Dumplings, Dumplings, Dumplings!

Sunday was the most amazing day. I truly had a wonderful time; the most fun since I’ve been here. We had the entire day free. I have to admit, at first I was a little leery about going out and exploring on our own, after all, this is China. Who knows, I may have been accosted by all of the millions of starving children whom I made suffer by not finishing my Brussels sprouts when I was a kid. At breakfast, my friend Rene and I decided that we would like to go into the old centre of town to explore. Suddenly ten other people wanted to join us! Hmmm, a group of twelve navigating the narrow streets of Xi’an didn’t sound like much fun to either of us.

Before we left, Rene and I decided to drop off our laundry with the laundry service. Rene dropped off her stuff first. The woman only spoke Chinese, but we managed through finger pointing, gestures and number writing. It’s 6 Yuan per item, which is 88 cents, to wash, dry and iron each item. I think that’s a deal! Back home, I pay my aunt Sue 75 cents to simply iron my shirts. Maybe I can get her to drop her price since she’s not washing them. (Just kidding, Sue. You know I love you.) As we were told, the woman indicated that Rene’s seven items would be ready in two days. Then she went through my fifteen items, wrote up the receipt and indicated that mine would be ready on Monday! It’s not like Rene’s items were more complicated. Since neither of us speak Chinese yet, neither could ask why, so we just had a good laugh about it.

To go into town, the twelve of us walked out the old West Gate of the university and up to the main north-south road in town to catch a taxi. We of course broke into three groups of four, as there are no minibus taxis here. The twenty minute ride to the south gate of the walled city was twelve Yuan or $1.76. As we walked into the old part of town, I truly felt as if I were now in China. We turned to our left, went through an ancient gate and walked down a street full of street vendors selling local good and with shops selling calligraphy supplies, papers and Chinese art. I was in heaven. Most everything was exclusively in Chinese, but there were some signs in English, one of which we found quite humourous. What do you think?

For me, watching the craftsmen making their products was the best part. You can see the old women sewing the hats that you’re going to buy, the painter painting the paper and silk fans, and the carver putting your Chinese name into the base of stone so that you can stamp your name when you write letters. (Yes, William, I will be getting one of those.) It was a warm morning, so we paused at one of the many various beverage/ice cream vendors to get a locally produced orange soda in a glass bottle, fresh out of a bin full of ice. It was pure heaven as we were sipping our two Yuan orange pops in the shade in the park along the south wall.

We were starting to get a little hungry, so we decided to head to the centre of town, where the Bell Tower is, for lunch. We thought we may have a better chance of finding restaurants with pictures on their menus around there. As we were walking that way, we ran across of couple of interesting things, such as the Xi’an Wal-mart, and a bridal shop with live mannequins in the windows. Eventually, though, we made it to the centre, where we could see the famous Bell Tower. It is just a strange juxtaposition to have been walking through what looked to us to be traditional China with narrow lanes lined with traditional shops, homes that look literally like holes in the wall and restaurants that you wouldn’t dare eat in to suddenly walk into a world full of large LED signs, McDonald’s, KFC, modern shopping centres, ATMs, etc. If it was strange for us, I can only imagine what it must be like for the Chinese people who are living through this transformation.
For lunch, we decided upon, what we were told, it the best dumpling place on earth. The Chinese tradition of dumplings originated in this area, so we were told this restaurant was the best of the best. We sat down and really had no clue what to do. Luckily a couple of the workers spoke basic English and led us through the procedure. For the dumplings, we had to buy tickets. One colour corresponded to boiled mushroom and pork, one to steamed shrimp and pork, and so on. As the carts came through the restaurant, they would deliver the dumplings and take your tickets. There was also a cart full of side dishes that you’d pay cash for. We had snow peas and some sort of large sprout. Plus we had to sample the local beer. We had three plates of dumplings, two boiled and one steamed. Everything was so delicious. It came to exactly 100 Yuan, or $14.70 for lunch for four people. If you can get over here, China is a cheap destination for American tourists.
After lunch, we then wandered through the Muslim quarter, where we ran across a drug store with a rather interesting sign in the window.

We bought some sesame snacks in the street as we wandered. They were quite good! It was getting to be around 3 o’clock, though, and we were starting to wilt, so we decided to head back to

the university again. Around five, the group of the four of us headed down to the supermarket on the main drag to explore. I had to laugh when I saw this orange juice on the shelves. It made me think of all of the orange groves of Bay County.

Well, classes start on Monday. Wish me luck!