Last Day in Beijing

Monday, February 2

Our last day in Beijing/China. To start, there are still fireworks being set off. The Spring Festival celebrations last 15 days and everyone has taken advantage of every opportunity to blow stuff up to ring in the Year of the Ox.
This morning I got up at six with a friend of mine to go to the Temple of Heaven. There were two main reasons to get up so incredibly early on our last (free) day: 1) beat the tourist groups and 2) see all the old people doing tai chi. Seniors (the over 60 crowd) get into parks and temples for free in China and they take full advantage of it. The Temple grounds cover 273 hectares—rather enormous—and there are scores of areas where the seniors do tai chi, dance, exercise, walk around, or meditate.
We arrived at the Temple around seven, but the gates to the main courtyard did not open until eight. There is a Chinese toy somewhat similar to a hackysack that we have seen on several occasions throughout the trip. It has a flat base with weighted metal rings and four brightly colored feathers coming out of the top. It is significantly more difficult than the Chinese would lead you to believe. The way that they juggled it back and forth with their feet seems more like the Brazilian soccer team than senior citizens. One salesman (yes, of course they are for sale) tossed one to me and the next 15 minutes were spent by the two Americans making fools of ourselves. It had gotten colder since we arrived in the morning, so thankfully it helped us warm up. By that time the gates were opened and we could go in.
The courtyard houses the Taoist temple. Traditionally, temples and shrines are square or rectangular in shape—representing the four seasons and the earth. The Temple of Heaven, however, representing the Heavens (creative name, no?) is circular. The tiers of the temple had dragons (representing the emperors) and phoenixes (representing the empresses, of which there were few) painted in gold. The main staircases that the emperor’s sedan would have been carried up had similar carvings in white marble. The sun was coming through the haze at this point and it was really gorgeous. We wandered through some of the gardens and paths and found more tai chi groups. One particular old man who had walked past us earlier had apparently waited for us and began talking to us. He had a rather thick accent, so the conversation was short-lived. We managed to find our way back to the gate that we originally entered through (the next closest one was a kilometer away) and went back to campus. As we approached the gate we could smell something delicious. The street food stand that makes the most delicious egg-pancake-things had reopened! It was a delicious way to end a great morning.
In the afternoon another friend joined us and we went out to the northern edge of the city to an art district. Apparently, the area was once a factory of some sort but then the government said, “We need culture!” so the grounds were converted into galleries. There were sculptures, photography, and paintings, many of which were interesting takes on Communist China. After walking around for a while we decided that it was time for eats. We ended up at a nearby Japanese restaurant, where we had an incredibly delicious all you can eat and drink meal. From dinner we went back to the nearby bar where we spent New Year’s Eve. We hung out and played pool with the local crowd for a few hours before heading back to campus.
It is hard to believe that a month has already gone by and that I, once again, have to say goodbye to China. Having now experienced Beijing’s summers and winters, I’m looking forward to seeing what spring and autumn are like in the city and in the rest of the country. We have been on the plane for 12 hours at this point…only about 90 minutes left until we land at JFK. I really enjoyed studying in Beijing and hope that I will have the opportunity to do it again in the future.

Pingguoyuan（苹果园）

Saturday, January 28

This afternoon two classmates and I rode the oldest subway line all the to its western terminus at Pingguoyuan (literally “Apple Park”), which is at the very edge of the city of Beijing. It was remarkable what a difference a 20-minute ride made; there was no longer any evidence of the ultra-modern city of Beijing—in its place was an enormous coal-fueled power plant with twin cooling towers. Such a short train ride took us from a metropolitan city to the 2nd world. We received even more stares and odd looks out on the periphery of Beijing than we did in the heart of the city. A friend of ours had told us about how it hiked up a small mountain not far from the subway station, so we began to walk westward. After walking for about 30 minutes, which included passing the power plant, we started to head north towards what we thought was the mountain. We arrived at a gate to some sort of military installation. After wishing the guard a happy new year and talking to him for a minute, we were directed towards a path that would take us up the mountain.

