Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is it. Six and a half weeks in the world's most populated country has finally come to a close. Here, I will describe the excellent time I had in Beijing and then wrap up this year's blog with some comments on the country.
We left Nanjing on a rainy Saturday night after a day of lounging around and playing cards. Our mode of transportation was an overnight sleeper train. The nonstop train was pretty fun- we played cards and watched a movie, then "slept" for five hours or so.
Unfortunately, the train got in at 7 am, so it was too early to check in to the hotel. Thus, we threw our bags in a storage room and headed straight out on our adventure. First, we visited the Ming Summer Palace. It was ok- the complex had a handful of buildings and a covered walkway encompassing a lake. It was really popular with the tourists, but there were many locals there as well - playing Christmas songs (common during our stay in China... I don't understand) on traditional instruments and enjoying the calm morning.
Next, we went to Tiananmen Square. I wish I could describe in words how impressive this place was. Of course, Chairman Mao looked out over the square from the Tiananmen (or 'Gate of Heavenly Peace'..ironic), but each side of the square was bordered by an important building. To the west is China's National Standing Committee building, where the highest officials of the communist party meet to choose policy. To the east is China's National Museum, currently under renovation but set to reopen for the World Expo 2010, hosted by Shanghai. Finally, to the south of the square is Chairman Mao's Mausoleum. Apparently, he lays in a crystal coffin on ice and is brought up for viewing from 8:30-11:30 every day. Creepy? I think so.
After taking in the square, we passed under the Chairman's picture into the Forbidden City. It was clearly a relic of dynasties past with it's traditional architecture and grandiosity. Each building along the central axis (the center of the city- the emperor's walkway in past times) was some building of heavenly peace. The Forbidden City was cool, but I was more impressed with Tiananmen Square. The thing about the Forbidden City was that it just kept going! Each building looked really similar to the previous ones, so it somewhat blended together. Nonetheless, it was amazing to think that generations of emperors walked along the pathway I had. Isn't that cool?
Finally, we returned to the hotel and cleaned up. Some of us decided to try out the subway and go to Hard Rock Cafe. It was your traditional HRC - expensive and generic - but it was still worthwhile. We had a fun evening.
On Monday (yeah, this is going to be a long blog post, but it's the last one so you can handle it), we trekked north of the city to see a section of the Great Wall. oooooh aaaahhhh special! Sure enough, it was great! It was huge! There were lots of stairs. I'm amazed that they could build a wall (not to mention a "great" one) over 3000 miles of mountains! I have yet to witness the pyramids at Giza, but I imagine this is a much greater feat of engineering. (I say this, but two people have already kibitzed at this notion, so I may be fighting an uphill battle! Now for a poll...) Anyway, we spent an hour climbing up a steep section of the wall and the view was amazing! Did I mention that this was the best weather-day of the entire trip? We had temperatures in the low 90s and a crystal clear blue sky. It was beauuuutiful! I could have spent hours up there. You have to watch out letting this civil engineer admire a public works project ;-)
After only an hour and a half, we continued our journey by visiting the Ming Tombs. In particular, we visited the tomb of Ming Chenglu, the emperor responsible for moving the capital from Nanjing to Beijing and constructing many of the famous sites we visited: the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, connecting segments of the Great Wall, and others. The tomb itself was covered by a dirt mound about 100 yards in diameter. Apparently, it has never been opened, so he lays in there just as he did hundreds of years ago. One day, I want to be cool enough to be buried under a mound with booby traps and secret passages. That would be fun.
Tuesday was our last full day in China. To begin, we visited the Ming Temple of Heaven. It is 38 meters high, but built completely without nails or fasteners! It is a round building with three tiers on the outside but only one open hall on the inside. Centered on a circular pedestal of three levels, it was larger than life compared to the bare square courtyard it stood in. Clearly, an emperor wishing to worship the gods would have no distractions with such a prominent structure to focus their attention. Even more impressive was that the roofs were painted a rich, deep blue and the timbers were all painted in the vibrant teal, dark blue, and gold colors that marked many of the ancient structures. It was so impressive!
In the afternoon, we finally got a taste of 21st century Beijing by seeing the Olympic green and buildings. First, we walked in and around the Water Cube. I got to see where Phelps won his eight gold medals! It was a stunning building and I could only imagine the intensity of being there during the Olympics! Next, we walked across the plaza to the Bird's Nest stadium where the ceremonies and track and field events were held. Even though the stage was being set up for a concert, we were still allowed to walk down on the track where all the events happened! Not surprisingly, it was an enormous stadium! I took plenty of pictures and tried to absorb what it must have been like to see athletes from across the world gathered there! If you had told me last August that I was going to stand on the floor of the Bird's Nest, I would have paid much closer attention to the opening ceremony! No worries, however - I got it on DVD for 100 Yuan ($15)!
