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| The Bell Tower--time to wake up! |
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| South Gate of Xi'an City Wall |
Muslim Quarter
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| The Drum Tower--time to go to bed |
One of the sites to see in Xi’an is the Muslim quarter.
There is very little religious practice here in China, but those that are
religious, are allowed to practice their beliefs. That extends to those that are Muslim. There is an area of the old city that the
Muslims have made their home for many years.
It is a very interesting and lively area that is fun to visit. Think
Chinatown in San Francisco, in reverse!
There are fun street markets and
restaurants to visit, and many tourist items and knockoffs of every variety
available for visitors to take home. At night it is awash with many lights and
street activity, unless it’s Friday night, when it is calm and many shops are
closed for the Muslim call to prayers.
This area lies right next to the Drum Tower, an historic building of
Xi’an. We are a bus ride away from this
area and we visit it often, since it’s a lively place to shop and to
eat! If you visit one or two days before
a Muslim feast day, you can pick out your goat or lamb for your feast. It’s an
area that is top on our list!
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| Sweet potatoes deep fried! |
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| cooking on the street |
If you are lucky you might even visit with a few monks. We see them often-- I think they are really Jedi Knights!
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| White or spotted for dinner? |
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| Sheep feet, anyone? |
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| Mutton for dinner |
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| Even the dogs are dressed up in the Muslim Quarter |
Our Church Life
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| Xi'an Branch Conference |
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| Relief Society Social |
The group that we’re representing here in China is Brigham
Young University which is sponsored by the LDS (Mormon) church. On Sundays we
also worship with a branch of our church with about 25 members. Many of us are teaching here, plus there are
a few families that are working here in China. We help each other with many
things. For example, some are computer experts and some have been here for a
few years so they know where we can find what we need (like dentists, for
example)! It’s nice to have support from others. They serve as a substitute
family for us while we navigate our foreign experiences. As we prepare to
celebrate Christ’s birth, and the gift that He has given the world, we feel
blessed to practice what we believe and spend this time with new friends here.
Infrastructure
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| HIgh voltage wires come out of the ground and over the wall |
You have to have electricity to survive in the modern world.
Residents of the good old USA are familiar with safety codes regulating fire
exits, electrical connections and plumbing. Well any electrical inspectors or
fire marshals coming to China had better close their eyes! There are wires
hanging out of the trees, there are wires tied up with zip ties. There are wires
coming up out of the ground and connections not in junction boxes with no tape
or wire connectors. Watch out what you touch! Our apartment has 1 or 2 electrical
receptacles per room. The receptacle accepts two types of plugs, but only has
one of each in the electrical outlet. Needless to say we have extension cords and
power strips going everywhere to give us the juice we need.
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| wiring ingenuity at work |
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| Now, which wire goes to my house? |
After years of America buying all of their Christmas decorations from China, China is now increasingly celebrating the commercial aspects of the holiday. There are Christmas decorations everywhere. (Most look like they came from the Dollar Store!) We receive many Merry Christmas greetings during the day from passersby. This has softened the blow of being so far from home, friends and family during this time of the year.
We have tried to keep the spirit of the season alive by listening to Handel's Messiah over and over. The Grinch has made numerous appearances to our Chinese students. Thanks to every student having a video phone, the Grinch is now posted somewhere on the Chinese equivalent of YouTube. Even though Christmas is beginning to be celebrated here, we still had a full week of teaching. We each had six hours of class on Christmas Day. We had not been up at 6:00 AM on Christmas morning for many years!
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