Sunday Trip to Banpo Village and Museum

Ayden Writes:

Today my family and I went to Banpo. Banpo is a Neolithic village from six thousand years ago. It is an archeological site that is in good condition. Banpo is not near the city. It takes about 30 minutes to get there in a car. My Mom hired someone to take us there. When we go there my Mom bought us tickets to go inside. The first exhibit we went to showed us what the Banpo residents used to hunt and to fish back then. The next exhibit was the village that the Banpo residents lived in. The village was meant to be outside but when archeologists discovered Banpo they put a building over it. This building is hard to describe. When we entered the building we saw a lot of interesting things like a big sign that said something like “this is from six thousand years ago.” One of the exhibits was the crafts the Banpo residents made. They made pots out of clay. The next exhibit was a description of how the Banpo residents buried people. They showed a few pictures of how they did it. They buried people with pots. Last but not least we went to an exhibit of Neolithic artifacts that included the bones the Banpo residents used and how.

After we looked at this exhibit, me and my mom went to the bathroom. The bathrooms are a lot different in China. Instead of sitting on a toilet seat you have to squat down and use a porcelain hole. After that fun trip, we went to a gift shop. We didn’t find anything we liked. Then we went home to our dorms.

The weather today was strange. It was SNOWING. It doesn’t snow as often as it snows in America. At Banpo me and my Mom were very cold. On the way home I was looking out the window and all of the palm trees were covered in snow. They looked very odd. I hope the weather doesn’t stray this way.

--Ayden.

Gavi Writes

Hey all,

Today when we woke up it was snowing! For those of you who know me well, you know that this is all it takes to make me a very happy! So, the day started off great! After an early breakfast, my family and I piled into a bus and went to Banpo. Banpo is a 6000 year old village that archeologists dug up about 30 minutes from where we are staying. It was very interesting.

There were a couple buildings with little things such as fishing hooks and such that the archeologists had found. Then there was one big building with the ground that had been the village. We saw what the houses’ floors looked like, though the roofs and the walls weren’t there. There were two different kinds of houses. One was rectangular and mostly underground. There were stairs that went down into the one-room house and in the middle of the house there was a fire pit. There was also a circular model of a house. It had the same basic structure as the rectangular one accept that it was mostly above ground. There were also videos that showed how the buildings were built. We also saw skeletons of humans and animals of the time. It was all very interesting and cool. Afterwards we all piled back into the bus and drove back to the dorms.

More later,
Gavi