Xi'an

Finally, I have some time to report again. Recently, I had to do a lot for university with midterm exams, presentations, and tests, but so far everything has been going well.

After our trip to Shanghai and Hangzhou, we were back to our normal university routine for two weeks. But then it was time for our next trip, namely to Xi'an.

This city is located more inland, and I think we flew there for about 2 hours. Our hostel was located in the Muslim quarter, and it was so cool! Many small alleys with market stalls lined up one after the other. In the evenings, the part of the quarter where we stayed turned into a real food market. We basically ate our way through the quarter, and there was everything from savory to undefinable to sweet, everything your heart desires.

On Saturday, we went to a holy mountain called Huan Shan, and I think that's my (new) absolute Chinese highlight. We left early in the morning and took the train out of the city for about an hour. Then we took a bus up the mountain for quite a distance, and then we took a cable car for 20 minutes all the way to the top. Actually, it wasn't just a mountain, but rather a whole, gigantic, beautiful, and breathtaking mountain range. The cable car was more like a small roller coaster, zooming through the mountains from peak to peak, and we had a great view of the beautiful landscape and had a lot of fun.

From the cable car station, we started hiking and had a great view the whole time, clear air, sun, and clouds surrounding the peaks. It felt a bit like a different world up there, and you felt so small compared to this natural wonder. I hope the pictures can convey some of this beauty because I think I'm lacking a few words to describe it properly.

We didn't return from the mountain until the evening, and our legs were shaking from the thousands of steps, so we just walked down our street and went to bed.

On Sunday, we visited the Terracotta Army (Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum). This is a burial site that was built in 221 BC and was discovered by accident during a well construction. Nearly 8,000 warriors and horses made of clay were found there, and you can see them there. It was definitely cool to see, especially because the warriors all looked different and you could see how some figures were rebuilt from individual parts, but it was also very touristy.

On Monday morning at six, we took a flight back to be back on time for university.

In the week, our university organized an international culture festival, where every nation represented at the university had a booth, and there was food, music, and all sorts of things from all over the world. On the evening before the festival, we Germans all met and prepared several kilos of potato salad and noodle salad, which we then sold at our booth accompanied by German hit songs. The whole thing was actually quite a success, and with the profit, we want to have a nice evening at Christmas.

On Fridays, we had a Halloween party at the university, and of course, we dressed up in scary costumes. However, the 'party' only lasted from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm. The Chinese students had already left before the official end, and only us international students held on until the end and danced. But the university was nicely decorated, and there was a magic show and costume contests. Afterward, we all went to our regular bar together, and the next evening, we celebrated Halloween again because double is always better.

The following week was quite exam-heavy. Although it's time-consuming to have so many essays, tests, and presentations, I find most of the topics really interesting, and I feel like I'm learning a lot here, so it's not so bad (just not that exciting to report on).

See you soon :)