May 13
This morning after having
breakfast, we took the bus to a local family's farm. We were allowed to tour their house, and to
our surprise, they had a very modern house with televisions and a computer. They greeted us with cherries, walnuts,
peanuts and tea. The farm input cost was
10,000 RMB per year (about 1600 USD).
They raised kiwi, peanuts, walnuts, cherries, wheat, corn, and
grapes. The farm was very diverse, but
each plot was very small. They had rest
rooms out in the field that they used to sit in when the day got too hot. After leaving the farm, we went to the Terra
Cotta Warrior Museum where they showed us how to make the warriors and lacquer
furniture that was coated with 60 layers of lacquer and was fire proof. We then went to the Terra Cotta Warrior
exhibit. The Terra Cotta Warriors were
built in the tomb of the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty. There are over 8000 warriors and it took
700,000 people 40 years to build the tomb.
After the emperor died, farmers revolted and raided the tomb, stole
weapons, and burned the warriors. The
warriors used to be painted but after they were excavated, the colors
disappeared very rapidly in a period of less than 2 weeks. The next place we toured was Shaanxi Shiyang
Group Oil and Fat Co. which is the soybean processing plant in Northeast
China. The two main products were
soybean meal and soybean oil. Eighty
percent of the soybeans processed at this plant were imported from Brazil,
U.S.A, and Argentina. The soybean meal
was bagged in 180 pound bags and was sorted into two protein levels, 43 and
45%. The soybean oil was bottled into 15
liter jugs. The company also produced
rapeseed oil. We were given a full tour
and it was very much the same as an American soybean processing company. Michael Sukalski got to meet his “Chinese
father, Mr. Wu, chairman of the plant, who he met years ago when a USSEC
delegation visited his family’s farm in MN.
Our last stop of the day was Xi'an YinQiao Biological Science and Technology
Company which is the largest milk processing plant in Northwest China. This company makes both powder and liquid
milk (including yogurt) in 80 different varieties. We were allowed to tour both their exhibition
hall and their processing plant. In the
exhibition hall, they allowed us to sample some of their products including
some of their Ultra High Temperature products that are shelf stable. The processing plant was very similar to an
American milk plant except it was a much smaller scale than our top producers.
Tonight we will celebrate Megan DeRouchey 20th birthday.
Dairy plant
Kiwi farm
Oil
Terra Cotta
Wheat
Soy plant
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