My Happy International Traveling Discovery

So exciting!! I discovered that all of the charging cords for my Apple products (my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook) come with their own voltage converters! Which is so super fantastic since the power adapters and converters you buy for international travel cannot be used for prolonged periods, electronics, or computers. The battery charger for my camera has the same deal! So love it.

The Church in Xiamen

Church in Xiamen is only two hours long! From 10 am to 12 noon. We go to the Branch President’s home here in Xiamen where he has a bunch of chairs, a table for the sacrament, a laptop, and conference-call phone all set up and prelude music playing. The branch is a virtual branch held via Skype and conference call for people that reside allover China (basically everyone else that doesn’t live in Chengdu, Xi’an, Shanghai, or Beijing).

The branch presidency counselor, who resides in a different city, conducted my first Sunday in Xiamen. He made some announcements for their branch and reminded everyone listening in of the laws and regulations against proselyting while in China. Then we sang the opening hymn, had an opening prayer, called a sister to be Relief Society secretary, and sang a sacramental hymn. Then they muted the conference call for eight minutes while everyone at each location blesses and passes the sacrament. Then we got back on the call to listen to two speakers, sang a closing hymn, and had a closing prayer followed by a ten-minute break.

After that, they conducted a roll call to take attendance of who all was listening in. There must have been a dozen or so cities called out over the conference call to see if anyone was in attendance from those cities. We had the biggest group in attendance with 14 of us (10 from BYU, the branch president and his wife, and two others). Other groups were only handfuls: two, four or five people at each location. Then we resumed with a speaker, who happened to be the other counselor in the branch presidency. He told us about his experiences with the church in other foreign countries where he has lived, and he has lived in a lot of foreign countries! Then we closed with prayer and that was it.

The Xiamen Luxury Hotel

Luxury indeed. This hotel is what I’m dubbing “authentic”… ha ha! It’s definitely not as nice as the hotel that we stayed at in Xi’an.

• Our room smelled musty when I first arrived and the duvet cover on the bed felt damp to sit on or get under. It got a little better after we turned the air conditioning back on.
• There are markings and splatterings of who-knows-what on the walls of our hotel room.
• The bed is quite hard although I slept just fine on it.
• The room definitely feels dirty although doesn’t look it… too bad anyway.
• I’m kind of scared to brush my teeth with tap water…. so I’ve been using bottled water since tap water in China is known to not be potable (generally).
• The shower is a bit scary but the hotel provides plastic Adidas-style sandals that I’ve been using in the shower.
• Breakfast provided by the hotel is rice and some very “authentic” looking toppings that I don’t think I’m going to ever try; or some milk, a boiled egg, and a steamed roll, which I will eat.
• Wi-Fi is only available in the lobby, although I can only handle being in the lobby so long as it is not air-conditioned nor is it smoke-free.
• Something the hotel is doing right: universal plugs in the rooms! That means I can plug in my American appliances without an adapter. Nicely done, Xiamen Luxury Hotel.

Interesting Cultural Findings (Part I)

I noticed that many cars had red ribbons or strips of red fabric tied to the undersides of their bumpers so I asked Chen, our tour guide, about it and she said it was for good luck.

The heat is so oppressive here! So much so that a ton of women and some men use umbrellas for shade. Some men also roll up their shirts to expose their bellies. And now I know why the Chinese are famous for their beautiful fans – because it is so blasted hot here!

It’s true, the Chinese have squat toilets here. The first one I glimpsed was in the Xi’an airport while Chen and I were waiting for the BYU group to show up. She showed me that you have to grab your toilet paper out by the sinks first before going into the stalls, so I grabbed mine and then promptly walked past the nasty looking squat toilets to the western toilets they have for the disabled.

Crazy freaking driving. No need to really obey traffic lights. Cars in front of you in the right turn lane not going fast enough or turning? Just pull out to the left of them and turn around them. Only three lanes but people aren’t driving fast enough for your liking? Drive in between in them or go into the oncoming traffic lanes to get around them. The oncoming traffic will slow down or stop to let you finishing getting around the slow pokes. Need to turn left on a busy street with no light? Just start nosing in. Traffic will stop for you, one lane at a time. Same for u-turns.

Three-wheeled bicycles with a trailer over the two back wheels. I see them everywhere! Hauling trash bags piled so high that you think it is impossible for them to be piled that high and wide. Or hauling grapes and dried sunflower heads. Or anything!

The Chinese don’t have cherry blossoms in their art. That is Japanese. The Chinese have plum blossoms (which look a lot like cherry blossoms). They also have bamboo leaves for art. The two (bamboo and plum blossoms) together mean balance, and represent men and women. The bamboo is straight and tall but bent a little at the top representing virtue and humility. The plum flower represents an open heart and beauty even in trials because it blooms in the snow and winter. It is common to see paintings of bamboo and plum blossoms hanging in Chinese homes.

I accidentally had my name written in Chinese characters while at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. I say “accidentally” because it was expensive! And the guy was a little wily about doing it – he said, “You want me to write your name? My calligraphy is free! You only pay for the cost of the paper.” So I said sure. And then he charged me 100 Yuan (about $16) for it! Wah! If I’ve learned anything in China so far it is that everything is incredibly cheap! Almost too cheap by American standards. So paying $16 for that paper… rip off for sure. Oh well. When written out in Chinese characters, my name means: outstanding/perfect, West (as in the opposite of East), and good quality.