Stairs faded to a rock-littered dirt path only 18 inches or so wide that led up the hills. We reached a clearing and had a rather commanding view of the city, power plant, and surrounding area. After climbing a little bit higher, and curious as to whether there was a return path on the other side, we soldiered on. We discovered a dirt road and began wandering down it. After walking for only a few minutes we met a woman walking several large, friendly chowchows. Only a few meters behind her were two older men standing and talking. We began to talk with them and soon discovered that the older of the two was 82 years old. One of the friends that I was has been studying in Beijing for over a year now, so he was able to converse quite well with them. They were fascinated and entertained by our cameras. They asked where we were headed and we explained that we were just going in “that” direction, pointing up towards another trail. For some reason, the elder of the two decided that he’d walk with us. For the next half hour or so (a few solid kilometers) he led us down a different trail towards the bottom of the mountain. He used a branch as a walking stick, but for a man of his age he was ridiculously spry. On one or two occasions when he knew he would need assistance stopping himself after hopping down off of a rock, he simply pointed himself towards a tree and used the trunk to catch himself. This would prompt us to encourage him (in Chinese) to take it easy. He would merely wave his hand dismissively and continue down the path. He spoke to my friend most of the way down, talking about how China and the US should be friends because they are both powerful countries and economies with similar interests. Once we had reached the road he continued to lead us through a hole in a fence, down another flight of stairs to the main road and got us on a bus back towards the subway. He was incredibly friendly and helpful—had it not been for him we would’ve taken a much longer time to find out way down the mountain. The bus deposited us at the subway station and we made our way back towards the modern Beijing.

Chinese New Year

新年快乐！(Happy New Year!)

Let me begin by saying (with every sense of patriotism and love for democracy) that the 4th of July is going to be a bit of a let down after the last 36 hours. Two nights ago (the 24th) a couple classmates and I met up with some of our friends from UD who are studying in Beijing on scholarship. We wandered down back alleys for 15 minutes or so, seemingly going nowhere, until we arrived at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. The cuisine there was from Xinjiang--the autonomous province in the far northwest of China. Because of its location and and the borders that the province shares with neighboring countries, the food was unlike all other meals we had enjoyed/not enjoyed thus far. We enjoyed delicious mutton, eggplant, mixed vegetables prepared in amazing sauces, and fried/seasoned nan that was excellent. Six of us ate til we could not pick up our chopsticks. The best part of the meal might have been the bill. For all of that incredible food the total came to 150 kuai. Meaning that we each paid 25 kuai. Meaning that we paid about $3.75 each. Awesome. After walking off some of the food, we got back to our friend's apartment and set off some firecrackers. Little did we know how pathetic a warm up for the following night's celebrations we were enjoying.

Yesterday morning we had our first class in over a week, having returned from our travels around China. After class four of us wandered a few blocks off campus to a northeast restaurant (Manchuria region). Again, delicious food--including donkey. We had to shell out more cash this time--40 kuai a piece. Nearly six dollars! After lunch one friend and I wandered back towards our friend's apartment where there had been a fireworks stand. We acquired a couple things that went boom, including a belt of firecrackers (1,000 count...for about $3.25) and then made our way back to campus. The whole group went out to dinner at a KTV (karaoke) restaurant since nearly every place is closed on account of most people going home to celebrate with their families. As we made our way back after dinner the city had lost its collective mind. It sounded like a war zone. Outside of one restaurant many people had arranged quite a setup of explosives, including a winding strip of firecrackers that probably contained about 10,000. They gave us sparklers (whee) and we encouraged them to hurry up. When they finally lit it all off it was awesome. As we walked a bit further back towards campus we came upon a fireworks stand. We did a joint-investment in a respectable arsenal...all told I think we spent about 500 or 600 kuai on explosives...nearly $100. We did a quick rendezvous at the apartment (professors included) and made our way to the square by the South Gate of campus. First priority was to unroll our belts of firecrackers (total = 5,000...2 x 2,000 and 1 x 1,000). Before setting those off we lit several tubes that launched bright explosives into the air that made enough noise to trip car alarms. Finally, it was time to set off the firecrackers. With the help of two classmates, I lit the fuses and stepped back to join the class. What followed was the most ridiculous minute-long cacophony ever. It was completely dark at this point, but the explosions lit everyone up and echoed across the square and the surrounding buildings.

