Day 4

August 24, 2010 - Xi'an, Shaanxi Provence, China

The day before, at registration, my teacher told me that I would need to get a medical exam in order to extend my student visa and stay in the country for longer than 30 days. He said that I could take the exam anytime in the next month, but that this week was best as next week would see an influx of students at all the local universities, and an increase in individuals going in for the exam. He carefully cut out four of my photos and gave me a slip of paper with instructions on it. He said a taxi would be best and should cost around 15RMB.

I got up early, showered, and prepared by looking up the phrase "Where is the taxi stand" on my translator. I left the hotel before 7am and asked guards at every gate, all of whom pointed me ever onward. I stood on Shi Da Road for some time as the guards attempted to flag a taxi for me. A half hour passed with no luck. They suggested I try Chang An, so I walked down to the corner and tried further. I asked a woman at a street cart, but she ignored me. I waited another half hour and decided that today would not be my day. The bus was also an option, but when the proper bus pulled up, it looked like this:


The K631 Bus. There wasn't room for me to ride this bus.

Mornings on Chang An are beyond busy. Cars, buses, scooters, bicycles whizzing in every direction. There are separate lanes for the buses to travel on, and a separate lane for the bikes and scooters. Xiao Liu has assured me that there is reason behind all of this, but too often I've found myself dodging a honking car only to come face-to-face with a bus, and then dodging the bus by leaping onto the sidewalk to stare down a scooter. The traffic here is chaos like you wouldn't believe, with every manor of vehicle vying for dominance on the road.

The scooters occupy an interesting niche in the pack. They drive on the main road, as well as in the bicycle lane. They can even drive on the sidewalks if they so choose. If you stand still in this town long enough, scooters will mark a path around you. They also seem to exist in their own legal space. I've seen whole families riding on one scooter, I'd seen men with boxes strapped 6 feet high on the back of their scooter, today I saw a man, and this is no exaggeration, with two full halves of a butchered pig bungee-corded to his scooter with nothing between the pig and the air but the elastic bands. On rainy days, the scooter riders drape plastic ponchos over themselves as they zip along. It gives them the appearance of a moving circus tent.


Scooter Riders. A couple ride a scooter down Shi Da Road.

In lieu of going to the Doctor's Office, I chose to eat a meal in the dining hall for the very first time. I had just gotten my Student Card the day before and had yet to use it. I walked through the gates, past the library, and into the dining hall.


The Dining Hall. Like the interior of most buildings here, it looks like a government facility. Because, it is.

The Dining Hall consists of a long counter divided into a series of windows. Each window lists a specific food and its price. I'm not certain if the food present at the windows is the same as listed, but I doubt it is always the case. The section labeled 没饭 does serves rice, at least. Each window is also fitted with a small machine. When you order something, the person types something into the machine and the price pops up on the display screen. You then place your card against the machine and it deducts the appropriate amount of money from your account.

I had two items for breakfast. The first was a local delicacy that looks like a pizza.


Sānjiǎo Bǐng(三角饼 lit. "Triangle Pastry"). It looks like a pizza, but it isn't.

I had known before I bought it that it was not a pizza. Xiao Liu and I discussed American food the day before and she mentioned that there was a local dish that looked like pizza. That dish, as it turns out, was Sanjiao Bing.

The second item I had was a kind of bun called a baozi.



Bāozi (包子 lit. "steamed stuffed bun"). The delicious buns I had for my first dining hall breakfast.

The baozi were absolutely phenomenal. They contained a mix of vegetables and maybe rice or cellophane noodles. Xiao Liu said they also had a bit of meat, but I couldn't tell either way. She had a good laugh when I tried to talk about them. I had asked a girl at the table next to me what they were called, and I thought she had said saozi (嫂子). Saozi means sister-in-law. "How can you eat your sister-in-law?" Xiao Liu laughed.

I tried to buy an orange juice from the dining hall, but was informed that since the person who sells them was not at her stall I could not buy one. I guess each stall can only ring up one type of item. I went outside and across the street to the small market and bought one there.


"Orange Juice." Minute Maid Orange Juice, or so it claims.

Orange juice here is strange. Or at least in my experience. It's not so much juice as Tang with pulp floating in it. And not just a little pulp, like Simply Orange levels of pulp. The Chinese love drinks with stuff floating in it.

I spent most of the day in my room, resting. I decided to go to dinner since breakfast had been such a success. Dinner would be slightly less so. My first course was a cold noodle bowl with some pepper sauce and sesame oil. Delicious.


Cold Noodles. They were really flavorful.

The second thing I went for was the duck. If you know me, if you've been to Chinese restaurants with me, you know I love duck. I motioned for the butcher to cut me a piece, he grabbed one of the ducks and cut off a few slices. He weighed them out: 5RMB. It seemed like a fortune compared to everything else, but oh, well: It's duck! Yes, but its duck in China. I was a bit confused by it, as it seemed to be mostly fat.


Duck. Or, well, duck fat.

I ate what meat I could find and then a few pieces of fat thinking maybe that's the way its supposed to be. After a few bites, I gave up on it and tossed it out. I asked Xiao Liu the next day if that was correct, if it was supposed to be mostly fat. I felt like I'd been gypped. She informed me that it was correct. Apparently, you eat it with white rice.

I perused the line one last time and grabbed two of what I thought were baozi to take back to my room. They looked identical, but it would turn out that they were not, in fact, baozi. They were just the bread part, no filling. Oh well, at least breakfast was awesome.

One item I did not partake in:


Pig Hearts. The heart of a pig, roasted until golden...maroon.

Hayden