The next few posts are about what occurred from October 1-10.

(Every year, China celebrates it's national day on October 1st. This holiday is then followed by the autumn festival. Students and businesses usually close for three days or so. This year was special; it was the 60th anniversary of the 'People's Republic of China' coming into power. As such, the holiday was extended - we had seven straight days off.)

On October 1st, there was a military parade through Beijing, starting at Tiananmen Square immediately across from the Forbidden City. Over 10,000 troops marched next to the display of high-tech weaponry. China has many things to be proud of, so I originally thought it strange that it would highlight only the military aspect of the country's rising power. When I asked various native Chinese, they said it was tradition and nothing more. They've always had a military parade - now that their military is hugely powerful, the parade has to be hugely impressive. Fair enough. But the gargantuan display of might still seemed rather conspicuous...

Hu Jintao presided over the parade and the celebrations. It is definitely worth browsing the Wikipedia article detailing the preparations that went into this celebration: 60th Anniversary.

During the break I went to Xi'an, Hefei, Xidi Village (where parts of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was filmed), and Huangshang mountain. I will discuss Xi'An here and the other places in subsequent posts.

I had two travel companions: John and Serena.

John is a CSA'er from Los Angeles. He is 24 and accepted into a master's degree for Chemical Engineering at Johns Hopkins. If he wishes, he can take the entire thing online - so he might stay upwards of two entire years in China mastering Mandarin.

JohnOur other travel companion was Serena. My roommate Will was tutored by Serena when he was in Beijing in 2007. She is Chinese and speaks fluent English and Mandarin.SerenaOn the first night we took a 14-hour train from Beijing to Xi'an. See the Xi'an photos here. It was a "hard" sleeper - meaning there were six beds per room. Surprisingly, I was quite comfortable. We met a German man in our sleeper who now lives in Hong Kong and Beijing and runs an import/export business. He looked about 30 and was fluent in German, English, and Mandarin. He was very polite, but shocked us when he felt no shame in finishing up our conversation to pull out a Playboy magazine so he could peruse pictures of naked women amongst his five new friends.

Xi'an is one of the old capitals of China. It has a lot of history, so there were plenty of cultural things to see in our short time there. There are two huge water shows, which are basically fountains coordinated with music and light.

Xi'an Water Shows from Daniel Nalesnik on Vimeo. 

There is a wall surrounding the old section of the city. We rented bikes and spent almost three hours biking on top of the wall, occasionally glancing on either side to see both village-like huts and tall shiny skyscrapers. It was strange.

Xi'an Wall from Daniel Nalesnik on Vimeo.

The entire time we were in Xi'an we saw about five other non-Chinese people. Our foreign appearance lead to stares wherever we went. Apparently Xi'an used to be a more international city, but a recent H1N1 scare and the national holiday meant many foreigners decided not to head that way.

One area of the city is known as the Muslim quarter. It has the best food in the city and endless rows of small markets, shops, and restaurants. 

Xi'an Muslim District from Daniel Nalesnik on Vimeo.

The last video to share is the best; a "cab" ride home to our hotel.

Enjoy :)

Xi'an Mini Cab from Daniel Nalesnik on Vimeo.