May 17 Tuesday

Our first stop Tuesday morning was to a wet market that was a lot newer than the wet market that we visited in Guangzhou. At today's wet market we got to see how different cuts of meat were cut. Some of the carcasses we got to see were pig, goat, chicken, beef, lamb, and fish. While there we had the opportunity to watch a chicken being processed. This was beneficial because we were able to compare how it is done in the U.S. While at the chicken processing booth, we learned why they have black chickens. The people of China created a black chicken with black bones that contains dark meat. The reason the Chinese people prefer this type of chicken is because they believe it is more flavorful. At a different chicken booth we found colored chicks. They were pink, orange, and green in color. The reason they were colorful was due to the Chinese people injecting the embryos with dye. After the wet market we walked upstairs to a spice market. While up there we were able to see and smell the different types of spices the Chinese people use in their meal preparation.  

After we were finished with the spice market we took a one hour bus ride to the train station. Once we arrived at the train station we thanked Maggie for everything she taught and showed us. After saying goodbye to Maggie we went through security and then had lunch on our own in the train station. After lunch we sat in the station waiting until our departure at 1:18pm.  

While on the 4.5 hour train ride we were able to see all the different types of scenery while traveling at 307 km/hr (190 mph). Some of the scenery we saw was local farm fields, as well as smaller villages. Some other scenery we saw was mountains. In America we would normally travel around the mountain but here we traveled through them instead. On the train ride to Beijing it was very interesting to see and compare the land to the United States and how they use it compared to us. The farmers over here would make terrace after terrace to farm every possible inch of ground. Over here all the ground is used for growing crops instead of livestock, whereas in the United States we graze livestock on it and don’t think twice about it.  The ground here is worth so much that the Chinese people can’t afford to do that.

Once we safely arrived in Beijing, we met our new tour guide Michelle. After we left the train station, Michelle took us to a very nice restaurant were we experienced a local hot pot supper. At the hot pot supper we had little individual hot burners with a pot on top of it to cook our various options. Some of our options included mutton, beef, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, noodles, kelp, and shrimp. After supper we took a half hour drive to our hotel to check in to prepare for a full day tomorrow of travel, learning, and sightseeing.

Monday, May 16

 Ms. Gao

 

 Cherry trees and corn

 



 Enjoying dairy

 

 Fierce soldiers

 

 Go Jacks!

 

 Hackey sack

 

Terre Cotta soldiers

 

Monday, May 16

Our first stop on Monday morning was Miss Gao's farm, though the farm is basically still in the city of Xi'an. She farms 4 mu, 2/3 of an acre, of wheat and corn. The wheat is a winter variety that is grown for 10 months and harvested in June. Corn is planted immediately after the wheat harvest and is ready to be hand-picked in September. Miss Gao also has a small cherry-growing business. They reminded us all of Bing cherries from home. Before any cherries can be harvested, the trees must grow for five years. When the trees are young, she attaches a weighted bag to the branches to force them to grow outward so a greater cherry harvest can be sold.  

 Miss Gao plants everything by hand. She uses her experience to judge how far apart the rows and individual plants are from each other. The rows were impressively straight. Even the planting depth is done by Miss Gao's own judgment. To irrigate, she digs shallow canals in between each row and carries buckets of water from their well to fill the canals. They water every fifteen days.  

Because Miss Gao's family works in Xi'an, she does all of this farm work by herself. She hand-pulls all of the weeds and harvests everything by hand as well. The only aspect of her operation she contracts out is the spraying of insecticides.  

Our second stop on the lovely, seventy-four degree Monday was the Terra Cotta Warriors museum. The clay the warriors are made from is called terra cotta clay, hence the name. The clay army is 7,000 strong, though only 2,000 are viewable to visitors. Unknown to most, when the army was first discovered, they were painted with intricate detail, but nearly all unearthed artifacts lost their color from being exposed to sunlight and fresh air. Horses and chariots were also made into pottery along with the warriors.  

 The army was made over 2,000 years ago by order of Emperor Qin of the Qin Dynasty. He was known as a cruel leader, forcing 700,000 people to make the clay warriors. Emperor Qin is buried a few kilometers from his army, who are buried at the base of Lishan Mountain, just outside of Xi'an. The reason for their creation is due to the beliefs of Taoism, which was predominant at the time. Emperor Qin believed the army would accompany and protect him in the afterlife. Each sculpted face is said to represent someone from Qin's real army.  

Our last stop of the day was at Yinqiao Dairy Group, a thirty-eight year old dairy manufacturing company in Xi'an. The president, Mr. Liu, and several other senior executives met with us to show the success of their products and answers any questions we had. Moving forward, Yinqiao Dairy Group wants to increase the diversity of flavors of their milk & yogurt products and make milk a more popular choice of beverage in China. Mr. Liu hopes to continue and expand relationships with the United States, as well as SDSU specifically because of our outstanding College of Ag & Bio. We were also able to tour their production facility, which uses U.S. packaging equipment.  

The evening was open for us to get foot massages, do some shopping, and explore the magnificence of Xi'an. This was definitely one of the favorite days we have had so far. 

