Devon Winrick

December 6th Korla, Xinjiang

I didn't take many pictures, but on the 6th we walked to my wife's elementary school. They were playing music on the PA system and the students were running around for exercise.

China takes protecting the children really seriously in this area due to the terrorist attacks. For example, here is the school's entrance.

Since we're still in Korla the school was VERY locked down. Metal fences topped with barbed wire, cameras, and a road block that could stop a semi. The kids seemed happy though.

Later in the day we'd get to see the school day end. During that time officers would stand in the street with sub machine guns. Local volunteers would group together and go and stand watch.

We tried to enter a nearby office building while school was being let out and we had to have our ids checked and pictures taken. We also had to prove our reason for being there.

Security is tight in Korla.

I'd like to also mention that this was the day my flu started to show. It wasn't really bad, but I felt like crap and kept having to blow my nose. So, we decided to go to the doctor. This was my first experience with the Chinese medical system. We didn't go to a big hospital. Local communities in China have their own medical buildings, so we went to the one in the same community as us.

On the way we passed some older apartment buildings. My wife used to live here with her family, a long time ago. The apartment they have now is much nicer.

I didn't take any pictures of the outside of the medical center, but I did get a few of the inside. One thing that you will notice is the lights are out. This was common in a lot of public buildings I went to, including police stations. The lights won't be on in these smaller communities unless they need to be (you can see fine).

Seeing the doctor was an interesting experience. I went in the room and sat down, and they asked if I had a fever. They didn't do things like weigh me, or take my temperature. There was some chatting, and then I got a prescription.

I didn't know it at the time, but my wife was trying to convince our mother and the doctor to get my the "Western-style" medicine. Nyquil isn't legal in China (not uncommon for Asian countries, you'd think with the number of countries it's illegal in it'd also be banned in the US....) however they do have Western-style medicine that works a little similarly. We lost the battle however, and the doctor gave us a prescription for Chinese herbal medicine.

I was supposed to suck the medicine out of this little capsul, and drink the powdered mixture with some hot water.

It wasn't THAT bad...

While getting some hot water for the medicine we get a look at the family hot water thermos. I thought it looked pretty cool - the cap is made of wood.

Later, we'd go to a store and find different medicine over the counter that in my opinion worked better.

Before dinner we had an errand to run at a bank. Here's the bank's lobby.

I think around this point is where the seafood adventure began. Seafood is a rarity in some parts of China, so to give it to your guests is really something. It really was a pleasure to be taken to such a nice restaurant - but I must say, we ate A LOT of seafood. I'll elaborate more on that later. First, let's go over this restaurant.

You can go in, and point to the living food you want to eat.

So that's the food when it's alive. How about after?

This is octopus, as you can probably tell. It was actually pretty good with the right sauce.

Here's a big, flat fish. It takes some time to eat but it's good.

I wasn't really a fan of the crab. The taste was great, but it was a lot of work for not much meat.

So that's all the pictures I took of dinner. While leaving I noticed a couple interesting things. For one, an old Buick in China! It's interesting to even see an old car. Every old vehicle I've noticed up to this point was of the two or three wheeled variety.

Near home we get to see some bikes - a mix of pedal and electric powered.

Once back home I snapped a picture of one of the doors in the apartment building. You can see that people like to decorate their doors. In the US we use wreaths and stuff, in China they use these strips of letters for good luck/well being. Red is considered a very good color.

A magnet on the family fridge. It was upside down when I originally saw it... :)

A little while later we ventured out to walk to a store. On the way I noticed on neat thing about the intersections - a count down timer! Oh how I wish we had these in America.

Once at the store I found the energy drink section. Here's what Red Bull looks like in China.

Then, of course, more amazing food. Evidently this place we went to in Korla is known for how spicy it is, and I believe it. I almost could not eat this. I had to have some yogurt. It was good though.