After our wonderful pyromania, a few of us returned to our friend's apartment. They are friends with the owner of a local bar, and we were invited to celebrate there and have homemade dumplings. It was a nice, low-key way to continue celebrating the new year. At midnight we went back out into the street to set off more firecrackers and fireworks.

In a nutshell, Chinese New Year was insane. Everywhere was explosions and bright lights. I don't envy the people responsible for cleaning up the aftermath. With only a week remaining before we return to the US of A, we are looking to make the most of the free afternoons that our schedule allots. More adventures to come.

Shanghai

This is the entire stay in Shanghai, so I apologize for its length.

1/20/09 (Tuesday)

Today is our second day in Shanghai. Just getting here was an adventure. Yesterday we got up at six o’clock so that we could leave the hotel at eight—the airport is about 40 or so minutes outside of the city. The flight was originally (yes, note the word choice of “originally”) scheduled for 10:10, but for some reason we were soon informed that it was delayed until 12:30. We had begun to settle in for a wait when our professor told us that the airline was putting us up in the VIP room. What this turned out to be was that they bused us to the nearby airline airport and gave us rooms (that we sat in for about 45 seconds) and gave us lunch before taking us back to the airport. Upon returning to the airport we were informed that the flight was delayed—still. The pilot was apparently sick or diseased or something, so they had to fly another pilot in from Beijing. I’m not quite sure how Air China arrived at that as the appropriate course of action, but oh well. Fortunately, only twenty or so minutes later we began to board. Because of whatever other scheduling problems had arisen and however the other passengers had dealt with it, we had the flight virtually to ourselves. I spent about half an hour in the back few rows talking to the flight crew with a couple of my classmates and our professor. A 737 with only 35 people on it is a rather interesting sight…especially when you know everyone on board.

After arriving and retrieving our bags (in record time—crazy how that happens when there are less than 40 people on the flight) we got on the bus and spent the next 90 minutes in traffic between the airport and the city/our hotel. Mercifully, I slept for most of it. We deposited our bags in our rooms and went to the Bund to see it all illuminated. Fun fact: Bund is Hindi for waterfront…so there ya go. After that we were cut loose to find food on our own. A few of us found a local hole in the wall where you order skewers of raw meat and cook them over a pit of hot coals in the middle of the table. You season them with salt, pepper, cumin, and chili pepper however you like. I had done this once this past summer and it was still just as delicious.

more Tuesday

This morning we went to some gorgeous gardens in the city. Paths wound through rock formations, past beautiful architecture and ponds filled with koi. I think we spent a solid two hours walking through the entire thing. At one point (when nobody important was watching) I climbed a small rock formation that allowed me to pose next to an enormous dragon’s head that slithered along the rooftops of the surrounding buildings.
After the gardens we wandered through market streets bargaining with shopkeepers and enjoying the fantastic weather. The two friends that I was had to meet a friend who lived in the area, so I began to walk back towards the hotel on my own. I decided to stop in a park that I saw along the Bund and see what there was to see. A Chinese man approached me and asked if I could take a picture for him. As I gave him the camera back I began to chat with him the two girls that he was with. They spoke a bit of English and I spoke a bit of Chinese, so we talked about why I was in Shanghai, how I knew Chinese, where I had been, etc. This prompted another photo request. They then invited me to join them at a tea demonstration. Having no plans for the remainder of the day—and no idea what they were talking about—I agreed to join them. I ended up spending the next two hours or so with them. We went to a teashop where we had a private demonstration on various teas, their respective teas, how to properly drink tea…the whole nine yards. Think of it as a wine tasting, but for tea. That’s the closest example I can think of. I learned more about Chinese culture and the language; they learned some of the intricacies of the English language—to put it in family-friendly terms. It was really cool to have met these random people and to have had the unique opportunity to go on a tea-tasting adventure. After we left and exchanged phone numbers, we parted ways. I had brought with me to Shanghai a rather dissatisfied impression from this summer, mostly because I just felt that it was so Western and commercially glitzy—and because I had been sick when I was here last. Today won Shanghai a second chance in my book. For dinner Nick and I grabbed some local street food. It was probably the best-tasting egg fried rice we’ve had yet. While sitting and waiting for our food to be prepared (in a big pan over a gas burner on the street) I began talking to an old man who was also sitting and waiting for his food. His accent was rather thick, but we still managed to get some ideas across. He asked what country we were from, and once I explained that we were from the US he asked what city. I told him I was from Washington and began to try to explain the significance of tonight’s events back home, but he interrupted me and said, “Obama!” I was rather surprised that he was so on top of the events back home, considering that he looked to be over 60 and didn’t speak of word of English. I am willing to bet that if you asked a random poor old man on the streets back in the United States what was going on in another country’s government on a particular day they would have no idea. We brought our food back to the hotel and hung out before watching the inauguration on CNN International. By the time the ceremony had concluded it was well after 1:00AM, so we went to bed.


