So on July 26th in the weeee hours of the morning Shanna drove me up to the Dayton airport and I boarded a flight that took me to Newark, New Jersey. After a layover of a few hours I boarded my flight to Beijing. I was on my way!! If any of you have ever flown over an ocean you know how ridiculously long and painful those flights can be. On our flight we actually flew over the North Pole, pretty cool that. If you haven't had the chance to take a 13-hour intercontinental flight then well, I highly recommend it!! Free movie and food! blech.
I arrived in Beijing with 3 other students and one of our professors in tow. We hung around the airport because two more flights with students were landing within the hour and we were all going to ride a bus to the hotel. An hour turned into two but we finally managed to find everyone and now we only needed to find the Chinese students that were supposed to pick us up. That eventually did happen and we headed to our bus. The first thing you notice when you step out of the airport is the MASSIVE amounts of pollution. The sky is gray as if overcast and you no matter where you look you cannot see any blue sky and you can barely see the sun. In fact the polution is so bad you can look directly at the sun without straining your eyes. I heard a rumor while there that exercising outside for one hour is equivilant to smoking 77 cigarettes. I have no proof to back that up but after living there for a week I tend to believe it.
While in Beijing we had Chinese language classes every morning (Ni hao). It was all VERY basic stuff and words and phrases that you would find in any travel guide but we had fun with it. After language class we had lectures from the Chinese professors that taught at our host university. We had classes on Chinese culture, history and economics. We then had a little free time for lunch and then a company tour or cultural tour in the afternoon. I won't bore you with details about the company tours but they were interesting.
We got to see the major tourist spots in and around Beijing including:
I arrived in Beijing with 3 other students and one of our professors in tow. We hung around the airport because two more flights with students were landing within the hour and we were all going to ride a bus to the hotel. An hour turned into two but we finally managed to find everyone and now we only needed to find the Chinese students that were supposed to pick us up. That eventually did happen and we headed to our bus. The first thing you notice when you step out of the airport is the MASSIVE amounts of pollution. The sky is gray as if overcast and you no matter where you look you cannot see any blue sky and you can barely see the sun. In fact the polution is so bad you can look directly at the sun without straining your eyes. I heard a rumor while there that exercising outside for one hour is equivilant to smoking 77 cigarettes. I have no proof to back that up but after living there for a week I tend to believe it.
While in Beijing we had Chinese language classes every morning (Ni hao). It was all VERY basic stuff and words and phrases that you would find in any travel guide but we had fun with it. After language class we had lectures from the Chinese professors that taught at our host university. We had classes on Chinese culture, history and economics. We then had a little free time for lunch and then a company tour or cultural tour in the afternoon. I won't bore you with details about the company tours but they were interesting.
We got to see the major tourist spots in and around Beijing including:
Tianamen Square and The Forbidden City
The Temple of Heaven
The Great Wall (notice how crowded it is)
If you think walking the Great Wall is a leisurely stroll think again. It was a workout!! STEEP steps and each step different in height and width because they were all hand made.
The Ming Tombs (as in Ming Vase Ming). That is money on the ground and on the tombs. It was like our wishing well, people would throw money for luck.
The Summer Palace
Now everyone knows that there is tons of piracy and counterfeiting in China. It is rampant. We went to two shopping areas in Beijing, Pearl Market and Silk Market, that had loads of counterfeit goods. Just about anything you wanted they had. Some were really good knockoffs and others were just pathetic. The big thing about shopping at either one of these two markets is the haggling. The sales people, and there are lots of them - all at their individual stalls/shops, are extremely pushy and aggressive.
The haggling is actually quite fun. I'm sure you know how it works--they start out at a ridiculously high number (because as we later discovered some people will actually pay it) and you respond with a low counter offer and eventually meet somewhere in the middle. Talking them down is hilarious. They act like you are stealing candy from a baby by getting them to lower the price. And they will not let you leave either. They grab your arm, backpack, purse, stand in front of you, whatever it takes. Some people really hated it but I got a huge kick out of it.
In fact five of us got suits made while we were there. They measured us one day and we picked up our suits 24 hours later. It fits pretty well too. I wore it to church yesterday. Left to right: Shop owner, Scott Neidhold, Matt Shambo, Kyle McCarthy, Marcel Kleiner, Me, our saleslady. In hindsight I wish I had gotten a shirt made as well but oh well.
Well, I think is enough for today. Beijing was a great time and despite the pollution I, we, really enjoyed it. You can see that there is a lot of activity as they prepare for the Olympics next summer. They have to get the polution under control before all those TV cameras roll in.
Tomorrow: Guangzhou on the Pearl River Delta
5 comments:
Pretty cool stuff. I especially enjoyed the first picture. You're like the great blond giant over there. :-)
yeah it was pretty obvious that I was not chinese. people stared at me all the time and FREQUENTLY people would come ask if they could take my picture. One of the girls on the trip is 6'2" and she got it a lot as well
Did I mention how glad I am that you are home?
nice to see you're posting again.
looks like a cool place, although i'm surprised you didn't fit in...i always thought you looked chinese..
where's the rest of those posts about China??
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