The Xi'an Blur continued

The next day we decided as a group to forgo the historical museum on our agenda, and instead travel out of Xi'an to a small village in the “country side”. I couldn't have been happier. It was just incredible, and has definitely been one of my favorite experiences so far.

This village was designed to let tourists see into the life of a small Chinese community. At first it just looked like a big tourist spot. It actually seemed fake, as if it literally could have come out of the movies. Once I realized that the people working each of the stands literally made everything that I saw and ate, I realized that I was actually in these people homes. My outlook quickly became a lot different and I began to talk to anyone and everyone I could. I practiced my Chinese more than ever because they knew zero English. They were also not dying to practice their English on me. 

 

It didn't take long for me to become buddies with an artist who showed me how to make designs and animals out of grass and straw. He even let me help him make a dragon fly. Although he did the majority of the work, I have a few stitches in there. He gave me the dragon fly as a gift when we finished. He would not accept any yuan as payment either, so I instead offered him a single U.S. Dollar as a gift. The look of gratitude he had for something we see as pretty minimal was certainly something I will not forget.

Here I am showing off one of his more 
complex works. The intricate work that he did with grass was completely amazing. What an incredibly talented man. 

That afternoon we were off to the airport. Now you know why I call it the Xi'an blur. The time spent in Xi'an was less than 48 hours. It was memorable, but we were now preparing to begin our next adventure in the "Spring City" Kunming.