Wednesday

This morning we first went to the Shanghai History Museum. It is said to be one of the best—if not the best—history museum in China, but I thought it was pretty underwhelming. Perhaps it is simply because we have reached our saturation point of calligraphy, ornate jade works, and ceramics. I still find all of the jade and the Buddhist statues fascinating, but I would prefer to see them in a garden or a temple…not at a museum. After the museum and lunch we went to former residence of Sun Yat-Sen, the father of the Republic of China (not to be mistaken with the People’s Republic of China). The house was rather spartan, but it was interesting to see how the resistance to the last of the Qing Dynasty grew and developed. From his house we went to a museum/shrine where the Chinese Communist Party was conceived. The literature there was quite clearly propaganda, glorifying the resistance, describing how defectors were executed, how martyrs gave their lives for the revolution, but it was fascinating. Once you looked past the propaganda the artifacts and history behind it was very interesting. There was a short biography on each of the 13 delegates that were present at the first meeting—some died during the revolution, others defected and were executed, but many managed to live well into the second half of the 20th century.
After the museums we were cut loose in a high-end part of the city for a couple hours to see what we wanted to see. The area had high-priced clothing stores, a Starbucks, and a Cold Stone ice cream shop—all very Western. We were pretty tired by this point, so after walking around for a bit and realizing that there was not a whole lot for us to see and nothing that was in our price range to buy, we just hung out at Starbucks before dinner.
From dinner we went to the Shanghai acrobat show. It had some parallels to the one we saw in Beijing, but some of the acts were far more gutsy and death defying. At one point two females roller skaters swung each other around by a loop attached to both of their necks. In a different act a women did a headstand on another woman’s head while both of them spun plates on sticks. The final act was borderline insanity; the curtain came up to reveal an enormous steel cage sphere and a motorcyclist came onto the stage. He entered the cage and began by doing loops around its equator before doing full loops from top to bottom—meaning that he was upside down at one point—all the while honking a horn. This would seem like an appropriate ending point at home—if this act is even permissible in the States, but a second bike came out and entered the cage. They began to do the same thing, except this time when they came screaming towards the bottom there was the possibility of a collision. A third, and then a fourth biker entered the cage, by which point we were waiting for some sort of fatal accident. They were all criss-crossing and looping and it is extremely impressive that no accidents occurred. Then a fifth biker arrived. Up until this point every time a new biker joined the group they all stopped at the bottom and started up again. However, this guy just sat and waited for a moment at the bottom while the other four looped around and then joined the madness. This part of the act was rather short-lived—and not because somebody died. After all five bikes went around the cage together a few times they began to exit while the others kept doing loops. Once they had all exited the crowd gave a collective sigh and applauded. Apparently, six bikers is about the norm—it used to be as high as eight, but there was a fatal accident in the recent past so they lowered the number of madmen doing loops on motorcycles in a steel cage. Oh, China.

