Yesterday was a day of travel so it started extremely early, at about five thirty. The great part about this traveling was that it was on a bullet train which was super cool and really comfortable! It was like riding in business class on a flight, but the seats were better, and the food was pretty solid. After a very comfortable six-hour train ride to Xi’an, we took a bus to the beautiful Grand Dynasty Culture Hotel. This hotel is way better than the last one even the last one was easily a four-star hotel by US standards. After finishing getting situated, we all headed to dinner and to see the drum tower and Muslim quarters where I got my first taste of fake high-end fashion.
When I got back to my room, I just ended up playing smash bros for a bit and then sleeping. Today was amazing. We traveled to the children’s sun village, a community of orphaned children with jailed parents. I had so much fun seeing how the children are cared for as well as playing games with them. I learned by playing ping pong against them that I really suck at ping pong. I consistently got dominated by every child in the village. We also played knockout, a basketball game, with the children which was also a lot of fun and performed little shark for all of the kids. Lunch at the village was also great, I don’t think I’ve had a single bad food here yet. The most interesting part was that at the village there was a building where psychologists meet with the kids to make sure the kids are doing well.
The children’s sun village was extremely sweet and emotional. I loved making a difference in the kid’s days and I hope they all succeed in life. The next part of our journey for the day was to visit the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, a Buddhist sanctuary in Xi’an. This was such a beautiful experience and walking through and witnessing the study of the Buddhist religion was enlightening. After exploring for a bit, we all sat through a lecture on Chinese calligraphy. The art of Chinese calligraphy is insanely beautiful, and I ended up buying presents for both my mom and gram there.
To end the night, all of us went to a great restaurant near our hotel. This restaurant was absolutely amazing, I would dare say the best one yet. After eating, we all went to a market where we bought so much fake high-end fashion. I ended up buying a Gucci watch, shirt, belt, supreme shirt, and fanny pack. I definitely don’t need any of these, but it was such a good experience haggling for good prices and its really funny to own a lot of fake stuff. However, the walk back was torture due to the insanely packed streets of the Muslim quarter.
Today was a total success and I love Xi’an!