Xi'an, Day 2

We got out of the hotel at probably 10:30 on Sunday, and hit the streets to see the sights of Xi'an. First we went to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, which is in a Buddhist monastery. There's some legend behind it about a monk and a Monkey King, but I never quite understood exactly what was up.

Highlights of Big Wild Goose Pagoda:
1) breathtaking gardens surrounding the pagoda
2) a building containing a huge mural telling the story of Buddha, carved in different colors of jade. It was ridiculous artistry: a three-dimensional mural, with all of the faces and landscape and articles of clothing painstakingly carved out of various beautiful stones and fitted together in a giant masterpiece that covered three walls.
3) I saw a monk playing on his cell phone. This seemed contradictory to me somehow. Oh well.

Behind the pagoda was a huge plaza containing what our guide had informed us was the largest fountain in Asia. Boy, when Asia makes fountains, they do not mess around. It was a confusing taxi ride/walk to get around to the other side of the pagoda, and then we had to wait for the fountain to go off. In the meantime, I got some ice cream in my first ever visit to a KFC, anywhere in the world. Interestingly, KFC (Kan de ji or something in Chinese) is huge in China, far more popular than it is in the US, and more widespread than McDonalds, as far as I can tell. Anyway, I really needed soft serve ice cream, and it seemed like the place most likely to have it. It looked like vanilla but tasted like almonds. What can I say...it's China.

Also, while we waited for the fountain, Jacqui and Erika and Enrico and I were approached by several small children who had been sent over by their parents wanting to get a picture with us. Because obviously when you are at the biggest fountain in Asia, the real tourist attraction is non-Asian people. Hen hao! Also they were the cutest kids ever. The babies in China are totally adorable because their parents dress them in so many layers of clothing that they are about as wide as they are tall, little spherical child-bundles who can't put their arms down all the way. Also quite a few of them have those split-bottom pants that Chinese parents like to use instead of diapers. I suppose I can deal with that...saves on the waste from disposable diapers. Apparently Pampers is launching a huge campaign to get Asia to start using disposable diapers. Fabulous, because the world's largest population needs another way to mess up their environment even quicker. Hen hao!

When we were small-child-watching, I noticed that some of the little girls had sparkly feathery crowns with shiny dangly things on them, so I got one for myself at a little stand. I was in a cheerful mood, and it seemed like a good idea. Besides, obviously I wasn't conspicuous enough as is. Chinese people gave me the weirdest looks ever, which was amazing. A little girl who was in front of us at the edge of the fountain pointed at me and exclaimed with wide eyes "ni shi waiguoren!" (you're a foreigner!) I laughed and responded to her in Chinese...her parents may have been a little embarrassed, but I enjoyed it.

When the fountain went off, it was incredible. It was choreographed to kind of cheesy music, but the fountain itself was gigantic (football field, maybe? bigger?) and had so many kinds
of jets and streams of water playing in complicated patterns...we watched the entire show, which was about 20 minutes long. At night there are colored lights in the fountain, which is really awesome, although we had to meet to leave for Beijing at 4, so there was no other chance to see it at night. Oh well.

The cab driver back to the hotel tried to cheat us, but we knew from the paper CIEE had given us with travel suggestions that it was supposed to be a 6 kuai taxi ride back, and once we protested in Chinese he gave in pretty quick.

Other funny things that happened in Xi'an that I forgot to mention:
-we were in a mall, and the background they were playing was "Under the Sea" from the Little Mermaid
-I saw a lady with hair that was long on the sides but with a patch on top that was maybe 4 inches long and stuck straight up. It was not a good look for her. Or anybody, ever.
-we went to a sweet mosque on Saturday which was really pretty, and outside it was a bazaar where they sold traditional goods and practiced the traditional Chinese art of trying to fleece foreigners. Hen hao!