Health examination most important!

This morning I found out that my first class was canceled because I needed a health examination to remain in China. At 8:30 am two of my foreign companions and I were taxied to the Shaanxi International Travel Heathcare Center. After getting photographed and filling out paperwork, we were subjected to a series of health examinations. Some, like the blood test, seemed quite standard; others, like the x-ray and eye tests, seemed a little excessive; and others, like the ultrasound, were plain bizarre.

Reception desk. Paperwork, blood, and cash are taken here.

Radiology department

An explanation of the examination procedures (in chinese of course)

Eye examination. I used the eye test as a chance to practice my chinese numbers, which may have  led the nurse to suggest eyeglasses, but i'm not sure because her prognosis was in chinese

After we left the health clinic, we were taken to Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPD) to open an account. I was disappointed because I wanted to open an account at China Construction Bank (CBC). CBC has a partnership with Bank of America (BOA) which allows me to use my BOA card at their atm's and transfer money across banks with no foreign bank fee. However, SPD has a partnership with Siyuan University that allows students and faculty to open accounts without depositing a cent. So now I have an account at SPD bank and a bank card that will put me in the red if i mistakenly use it.

By the time we finished banking it was 12 pm and none of us had eaten all day (we were not allowed to eat before the health exam). We stopped at a fast food restaurant called Best Food. It was on par with McDonalds in terms of offerings and quality, so I wouldnt exactly call it the best food, but it got the job done. Afterwords we stopped into Dunkin' Donuts for coffee.

Most normal doughnut: Boston Creme. Least normal doughnut: "Pork Floss"

The Muslim quarter of Xi'an

Yesterday I ventured into the city for the second time. This time I went deeper into the old city to see some of the more famous sites in Xi'an. At the center of the city is the Bell Tower and Drum Tower. It costs 40 Yuan to see both towers, and for an additional fee you can ring the bells or beat the drums. I decided I would save these monuments for another trip.

The underpass beneath the bell tower. The halls are lined with vendors selling souvenirs. 

North of the Bell Tower is the famous Muslim quarter of Xi'an. The Hui people (chinese muslims) are the most visible and famous minority in Xi'an, despite there being only 30,000 in the city. The Muslim quarter is know for its narrow streets lined with vendors and delicious street food.

The entrance gate to the Muslim quarter

The streets of the Muslim quarter

While in the Muslim quarter I bought a new wallet and sampled fried quail egg and pear tea. I stopped into a restaurant for dinner where I ordered a dish that Xi'an is famous for. I'm not confident I can spell its chinese name, but it is essentially bread and lamb soup. When you order the dish, you are given two disks of tough bread which you break up into little pieces into a bowl. When you are done your server takes your bowl and fills it with broth, noodles and lamb. The broth is very flavorful and is absorbed by the bread. The dish is served with chili paste and pickled garlic on the side.

Lamb and bread soup, side of pickled garlic

My teaching schedule

Yesterday I was finally briefed on my teaching responsibilities. I met with the Dean of the International School who emphasized the importance of encouraging students to speak in class. My supervisor gave me my weekly teaching schedule and my class materials.

Class Schedule. I teach Tuesday through Saturday for a total of 22 hours/week.

All of my classes except for the one on Friday are in the Sino-Canadian program. These students take classes here at Siyuan University, but graduate with a degree from Mohawk College in Canada. It is one of the more rigorous programs offered at this university. The Sino-Canadian program has its classes on a different campus that is about a ten minute walk from my dorm. The other class is on the main campus.

The main building on the International campus, home of the Sino-Canadian program. The other campuses have distinctly chinese architecture.

 I will have a text book to work with for my Tuesday and Wednesday morning classes and my Thursday afternoon classes. These students are Sophomores and Freshmen with basic english skills. My Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning classes have not textbook and are with upperclassmen who are more advanced. My Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon classes are one-on-one tutoring sessions with two freshmen students who I met with yesterday.

My first trip into the city

Yesterday I ventured into the city of Xi'an for the first time. According to wikipedia, Xi'an had a population of 8 million in 2005, so it is probably nearing 9 million today. When i got off the bus at the second ring road in south city, I was struck by how modern and busy Xi'an seemed.

Looking north across the second ring road. The short building on the left is Xi'an's massive public library.

Looking west along the second ring road.

I opted to see the old city first. The old city is the center of Xi'an; it took me about 45 minutes on foot to reach the south gate of the old city from the second ring road. The old city is surrounded by huge stone walls and a moat that date back thousands of years to when Xi'an was the imperial capital of China.