Devon Baum & Corey Chicoine

Sunday, May 15

 Beef farm

 

 Chopping haylage

 

 Dairy barn

 

 Dumplings

 

 Evaluating the plow

 

 Helping hands

 

 Kingbull steers

 

 New combines

 

 New friends

 

Silage pile



Sunday, May 15

Ni-hao (hello) from China, 

After a full night of rest in our new hotel in Xi'an, we set out for the Northwest University Beef Farm.  They are partnered Kingbull, which was the first cattle breeding company in China.  This farm has 10,000 beef cattle housed in twenty barns.   The company emphasizes in four different areas: reproduction, engineering, nutrition, and training of producers.  The company has crossed Black Angus and a local red breed, then mated the offspring to a waygu.   They produce a high quality marbling beef which is expensive and also a lower quality that sell more locally.  Retail beef from a Kingbull can be scanned and traced back to the source.  The Chinese like beef, but are not particular on the specific palatability. The manure is made into fertilizer that is then used on fields to improve growth.  In the company's cow/calf operation which is a few miles away, they do not synchronize the estrous cycles of the cattle and the weaning weights are lower than weaning weights in the United States.  The operation does not have an established EPD (estimated progeny difference) system to select for desired traits.  They have a total of 8,000 beef cows with the majority of them the local yellow breed and a few Waygu.  They are all dry-lotted on solid brick flooring, and body confirmation is sure different than our US cattle.  After lunch at the Northwest Agricultural & Forestry University (40,000 students), we made a quick stop at a local farm equipment dealership.  While A LOT smaller than farm equipment in the US, the designs were similar.

Our next stop, we visited the Shaanxi Provencal Dairy Cattle Center, which was home to 4,000 dairy cattle.  The dairy farm was very modernized with a 60-cow milking carousel.  They set a high desire on making the farm presentable to those who visit.  The farm milked the cows three times a day and produced a total 45 tons of milk per day.  Each cow produced 30 kg (66 pounds) per day.  The farm receives about 4.1 yuan/kilogram (33 cents/pound), which is substantially higher than the United States.  Milk is more expensive because they have to import most of their feed from the United States.  They feed their cattle a mixture of silage, haylage, sugar cane, and cotton seed.  It is illegal for them to feed blood meal to cattle. While observing their feed storage facilities, many of the guys jumped in to help unload sugar cane from a truck giving a few of the workers a break. 

Sunshine Lidu Grand Theater was the next stop on our destination.  Xi'an is an ancient capital of China, so it is most famous for its dumpling dinners.  Dumpling dinners are famous because the wife of the emperor of the Tang Dynasty loved dumplings, so he created numerous different kinds.  The theater served many different kinds of dumplings.  The dumplings were shaped to represent the meat that it was made of.  The Tang Dynasty was a time of political and economic prosperity in China, dances during this period was very colorful and cultural to represent this history.  In total, there were nine different dances to represent this time.   

The rest of the night was left to explore the streets and local life of Xi'an.

Devin and Tyler

Saturday, May 14

 Not Forestburg

 

 Fish market

 

 Fish

 

 Dancing

 

 Morning exercise

 

 Success at fruit market

 

 Shamian Island

 

 Tyson chicken

 

Jackrabbit day



Saturday, May 14

Greetings from China, 

Today we started off leaving the hotel bright and early and took a bus for half an hour to the fish market, Huangsha Aquatic Product Market.  Our translator told us that on an average day there is an average of 100 million yuan (16 million dollars), from 500 million tons of fish and seafood.  This particular fish market is the third largest in China and sells to over 200 other provinces.  Everything was alive and swimming, with more colors and shapes than you can imagine!  There were things such as alligator, eels, crawfish, bullfrogs, snakes, turtles, giant salamanders, and many other assortments of fish.  

Our next stop was Shamain Island, an island located directly in the middle of mainland China.  This island is European based because after the Chinese lost in the Opium War, the Europeans took over the island and therefore the island still has the European heritage.  It is a 200 m by 800 m island, and all the building look like we could be in London.  We went into the White Swan hotel, which was also the first Five Star Hotel in China.  Some of the locals were doing activities such as hackie-sack and dancing and a few of us jumped in on the action.   However, the biggest surprise of the White Swan hotel is that we actually got Facebook!  Probably the only place in China that’ll happen, and it was kind of hard to leave it. 

Then we made our way to the Fruit and Vegetable market where they have 12 million tons of turnover a day,  5 million tons of that being fruit and 7 million tons being vegetables, with half of that being used daily in Guangzhou.  The fruits and vegetables came from all over China, and all over the world. The size of the market was 3,300 hectors (1320 acres).  It was hard for us to buy products because it was only sold in bulk.  Some of the vendors were nice enough to cut up some watermelon and kiwi for us to try.  A few of us bought some fruit such as mangos, elderberries, and kiwi (which we got through airport security in our carry-ons).  

To finish off our day we headed to the airport to fly to Xi'an.  It's about a 3 hour flight, which was delayed roughly 45 minutes.  To fill our time we played cards and took full advantage of the free Wi-Fi, a delicacy here in China.  We are looking forward to our time in Xi'an during the next few days. 

Ty and Laura 

P.S. Don't worry parents, all of your children are accounted for!  :)