After briefly visiting the Da He music school (meaning "grand water" [or maybe it was "grand river"], referring to the Yellow River), spent the morning at the People's Park. Would have liked to spend some time looking for groups of people doing Tai Chi or something film-worthy, but Maryanne of course wanted to go on one little carnival ride after another. [These rides were only slightly more elaborate than the ones that are moved from one shopping center parking lot to another in the US.] Big attraction was go-karts (à la Malibu), at 10 RMB/3 laps. [That's about 40 cents a lap, which seemed like a good deal. The last time I went to Malibu Raceway (many years ago), it was $1.67/lap, although the cars were fancier and the track was longer. Still, this is an exmple of the kind of thing that in the US would be prohibitively expensive because of the insurance and regulations. (Our Malibu went out of business years ago, although to be fair, I don't know whether it had anything to do with insurance or regulations.) Did they supply helmets at the People's Park? Of course not! They even let three carts at time race each other, so they bumped into each other sometimes. I didn't see anyone get hurt, but it was clear that China lags behind the US in the field of civil law. (Or is it the other way around?)]

After lunch, took a walk down the street from the hotel looking for a shady park bench to write some notes. Finally found a bench in a park outside the soccer stadium, but no shade. Sounds like the PA in the stadium is going, but of course I have no idea what it's saying. [All the musicians in our group were at a rehearsal, with the Da He students and teachers, for the evening's concert at the Cultural Palace. The rest of us had free time. While I was taking this walk, the McKinley's had the bright idea of renting bicycles, which allowed them to go much farther than I did. As they told the story, they asked about this at the hotel front desk, and the staff said something like, "Sure, just wait a minute out front." The McKinley's had the strong impression that someone from the hotel walked over to a nearby construction site and asked a couple of the workers if they would loan their bicycles. So the McKinley's spent the afternoon touring Xin Xiang on a pair of well-used-looking bikes that needed some work on the brakes.]

It's windy, and the pollution isn't as bad as Beijing, but still not clear. You can see blue if you look straight up, though. There are a couple kites flying from this park, and they're up pretty high. Kites are apparently much more popular here than in the US. [I had crossed a bridge over a canal to get to the park bench where the above was written. Along that canal was an outdoor kite store that was very photogenic because all the kites are brightly colored.]

The only music ever played in the hotel lobby seems to be an instrumental version of "Sounds of Silence". There's only one person on the staff who speaks significant English. [On our last day, the music was changed to some other song that repeated over and over, but I've forgotten what it was.]

Found a much better bench in a little park almost directly across the street from the hotel, next to a canal. Lots of people riding bikes, but almost no one wearing a helmet, even on the many motor scooters. Lots of horns blowing in the traffic. Lots of vehicles smaller than cars, many with 3 wheels.

While we were at the park [the People's Park in the morning, that is], a large helicopter kept passing back and forth every little while. A minute ago, saw 3 of them in formation. (It's 2:30 PM as I write this.) [This helicopter business continued the whole time we were in Xin Xiang, but I have no idea what they were doing.]

Just after filming exercise park across the canal and saying they're rarely used, saw a couple people over there using it! [These exercise parks were pretty common in all the cities we visited. Sometimes they were just wide places in the sidewalk where a few pieces of equipment were installed. At first, we thought they were children's playgrounds, because they were painted with the same bright colors (usually blue and yellow). However, a brief study revealed that they were actually exercise machines for adults.]

It's really hot. Can't believe the locals are all wearing jackets. What do they do in the winter?

Most of the high-rise apartment buildings, both here and in Beijing, look very similar and run-down. They all seem to have balconies that are glassed in, like 3-season rooms. While walking from Da He to People's Park, passed one that looked brand new.

In the park where I'm writing this, there's a guy up in a tree apparently pruning it.

Decided to walk down to the next traffic light in the opposite direction before crossing back to the side of the street with the hotel. Turned out it was nearly a mile away! [Maybe here would be a good place to mention an interesting feature of the traffic signals at major Xin Xiang intersections. In addition to the traffic lights, they had large digital displays that counted down the number of seconds until the light was going to change. If I drove around there, I would use that to adjust my speed to try to avoid having to actually stop. I didn't study the traffic flow carefully enough to tell if the locals were doing that, though. As I recall, Xian had the same thing at major intersections, but I didn't see any in Beijing.]

Just before going back into the hotel, heard Für Elise on a PA somewhere (possibly at the soccer stadium). [One surprising thing about China is how much Western music you hear. I couldn't help wondering what Beethoven would have thought if he had been told that nearly 200 years in the future, his music would be boomed out over cities in China. I wonder if any of the locals knew what they were listening to (maybe those associated with the Da He Music School did :-).]

[During this whole walk, I was acutely aware of being different from everyone else around me. Not many Westerners visit Xin Xiang, and I got lots of stares from the many other pedestrians. They didn't seem in any way hostile, though, and I never felt at all threatened; I was just a novelty that they wanted to take a look at.]