Author: ascott

[ Sophie ] We awoke to a crisp cold morning in Xi’an, preparing our bags for the overnight train later today. We got on the buses and made our way to the area and once we arrived, as per usual, we were gawked at by all the locals (one even tried to film one of the boys.. it was quite entertaining to see the teachers shoo them away). We got to ride in these little shuttle carts that took us to the third digging site of the area after we gathered all our tickets and went through security. The Terracotta centre was mainly broken into three parts (three digging sites dare I say) that have the different areas where the figures were dug up. Before I continue this most exciting tale however, I should probably give some context.

Back in the good ol’ age of 1974, some farmers in need of water decided to dig a well (running water wasn’t available to them if you can believe that – shocking, huh?). After digging 20 metres into the ground, they discovered some old bricks. Why were they here? Well, they asked some archeologists the same question and after some digging around and dainty brushing off of some dirt, they had a proper answer. Basically, in short, the first Emperor of the Qin dynasty didn’t want to give up his pretty little crown and legacy so easily after he died, so he decided to take an army with him into the afterlife in hopes that he would keep his power with him. Don’t worry – they weren’t actual people he buried alive, they were made of clay. Every single one of them was distinct in one way or another so that it would feel more real. Unfortunately, when they brought the warriors into the light too long, the paint on them would fade within a few days. They have kept a majority underground to preserve the paint until they can one day produce the right technology to preserve the paint under the light. As well as the warriors, they found an underground temple as well. When they wanted to show to the public, they were worried about moving everything so they instead decided to build the entire centre around the discovery.

In the first digging site area, there wasn’t that much to see. Mainly landscapes of the temple and a few broken pieces of the warriors. The second area had a few more things to look at, including headless warrior men and a few clay horses. Some of the digging sites included little museums with some of the other warriors and horses, including possible designs for the warriors. Finally, in the final section, we saw what everyone was waiting for. There was a huge section of Terracotta warriors standing side by side with different facial features. Some had rad moustaches and others were clean shaven. Some had long hair and others had shorter, but either way, it was amazing to see this sort of thing so close. Overall, the day was fun for everyone! But the overnight train was just around the corner (quite literally).

[ Jackson ]
After seeing the warriors that were made of terracotta we had lunch/dinner at a restaurant. This involved eating some Chinese food such as rice and noodles. After the food we eventually made it to the train station. There, we had the opportunity to shop for second and third dinner that for most of us consisted of Chinese “two minute noodles” (that I find are not a good idea to eat). After what felt like three days we got onto the train. We were led to believe by Mr Toohey that it looked like the ‘Hogwart’s Express’, but this wasn’t the truth. Apart from the similar shade of brown/green the trains were completely different. We all got into the seventh carriage that was apparently A/a class. There were four people in each cabin and I was in cabin seven. I was highly optimistic when I laid my eyes on the tv. To my utter dismay I discovered that the tv was working but the only channel was a blue screen (I would have been happy with static). Apart from the unuseable tv I was enjoying the rough jolting and harsh swaying of the carriage. After my luxurious four hours of sleep I was awoken by Taine’s bag falling from the overhead compartment onto the ground. I was relieved that none of us had been killed by the falling luggage. Because we had four hours before we needed to get off at 8am I played ‘Exploding Kittens’ to blast the time away before getting off the ‘Hogwart’s Express’ train.

Dear Parents and friends,

We are beginning Day 11 of our trip and will spend time today at the Terracotta Warriors, before catching the overnight ‘Hogwart’s Express’ to Shanghai. We will arrive in the morning and go straight into our Great Race around Shanghai. Wifi will not be available for about 36 hours, so the next blog post will likely be Friday morning. All are travelling well! See you next Wednesday 👍

At the Huilin Community Centre we got to see what the mentally disabled people experience in China. They all seemed happy to participate in the activities we did such as singing, dancing, games and craft. They performed a song for us and we performed the Australian National Anthem; this was followed by more performances from other people at the Community Centre as well as a performance by Liana, Louise and Yvette. After this we sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in both English and Chinese with people at the Community Centre. We then did some dancing, games and ended with doing some of the Chinese crafts such as beading and paper cutting. The people at the Community Centre enjoy going to it as they are surrounded by friends and people who want them to be independent and have a good life. The staff even provide homes and carers for the people who live too far away. I thought this was a good experience to see how happy they were to be living there, not worrying about their disabilities.

After we said goodbye to the people at the Huilin Community centre, we headed to the train station and navigated our way to the Wild Goose Pagoda by subway. The teachers picked Ruby, Kevin and Lilly to find our way to get there. The subway in Xi’an was very crowded, and the train had barely any seats, so they could fit more people. There were safety doors so booth could jump onto the rails and they were always on time. This is very different to the Melbourne trains, as they’re not on time and not very crowded. This would be because the population is much smaller in Melbourne than in Xi’an.

We were then relieved to be exempted from the bustle of the subway and were able to take a bus to the city wall of Xi’an. The city wall was a relic of the city’s ancient past and a window to the history of China. Our tour guide Charles enlightened us with a saying:

“If you want to see 100 years of Chinese history go to Shanghai, if you want to see 600 years of China go to Beijing, if you want to see over 2000 years of China, go to Xi’an.”

