written by Charlotte Waechter
First, I’d like to give Mr. Manakhov a birthday shoutout. Mr. Manakhov, we’re all so thankful that you’re one of our two chaperones, and that you chose to spend your birthday with us in China.
Mr. Manakhov’s birthday was incredibly well timed. Pingyao is, without a doubt, the prettiest city that we’ve visited thus far. We woke up at 7:00 am promptly. After getting dressed and packing, we dragged our stuff out to the lobby. We then proceeded to have breakfast. Some of my classmates were fixated by the greasy bacon and cake. Unlike others, my eyes were set on one thing alone: a peanut butter sandwich.
After breakfast, we took the city bus to Pingyao’s city wall. Here, we walked around and took #selfies with pagodas. Some people even dared to stand off of a small ledge connected to the wall. Those of us who didn’t have the guts to take such risks huddled together under a few umbrellas, because while we were all grateful for the cooler weather, only one person was prepared with pants (congrats, Griffin). Our last adventure in Pingyao was touring the Draft Bank in China, which was essentially the first investment bank.
When we walked out, we were all incredibly excited to see a clear, blue sky. We spent the next twenty minutes walking the side-streets of Pingyao, buying items like soap, hats, and ice cream. A few of us also stopped when we saw a lady giving Henna tattoos on the road. There were a plethora of intricate designs to chose from, all for less than 30 yuan apiece. Emma, Kimmy, Caroline, and I were so intrigued by the Henna that we actually missed half of lunch. When we arrived, we especially enjoyed the westernized sesame chicken. The highlight of lunch, though, was definitely singing happy birthday to Mr. Manakhov. The cake was great, too. I’ve noticed that Chinese people rarely eat sweets like we do in America. Even their birthday cake was filled with fruits like kiwi, strawberries, and dragon fruit.
The conclusion of lunch, however, also sadly marked the end of our time in Pingyao. I know that we were all bummed to leave the authentic, clean, and unique environment that Pingyao provided. In addition, Pingyao had incredibly fast wifi, and many of us FaceTimed with our parents or friends for the first time in a while.
Our next stop was Wang’s Compound. We were all astounded by the size of if. Being one of the richest families in China, Wang’s family compound was huge. There were more houses and buildings than imaginable. The architecture was also very authentic and beautiful. We walked around for almost two hours, exploring the many different structures. After finishing, we were all tired and chose to rest with some ice cream. While the coffee ice cream was everyone’s favorite, the corn ice cream was definitely the most interesting (and was surprisingly good).
After all the walking, resting our legs was just what we needed, and we had time to do this on the bus. Initially, we took turns singing and telling stories on the microphone; however, eventually we settled down. People slept, read, and watched movies. We arrived in Taiyuan just three hours later. We ate dinner first, with the two highlights being the cous-cous dish and the duck. We then toured the noodle museum, where we saw the different ways to make noodles. We were also given some samples of vinegar favored frozen yogurt. To be honest, the fro-yo produced various reactions. While some enjoyed the ice-cream, others disliked the aftertaste that it provided.
The tour of the noodle factory was short, and at 7:30, we sat back down at our tables for a performance. We were all very surprised. Some of the acts included: girls dancing with long feathers on their heads, flame throwers, singing, noodle-making, and a fake wedding with a guest from another table. It was definitely a fun experience that we wouldn’t have wanted to miss, as it was unlike anything we had seen before.
Tomorrow, we are looking forward to visiting the Yungang Grottoes in Datong.
With love from Taiyuan,
Charlotte
P.S. Hello everyone. This is Mr. Manakhov. I’d like to add to this post that students and Mr. Yu made my birthday truly special. They sang a b-day song in Chinese and we had a yummy lunch and a delicious cake.
Also, now that we are all back together, I will continue sharing the pictures that I’ve been taking with all of you. You can find a new batch of yesterdays pictures under the link below.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to sync today’s pictures. All of the sudden Onedrive stopped working on both my phone and PC and Google is blocked all together. Hopefully this is something temporary.