Xi'an & Beijing

As mentioned in the Bain Family Visit post we traveled to Xi'an and Beijing in May. 


Xi'an is most famous for the Terracotta Army are lifesize statutes from 210 BC. They were discovered in 1974 by a local farmer. There are over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses buried in massive pits. They were built during the first Qin Emperor who had an army of men build them to protect him once he died. Needless to say it was an impressive site.

In Xi'an we biked around the city wall. The wall was built in the 1300s. It is about 12 km in circumference, and is 12 meters in height. The wall was built to protect 12 square km of the city. A highlight of the trip to Xi'an for me.  

The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda is also a sight we visited. It was built in 652 during the Tang Dynasty.

Deborah rubbing the laughing Buddha for good luck.

While in Beijing we saw the "major" tourist attractions, Summer Palace, Forbidden City & Tian'amen square.


Summer Palace, the summer get-away complex for China's emperors.

Forbidden City, for almost 500 years served as the home for emperors and as a political center for the Chinese government.    

Tian'anmen Square, the largest city square in the world. 

Bain Family Visit

Andrew and I were fortunate to have his mom visit for a few weeks in May. We had a great time hanging out in Dalian, and sightseeing in Xi'an & Beijing. Andrew's brother Travis and his girlfriend Kerstin joined us in Beijing and Dalian for a few days as well. 


Deborah was a trouper, quickly adjusting to the way things work in China. She even conquered the squatty potties, something not all can do. I think the thing that surprised her the most was how chaotic the roads are. She quickly learned that you can't trust the walk sign and a lot of Chinese drivers don't follow all of the driving laws, e.g. you can't drive on the sidewalks, you shouldn't drive the incorrect direction on an exit ramp, you shouldn't stop in the middle of the highway and take a pee, etc.


Having family visit makes you realize how much you miss family, friends and "home" when you live so far from where you previously considered home. (I now refer to Minnesota, Arizona and China as my "home.") Although we miss the comforts of the U.S. (and the food), we miss our family and friends the most. It's difficult to miss out on a lot of celebrations, parties and everyday life with family and friends. There are definitely sacrifices, but most days we think it's worth it.


Here are some photos from Deborah, Travis & Kerstin's visit:

Deborah playing mahjong with the ladies.

Deborah & I overlooking the sea in Dalian.

Visiting Andrew at Intel.

Celebrating Cindy's Birthday with the girls at our apartment.

Touching the bell at the Xi'an Bell Tower for good luck.

Family photo at the Terracota Warriors in Xi'an.

Delicious traditional jaozi (dumplings) meal.

Deborah using chopsticks. 

Deborah & the boys at the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Deborah & I at Tian'anmen Square with Chairman Mao in the background.

Traditional Peking duck dinner.

Travis with a large box of fireworks.

Andrew & Travis attempting to light the fireworks with a laser.

Deborah with her boys.

 

Tanya "Two Goals" B. Gaelic Football Professional

As you may be catching on, we are a bit behind on this blog… Back in April we traveled to Shanghai for the All China Gaelic Football Games so that Tanya could have her semi-professional debut with the Dalian Wolfhounds and earn her new nickname, Tanya "Two Goals" Buchholtz

 

What is Gaelic Football you might ask? Well its basically like soccer mixed with rugby, with a kind of basketball like dribbling mixed in. Basically I have come to the conclusion that the Irish were drinking and reading the rules from a number of games and came up with this as a result.

Here are some links that might explain better than I do:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaelic_football
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEAbWrdB9XU

Anyway, now that we have the game somewhat explained, I’ll give you some background on how Tanya became a Gaelic football semi-professional; basically playing Gaelic football is one of 7 things you can do in Dalian and the local Irish community invites everyone they can to come play. Now from there you actually have to be good to be on the team, but Tanya was able to prove her worth in a few practices and group cross training outings. I went to training as well, but they quickly explained that if I were to play they would be disqualified for bringing in a ringer due to my outstanding athletic prowess. (Nothing to do with almost puking at circuit training).

Each year the club travels to play against other teams in the "All China Games" in the spring and the "All Asia Games" in the fall. The All China Games took place on Saturday and about 20 teams participated in all. They had 4 fields and both mens and womens teams played in a standard bracket single elimination format with 7 minute halves. Tanya's lady Wolfhounds got off to a rough start losing their first game, but got stronger by the moment and were completely dominating by the time their 6th and final game came around. At the end of a harrowing day they found them selves the winners of the the plate for the 2011 All China Gaelic Football Games. (I will abide by local Dalian Gaelic football tradition here and not explain that the Plate is a 3rd place prize).

It was a great time and both players and spectators had an excellent Day. 

It was also a great opportunity to get out of Dalian and get a little taste of Western life. It is amazing how we can go to Shanghai, China and and it feels so noticeably more western than we are used to that you can feel your body relax into normalcy. Tanya had never experienced this before, but very soon came to agree with my assessment.

Here we have Tanya enjoying her first glass of Sangria in Cantina Agave, the 1st  real  Mexican food we have had in months (excluding what I had back in AZ)

I found a place that brewed their own beer

The Chinese have chosen to celebrate May Day or Laborers Day (International Workers Day etc.), one of the historic holidays of socialism where "all Social Democratic Party organizations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on May First for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace." by having a giant sale at the mall along with outdoor pavilions hawking the latest electronics. 

Now to the football... here is the Ladies Team

Tanya moving around an opponent and about to pass

The ladies play "no contact"

The men play contact

It looks like ball is going to go in because it did... Buchholtz domination.  

Team Celebration

Tanya with "The Plate" which they took home for their epic victory

I was obviously a very integral part of their victory.

A few other random photos from the weekend: