May 04, 2009
Monday
Authored by JM
Just finished our first day in Beijing...Did a lot today, but before going into just a recap of what we have done so far.
The flight from NY was about 12 hours. We slept for the first 5 or 6 hours and then were awake for the remaining part of the trip. The flight was really nice, they had over 300 movies on demand, tons of CDs, and just TV shows. We also had time to go over the guide book and plan out some of the trip. When we were almost at Beijing, the pilot came over the PA asking if anyone was Mexican Nationals because the Chinese government wanted to be aware of their entry. We saw today on the TV that 70 were held at the airports and people were upset about it.
We arrived in Beijing at about 1 pm, China time. We proceeded to customs, which was basically just a mosh pit because the Chinese seem to have no sense of lines. We slipped to the side line and got through in about 15 minutes. After passing through customs, we went to baggage claim and got our bags and met up with the rest of the group. Our leader is named Brad Fansworth and he was accompanied by a Tsinghua student named James. They are both really nice and were really helpful in getting us all organized. Once the group was assembled, we loaded up onto the bus to go to our hotel.
The trip took about 45 minutes to our hotel, the Wenjing. The hotel is very nice, luxury accommodations for our little trip to Beijing. After checking in, John and I went across the street to a small grocery store to buy some water. We got 4 1.5 liter water bottles, a 2 liter coke, and Fanta for $3.50. The grocery store was an interesting experience because everything was in Chinese. At least there is a standard for numbers! - All the groceries were fairly cheap. After, we all got together for a tour around the area lead by Brad. There are vendors all over the streets and at one point there was just a vendor selling small rabbits and puppies and kittens, very strange. Once we got through the maze, Brad pointed us to a Western restaurant, where we had our first meal in Beijing (Pasta). There was some talk about all of us going to a bar, but we all ended up falling asleep around 9 pm. It was definitely a long day.
After going to sleep so early and due to the jet lag, we were up at 6:45 am. John and I went right to the gym and were able to get in an hour work-out before we had to get ready for the day. The hotel has a full international breakfast and everything was very good. The group met at 9 and we were greeted by three students, James, April, and Andrew. They lead us around the entire Tsinghua Campus, which covers 3 million square meters. We saw where we take classes and explained what it was like to be a student in China. They pay only $1,000 for the year for the best university in the country!
The tour ended at one of the dorms, where we got lunch. The lunch was really interesting....We went back to the hotel right after lunch. The group got split up and people went different directions. John and I ended up going to the Summer Palace, which was only a short cab ride from the hotel.
Summer Palace
The Summer Palace was really amazing. It was built as a replacement by Empress Cixi at the end of the 19th century and is really a tourist destination for not just foreign tourist, but also Chinese tourists. The palace was incredibly crowded, but John and I had a really great time exploring. There are some incredible palaces and just buildings spread out across this lake called the Kunming Lake. We are going to add pictures a little later. We ended up staying at the palace for about 4 hours and tried to see everything, but it was just overwhelming. Something interesting is that Chinese children aren't very closely watched by their parents, so they were running everywhere. Also, children have these shorts with a slit from the front to the back of the crotch that allow them to go to the bathroom whenever they want and we ended up seeing a child just poop in the middle of the sidewalk....
But right now we are waiting for everyone to get ready before we go to dinner tonight. We might end up going to a bar later tonight, who knows. More details on how that goes later...
Though it has been long day, we are looking forward to tomorrow - the whole 32-student group is going to the Forbidden City tomorrow!
Check out the link to the Album!
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| Beijing 2009 |
Posted by jfavorit at May 4, 2009 06:14 AM
Comments
JM -- thank you for all the enlightening details of your trip to China so far! Can't wait to see more photos as you find time to post. Hugs to John! Have fun and stay safe. Carla (Amanda's Mom)
Posted by: ccook@pfic.com at May 4, 2009 09:58 AM
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