Pingliang

Hey everyone! Well, I had a great time last weekend in Pingliang, and have posted some pictures as well in case you have some time to check them out. The town is primarily 40% Muslim villagers, and has less people than Xi'an (however that is still 200,000 people).

The bus ride to Pingliang was quite the adventure as we apparently had chosen the non-express bus when we purchased our tickets. The bus ride added an extra hour to our trip, and included stops in every village on the way to pick up as many as people as we could fit in the bus. It is illegal to stop to pick up people that did not originally start on the bus in Xi'an; however, bus drivers that drive the back roads through the villages instead of taking the highway, see it as their way to make some extra money. So, it was definitely an interesting experience along the way.

Once we arrived in town we went to a local restaurant for some dishes of mutton, eggplant, and vegetables before heading out to explore the city. We did a little walking through the city's main street and back alleys and just enjoyed seeing the people out and about for the day. Of course I got many stares as well since I was one of a few foreigners in that town. That night for dinner we went to eat hot pot at the best hot pot restaurant, and luckily it was not dog hot pot. In all seriousness, in smaller towns dog is served as a main dish. There is a new law that has been passed that severely fines people that are caught serving dog, but it may take awhile to change people serving dog in small towns such as this one. Thankfully my friend does not eat dog meat and knows which places serve it and which ones don't, so we did not eat at any of the ones that did. We finished off the evening with an old movie that our Chinese teachers picked out called "Love Potion Number 9." If you don't remember it, it is one of the very first movies that Sandra Bullock filmed.

Sunday was another great day as we went down to the biggest park in town. This park has walking trails, a lake, and a small amusement park area as well. Again we had a lot of fun walking around and seeing people out at the park with their families for the day. We also did one round of bumper cars and had every Chinese person in the area watching us, but we had so much fun. After leaving the park we stopped in a few stores to visit some of the vendors that my friend has become friends with. For lunch that day we ate noodles with beef and vegetables, and for dinner we had ribs, all of which were really good.

On Monday morning my friend had to go to work, as her town decided to take Friday off for Labor Day (in China it is always on May 1) instead of Monday, so we were able to join her for one of her classes and meet her students before leaving town. My friend teaches at a vocational school that has a contract to allow my friend and the other foreigners there to teach an American curriculum all in English to these students. They are taught math, science, geography, computer skills, etcetera, but all in English. My friend on this particular day was teaching a phonics class when we observed. The students did very well and I was really impressed with this school and how they incorporate learning English with learning other subjects too. And after a lunch of dumplings with all the teachers from the school, my Chinese teacher and I headed back to Xi'an - this time on the express bus.

I had a great weekend and enjoyed my visit to Pingliang. Just like each of the states are different in America, cities here are quite different and I enjoy being able to see those differences. One thing I especially enjoyed seeing on this trip was the mountains. I have always loved the beach and the mountains, so I was very happy to see three different mountains in Pingliang.

Well, I will close for now, but hoping that you all are doing well and enjoying the warmer weather.