To wrap up my trip, I spent my evening with two "Peking" activities - duck and opera. I found a restaurant that said "Beijing Duck" over the door, so I went in. Unfortunately, the only sold the roast duck whole. Undeterred, I purchased my $27 USD duck and worked my way through the mu shu wraps. They were sooo tasty, but I could only eat half the duck. *sigh* Next came the opera. The performance consisted of two 30-minute shows. Neither had a very succinct plot (the words were projected in English- that's how I know) but the music was really cool. The orchestra consisted of traditional Chinese instruments and was generally quite percussive. The performers were dressed in bright, elaborate costumes with standard Beijing opera face paint. In spite of the open ended plots, I had a great time and I'm definitely glad I went. It's just a shame that no one else wanted to spend the money to join me!
Finally, on Wednesday we headed to the airport and returned home. Beijing's Central Airport has one of the largest terminals in the world, so it was cool to look around and admire the structure. What wasn't cool was sitting at the gate (on the plane) for 2 hours while they determined which route over Siberia was optimal. Ugh. But 20 hours and 2 flights later I was finally back in Raleigh. Woo hoo!
Well, now I'm back. Six and a half weeks in China. Looking back, it's kind of hard to believe it went so quickly. While I was there, a lot of things seemed just like home- skyscrapers, food, people at work and play, traffic everywhere, and the sun rose and set every day. But now that I'm home, I see plenty of differences; there are many little subtleties that made China worth visiting and studying. From cultural intricacies to facets of politics, China has held a history separate from anywhere I have visited before, yet its rise and fall as a global power through history makes it inextricably tied to most countries across the globe.
This may seem like a contradiction, and in truth it is, for China is a country full of contradictions. It is a country that conflicts old with new traditions; eastern versus western ideals. The contradictions are everywhere, but to discuss them in detail would be too much for the limited scope of this text. Nonetheless, the people and the culture were generally very friendly and I will remember my experiences as long as I live.
So what now? I've traveled to Ecuador, Austria, and China. At this point, it would seem logical to expand my horizons to Australia or Africa, but even in the places I've visited there remains much to see and do. I am already excited for my next international opportunity, whether by internship, study, or independent travel... but for now, I'll merely meditate on the things I've seen and learned in China.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Friday, June 19th, 5:00 PM (Nanjing, China)
Goodbye Nanjing
Happy Friday, everyone! It is with mixed emotions that I write this last post from Nanjing. I intend to spend most of this post discussing the city as a whole and remembering some of the highlights of my stay here. Before I do that, however, I also did a few things this week worthy of mention.
This week’s class was about thermodynamics. I don’t know why, but the material seemed difficult to me. I thought the test was hard, but in the end, I still got an A+ for the course. Woo hoo! My afternoons this week have also been somewhat relaxed. On Monday afternoon, I returned to the Confucius Temple. Again. Obviously I really enjoyed spending time there. On Tuesday, I think I took a nap and hung around the hotel with the group. Nothing special there.
Wednesday’s excitement was going with Jeffrey to get a massage. I’ve never had a massage before, but at 45 Yuan ($6.50) for an hour, I couldn’t pass it up. The guy who did my massage was pretty young, and therefore I question if he knew what he was doing. He massaged my head, arms, legs (front and back), back, and neck. It was great except for my back… where I was sore for about a day! Oof. Nonetheless, it was a fun experience and (I’m fairly sure) I’m glad I did it! After the massage, Jeff and I found a corner stand and bought some authentic salted duck! We one half of two different types: light and dark. On the spot, the lady took each whole duck and hacked it (skin, bones, and all) into neat, cross sectional slices. They put each in a tray and we returned to the hotel with our duck. It was very tasty but also very salty! YUM!
On Thursday, I went for a walk before playing Chinese Chess with Jun, one of our student guides. My record against him is 1-2 now… and only because he let me win when he taught me. It’s quite the game, that’s for sure. It’s fairly easy to pick up the rules, but learning strategy is a completely different matter. Oh well, I have a set, so now I’ll have to teach some people and see if I can get better at it. After chess, we had our closing banquet with our SEU hosts. As usual, the meal came complete with a variety of foods I hadn’t ever tried, the obligatory fish with head and tail, and even a plate of snails! The snails were SO good… I definitely want to have more of those! Mmm. Anyway, there were many gifts to be passed around and we had a nice dinner.
Earlier in this post, I said I wanted to reminisce over my time in Nanjing, but now I think I’m going to leave a cliff hanger. Instead, I think it would be more appropriate to look forward to Beijing. Thus, here is a schedule of our remaining time in China. Currently it is almost 4:30 pm Beijing time or 4:30 am Friday EDT. For the next 24 hours, I will be finishing up packing, relaxing with the group, and maybe going to see one or two more casual things in Nanjing. We will have a couple meals as a group, but I also hope to have a couple more corner-store dumplings. Hmm- should I have rice, meat, or red bean? Or maybe I should have a sesame ball? I don’t know. Maybe all of it.
Tomorrow, we’re catching a 9:30 pm (Sat AM EDT) train out of Nanjing Railway Station, on the north side of Xuanwu Lake. Apparently we have soft berth tickets, so we’ll be able to sleep during the 8 hour or so train ride. For a comparison, Nanjing is at almost the same latitude as Atlanta and Beijing is at the same latitude as Philadelphia. It may not look far on a map, but looks can be deceiving. Arriving in Beijing on Sunday morning (Sat PM EDT), we will probably stop by the hotel and then head on our way. I don’t know what we’re seeing each day, but before we depart Beijing on Wednesday, we will be visiting the Great Wall, the Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and (I think) Pearl Market. In addition, evenings are on our own, so I may attempt to go see an opera and/or meet up with the Caldwell group who happens to also be in Beijing, preparing to leave. We’ll see.
Our Boeing 777 flight leaves on Wednesday at 4:10 pm (Wed AM EDT) and arrives in Chicago at 4:30 pm CDT. How about that 20 minute flight to go half way around the world?! We will clear customs *crosses fingers* and then catch an 8:55 pm CDT flight that will arrive in Raleigh just before midnight.
Thursday will be my final blog post with highlights from Beijing as well as enough reminiscing, comparing, and concluding to make everyone tired of reading. After all, I have a 13 hour plane flight (and a “D” seat… UGH!) to write everything I can think of!
Happy Friday, everyone! It is with mixed emotions that I write this last post from Nanjing. I intend to spend most of this post discussing the city as a whole and remembering some of the highlights of my stay here. Before I do that, however, I also did a few things this week worthy of mention.
This week’s class was about thermodynamics. I don’t know why, but the material seemed difficult to me. I thought the test was hard, but in the end, I still got an A+ for the course. Woo hoo! My afternoons this week have also been somewhat relaxed. On Monday afternoon, I returned to the Confucius Temple. Again. Obviously I really enjoyed spending time there. On Tuesday, I think I took a nap and hung around the hotel with the group. Nothing special there.
Wednesday’s excitement was going with Jeffrey to get a massage. I’ve never had a massage before, but at 45 Yuan ($6.50) for an hour, I couldn’t pass it up. The guy who did my massage was pretty young, and therefore I question if he knew what he was doing. He massaged my head, arms, legs (front and back), back, and neck. It was great except for my back… where I was sore for about a day! Oof. Nonetheless, it was a fun experience and (I’m fairly sure) I’m glad I did it! After the massage, Jeff and I found a corner stand and bought some authentic salted duck! We one half of two different types: light and dark. On the spot, the lady took each whole duck and hacked it (skin, bones, and all) into neat, cross sectional slices. They put each in a tray and we returned to the hotel with our duck. It was very tasty but also very salty! YUM!
On Thursday, I went for a walk before playing Chinese Chess with Jun, one of our student guides. My record against him is 1-2 now… and only because he let me win when he taught me. It’s quite the game, that’s for sure. It’s fairly easy to pick up the rules, but learning strategy is a completely different matter. Oh well, I have a set, so now I’ll have to teach some people and see if I can get better at it. After chess, we had our closing banquet with our SEU hosts. As usual, the meal came complete with a variety of foods I hadn’t ever tried, the obligatory fish with head and tail, and even a plate of snails! The snails were SO good… I definitely want to have more of those! Mmm. Anyway, there were many gifts to be passed around and we had a nice dinner.
Earlier in this post, I said I wanted to reminisce over my time in Nanjing, but now I think I’m going to leave a cliff hanger. Instead, I think it would be more appropriate to look forward to Beijing. Thus, here is a schedule of our remaining time in China. Currently it is almost 4:30 pm Beijing time or 4:30 am Friday EDT. For the next 24 hours, I will be finishing up packing, relaxing with the group, and maybe going to see one or two more casual things in Nanjing. We will have a couple meals as a group, but I also hope to have a couple more corner-store dumplings. Hmm- should I have rice, meat, or red bean? Or maybe I should have a sesame ball? I don’t know. Maybe all of it.
Tomorrow, we’re catching a 9:30 pm (Sat AM EDT) train out of Nanjing Railway Station, on the north side of Xuanwu Lake. Apparently we have soft berth tickets, so we’ll be able to sleep during the 8 hour or so train ride. For a comparison, Nanjing is at almost the same latitude as Atlanta and Beijing is at the same latitude as Philadelphia. It may not look far on a map, but looks can be deceiving. Arriving in Beijing on Sunday morning (Sat PM EDT), we will probably stop by the hotel and then head on our way. I don’t know what we’re seeing each day, but before we depart Beijing on Wednesday, we will be visiting the Great Wall, the Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and (I think) Pearl Market. In addition, evenings are on our own, so I may attempt to go see an opera and/or meet up with the Caldwell group who happens to also be in Beijing, preparing to leave. We’ll see.
Our Boeing 777 flight leaves on Wednesday at 4:10 pm (Wed AM EDT) and arrives in Chicago at 4:30 pm CDT. How about that 20 minute flight to go half way around the world?! We will clear customs *crosses fingers* and then catch an 8:55 pm CDT flight that will arrive in Raleigh just before midnight.
Thursday will be my final blog post with highlights from Beijing as well as enough reminiscing, comparing, and concluding to make everyone tired of reading. After all, I have a 13 hour plane flight (and a “D” seat… UGH!) to write everything I can think of!
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