Xi'an was nice.

So after my trip to Guizhou, we took a flight up to ancient capital city Xi’an in Shanxi province.

Xi’an is much different than Xiamen for a few reasons.

Noodles. Only noodles. If there was rice, it tasted slightly artificial. The noodles were good though! And Xi’an is known for a certain type of noodle that is the most complicated Chinese character, and only so for shock value I think. It’s like a lasagna noodle but beefier.

COLD and DRY. Good and bad. Good because when we hang up our clothes to dry, they’re ready-to-wear in less than a day, whereas it takes about three days in Xiamen. Bad because cold weather makes everything more difficult, especially for the Chinese students, who have to lug around giant thermos jugs filled with hot water in order to bathe. We got to stay in the international dorm on XISU’s (Xi’an International Studies University) campus that was more like a hotel room. It felt unfair, but I’m thankful!

Polluted. On a good day, there was some sun shining through, but for the two and a half weeks I was there, it was mostly smoggy. There’s a tall tower that can be seen from around the city, and we used it as a pollution meter. That means that if we could see it, then it was a relatively clean day.

Now it may sound like I’m definitely partial to Xiamen, which I definitely am. But at the same time, I met some of my favorite people in Xi’an.

After biking a giant wall that surrounds the city, and after accidently getting into a random film crew’s shot a few times, I met 雒康康, or Luo Kangkang. I decided to randomly talk to him while he was overseeing the production of a video for a local bank because they had cameras and I was curious what they were doing. We ended up talking about his studio and the fact that I study media and after trading contact information we ended up meeting again with his friends.

Throughout my time in Xi’an, they took me out to dinner a couple times and to a coffee bar. They also invited me to see the studio, which ended up being an apartment-turned-studio kind of thing, which was still awesome. They even drove me around town and offered to drop me off at the train station the day I left.

Kangkang is partnering with another film producer later this year to produce a full-length film and he promised to email me when it’s finished.

Here are my new friends from this experience. I don’t have a picture of the three guys I hung out with who are Kangkang’s friends, unfortunately.

So despite Xi’an being not quite Xiamen, I had one of the most amazing times there. Oh yeah, I also saw the TERRACOTTA SOLDIERS.

- Kev