The moat and city walls that surround the old city

The bridge into the old city

This is a gate to a neighborhood just inside the city walls

Straddling either side of the wall is very expensive real estate. The blocks leading up to  and  in to the old city were lined with very high end retail like gucci, prada, and others. There were many high end hotels crawling with BMW's and private security guards.

I didn't have enough time to really explore the old city, so I headed back to the second ring road where I was meeting a friend. On the way back I noticed the many Xi'an metro stations on the street. Xi'an's metro is still under construction so I could not use it to get back, but the line on this street should be finished while i'm here. Xi'an is the first city in western China to have a metro system.

Metro station under construction

While I waited for my friend I explored the 'upstairs downstairs' market. It is a cross between a bazaar and a strip mall with over 200 shops selling everything from clothing to guitars to school supplies. I got many stares at this market, because I was the only white person in a sea of thousands of chinese shoppers. I bought a pair of sunglasses so I could more discreetly stare back at them.

Upstairs downstairs market

I met my friend outside of McDonald's. I encountered more foreigner's here than in the rest of my five hour journey into the city.

Pizza Hut - a fine dining restaurant in China

My dorm at Xi'an Siyuan University

Here are some pictures of my new home for the next year.

Here is the sign outside my building. All of the foreigners will live here, but right now it is just me and a Canadian teacher.

Front door of my room

My kitchen

My desk next to my kitchen. I have since moved the TV into storage. All the programming is in a language I cannot understand, so I will have little use for it.

My bed. The picture makes it look small, but it is a double and plenty long enough. It did not come with sheets; luckily i kept the blanket from my Air China flight.

My sink and laundry machine. The mirror above the sink is too low for me.

My bathroom. There is no separation between the shower and the toilet.  Luckily the toilet is western style rather than a squatter.

The view from my window.

Arrival in China

My flight from Los Angeles to Beijing took 12 hours. Luckily I sat with two very nice girls from Ecuador who kept me company when I was awake. They spoke english and mandarin fluently, and wrote down a few chinese phrases to help me get started in China.

We landed in Beijing at 4am China time. The airport was enormous and very empty. There were no agents at the domestic transfer gate until 5:30, so the other foreigners and I wandered around for the first hour trying to figure out where to go to make our connections.

Best sellers at the bookstore across from gate 31

While I waited for my connection to Xi'an, the stories I had heard about chinese hygiene were confirmed. I watched a man in an expensive suit lean against a pole in the middle of the hallway and hock a loogie for five minutes. By the time he was done there was a noticeable pile of spit in the middle of the airport. I will spare you the photo.

As the sun rose I could see that the airport was blanketed with a think layer of smog that obscured most of the airport from view. The smog made it almost possible to look directly at the sun without burning through your eyes. Here are some pictures of the airport to give you an idea.

Outside gate 31 waiting for the bus to our plane

Planes on the tarmac

You can barely make out the buildings across the runway

Our plane took off at 8am. Our two hour flight to Xi'an included a hot breakfast, a blanket and a pillow (all I got on my four hour flight to Los Angeles was a bag of pretzels and a water). There were noticeably fewer foreigners on this flight, and when we arrived a the airport there was noticeably less english. I was picked up at the airport by my supervisor Vivian. The ride from the airport to Siyuan University was about an hour. The level of smog in Xi'an was comparable to Beijing. What I could see out my window impressed me. We drove by a nuclear facility that had at least eight cooling towers. There were several spots along the highway where a dozen or so high-rise buildings would sit surrounded by farms (soybeans I think) and other low density land uses.

High rises in the 'middle of nowhere'

All of the high rises in this picture are under construction

Etiquette on chinese roads is very different from america. Our driver used the left lane to speed as fast as he could. When he caught up to a vehicle in front of him he honked repeatedly until it moved out of our way. Sometimes the vehicle would ignore his honking and we would weave through the other lanes to get in front. I say vehicle because most things on the highway were not cars, but rather some form of truck that does not exist in america. There were a few trucks that had three wheels. There were also honda's and chevy's on the road that look just like they do in america.
When we got off the highway and onto local roads, the driving conditions became markedly more dangerous. Drivers on the road ignored the lanes in order to bypass slower traffic. Our car spent about a third of its journey in darting in and out of on-coming traffic. Most of the slower traffic we were bypassing on the local roads were bicycles and farm machinery (i think), but there were also pedestrians crossing the road, including children and the elderly.