A trip to Xi'an
你好 Cambusbarron!
October in Tianjin is drawing to a close, and its has been an eventful month!
We started the month of by going to Xi’an(西安) during ‘Golden Week’, which is a national holiday in China to celebrate the founding of ‘The People’s Republic of China’. After a nineteen hour train journey, which was an unforgettable experience and one that I would rather not relive if given the chance, we arrived in Xi’an and were greeted by a city that looked very different to that of Tianjin. At first glance it looked more like the China we had all imagined in our heads; whether it was the various street market stalls, or the red Chinese lanterns that decorated the streets like bunting, Xi’an felt more traditional.
Our first day was spent cycling along the Ancient City Wall, which is the oldest city wall in China, and was built to help defend the city of Xi’an,(excuse the bum bag I had no other option). After all the cycling we were all shattered and decided to head back to the youth hostel we were staying at to get a good nights sleep, like we hadn’t already had 19 hours. The next morning we decided to head out to the ‘Muslim Quarter’, which consisted of lots of street stalls. We were lucky enough to visit one of the oldest mosques in China! It was interesting to find out that China did actually have a significant Muslim population, something which you don’t hear about very often.
The next day was spent going to see the Terracotta Army(兵马俑), which is a collection of terracotta sculptures that were buried with the first Emperor of China when he died, in belief that it would protect him in the afterlife. It was amazing to see the sculptures in real life, knowing that they were still intact after all this time. In the afternoon we decided to go on gondolas, like ski lifts, that went up a hill and led to an amazing viewing point at the top. We could literally see all of Xi’an. It was fab!
On our final day in Xi’an we trekked to Tang Paradise which was a little bit like the Botanical Gardens back home, only on a much larger scale. After many pictures were taken we decided to go and see the big pagoda. A pagoda is a religious temple for Buddhists and there are many all over China - we also managed to see the largest musical fountain show in Asia. With it being nighttime as well, the view was only enhanced!
Next week we will have our mid-term exams which will hopefully give us an indication as to how we are all getting along with Mandarin, so fingers crossed!
Exercise
Match up the pinyin with the correct english words:
Māo Horse
Mǎ Rabbit
Gǒu Snake
Tùzǐ Cat
Shé Dog
Find out your Chinese zodiac sign
再见