On the road

Although it hardly feels. like it. I was met Sunday afternoon at the Xi'an airport by my friend GuXiujie and a van from the city public library. After a short stop at said library, I was dropped at the door to my hostel (but don't think I'm sleeping in a dorm room--I sprang for private) for an hour's rest before being picked back up by Gu and family for a gourmet dinner. Her husband handled the ordering and I gorged myself on local specialties.

After dinner we walked around a park with a 600 year old pagoda, and then I was dropped off and I walked around the south gate of the city and watched some dancing. This time it's not ballroom, but a local line-sort-of dance with fans and umbrellas. This morning it was off to the provincial library where I had my first sit-down meeting with someone who actually works on the project I am hoping to write about. After that, a quick lunch, a museum with Gu, son, and neighbor's daughter, and then souvenir shopping.

I excused myself for a nap and woke in time for dinner in the Muslim quarter. I was hoping to hit the city wall afterwards, but taking a wrong turn delayed dinner. In fact, I walked quite a bit, so now I'm pretty wiped. Tomorrow it's the terracotta warriors.

So there's a quick update. Xi'an is a much more Chinese city than Beijing (or at least the parts I was in). People are still very flattering about my Chinese, but sometimes they can't help laughing at my Beijinghua. I just can't stop saying 'yi diar' instead of 'yi dian', and I'm sorry, but every gate is a 'mer.' No N is safe!