pronunciation: she-on. Easy enough.



Xi’an is one of the oldest cities in China and was the capital city in China under many of the most important dynasties in Chinese history. In 1370 A.D. during the Ming dynasty, the construction of a great wall around the city began. Almost 7.5 miles around and 40 feet high, the wall still stands today. Our tour guide, Phoenix, told us that when they began building the wall, they used sticky rice and kiwi skins. They also had to include ant poison so the insects wouldn’t eat away the delicious concoction and ruin the wall. Now it’s been fortified and beautified…not to mention that the city has exploded outside the bounds of that wall.

Now, some 8 million people live in the almost 4,000 square mile city of Xi’an, in the Shaanxi Province.

Our home here is the Xi’an Physical Education University. The University has 7 departments, a Graduate school, and is known for its Physical Education, Sports Training, and Chinese Traditional Sports programs. The campus is small and compact, so we got the hang of it pretty fast, and we grew to love the people we worked with pretty fast, too!

Walking around getting to know the campus, we couldn’t help but take some fabulous model shots…


And one thing about Chinese culture: they have beautiful gardens everywhere, complete with fountains, meandering pathways, peaceful benches, and beautiful flowers and trees. Great places to sit and ponder...



…and take jumping pictures!