When I say cheap, I mean cheap. For example, we rode the bus 45 minutes to get to church my first Sunday in Xiamen and it only cost 1 Yuan which is roughly 16 cents. 16 cents for a bus ride!! 

Xi'an

Xi’an was the capital of China for 1,100 years and 13 imperial dynasties. Have you ever heard of the Silk Road, between Europe and China? Yeah, Xi’an was also the destination city of thousands of foreign Silk Road traders. My favorite stuff that we did in Xi’an was go for a bike ride on the city wall that encompasses downtown Xi’an and see the Terra Cotta Warriors and the Great Mosque.

Riding on the Xi'an City Wall

It was just so much fun to get on a bike! Even if the front wheel sounded like it was going to fall off. We didn’t get to ride all the way around (which would have been almost 10 miles), but we had 45 minutes to ride, take pictures, and goof off. I wore a skirt that day so it was an adventure to remain modest while riding. The city wall that exists today was built during the Ming Dynasty, which lasted from 1368-1644, and it has been restored nicely since then.

At the Terra Cotta Warriors

The Terra Cotta Warriors were definitely a highlight. There are over 8,000 warriors. The emperor Qin Shi Huangdi built them in the 3^rd century BC (he reigned during the late Zhou and the early Qin Dynasties from 247 to 210 BC). BC! A farmer digging a well discovered them in 1974, and the farmer himself was there the day we visited. So I shook his hand. That’s what he does there. He just sits there to shake visitors’ hands. And to sign a book and have people pay to take his photo. Ha! The warriors are all about 5 feet 10 inches tall and each have a different facial expression and look. They say no two warriors are the same. All of the warriors that are standing erect and put together…. yeah, they weren’t found that way. Archeologists put them back together from all of the original broken pieces. Talk about a crazy, hard puzzle. And they are still “actively” excavating the site today, although we didn’t see much activity happening.

At the Great Mosque

And then the Great Mosque was definitely one of my faves. The mosque is actually for Muslims…. Yeah, there are Chinese Muslims. In fact, we found out that our tour guide is Muslim. The Mosque was also built during the Ming Dynasty in entirely traditional Chinese style and architecture. It was beautiful! And so peaceful. Apparently, we were there too close to the 6 pm prayer time, otherwise we could have gone into the prayer hall. After that, we shopped in the market there in the Muslim Quarter neighborhood. I had fun bargaining with the shopkeepers!

Some of the other things we did in Xi’an:

• Terra Cotta Warrior factory – we got to see how the Terra Cotta Warriors are made … and I bought a few.
• We ate a dumpling banquet with at least 15 or 20 different types of dumplings (fillings). These dumplings were how we know them in the states – like pot stickers.
• Big Wild Goose Pagoda – a Buddhist temple with some pretty grounds and an amazing Jade mural of Sakyumani’s life on three walls. Everything in those murals was made of Jade. Apparently, Sakyumani was a famous Buddha.
• Shaanxi History Museum
• A Han Emperor and Empress Tomb site (Han Dynasty, 206 BC – AD 220) with 81 pits of little clay men and some clay concubines too!

To see more pics of China, go to my Flickr account. 

More of the Great Mosque

More of the Great Mosque

Muslim Quarter market

One of the cool bikes 

Another bike

Dumpling banquet

Another building part of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda grounds

at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda

The Jade mural of Sakyumani's life at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda

Flight Over to China

The flight over was not nearly as eventful as I feared it might be. My mother ship suitcase was too heavy – by 10 pounds so I had to pull out some things from it and carry them on. So I had a heavy backpack and a heavy messenger bag to carry on. I wasn’t too excited about that, but it was better than having to throw stuff out or pay a fee. Total flight time was 17 hours and I had two layovers: a 5-hour one in Los Angeles and a 4-hour one in Seoul, South Korea. So total travel time was 26 hours and I arrived in China two days later (as in, I left Utah Tuesday night and arrived in China Thursday morning).

The "Big Juan" that took me over the Pacific Ocean

 I was a little worried about the layover in South Korea. Were the signs going to be in English? Or will people help me find my gate if not? I’m used to layovers being in the U.S. and then just following the picture of the suitcase after arriving in the foreign country that is my destination. To my amazement, the Seoul-Incheon International Airport was fabulously nice! Lovely bathrooms that were clean and nice. Everything was in English. And shops that rival the nicest malls in America – Cartier, Tiffany’s, Mulberry, Coach, etc. The Xi’an airport was a little bit different. They have one terminal that is older and not as nice, which is the one I flew into. I read the sign for claiming stuff in customs several times to make sure I wasn’t bringing any contraband into the country. Thankfully, Chinese customs only consisted of me putting my mother ship onto an x-ray/scanning machine and then I was Scott-free.

Sitting at my gate in the Seoul-Incheon International Airport

 My next scary moment was who was picking me up? I was told that a travel agent was going to hold my name on a sign and pick me up, but was it going to be some scary person that would kidnap me and turn me into a slave?! Thankfully, no. It was a woman about my same age named, Chen. She was our tour guide for the whole weekend! And she was wonderful. She and I ended up hanging out a lot together on Thursday as the rest of my BYU group was late coming into Xi’an due to a delayed departure.

As for jet lag, I didn’t really have it; or at least I didn’t get it very bad. I felt a little tired in the late afternoon after we picked up the BYU group, but I stayed awake, didn’t need a nap, and was able to go to bed and sleep at the normal hours and through the night. But! I didn’t escape the kankles (aka massively swollen ankles). It took two days to get rid of them. Wow.