Team Xide Pics

This is Team Xide (without our fearless leader, BT, since he was taking the picture). We took this picture on one of our weekend trips into the mountains. We also had some Chinese friends with us on this trip.

We had to take a 10 hr. train ride southwest to get to Xide from Chengdu. This is us at the train station in Chengdu. There weren't any other foreigners at the train station when we were there, so we were definitely noticed. We had to be careful with our things because of all the people around, so that is why some people are wearing their backpacks in the front. From the time we came to the train station in Chengdu till we returned there two weeks later, everywhere we went we were pretty much the only foreigners. That meant that we stuck out like a light in darkness and were treated like the circus came to town.

During our time in Xide, we were able to be part of the Torch Festival. This festival is the biggest celebration of the Yi people. We went to the biggest city near us, Xi Chang, and had a grand old time one Wednesday night. This is a picture of some of the girls posing like some of the statues at this monument in Xi Chang. I will post more about the Torch Festival. It was so much fun and ranked close to the the top as our teams favorite adventure while in Xide.

We loved to do things as a team and usually didn't have much choice. There isn't much to do in Xide. One of our first nights there, we went out to a "Chinese Restaurant" (ha ha) and were able to celebrate Joy "little's" birthday. When we were leaving, we stopped across the street where they had a pool table. Pool tables were one of the biggest things to do in town. They were everywhere. Some of our guys played a game of pool while the rest of us entertained the towns people there by taking pictures of them and showing them their pictures on digital cameras. It was fascinating to see them laugh histerically at pictures of themselves. Usually the children were the most fascinated, but some of the old people were too. My brother, Ricky, told me we may have been the first person to take some of these people's picture.

On one of our weekend trips, we stopped by this village which was a place where travelers stopped as they went down The Silk Road. We were actually able to see part of the Silk Road on that trip.