Happy New Year

We, Christian and Tom, have had a wonderful semester in Yinchuan. We have seen a lot and experienced even more. Now we look forward to the next semester, which will bring us even more joy and happiness. But first we will have a vacation. Chinese people celebrate the new year when the lunar calendar says it's time. So we also look forward to the 25th of January, when there will be celebrations all over China. That's what they call Spring Festival, which is a holiday spent with family. But since we don't have that much family in China, we decided to travel instead. So here comes our current travel schedule; Yinchuan - Ürümqi - Dunhuang - Jiayuguan - Lanzhou - Chengdu - ?. The question mark means that we haven't decided where to go after Chengdu. But every decision, every experience will be noted down here on the blog. Maybe just in short words, and definitely without pictures. All the most interesting pictures will be posted when we come back from our one month journey through parts of China. So all that remains is to say; happy western new year!

But for your pleasure, here are some pictures so you wont forget us while we are gone;

The ancient tombs of the Xixia dynasty

The region we live in have traces from a history way back. Right outside Yinchuan there are tombs from one of the oldest dynasties in China, the Western Xia Dynasty (2200-1700 BC) We went there with our cameras and here's the result...

Banquets

This fall we have experienced many things. Both work related and related to our spare time. Earlier we wrote about concerts we were invited to. One of the things related to work we have not told you about so far is the many banquet we are and have been attending. Since we came we have probably attended between 20-30 such events. The latest two was on Thursday 18th and Friday 19th of December. On Thursday we were invited to Ningxia University's and the School of International Education's Christmas Banquet/Party for their Foreign Students.
On Friday we were invited to a banquet sponsored by the Ningxia People's Government,and arranged by organizations that deals with foreigners here in Ningxia, like the Ningxia Personnel Department, The Ningxia Foreign Affaris Office and The Ningxia Foreign Expert Bureau. This was a banquet for the Foreign Experts in Ningxia, and held as a thanks to all of them, for their contributions to the developement of Ningxia.
Thanks alot for inviting us to all these occations. We meet people on these dinners, get to learn more about Chinese culture, and we get to try many interesting and delicious types of Chinese food. Sometimes at these dinners there are also different kinds of performances, from singing and dancing to acrobatics. We think it is interesting to see and hear, and feel priviledged to be invited and to take part in these events.