Thursday

This morning we got up a little earlier so that we could drive out of Shanghai to the town of Zhouzhuang. It is a small canal town about 70 kilometers north of Shanghai. Thanks to the traffic, which seems rather ubiquitous in Shanghai, it took us about two hours to make the trip. The town was comprised of small alleys lined with shops and restaurants; the restaurants all had tanks with fish, turtles, crabs, crayfish, and eel…so you know you would be eating only the freshest of meats. Walking along the canals and crossing small stone bridges was only made better by the fact that the sun came out and the forecasted rain did not appear. We stuck with one of our professors, who specializes in Chinese history, so that we could hear anecdotes along the way.
From Zhouzhuang we went to Suzhou. We first went to a silk factory; it is one of four provinces in China that manufacture silk. We got to see how their take the silk cocoons from silk worms and unravel them (on average about one kilometer in length) to make silk products. We learned that it takes 500 cocoons to make a single necktie and nearly 2,000 to make a shirt.
After the silk factory we went to two different gardens. For several hundred years, spanning several dynasties, Suzhou was the wealthiest area in all of China and paid the highest taxes thanks to its silk, rice, and tea business. At one point there were 80 gardens in the city, but now only 15 or so are open to the public. Both had large rock formations and lakes and paths winding through bamboo forests. When no garden employees were watching I climbed up some of the rock formations and did a handstand in a circular doorway. Our professors seem keen to encourage any form of behavior that does not result in too catastrophic a consequence, so they enjoy our antics. The first garden was one of the smallest in the city—0.5 square kilometers; the second was the largest—5.3 square kilometers. As we walked around the second garden the sun began to set, which was very pretty. I am glad that we have gone to these gardens and temples—the apparent lack of older China in Shanghai had been one of the major reasons I was not as fond of it this summer as the other cities.

Friday

Today we had the entire day to ourselves to explore the city. I got to sleep in—until 8:45. After breakfast a few of us ventured out to an indoor market similar to the Silk Alley in Beijing. Along the way we encountered a most displeasing and upsetting sight. We were passing what appeared to be a butcher and saw the back legs of some animal hanging on a rack. At first glance it was unclear as to what creature these legs belonged to, but upon looking at the feet we immediately realized that they were dog. If this was not bad enough, a mad biked past us with a leg of dog sitting in the basket on his handlebars. Sad day.
The market was not as bright or welcoming as its Beijing counterpart. Most of the shopkeepers were far from amicable and I managed to get into a verbal altercation with one of them because we disagreed over prices and the quality of his goods. Names were exchanged, his temper rose, and I decided it was best to leave before things got too ridiculous (I should note that I love getting into arguments with shopkeepers). After wandering around for a while we decided to venture back into the cold and get on the subway towards Pudong—part of the city on the other side of the Bund. This area of the city has the tallest buildings in Shanghai, including the Oriental Pearl Tower, a space needle-like structure with two observation decks. An even taller building looks somewhat like an enormous bottle opener. One or our professors told us that rather than paying an expensive entrance fee for observation decks, we could simply go up to the lobby of a very ritzy hotel in said bottle opener building and look around for free. A friend of mine and I rode an elevator up to the 87th floor (our ears popped on the way up) and hung out in the lobby for a bit while having a commanding view of the entire city. We tried to sneak further up towards the top by pretending to be guests at the hotel, but we were thwarted by clever security measures—the need for a room card to ride elevators to the guest room floors. We decided to make our exit before the staff became too curious—I had to fabricate some nonsense story about how I didn’t have my room key because I had stayed in a friend’s room last night but didn’t remember the room number nor his Chinese name—so we rode the elevator back down, which included another popping of the ears. Once we were out of the building and back in the cold we walked along the waterfront for a bit before getting back on the subway and heading back towards the hotel.

