After the tour of the Xian Wall, we all went to a Muslim restaurant for lunch. The special item was a soup made with a torn up bagel sort of roll. We did the tearing and they put in the broth. It made a thick flavorful soup.

Our guide -Joan- is married to a Chinese muslim. She's a Han Chinese. he's a Hui (Muslim) Chinese.

After all that soup, you gotta go. Fortunately, the urinal had instruction in English for it's use posted above it. Whew!

After Lunch we rode out to a farm village named Donghan. We would spend the night in Dongchan with a Chinese family. Before going to the village, we stopped a their local elementary school and visited a 5th grade class.

The kids were like any 5th graders: Full of energy and enthusiasm. They sang us a song in Chinese and our group sang "Old MacDonald's Farm to them (in English). We then sat for a while with an "adopted" student looking at her school work.

All went well until I folded and threw a paper airplane. The class broke down and soon everyone was throwing airplanes and laughing. Some fun!!

Dongchan is a special farm village. about 20 years ago, the state government subsidized the construction of a new village. About 70 of the 90 families moved into the new village and abandoned their old village.

These pictures show the remains of an abandoned mud brick farm house and the new masonry duplex houses. Our hostess -Madam Jang- lives in the new unit on the right.

The villagers are still farming the fields around their new village (mostly corn, soybeans, squash, and potatoes).

We helped Madam Jang and her niece prepare and cook dinner. There was another OAT couple with us. Madam Jang a did all the real work and her niece pan fried some sort of dense buns. She couldn't speak english and, of course, we couldn't speak much chinese. Consequently, the whole process of food preparation and cooking was awkward.

Madam Jang did not sit and/or eat with us. The dining was also awkward. Her home and our bedroom was clean and tidy. The pillows, however, were filled with something like corn or gravel. Very hard!!

After dinner at Madam Janies we went to the village center. There was line dancing going on. Mary Ann jumped right in with the rest of the women and knew all the steps. All the men (including me) just sat there like a bunch of dummies. As usual, the kids ran around and made pests of themselves.

On the morning of our 10th day we had breakfast (tea and a biscuit) with Madam Jang and walked to the village square to catch our bus back to Xian and a flight to Cheng Du. A lot of folks came out to see us off. I thought this young mother and her baby were very attractive.

Our last picture of Dongchan was of their house number signs. We don't have anything this artistic in The Villages.

We then were bussed back to Xian to catch a plane to Cheng Du.

In Cheng Du we met Melissa, our city guide. She gave us some local history and took us to see the Pandas. The Chengdu Panda Center is, quite literally, the world's largest giant and red panda reserve. The centers main purpose is to educate visitors as well as breed, raise, and protect the endangered and huggable giant panda. If any place deserves the distinction as a national treasure, the breeding center would be it. In fact, the entry ticket goes on to say that it is the "Charm of China, Cradle of Pandas." After a half day hike around the park, it is easy to see why.

There is a grand total of 38 Giant Pandas and 10 Red Pandas, as you'll see below: