Today was a travel day to Guilin but my flight wasn’t until 6 PM. The highlight of the day was the Bei-Yuan-Men Muslim Culture Street, which was both fantastic and frustrating. Fantastic because it was filled with vendors preparing strange food right on the street. Frustrating because I knew I could not allow myself to try any of it.

Before I show pictures of the street, I’d like to share what I learned about the Chinese College admittance procedure from Ann. Skip down if this doesn’t interest you.

First off, they go to Primary school 1-6 at the Chinese age of 6. They have a similar way of computing ages that Korea does. You’re one year old when you’re born and you change your age at the Chinese New Year, not on your birthday.

Then they go to Junior Middle School, called grades 7-9, like in the US. Finally they go to Senior Middle School grades 1-3, like our grades 10-12. High school is not free but scholarships are offered to some talented poor students. If students fail exams that take place after junior middle, they can go to technical schools or just enter the work place. About 15% go to college and it’s again not free except for poor students.

There’s one college entrance exam for the whole country, always held from June 7-9 every year. They start preparing for this exam in primary school. After they get their scores, they give a ranked list of their top 8 university choices. Their application goes to their no. 1 choice and if that university accepts them they have to go there. If that university does not accept them, their application is sent to #2 and so on.

Universities look at nothing besides scores on the 3-day exam, grades are irrelevant. Until last year students needed to choose their list of 8 before knowing their scores. The answers were available but you didn’t know the score for sure. Now you wait until you have the score. She went to a lower level school because she thought her scores were lower than they were. She wanted to go to one of the top 10 schools in the country but didn’t bother to apply and she would have made it had she known her score.

Before checking out from the hotel at 1:30, I noticed the elevator showed no 4th, 13th, or 14th floors. Ann said that 4 is a very unlucky number in China since the word for 4 sounds like the word for death. I assume that there’s no 13 because of the Western fear of 13, based on Judas being the 13th disciple at the Last Supper.

No 4th, 13th, or 14th floors

The street goes for 1.1 kilometers (0.7 miles) and smelled great from all the cooking. It was full of people but not packed. I didn’t see a single European looking person during my hour and a half or so. I was in heaven. Actually, one view of hell is to be put in a place that looks like your personal heaven but you are not allowed to be part of it. If so, I was in hell.

I was a tiny bit tempted to try something when Ann pointed out her favorite restaurant on the street. She hasn’t gone to it in a long time since she doesn’t think it’s clean. If a local doesn’t eat the local food, I definitely shouldn’t be eating it.

There isn’t a lot to say about this experience so I’ll mostly just show pictures.

Making pancakes (left), cutting up pieces of an unknown type of rice cake (right)

Freshly made rice cake

 

Views of the Muslim Cultural Street

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bought a silk scarf in this store, $1.50 seems very cheap but I’m not sure what to do with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Man on the right was one of the few dressed as a Muslim. Ann said there are 60,000 Muslims in Xian.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hammering walnuts (left), Ann’s favorite restaurant that she’s afraid to go to because of cleanliness issues (right)

Many different varieties of dates

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Woman on the left with the silver hat is of the Miao group, which is one of the top 10 ethnic groups in China. Most of them live in the South East, just a few in Xian. There are 14 ethnic groups in Xian. Scared to ask what they’re making on the right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See — I’m not the only one hamming it up (left). One of the few people I saw wearing that Cultural Revolution icon, the Mao hat (right)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bird House on the Muslim Cultural Street

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure if this is the bell tower or the drum tower at the end of the street (left), another street scene (right)

Ann had to stop at the bathroom so we went to a packed McDonald’s that had too long a line. This is just one of many rooms. The cost was about $1.80 for a Double Cheeseburger, $2.25 for a Big Mac, $3.60 with fries, which is probably very expensive for locals. I was disgusted to be in China at a McDonald’s but I didn’t buy anything. Every country I’ve been in has had McDonald’s.

Food ready for delivery on the bicycle. Looked really good.

By this time, we were done with the street and it was time to go to the airport for my flight to Guilin. I feel like I left a very good tip for Ann and the driver. She really went out of her way to help me with the Bob Dylan ticket and she was a great guide. I loved her demeanor and really wish her well. She wants to find a man who can keep up with her and I’m sure he’s out there somewhere. She deserves it.

Saying good bye to my driver.

On the plane, I was the only one in the 8-seat first class. There was one flight attendant in charge of the first class so all she had to do was take care of me. She actually ran up to open the door of the bathroom for me. For the first time in over a week, I was up for a beer but the only beer they had was Bud Ice. No thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My personal flight attendant as the only person in first class (left), she gave me a tiny Chinese hamburger, nicely spiced, possibly from her own stash (right)

I’ll have a very good memory of Xian. The Terra-Cotta Army is worthy of all the fame it has gotten. The town was surprisingly big and developed along with having a long history as the start of the Spice Road. I felt very comfortable there, although being at home would be incredibly comfortable right now. I’ve been gone over 7 weeks out of the last 10 and it’s been over three weeks since I’ve experienced all the comforts of home. It’s not just the comforts that are at my house but so many other things like speaking to people whose first language is English and having more than two TV channels that aren’t Chinese. But like I’ve said many times, stop your whining, you lucky SOB.