Saturday

We left Shanghai this morning. Since we love adventure and having to deal with nonsense, our bus’ clutch decided to go on the fritz about 10 minutes after we left the hotel on the way to the airport. We were trying to go up a (very) small hill and slowed to a stop and the proceeded to roll backwards down to the bottom, where we sat for about half an hour. We were supposed to wait for another bus to come to our rescue, but after waiting for a while our driver decided that the clutch’s ailment was only temporary so we jerked our way up the hill and out to the airport.
Once we arrived at the airport and got through security we were informed that, for fear of straying from the norm, our flight was delayed due to mechanical problems. After waiting for a couple of hours we finally boarded and flew back to Beijing, which is beginning to feel like home—too bad we only have about 10 days left. Now we're back in Beijing. The problem we now face is trying to find food...everyone goes home for the New Year (26th), so nearly every restaurant is closed. We fundamentally refuse to eat at McDonald's, so we'll see what we end up doing.

Xi'an

The night before we left for Xi'an we went to a show at a local bar. A few classmates of mine from Delaware who are all in Beijing for a year on respective and various scholarships formed a band and were playing at a bar run by a Frenchman. A bunch of us went and a few other UD kids on scholarship in Beijing were there too, so it was a little impromptu reunion.

The next morning we flew to Xi'an. I had been looking forward to this part of the trip since I signed up for the program. When we landed I looked out the window and was surprised by the extremely limited visibility on the tarmac. This summer had certainly had its share of smog and haze, but this was far worse. Several classmates asked me if it had been equally bad when I was there this past summer, but I replied that it had not been that awful. A major contributor to the increased pollution is coal burning for electricity to keep warm in the winter. Many of us, myself included, quickly felt the effects of the poor air quality. Compounded by the dry air, we have developed coughs and colds. Hopefully the less polluted, more humid air of Shanghai will help relieve of us our obnoxious/inconvenient ailments.

After collecting our bags and making the 40 minute drive from the airport into the city, we went to the city wall, where I had biked and ran this summer. Thanks to the upcoming new year, there were countless decorations on the wall that somewhat resembled gaudy paper maché creations made by a preschooler. Fluorescent pinks, greens, and yellows covered oxen, people, dinosaurs (I don't know why), and various other scenes that lacked any clear connection to the new year. We had been told not to venture too far down the wall (8-9 miles in circumference) because we were departing in 45 minutes for dinner, but a few choice individuals decided to circumnavigate the wall on their bikes anyways. Because that trip takes about 90 minutes, the rest of us waited on the bus until they returned. Once we were on our way, we went to dinner. It happened to be at the same restaurant where I met my professor for lunch this summer when he came through Xi'an. After dinner we went to the hotel and got settled in. I walked to a nearby convenience store with a couple of friends to get ice cream (of course), then called it a night.

Our first morning (yesterday) in Xi'an we got up and ventured outside of the village to the neolithic of Banpo. It dates back approximately 6,000 years and is cited as the first settlement in the area. Since Xi'an and Shaanxi Province are credited as the birthplace of Chinese civilization, Banpo is the...birthplace of the birthplace? There were remains of villagers and the outlines of housing structures. It was interesting to see artifacts that were so incredibly old. We made our way further outside of the city to the Terracotta Soldiers. It was cool to see them again, but it did feel a bit repetitive to spend the better part of three hours there--mostly because there is so much to do and see in Xi'an and we had only a brief stay to do as much as possible. After the Soldiers we went to the Hot Springs where the old Tang Emperors were said to bathe with their concubines. It is located at the foot of an extinct volcano (fun fact), which keeps the water around the 104 degree spot. It felt a little artificial, but the grounds were pretty nonetheless--and the backdrop of the mountains/volcano was gorgeous. When we got back to the city I took a few friends to an Indian restaurant near where I lived this summer. When we walked in the place was full of Indians and Chinese--making us the minority. By the end of the evening we were pretty exhausted from the long day, so we made our way back to the hotel and crashed.

Today we went to the Muslim Quarter and the mosque in the morning. We wandered around the market place and I found many of the merchants with whom I had become friends this summer. They provided plenty of entertainment to my classmates who were wandering the alleys with me. Because the merchants knew me from before they gave most of my friends discounts on their purchases. Once we had wrapped up at the Muslim Quarter, we went to the Forest of Stone Tablets. It sounds rather ominous, but in reality it is a collection of enormous stone tablets with Chinese text on them that are several hundred years old. It was really interesting to see how small and perfect and beautifully the characters were carved into massive slabs of rock...and, of course, the grounds were beautiful.

