Xi'an is one of the most culturally-rich cities in the world, and we've experienced a lot of it. We went to the Hu County peasant painting village today and saw one of the masters of this art create paintings right in front of us. She is a master papercutter and a beautiful painter. Peasant painting came out of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 70s when Mao wanted to celebrate the people. The colors are bold and bright and the subject matter is humble and simple. It was incredible to stand in a room surrounded by so many colorful images of people's daily lives.

We also visited the Great Mosque, which was extensive and impressive, though not something I was really interested. There is a Muslim market attached to this, which was fun as we got to buy see new things for sale. My roomie Jen bought a few of the shadow puppets that are famous in this area.

Dinner was on our own and while I won't say where we predictable Americans ended up, I will say that french fries are delicious. After dinner, we visited the Bell Tower in the center of the old city and rang the bell (which you can do 3 times for 5 yuan, about 80 cents), then we walked to the South Gate. We saw hundreds of people in a large square fan dancing. Not a company or an organized group, just people, out after dinner, fan dancing for exercise and community. Incredible.

Tomorrow we are off to Chengdu where will see pandas on Saturday. Yay pandas.