This Village Outside Xi’an Has the Strangest Tradition…

Peter wants me to see a more personal side to the people of Xi'an, and so we leave it. And travel about an hour and a half outside of the city to Yuan Jia, an old farm village turned retreat for weary urbanites. Jia? Yeah, Yuan is Y-U-A-N, is one Chinese family name. Jia means family. So that means the people from this village, they are relatives of the same family. Is that still happens today, or is this just in the past? They were all relatives? Okay. People are here to eat home-cooked food, stock up on the local hot peppers, and fresh ground spices. Ginger is a healthy cooking materials. That's strong. We only eat ginger in the morning. Morning ginger is in the same vital as ginseng. You know ginseng? It wakes you up. Exactly. It gets you going. You don't want to have this at night. After sunset, temperature is coming down, your body is getting cooler. At this moment, don't touch ginger. Don't touch ginger? Yeah, at night. People also come here to be entertained. They're about to do something. They're doing the show. It's show time, I think. The two men who are flanking the storyteller. Who are they? What are they doing? They are the tea cookers. They're the tea cookers? Yeah, they're cooking the tea. What do you mean they're cooking the tea? The tea. We have two types of tea you can cook in China. One is green tea. Green tea, you don't need to cook. Just put the tea leaves in the water. Foil, steep, that's it, okay. But also this tea, black tea, will be cooked in the hot water again, again, and again. For a couple hours until the tea taste totally goes into the water. That's why every half an hour, they're going back to push to burn the coal in the stove. Okay. To burn the tea water, boil it again, again, and again. Okay, and that's why they're the tea cookers. Exactly. Got it, okay. I've just, I've never seen anything like this before. Oh, really? And this question's gonna come out wrong, but what is that man smoking? So I know why I'm here, because I'm from somewhere very, very different. So places like this is just absorbing as much a different cultural life as I possibly can, a day in the life. But why is everyone else here? Is there just an idea that you want to be a part of a life that is harder and harder to find in China? Is that why everyone's enjoying it? And also most of the tourists today we can see around here, they're all people from Xi'an, from the city. These are all people from Xi'an? Just kind of leaving the city, how we always... Just leaving the city. We just all need to leave the city. Our Chinese family, every family is big. More generations live together. So that's why you can see the family people, family by family, all come here to enjoy the holiday vacation together just right here. So being here in this village is about being together with your family and just enjoying a more relaxed time. Relaxed time, right. I like it. And what's more relaxing than getting a massage and your ears cleaned? It's, you know, it's just, it's a little ticklish. Mr. Ho is very delicate, I must say. And now he's kind of digging out some stuff. When I first saw this, I was really fascinated because this is something that to me is done in your own, you know, bathroom, in the privacy of your own home. And yet you're doing it out in the open. So this is not just like cleaning your ears, this is a part of your entire body being healthy. We do this like every month. Once a month. It's just a light. Oh, wow. That was wonderful. Okay, one more thing. Oh, I know. Oh, I paid for two ears, right? Okay. So did you like that experience? Well, click here for the full episode and here to subscribe. Basically, you're subscribing to more and more great experiences. Experiences you can have in China, to California, to Maine, to Switzerland. I've had all kinds of experiences and these are all experiences that you can have too.