Tibet

Last night, I went to Tibet with Mike and Alejandro. Okay not really, it was more like a Tibetan restaurant at the Indoor Stadium nearby to where we live. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into but it turned out to be quite the experience. First of all we were greeted by a traditionally dressed Tibetan male dancer who had hair like Fabio. He enthusiastically ushered us inside and dawned us all with a traditional white Tibetan shawl. The restaurant was pretty crowded with many tables and colorful decorations all over the place. Our menu was given to us on an iPad. We had no idea what to order and just selected two different types of meat: lamb rack ribs and yak steak. I thought Yaks were an extinct species. What, you say? I'm confusing it with Mammoths? Well don't they look similar?! Anyways, I asked the boys if there was a possibility of ordering vegetables since our meal was looking pretty "man-ish" with just meat and rice but Mike said the Tibetans are't really big fans of vegetables.  So meat and rice it was. Alejandro and I were so excited that we were able to apply today's Chinese lesson and order "3 bowls of rice" that we even had to "high-five" afterwards (to Mike's amusement). The Chinese typically have dinner early around 6pm or 7pm…so by the time that we arrived (8:30pm) it seemed like most people were done eating and getting prepared to enjoy the show. Yes that's right, this restaurant had a stage. First, the MC sang a traditional Tibetan song. Next, beautifully costumed Tibetan girls danced. And finally, the MC grabbed lucky (or not so lucky) members for the audience to participate in a group dance on stage. Naturally, I ditched the meat mid-meal and went on the stage to join. The first dance was going around in a circle and extending your arm every 4th step. The dancer in front of me sometimes mixed it up and and extended her arm in a quick 2-step motion. She always turned behind to look at me and when I copied her exact motion she laughed and then said something in rapid Chinese to the other dancers. I'm still not quite sure if that was good or bad. Perhaps she was saying to the others "ha ha it's only one arm extend, but I can make the dumb foreign girl behind believe it's two!" Afterwards there was one dance to go which was a Tibetan Can-Can. I have to say, that one I could definitely do right and the dancer girl seemed to approve as well. In the end, we did pay more than we expected to what I felt was a minimum meal…perhaps we managed to the house's most special dishes. But hey, it was an experience and now I wish I could go and visit the real Tibet.

We received chopsticks, a spoon, a wet napkin, and gloves!

Left: Yak Steak ;  Right: Lamb Rack

The Tibetan singer with Fabio-like hair

Lady dancers

The group dance with the arm-extensions

The Tibetan Can-Can

My dance mentor

Mike, I, and Alejandro in Tibet

Once upon a time a long long long time ago...

Xi'an. One of the oldest cities in China and home of the incredible discovery of the Terracotta Warriors. These statue warriors were discovered in 1974 by a Chinese farmer and date back to 3rd century B.C. That's before Jesus! And for that simple mind-blowing fact, a visit to Xi'an was on the top of my list. I went last weekend with my Mexican roommate, Pamela, and her 4 Mexican friends. I think I stressed Pamela a little out because I told her "everyone better be speaking English or else you better give me some Tequila so I can start speaking Spanish" but in the end, everyone did speak English and we had a really good time together. We flew by plane and had exactly 48 hours to see the city and visit the Terracotta Army, which is 40 km outside the city. On our first day we did our sight-seeing all over the city. We first saw the Bell and Drum tower. They are exactly what they sound like.

Bell Tower

Drum Tower

Afterwards, we went for a stroll through the Muslim district. Yes! There is such a thing as Chinese Muslims. I really liked the area: there were tons of colorful things to buy, tasty new foods to try, and lots of people-watching. Eventually, we ended up at the city Mosque. It really looked liked a mix of a Chinese temple and Mosque...but actually more like a temple than a Mosque. We got to witness the call to prayer and I also managed to make some new Muslim friends. Okay, so actually they just wanted a picture with the Blond girl. But that's find, because I wanted a picture of my own with them too!

My new girlfriends

The group!

We ended our day by going to the ancient wall surrounding the city. This was my favorite part of the day. You know those travel moments that happen spontaneously and treat you to something you weren't expect? Well I love those moments. So here we are on this ancient city wall and the sun is setting. We see people riding tandem bikes and spontaneously decided that the six of us just have to rent some bikes as well! We split into 3 groups of 2. I pair up with Pamela and although the bike is a bit wobbly and we are slightly fearing for our lives, we put the pedal to the metal and even the challenge the others to a race....until the back gear fell off. As the sky got darker and darker the wall started to light up. It was just beautiful.

On Saturday, we took a 1 hour long bus ride east of the city to the location where the Terracotta Warriors were buried. We hired a guide for about 2.5€ a person. She was a professional guide, a nice Chinese lady by the name of Sally. While her English was sometimes difficult to understand, I managed to learn a lot. One interesting fact was that the warriors were made according to the height and features of a typical Chinese soldier. The tallest statue stands at 1.9 meters and the shortest at 1.7. That's considerably taller than today's Chinese society. I asked Sally, "What happened!?" She just laughed and said "maybe it's genes." Inside the Terracotta Army museum there are three pits. Pit 1 is the largest with 2,000 warriors unearthed. Sally said they think there's about another 4,000 warriors still buried. All these warriors are standing in a typical battle formation. Pit two has actual war chariots as well as cavalry and infantry units. It is thought to represent a military guard. In pit three, the warriors are standing facing each other and thus believe to have been the headquarters/command post. Although it's just a bunch of statues in a pit, it was really cool to be present at an archeological site which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site as well. And who knows, maybe I will return some day when better technology allows archeologists to excavate more warriors. Would I recommend a trip to Xi'an and the Terracotta Army? YES.

