Mao and Gao

Mr. Gao says he's our best friend in China!  It's his personal mission to take us to all the sites in and around Xi'an.  “A year is not nearly long enough,”he says. On  Wednesday, October 21, he arranged to pick us up at 5:30 AM for a day trip to the Hokou Waterfalls.  We drove out of the city in the dark, but soon found ourselves in the beautiful countryside on a perfect autumn day.  The leaves were turning colors everywhere, and there were crisp apples for sale at every roadside stop.
About mid-morning we found ourselves detoured to Yan’an, which is the hotbed of the Communist Revolution before and during WWII.  There is a huge statue and museum dedicated to Chairman Mao, with a gazillion pictures of their infamous leader.  Mr. Gao holds him in extreme respect so we didn't express our viewpoint. ( difficult to do with the language barrier anyway).  We also visited Mao’s headquarters, home, meeting rooms, and many spartan cave homes lived in by his generals and other comrades.  It was quite interesting.  Later someone referred to this town as “Disneyland for the communists.”
Mr. Tao also showed us lots of red dates ripening up, but we're just not “date” fans.  No dates stuffed with sticky rice for us.
We then headed down the road and finally stopped for lunch in some little hometown cafe that only Mr. Gao knows about.  Tim ate a Chinese Hamburger, which is a steamed flatbread bun with pork inside.  Then he gobbled down a plate of rice with mushrooms, and a bowl of soup--all with a spoon,since he dreads those chopsticks.  Pretty soon the cook and hosts all come out to watch him eat.  They even offered him another “hamburger” on the house.  It turns out they have never had an American in their little establishment before, and they want to video him for an advertisement--or so they say.
With our tummies filled, we head off to the waterfalls, finally arriving about 5:00.  The Yellow River has cut away a narrow gorge, and when the water rushes through it creates a lot of spray and several cascading waterfalls. It was very lovely and a bit slick on the rocks.  Gao had a quick nap while we wandered around, bought a trinket bracelet, then headed home.  Just before getting back into the car, Tim said he was hungry again.  Gao was quite taken aback, as it had only been about 3 hours since Tim's record lunch.  When George, the translator, told Gao that Tim was just kidding, he howled with laughter.  He seemed to think that was a great joke.
The lights of Xi'an didn't appear until 10:00 PM, making for a 16 ½ hour day--much of it riding in the car without being able to converse very well.  When Mr. Gao dropped us off he said, “if you're exhausted, that means you had a fun day.” Well, we were!