The week after Xinyu we left for our weeks language course in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province. We met up with the Xinyu boys and set off on a sufficiently unpleasant 32 hour train journey in a train that was later to be referred to as a 'soviet tin can' (courtesy of Richard). The water boiler was actually heated by coal.
We arrived in Lanzhou early Monday morning just in time for our first lessons. All the other volunteers had arrived at least the night before and stayed in a nice Hotel, making it an interesting greeting as we walked into class late and smelling of a Chinese train.
The language course was, I'm sorry to say it, rather useless. We had to stay with host families as all the hostels were booked full due to the national holidays. In theory this meant that we would be able to practice the Chinese we had learnt that day with the families. This didn't work out quite as hoped, as to begin with, by the time evening had come round and I actually saw the family I had forgotten most if not all of what we had done. The parents didn't say much to me other than 'Chi! Chi!' ('Eat! Eat!) at dinner, and I couldn't say much to them, so it pretty much ended with my host translating for the both of us. Nonetheless, I had a great time with my host Sherry (later to be christened Cara), tried my first hotpot which was AMAZING and subsequently had three times that week, and watched the National Day military parade with the family which was somehow dull, amusing and terrifying all at the same time. We also had a wonderful time playing Truth or Dare with Chinese characteristics, which basically winds down to boys kissing boys and girls kissing girls and boys occasionally hugging girls to many exclamations of awe from everybody watching.
After the language course, ten of us, the Jiangxi and Gansu volunteers, decided to go to Xi'an for the remainder of the holidays. This trip was probably the most eventful four days of my time in China. One of the volunteers had friends in Xi'an so we met up with them upon arrival and they helped us with pretty much everything. We stayed at a really fancy hotel because everything was booked, again, due to national holidays.
The first day was rather uneventful. We wandered round the city a bit and then went cycling around the city walls, which was quite an amazing experience. You may not believe me when I say this but it was actually nice to do a bit of exercise! We then had our first encounter with THOSE FUCKING XI'AN TAXIS. Basically, most of them are already full, and most of the ones that aren't refuse to take you for some unknown reason. Most of the one's that will then proceed to get lost and generally have no idea where they are going. So you can see how standing with your arm in the air for an hour puts you out of the party mood.
The next day we went to see the terracotta army. On the bus on the way there we met a bunch of Americans that were volunteering as teachers in Jiangxi! So we got there mobile numbers so we could contact them back in Jiangxi and possibly see them again.
The best part of our attempt at being cultural was by far the public stunts we pulled, such as pretending a volunteer was a famous person and taking photos of/with him and getting him to sign peoples chests, and playing human checkers with the Americans, gradually attracting a larger and larger crowd of Chinese curious to see what on earth the crazy foreigners were up to.
That night we finally went out for a long awaited night of clubbing. Nobody in the club was actually dancing but that didn't hinder us from getting up on stage and dancing. This didn't go unnoticed either, and it wasn't long before we were given a crate of beer on the house, simply for being foreign and actually doing what your supposed to do in a club.
We got back to the hotel late, and were told that the police had been looking out for us, and decided that a group of foreigners should not be staying out this late in a foreign city. We tried explaining that most cities in Europe were far more dangerous than any in China, but to no avail, and we were given a 1 o'clock curfew.
The final day was spent wandering around a Buddhist temple with some severe hangovers. By evening however we were cured and after dinner, one of our Chinese friends insisted on taking us to see the famous Xi'an fountains. We soon became part of the show, as after some goading from the lovely Chinese girl, we got in and started dancing around for the length of the show, in front of what was supposedly 1000 people. (Picture above - from now on, dancing in a fountain should be on any 'to do before you die' list!) Needless to say, a year in China will make you shameless. We then went to a club soaking wet and got our round of free beers again. Because of the 1 o'clock curfew, we were back quite early, and lets just leave it at we stayed up in one of the rooms till very early in the morning.
The next morning everybody but the Jiangxi volunteers had left, so they all missed our narrow escape from paying 2900 kuai (290 pounds - a lot for China) for damages, which was utter bullshit because all we had done was stain some sheets. Luckily, our amazing Chinese friend Yanggang was there to haggle his way out for us. At this point we just wanted to get out of that Hotel as quickly as possible and never look back again, namely also because of a couple incidents I have decided not to mention here. We could start swapping hotel stories with The Who soon.
