Today we started with a lecture on the educational state of schools in China at the International University of Xi'an. It was interesting for them to point out some of the difficulties that come from having such a centralized government controling education. However, it is also impressive to see what they are able to accomplish for their kids. It is such a different system than ours and definitely doesn't all for education for all students, but they are consci...

Our first real day in Xi'an started with an incredible experience at the Xi'an City Wall. This wall was built over 500 years ago and encircles the ancient city of Xi'an and has a variety of lookout points and pagodas that served to protect and warn the people of invaders. We were able to rent bicycles and rode around the entire wall--I believe it was around 12 km. It was an incredible opportunity to see the city and a bit bumpy riding along the stone path. In...

This picture accurately represents our first few days of this trip. We left Portland at 7:30 am on Saturday morning, arrived in San Francisco. Then we had a 3 hour layover (watched my last bit of March Madness for the year) and then flew for 13 hours to Beijing. There we had another 3 hour layover and then our 2 hour flight to Xi'an, arriving around 11 pm Sunday night. Somewhere in there we lost a complete day :) After an hour long drive to the hotel from th...