While everyone else went to the Shaanxi Provincial History Museum (where I worked this summer), I went across the street to my old apartment to see my friends. Two of my friends from the summer where still in town, so I got to see them for an hour or so and catch up. I had been looking forward to seeing them since I left Xi'an in August, so I was extremely happy to have the opportunity to see them again. All too soon I had to rendezvous with my group to go to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. It was a bittersweet goodbye to my friends from this summer, not knowing when I would se them next, but I am so glad I got to see them this afternoon. We then went down the street to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. At one point--about 1,000 years ago during the Tang Dynasty--it was the tallest structure in the world. The emperor at the time built it for a monk who brought back Buddhist scriptures from India so that he could translate them all into Chinese. I had visited grounds this summer, but they are absolutely gorgeous so I did not object to a repeat. (I should add that today's weather was fantastic--nearly 50 and clear blue skies, which made the day's adventures even more enjoyable.)

I certainly wish we could spend several more days in Xi'an--I really love this city...pollution and all. Tomorrow morning (very early) we leave for Shanghai. More adventures to come.

Acrobats, Artists, and Movie Stars OH MY!

It is hard to believe that the trip is nearly half way through. Classes are going well and the group as a whole has really started to bond--as cheesy as that may sound.

Monday night we went to a Beijing Acrobat performance. It featured river dancing jugglers, contortionists, slack rope walkers, pogostick handstands and flips, and a myriad backflipping-cartwheeling-somersaulting performers. A few of the acts had moments where three, perhaps four, people were standing on each other's shoulders (I feel bad for the guy at the bottom of the totem pole). People did flips off of shoulders to other people...it was crazy/aweinspiring/suspenseful all at once. The last act ended with 12 women all on once bicycle. I would not have thought it possible, but there was an inverted pyramid of women on a bike as one poor soul rode it around in circles on stage. Apparently the acrobatics in Shanghai, which we will see next week, is supposed to be even better.

The next day (yesterday) I had my first Chinese test. It went pretty well. Our teacher, a local professor, has really grown on us. There are only five guys in the class (I don't remember if I've already mentioned this), so we have a good time while learning useful vocabulary. The section of Chinese that we are taking here does not have a counterpart back at UD, so there is not full-semester curriculum that we must try to adhere to. Consequently, we can get through as much as we need to without feeling pressed to cover as much material as the other classes. In the afternoon we had a lesson in traditional Chinese brush painting. We discovered that we are all miserable failures at painting plum blossoms on tree branches. It was more or less an hour to just unwind and goof off, since so few of us were particularly gifted at this trade. It was Nick's birthday, so after dinner we got a cake to surprise him and nearly the entire group went out to celebrate.

This afternoon we met with the writer of the Chinese movie Hero (starring Jet Li). It came out a couple of years ago and was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign language film. Although it was not a huge hit in China, it was a hit on the international stage. He and our professor are old friends, so we had an opportunity to hear his take on the interpretations of the film and ask him questions.

Xi'an on Friday. I'm so excited.

Sights & Sounds: Take 2

We ended up not making it out to the Olympic Green the other night; by the time we would have gotten out there the subway would have been looking to close and we would have had to grab taxis back...best to do it another evening.

The next afternoon we had a private performance of traditional Chinese musical instruments by a quartet of students at Beijing's most prestigious conservatory. After their performance, we had an opportunity to try the instruments for ourselves. One of them has two strings and sits upright on your lap. It is played with a bow that is positioned between the two strings...weird. I was most interested in that instrument--the name fails me now. I managed to sound out a Chinese nursery rhyme, which got a laugh from the woman who actually played it.

