Feng Qing Park

We heard that some trees were blooming in a park nearby our university.  So we decided check it out, and we saw a lot of interesting things which we will show you below.

Here are some of the beautiful flowering trees.

 

Once the trees start blooming there are photo shoots and people taking selfies surrounding the all the trees. You have to be patient and wait your turn.

 Spiderman even made an appearance!

There's a lake in the middle of the park and people were enjoying it on some boats.

You can even let your child use up all their energy trying to run around like a hamster in one of these.

 

 We saw a group doing yoga, which was quite entertaining. 

 

 These kids were doing water paintings on the sidewalk.

There are the many music groups that we have seen already around parks in the city. This particular group was quite big and very loud. It's very hard to explain the sounds that we heard.  It's a type of traditional music that might be pleasant at its base, but its really chaotic and seems almost like everybody playing is just doing their own thing. And it doesn't help that the microphones they use distort their voices. 

We were very surprised and relieved to find another music group that included around 10 violin players and one accordion player.  The also played Chinese traditional music and were able to bring some tranquility back to us after listening to the previous group.

Spring has sprung in Xi'an!

So it's been awhile. We are back from our month vacation. That means Red is busy working, while Yellow is busy studying Chinese.  He, on the other hand, is still waiting for further news on his job for the semester.  We will do our best to put up some pictures from our trip soon.

Spring has sprung! How do we know? Because yesterday we walked past several children holding baby chicks in their hands while we were on our way to lunch.  Near our canteen we found the source of these brightly dyed chicks. This is the first time that we've seen the sale of live young chickens to young children along with other pets like turtles and birds. We are wondering what the fate of these small birds will be...

By the way, it really is spring here. This week the high is in the 60s F (15-20 C) and the air is not too bad. We've opened our windows the last two days and done some spring cleaning around the house. Feels great.

Since we've been back we have been exploring the restaurants near our university. Last night we had some beef, lamb, and chicken wing meat sticks; with a grilled eggplant; and some fried rice and fried noodles. Yum.

The Great Mosque 西安大清真寺

The Great Mosque in Xi'an is one of the oldest and most renowned mosques in the country. It was founded in 742, although most of it was built later during the Ming Dynasty. It's still used as a place of worship (by the local Hui people), but it's quite the touristy spot too. You can see that like the other mosque in Xi'an it is completely Chinese in its architecture and construction. 

Around the Xi'an City Wall

We are yet to actually go on top of the city wall, but we took a stroll around the outside of it recently. This wall is one of the oldest and best preserved ones in China. It has been completely
It encircled the center and older part of the city (14 square kilometers in all). It has a very nice walkway and park around it, and it's less than 30 minutes by bus from our place.

We will post more about it once we do visit the top of the wall, but we will have to wait for some nice weather.

 Here's some guys getting their haircut right next to the wall.

Chinese Shadow Play

At the Folk House, Red went to see a Shadow play that uses flat figures (shadow puppets) to create the impression of moving humans and other three-dimensional objects.

It seems like an interesting future project maybe, but it wasn't worth the extra 15 yuan, as the story was very short and not understandable for a non-Chinese speaker. 

Sites to see!

Walking around China you can find all sorts of things. Here's some things we've found lately.

This cute little boy was having an afternoon stroll with his grandparents at Small Goose Pagoda.

 

 

This one's our favorite. This elderly man is staying fit at an exercise park. Look at that flexibility! He's blasting music on his little red speaker as he's doing this crazy workout. It's normal to see people exercising in these parks, maybe one of the reasons why the Chinese are so thin?

Fashion is quite fascinating here. We see lot's of these fake fur coats these days.

 This ensemble is something we've only seen once so far.. No words can explain this one.

 

Here's to the lucky kitty and it's money slogan. Meow!

 



Folk House

In the Muslim Quarter we found this Folk House, which is a restored courtyard home. This historic residence now serves as an art gallery, entertainment center, and teahouse. It was originally the home of the Qing bureaucrat Gao Yuesong. We went with a friend who was visiting from Wuhan and found it to be quite charming. It is very tastefully restored having reception rooms, bedrooms, servants' quarters, an ancestral temple, and a study.  It also has an optional shadow puppet show, which we will reserve for another blog post.