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Well today was a packed day. We got up and ate breakfast at 8:00. After breakfast, we walked around the neighborhood and checked out the local shops and people. You can tell the people work really hard there to make a living. A lot of the people get around the city either by bus or by bike. There is one bus after another, and they're all packed. We saw a lady on the back of a moped, holding a baby over her shoulder. No one wears helmets and they are constantly dodging cars. It seems like there are no traffic rules here. People just drive where they want, when they want. It's amazing there aren't more accidents. Our guide, George, told us that when people get in a car accident, they rarely call the police. They just bargain back and forth and pay one another off in cash. It's easier that way. After our walk, we went to the Wild Goose Pagoda. The Wild Goose Pagoda is a buddist temple that is over 600 years old. We walked seven floors to the top of the Pagoda. From there, we saw great views of Xi'an. Currently, there are 30 monks that still live there. We saw one texting on his phone; that was funny. After we left the Pagoda, we went to a Dumpling Banquet. Dumplings are very popular in Beijing and Xi'an. We were served 26 different kinds of dumplings. Some were vegetarian, and some were as obsure as rabbit and pigeon. I don't think anyone tried the rabbit. After we stuffed ourselves we went to a history museum, where we saw relics that were 7,000 years old. It was really cool, but it was so busy that we didn't get to see as much as we would have liked to. While we were at the museum, my mom used the bathroom. I'm telling you that, because the women's bathrooms in China, are nothing like they are in the United States. There is no toilet paper in the bathrooms and you have to squat over a hole. My mom told my dad and I that we don't want to know what she's seen in the bathrooms. We're really lucky in America.
We boarded a flight for Xi'an at 6:30 and flew to Guilin. Tomorrow we're going to go on a riverboat on the Li River. That should be fun. Guilin is known for it's beauty. It's too dark to see anything now, but it is very humid and tropical here.
I'll blog tomorrow and let you know what I have learned. Thanks for reading! Tony
- comments
Diane I bet your dad is really glad he has been exercising. I can't wait to hear your moms stories about the bathrooms. Love you
Aunt Wende I'm learning so much from reading your entries. Thanks for sharing your trip with us, Tony! I was surprised to read that a buddhist monk was texting! I looked up the buddhist monk rules on Wikipedia, which listed behaviors to refrain from, and owning a cell phone was not listed. I guess they didn't anticipate the advent of cell phones when the rules were developed. :-) It did say there there are estimated to be between 1 to 1.6 million total buddhists throughout the world, which is an amazingly large amount of people. I'm so glad that you are all having such a wonderful trip. Enjoy yourselves and be safe!
Mary Noonan Hi Tony My mom Joanne is on the trip with you. Thanks for doing this blog so I can follow her trip. Hope you are all having fun and learning lots! Mary