At the walls our imaginations were put to work as we visualised hordes of invaders rushing against the formidable gate, fended off by the arrows and solid defences of the city in order to protect the treasures and wonders inside. This was our first glimpse into the history of Xi’an as the ancient capital of the first Emperor of China, QinShi Huangdi.

From the city wall there was a short walk back to our hotel in order to freshen up before dinner. For dinner, our constant stream of Chinese food was halted with a meal of pizza!
Prior to our meal we were selective over our choice of pizza whether it be with pineapple or vegeterian, however once the pizza was placed before our eyes, the type and flavour was voided insignificant as we wolfed down pizza along the length of the table. Ten pizzas were soon lined up and were even sooner devoured by the hungry mouths of 20 growing teenagers, calling for more pizzas for the table.

After our delicious meal we proceeded once again to the Muslim Quarter, a region of bargains and shopping. Hundreds of counterfeit goods and figurines galore. The sounds of bargaining rang through the shopping mall, cries of outrage and exclamations of joy. It can be fair to say that after an hour and a half of shopping our wallets were considerably lighter and arms laden with bags full of souvenirs and gifts.

This was the end of our action packed day, and another part of our journey completed, laying the foundations for the experiences to come.

By Joanna and Stephen

Happy birthday Heather!:) – Laura

Today was pretty much one of travel – from the Baibi Village in Guizhou Provence, to Guiyang airport by bus, then a flight from there to Xi’an, followed by an interesting bus ride into the centre of town. Let’s just say the bus driver knew how to manoeuvre his vehicle in heavy traffic!

There’s just a few pics from today…tonight we ventured out after dinner to explore the Muslim Quarter and its associated street market. We plan to return tomorrow night.

 

Today we visited the Baibi Village where we helped out the local community. We arrived at the primary school early in the morning where we helped to make a better school environment for the students there. We cleaned up the classrooms, swept the courts, painted the bare walls white and pained some murals on other bare walls. We also met a few local students who were at the school. The school was very plain and in some ways depressing. There was 1 main basketball court and the classrooms were not updated. The students were quite young and were excited when we came. We were excited too. We were invited into the home of the villagers’ leader. We tasted the perfectly cooked home grown meals and were very thankful to have these dishes. People had put in the effort to grow and hand pick each vegetable.

We walked around the village after the lunch break. Some of the villagers would spend their time gathering wood for a fire at night to keep them warm. Many of the people who own farms spend their time tending their crops so that they are reasonable to sell.

Manual labour was very common in the village. Apart from the people looking after farms, we saw people fixing drainage pipes and making the bricks to build some houses or to renovate an area. The village consisted of two main house types: the older style home (made out of mainly wood) and the newer built buildings (mostly concrete with a few windows). The housing in the village was very dull coloured and from afar, the one building that stood out was the freshly painted school. The reason for the older style being wood was because when the lower classes were forced to move, they came with minimal supplies and used the the wood from the fir trees in the area.

Chilli and rice farms are very common in this rural region. As we walked along the path to a nearby farm, we saw multiple farmlands. The area had lots of hills and mountaineous areas and steep slopes were common. As part of our community service, we visited a chilli and potato farm and hand picked chilli and sweet potatoes. We were fortunate to have a local farmer to open his farm for us. The villagers would dry their own crops so that they could preserve the crops for winter as some would be harder to grow.

We were able to also go into a villager’s house and got an insight of what their life was like living there. The rooms were fairly small and the second storey was used to store crops that had been harvested and dried such as corn and rice. The house also consisted of a guest room – they would clear the storage room to accomodate visitors overnight.

In the evening, we ventured out to another local Miao village for dinner. After this, the girls were offered the chance to dress up in traditional Miao garb…see our photo below!

Ruby & Angela

Hello everybody in Melbourne from Laura Bettess and Cameron Luyckx. Today we woke up after a restful sleep and got ready for a long bus trip to the Baibi village of the Miao people. This is where we will be doing our community service for the next 2 days. Today we headed away from the city and into the rural area. In the city and on the cruise we were used to the warm weather, however closer to the mountains there was a noticeable change. The climate was much cooler because we were entering the mountains.

As we entered the village we were welcomed by firecrackers, which gave everyone a fright. We were then greeted by some local people who held out a bowl that we drank from. The traditional way is to be greeted by local people offering rice wine because rice is the local produce of the area. We were all surprised and didn’t expect warm ‘Sprite’.

First we had lunch at the house of the chairman of the local branch of the communist party. They had prepared us a less spicy version of their traditional food that they produce locally. After we had lunch we visited the local school. We separated into groups and played games such as basketball and badminton. The school was very different to St Leonard’s and had a total number of 56 students. The school was in need of significant repair. The paint on the exterior of the buildings was in poor condition and the entrance of the school was hazardous. We then started our community service by scraping paint from the concrete floor, cleaning classrooms and painting the outside of the school. After a long day we came back and tried a local hot pot. It was a sour soup with Sichuan peppers.

Looking back on today the things we will remember the most is how happy the children were despite not having much. We also will remember the warm welcome given by the locals and the children. It was also noticed that the children were not very well behaved; they were very physical and quite aggressive with each other. This was something that was different from the St Leonard’s community that we are all used to.

Laura and Cameron