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Welcome to Inner Mongolia
We (parents) got the word yesterday that the Journey East II team made it safely to Hohhot (see map). Whew. Another
emotional milestone. The kids (and adults) will settle in here for the next ten days. They’ll leave for Beijing on the 23rd, where they’ll particpate in a fewell banquet.
With some stability in their location (Hohhot), we are looking forward to a steady flow of student reports, correspondence, and photos this coming week.
Tonight, the grroup will attend a welcoming banquet/ceremony at the Hohhot Performing Arts College.
But before we move on to photos and reports from Hohhot, let’s take another look at some of the events that took place in Xi-an . . .
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REPORT 13 -- Marcus, April 11
XI’AN After a long last couple of days we finally had a day when we could sleep in a little. We
didn’t have to be downstairs until 9. It seems some people are getting sick, or are just really tired.
Everyone is taking advantage of McDonalds and KFC, both within walking distance of the
Melody Hotel. The food at both places is almost as bad as the fast food places in the States, but looks and tastes a lot better. It is also a lot cheaper than the McDs and KFCs at home.
We got on the bus with Mrs. Ma (our tour guide) at 9:30 and headed off to the Forest of Stone Tablets which holds 1,000 stone tablets on each of which was carved Confucian wisdom. It took about
three months to chisel one tablet.
We walked into a building that had many different types of Buddhas. Mrs. Ma said that the reason there are so many different expressions of Buddha
is that the original Buddha only had three expressions. However, Buddha had many disciples and each one could change into many different shapes with just as many expressions. Yet even with so
many, there is only one female shape. (There are four main religions in China: Buddhism, Islam, Daoism and Christianity. Of the four, Daoism is the only religion that originated in China.)
At the Forest, we met another group, associated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was looking at art all over China with a guide who is the leading expert in Asian Studies from the
Met. They were surprised with our knowledge of China.
After performing “Imagine” in the Forest of Stone Tablets, we headed to a jade factory. Xi’an is known for its
production in silk and jade. At the factory, we learned that jade, like other precious stones, is measured by its hardness. (With a hardness of 10, diamond is the hardest stone.) Jadeite
is the hardest type of jade, with a hardness of 8.5. To find if a piece of jade is real or not, one can try to cut glass with it. This is because the hardness of glass is 3 and since the
softest jade is 4, even the softest jade will cut glass.
Some jade is transparent and under light, it will be either transparent or translucent.
The store said that it would
cut its prices by half, the products were still quite expensive. The prices ran from 50 yuan for a small piece of jade to 950,000 yuan for a tea pot. We left soon after and no one but two
people bought anything.
After lunch, we had a talk with Wang Ping who had been raised in China during the Cultural Revolution. Her stories were touching and  meaningful. At 3:30, we had rehearsal in the park across from the hotel. While we sang and danced, an audience gathered and loved what we were doing. They
were clapping and smiling even though they couldn’t understand what we were saying. Everyone will be surprised by the group’s performance level when we
get back. Today was great and tomorrow we head off to Hohhot for 12 days. We all miss our parents and I hope everyone back home is fine.
With that, here are a few quotes from Confucius.
- “If I teach three men, I will find my teacher among them.”
- “If you know, say you know. If you don’t know, don’t pretend you know.”
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