Shanghai Tennis Open

Our friend Alejandro is a tennis junkie. Not only did he get a full-ride scholarship back in college but he also did a stint playing professionally in ATP. So naturally, even though he is now in China, he can't keep away. While the rest of us have been figuring out which bars or restaurants to try out, Alejandro has already made Chinese tennis friends. And when the Shanghai Open came to town, Alejandro was able to ask these Chinese friends to help get us student tickets for only 50 CNY! So on our Tuesday off from University, Jitka, Alejandro and I ventured out to The Qi Zhong Stadium which is an hour outside the stadium. I have never been to a professional tennis event, so it was a very exciting experience. We arrived early and we were first able to watch the famed Bryan Brothers (all-time doubles team record holders) warm-up. Next, we saw a frenzy of Chinese line around a court and discovered it was World No. 2 Novak Djokovic and World No. 3 Andy Murray warming up! I didn't get to see much over the swarm of Chinese heads but I was able to catch a glimpse and snap a few pictures. We were much more tactical when it came to the warm-up of Roger Federer however. We arrived at the court over 1 hour in advance to save our seats so that when the Swiss maestro finally came to the court, we were in the first row! The Roger fan club was in full force with posters and a big "roger" chant. His warm-up partner, Italian Fabio Fognini seemed less amused. Due to recent death threats, Roger almost did not attend the Shanghai Open. But in fear that Djokovic might overtake him in the rankings with a win in Shanghai, Federer decided to attend anyways but with an extra security force. These security guards completely enclosed the court. Luckily, after the warm-up, the fans still were able to convince Roger to sign a few autographs. I tried my best to get a signature on my ticket but was stampeded by other, apparently, more determined Chinese fans.

After the warm-ups, we saw quite a number of matches including:

• John Isner (USA) vs. Kevin Anderson (S.Africa)
• Radek Stepanek (CZH) vs. Lleyton Hewitt (GBR)
• Marcos Baghdatis (Cyprus) vs. Fabio Fognini (ITA) 
• Fernando Verdasco (SPA) vs. Juan Monaco (ARG)
• Feliciano Lopez (SPA) vs. Alejandro Falla (COL)
• Anderson / Querrey vs. Dolgopolov / Tsonga 
•  Berdrych / Zimonjic vs. Lipsky / Gonzalez

In total we spent nearly 12 hours at the stadium, saw 6 matches on over 5 different courts. It was a great experience and I'm very happy I got the opportunity to go (Thanks Alejandro!).

*Please note the following pictures were all taken from my iPhone and do not represent the best quality.

World No. 2 Novak Djokovic

World No. 3 Andy Murray

World No. 1 and dream guy Roger Federer

Roger and his fans

If you look closely, maybe you can see a piece of me lying on the ground underneath all the pushy Chinese fans.

So I didn't get my ticket signed, but I got to wear Alejandro's hat long enough for this picture. (Roger's signature is on the right side)

Double's match with Jitka's favorite: Czech star Berdych

Doubles match between Anderson / Querrey & Dolgopolov / Tsonga

Final match of the day on center court: Fernando Verdasco (SPA) vs. Juan Monaco (ARG)

Day trips: Suzhou and Hangzhou

Although I did not make the pilgrimage to Beijing during Golden Week, the girls and I were still able to make two day trips to the nearby cities Suzhou and Hangzhou.

Suzhou is on the lower end of the Yangtze River and has a series of canals throughout the city which has given it the reputation as the "Venice of the East". We coincidentally met some French girls there from our program there and decided to spend the day together. Our tourist activities included: a climb up the North Temple Pagoda, a boat ride along the moat surrounding the city, a visit to the Humble Administrator's Garden, and a walk down Ping Jiang Rd in the old town. Overall, I humbly found Suzhou to be nothing extraordinary but I found the day trip with the girls very nice and must say my favorite part was walking Ping Jiang in the old town and having dinner along the canal.

North Pagoda Temple

The Humble Administrator's Garden

In China, you hold hands with your best gal pals

On Friday, we went headed to Hangzhou which is known for its West Lake and Lingyin Temple, also known as the Temple of the Soul's Retreat. First we went to the temple and I finally got to see something which has been on my "must-see while in China" list: Buddhist grottoes! At Lingyin there are over 300 Buddha statues carved into the surrounding rock landscape. It.was.amazing. You could go through caves, climb up rocks, and take tons of pictures like a shameless Chinese tourist. After admiring the numerous rock carvings we entered the temple…and this is what I call a temple! Nothing like Jing'an in Shanghai. There were 4 or five halls each with a giant Buddha and other scary statue figures (maybe if I understood their meaning I wouldn't be so alarmed, but they definitely look like you wouldn't want to mess with them). After the temple we head back towards the city center and went for a boat ride on the West Lake. The West Lake was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011 and has influenced many poets and painters over time for its natural beauty. While on the boat ride, I could understand the Chinese appreciation for natural beauty, harmony, and tranquility. It was a most peaceful boat ride (even managed to put Anne to sleep!) We got off at a small island, made a quick walk around (took all about 20 minutes) and headed to the other side. We ended the day by walking down the main Hefang Street where we had a nice Chinese dinner. You know, I think we are getting better and better on knowing what to order because it was delicious!  I think we spent a whopping 20 euros for the whole day.

Feilai Feng Grottoes

Can you spot the Buddha?

Lingyin Temple

This one has four arms to beat you/pray? with!