The next morning we went out to the Great Wall. It was a very different section than the one I hiked this summer. A lengthy stretch of stairs led up to the top of the section--lengthy meaning a tad bit exhausting. We had a good time taking pictures with some of the local crowd, including an adorable and precocious little boy who made some of the group look bad by how quickly he scaled the stairs. The weather was the coldest we had experienced yet, with a high of 28. Factor in the strong wind that greeted us as we climbed higher and it became quite chilly. We welcomed the warmth of the bus once we had descended and taken in a bit more of the scenery, which was covered by a bright blue sky (I've been pleasantly surprised how the invisible the pollution has been thus far).

That evening we went to a production of Beijing Opera. It was a fascinating experience. We were able to watch the actors apply their makeup before the show--an ordeal that can take 45 to 90 minutes. There were three separate performances, each their own stories. The first and third had back flips and wild stunts so, naturally, they were more entertaining. Once we finally got home it was time to try and get some homework done and get to bed.

The next afternoon (Friday) we went to the Silk Alley--an enormous, six-floor department store where you can find anything in the world. I was not in the market for Chinese souvenirs this time, so I helped some of my classmates bargain/fight with shop keepers as I had helped fellow Americans and Venezuelan athletes this summer.

Today we visited the Forbidden City. It much colder than when I last strolled the enormous courtyards, but this time we had our professors with us to share anecdotes about the history of certain structures, stories, and history. Barring the cold, the weather was beautiful--another clear blue day. It is worth noting, however, that visibility is still limited to a mile or so due to the smog. After walking around the entire city (larger than the University of Delaware) for three hours, we were eager to get back to the apartments and get dinner. A few of us went to a local restaurant to get Peking Duck. For some reason the service was horrible and I had to tell the ask the waiter multiple times as to why we had not yet received certain dishes. It was an experience, but the food was delicious.

Tomorrow we actually have the morning off, so I think I'll catch up on some rest and get more work done. Classes are going well and we are learning a lot of useful vocabulary. There are only five students--myself included--in my class, so it's very interactive. Only six days until Xi'an--I cannot wait.

Back in Beijing

Getting the internet up and running was a bit of a protracted process, so I apologize for the delay in getting the blog back up and runing. Here is what has been going on the last few days since we arrived:

Just getting to the JFK airport was an adventure. After braving/slogging through traffic, we made it to the gate and still had half an hour before we began boarding. We were on an older 747 that had the second floor for the high rollers. Much to our dismay, we were not permitted to venture up there during the flight. 13 hours or so in a middle seat was not how I'd planned on spending the flight, but I managed to pass out for three or four hours in the second half of the flight and we walked around quite a bit.

Beijing is (obviously) much colder than it was when I last visited, but it is also very dry. We got in, had dinner, and went to bed. I have not suffered from jet lag at all--I've slept like a baby every night since we got here--others have not been as fortunate.

Our first full day we met our Chinese buddies--students here at Beijing Normal University. We got to know them over breakfast--at McDonald's. Real classy. They took us around campus and most of them came with us to Tiananmen Square in the afternoon. From there we wandered up to a commercial district. We walked around for a while, and I ate some fried scorpion...one of those "I had to do it" sort of things. It tasted like an extra crispy, salty french fry.

The next morning was the first day of classes. I am taking a course on Chinese culture, taught in English, and another semester of Chinese, taught by a local professor who does not speak all that much English. In both classes we learned that we had quizzes the next day. Our free afternoon was suddenly to be spent studying. We ended up in a campus café with some of our buddies studying for the afternoon. A classmate and I went with two of our buddies to a tea/coffee house just off of campus last night to continue studying. Both quizzes went smoothly this morning.

This afternoon we had a presentation of traditional Chinese music by some local students at Beijing's premier conservatory. There is a stringed instrument that has two strings and a bow and is held upright--notionally in the same fashion as a cello, but it sits on your lap. I got to try playing it after the performance and managed to play a poor rendition of a Chinese nursery rhyme.

Tonight I am going to take some of my classmates up to the Olympic Green to see the Bird's Nest and Water Cube. It should look a bit different than it did in August. A few classmates of mine from school are here on scholarship studying at local universities, so I am hoping to get together with them in the next few days once they finish their finals.Tomorrow morning we are going to the Great Wall and in the evening we will see a Beijing Opera performance. I'll let you all know how those go.