Places

IN XI'AN


Big Goose Pagoda
Built in the mid-600s, during the Tang Dynasty, the Big Goose Pagoda is a popular area for us to visit, thanks to the many wonderful restaurants around, and all the attractions of the Big Goose Pagoda itself. It's seven stories high, used by Buddhists for prayer, and just amazing to admire.

City Wall
Hence the name, it's a wall around the city. Three accurate adjectives to describe it: bumpy, long, and old. Twice Cheryl had gone for a race on the wall (short).

Gao Xin
A part of Xi'an where most of our English-speaking friends live, we usually come here just to visit said friends. Also located here are a few Chinese restaurants we enjoy.

Qu Jiang

In all of Xi'an, Qu Jiang reminds us the most of America, or, at least Southern California. It's clean, with a park here and there, plenty of plant life, lots of places to explore, and so many delicious restaurants with all sorts of Western food.

Shaanxi Normal University
A school open for both Chinese people [to learn] and foreigners [who want to learn Chinese]. Jenna and Rick both attended Shaanxi Normal in the beginning, but, later, Rick moved to another school. Near the end of 2012, Jenna, too, left the university to study Chinese.

Wei Feng Gardens 
Wei Feng Gardens is an apartment complex that we've lived in since August of 2010, when we first moved here. It's nothing extraordinarily elaborate - mainly just brick-red buildings high and low built in a rectangle formation. In the center are two houses - one empty and the other used for a preschool. Ahead of these two houses is a "courtyard" shaped like half of the yin-yang sign. We lived on the fifth floor of the same apartment we'd been in since the beginning until February or March of 2012, when we moved just two buildings over on the sixteenth floor

OTHER CITIES

Beijing
The capital of China, we visited this huge city in May of 2011, when some friends from California came to visit us. Rick, Cheryl, and Jenna had gone once before. Sometime (hopefully soon!) these three will have to go again, to have fingerprints done.

Mom, Jenna, Dad, Abby, Patches (bear), Emma

Changsha

Panda in Cheng Du :D

The capital of the Hunan Province, this is the city our little boy, Matthew, came from. When we're finally near the end of the adoption process, Rick and Cheryl will have to go to Changsha for completion.

Cheng Du
Visited Summer 2011. We stayed at a cozy hostel called Lazy Bones, which was quite nice for being a hostel. Main Attraction: PANDAS!

Shanghai
Since coming here, Cheryl has gone to Shanghai twice, and Jenna once, both for the weekend, both for the same reason.As a treat for foreigners to get away from wherever they are for awhile, a group pays for everything - from food to travel to hotels - to get a few women over to Shanghai for a weekend. The first time, Cheryl went alone. The second time, Jenna, badly needing a break, tagged along.