This is a map of the places we traveled to. Due to recent events, protesting in the north west area of China, our trip was cut short, ending in Dunhuang instead of Urumqi. I realize most will not be interested in my blog post to come, but extensively detailed post provides myself with a journal to recap my trip, and eliminates the need to write multiple emails to those limited few interested.
Aug 22, day 1: My trip began with taking a train from Beijing to Anyang, approximately a 4 hour ride. Fortunately, my program filled an entire train can, so we did not annoy the Chinese with our loud american banter. Anyang lies in the Northern most point of Henan Province, and was established about 3000 years ago in the Shang Dynasty. After arriving in the city, we visited a
Shang Dynasty archeological sight. The sight was filled with oracle bones, some of the first chinese characters, and the grave of the first china women general. I found this sight to be less than amazing, and pretty underwhelming. Many of the original bones excavated had been replaced by replicas. Many of the bones had been taken to a museum in Beijing, it was hard to understand why we had taken a 4 hour train ride, to see fake findings of what remained in our original city. Even the leader of our group, the treasurer of TBC, a 6 foot china man, who speaks english with an Arnold Swartzenager accent kept claiming " None of this shit is real." We enjoyed an American dinner of KFC and PBR. Later that night we went out in Anyang, first to a KTV( Karaokee Club) which had no english songs, and wanted to charge 300 quai for a table, then to a small club, with girls in short skirts serving beer cans for 25 quai. A few of my male friends were offered to pay for the girls for a night, at which point i decided it was time to call it a night.Aug 23, day 2: We took a 2 hour bus ride to Red Flag Canal. The canal was built in the 1900's in the grande valley of Mt. Taihang. The canal is one of the largest hydroelectric systems in china. This place was amazing. We took a chairlift up the mountain side, than walked across the valley on a bridge at the top of the mountain. On the top of the mountain, we made friends with a
chinese family, and taught a 60 year old man to play football. On our way down, we walked in and around caves, and took a skinny pathway leading around the canal. We passed the flat areas where builders of the canal had slept while creating it. It was huge, and pretty unbelievable that people had chiseled away at these tall mountains with manmade tools and rope harnesses. At the entrance of the monument was many asian tour guides, they were all very taken with us, especially the blonde girls, and black people. Everyone wanted to take our pictures. this was probably my third favorite sight of the trip. I 
enjoyed the mountain climbing and walking through nature. The only downside, was our tour guide, Jack, was suppose to stop for lunch, and never did, so we did not eat all day. Once we return to the hotel, everyone was crabby and hungry, so we went to the first chinese restaurant we could find. Most restaurants have pictures to order from but at the one we had chosen, we were forced to rely on the only quasi chinese speaking student that had accompanied us. He attempted to order, noodle and chicken. we received noodles covered in squid, and a full chicken, head and eyeballs included in a big pot.Aug 24, day 3: We woke up and took a 5 hour bus ride from Anyang to Dengfeng, which is the
kung fu capital. We stayed at a hotel owned by the head Kung Fu Master. The hotel was very elegant, but the town was pretty low key. we walked around and visited stores that sold all sorts of kung fu weapons, numchucks, swords, brass knuckles. Each hotel room had big white robes, so we had a bathrobe party, consisting of American students, drinking shitty chinese beer, and running through the halls in robes of the kung fu masters hotel.Aug 25 day 4: Today was horrible. i had gotten a cold the previous day, which had turned into a illness that consisted of cold sweats, inablity to walk due to weakness of my body, the urge to throw up, and a migraine. This also happened to be one of the most active days, and i was not going to miss seeing anything. We first went to the Shaolin Monastery, Which is a Kung Fu monastery, boys join at a young age and learn kung fu, which is now only used in competition and entertainment. The Shaolin Monastery began learning martial arts because long ago thieves would steal of thier valuables and they could not do anything because they were peaceful monks. We saw a kung fu show, which was amazing. The physical ability of the boys made me desire to have more control over my body. One was able to throw a thin needle through a pain of glass and pop a balloon behind the glass, without shattering the glass. After the monastery, we went to the Pagoda Forest, which was a graveyard of very significant monks. there are only about 250 currently buried there. Next we went to the Longmen grottoes, which was where i really began feeling terrible. The grottoes were a bunch of buddha etched out of the side of cliffs. Many of the heads were stolen from the Buddha's because it is considered the most valued detail. I took a picture of a few, but could not walk, so i found a bench to rest on and wait for the rest of the group to make their 2 hour trip around the grottoes. Honestly, I do not think i missed much, because it was all the same buddha, etched in different areas and size. Next we took the bus to Luoyang, where we went to the Chariot pits Museum. This was my least favorite site. It was a one room museum of old excavated Chariots. Perhaps i would have enjoyed more if i did not feel so terrible. Finally we checked into our next hotel in Louyang. This was also probably the poorest quality hotel we stayed at. The bathroom looked like an airplane bathroom with the addition of a shower. The shower water was wired to the sink. Fortunately i felt so tired and was exhausted by the day, i got to my room at 630pm, and passed out for the night.
Aug 26, day 5: we simple woke up this day, and drove 5 hours to Xi'an, a pretty big city in China. It is surrounded by a huge wall, and filled with Modern stores like Adidas on every block.
Aug 27, day 6: This day was also one of my favorite. We awoke, and took the bus to the Terra
cotta Warriors. They are Warrior Statues discovered in 1974, by a farmer who was digging a well. The warriors were built to guard the tom of Qin Shi Huang, a rule who unified China over 2000 years ago. The Warriors are so amazing, because each one is different. For some reason, i had pictures being able to come close to the stautues, we just stood on a platform and there were about 10 feet below us. After we visited the Xi'an Mosque. it was in the muslim neighborhood of Xi'an. i found the neighborhood more interested than the Mosque. The Mosque was beautiful, but all the students were staring in the prayer house, and i felt really rude. If i was a devout muslim, i dont think i would want a bunch of americans to watch me as i prayed. There was also a Muslim street market, which sold nuts, dried fruit, wooden intruments, and woven shoes. Later in the evening, we went to a water show. It is in the main park in Xi'an and they play classical music, and water shoots form the ground in sync. Its huge. We decided to run through the fountains, a common action by the children of china, but it was a blast. One of my fellow companions brought a tide stick, and washed the clothes he was wearing while running through the fountains. We then went back to the hotel, with much difficultly. Most of the cabs did not want to drive us, soaked form head to toe, so we took a rickshaw, which is a man riding a motorcycle with a cart in the back for us to sit in. Back at the hotel, we made friends with the hotel receptionist. His name was prince, and loved to pop lock drop it. His goal is life is to marry an american girl. He loves jewelry, has long nails, can freestyle, and wont eat fast food because it will make him fat. He went out with all the students to the disco, and aparently was a blast, and grew a fond attachment to Cynthia. I unfortunately was beat, and did not go out, but got a lovely awakening by Cindy telling me Prince was gonna sleep over in our room because he was too drunk to make it home. I strongly declined, and forced her to tell him no, although he was quite a hoot, and sang back street boys like an angel, i was not big on him sleeping in my room.
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