Fireworks!!

Now we were in Dezhou to celebrate Chinese New Year with our friend, Caroline, and her family. We have stayed there before, but I wanted to tell you about them again. It makes a difference on how Chinese New Year is celebrated. They live in a small village where many of the villagers are family members; aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents. They live in a small home with electricity, but very little running water. There is no bathroom inside. Their bathroom is a bucket in a hole in the ground. Not a big deal for us anymore. Does not bother us. The kitchen is very small, so cooking is not an easy thing for their mother to do. The dining room, TV room and food preparation room is also her parents bedroom. So you can imagine how hard it is to host people in their home.

They are a very poor family, however they are a very giving family. In fact, they did so much for us while we were there. Gary and I are so grateful and honored that they allowed us in their home for the celebration.

They even have our picture up on their wall from the last time we stayed there. We are so honored.

This was lunch the first day.

Caroline's mom and Caroline made dumplings (jiaozi) for our Chinese New Years Eve dinner. Homes where there is more money have a more extravagant feast, but we were happy with the dumplings. I love dumplings.

Now in a small village, they don't just do a few fireworks. Each family unit (extended family unit) lights their own fireworks, so the night sky is lit up all over the village and other villages near with fireworks. It was actually pretty amazing for Gary and I. We have seen many fireworks shows and had many in our own neighborhood put on by Jason Brown. Those previous fireworks shows could not even come close to this one. It was truly spectacular. I could put pictures of them, but that would not do it justice. Take a look at the following videos. Then you can have a small understanding of what we experienced. The sound was immense as was the amount of fireworks used.

We had a lovely time. We had dumplings for three days. We met and took pictures with many different people. They had a doctor in the village come look at Gary's foot. She pushed, tugged, moved and basically made him cry out in pain. However, the next day, the ankle and foot felt better. The swelling had gone down and the bruising had decreased. I am a fine of traditional Chinese medicine, that's for sure.

New Years Day they go visiting family and family visits them. It was a fun relaxing time in Dezhou!!

The Western Peace of Xi'an

The next stop on our Chinese adventure was to Xi'an. Xi'an means "western peace". This is where Xi'an is situated on a map of China.

Xi'an is home to the Terra Cotta Warriors. This was the main reason we decided to make this a part of our trip. We have seen so many pictures of the warriors that we wanted to see them in person.

We flew into Xi'an and then took a bus. It was a little frustrating because we had tickets for a certain bus. We waited for an hour and then there was not enough room on the bus. Gary complained and they got us on a different bus to the city and paid for our fair. They do not keep track of how many tickets for each bus they sell because they leave every hour and you do not get an assigned seat. We got dropped off from the bus and then decided to take a pedicab to our hotel. Gary had always wanted to try it, so we said let's do it! You may have to watch it sideways, but it was fun and bumpy.

We had street food the first night. It was delicious!

Our first stop was to the Terra Cotta Warriors. We took a bus and had a wonderful time. They are amazing in person!

This is Muslim Street. They had so many wonderful foods that we tried. There were also some wonderful shops. It was a busy place. Everyone told us we needed to go here. They were right.

Pork Skewers 

Pomegranate Juice

Fried Banana

The next day we walked the wall of Xi'an. It is one of the biggest city walls in China. It was interesting. Then we decided to take a city bus to The Big Goose Pagoda. We only saw the outside of the pagoda because there were some wonderful parks around the area.

Our last adventures in Xi'an started in the Daming Palace. This is a place of ruins that used to be a palace. At one point, there was a city built on the spot. In 2008, they tore down the city to create the Daming Palace Park and Memorial.

So at this point, we had our biggest adventure of our trip. We were both taking pictures of the above statue. I went to take one from another angle. I was taking a picture and I heard Gary scream. He was taking a picture and moved, but didn't notice the difference between two sidewalks. His foot got stuck between two stones and he fell, twisting his ankle very badly. It looked like it was broke to me from the ankle it was sitting. I was so worried. He was in so much pain. We had to get back to our hotel, so he wanted to walk it off. We thought if he walked it off, it would be fine. We had taken a little train from the entrance and were able to catch another one back, so he did not have to walk so far. We got a taxi back to the hotel, iced his ankle and he stayed off it mostly.

He had to limp for the rest of our trip. He had to limp through the train station in Xi'an and Beijing. Limp to the subway and limp to our hotel. Luckily it was really close to the subway exit. We did find out on Friday, February 12 that his foot is not broken. He just strained his ligaments very badly. He has to stay off it as much as possible, so it will heal. We are so grateful it was not worse than it is. We were only in Beijing for one night. We walked a little to a foodie street, but didn't stay long because. By the time we got back to the hotel, Gary's ankle was hurting.