The full story would take me about 2 or 3 hours to type up, and I need to start reading for the exam since tomorrow I'll be out all day and Thursday I need to actually study. In a really quick nutshell:

Saturday:
-Went to Urban Planning Museum, which has a scale model of what Shanghai will be in 2010. It takes up the entire third floor of the building and is extremely cool.
-Walked around Renmin Park, one of the largest parks/gardens in the world.
-Dinner at a really awesome restaurant for a kid on our program & his twin brother's birthday (21 from Michigan, 16 from NYU who are studying in Shanghai)
-Spent the night at a club near downtown with all 37 people, the twins paid for tables and lots of alcohol. Good music too. Awesome time

Sunday:
-Went to the top of some of the tallest buildings in the world. Couldn't see much because of the awful smog.
-Walked around Old Town Shanghai and the Yuan Gardens (a meditation sanctuary)
-Spent the rest of the afternoon at a teahouse
-Went to dinner at a really good dim-sum place
-Spent the night walking around the Bund (Shanghai Skyline on the water) and at a bar on top of a tower

As with most sections of the wall, it takes a considerable hike to up to the wall. It was not nearly as bad as last week, but still took about 45 minutes. The heat made it awful though. When we finally made it on to the wall, it was quite amazing. It is mind boggling to understand how people could build a wall that twists and turns over mountain tops and goes on for thousands of miles.

Unfortunately, the pollution in the air really cuts back on how awesome it is to be on the Wall. If the air was clear, we would see lush forests and scenery for miles. Instead, we saw smog that limited our eyesight to about 100ft, if that.

After about 30-45 minutes on the wall, we had the option of walking back down, taking the cable car down, or paying 45RMB to take an alpine slide to the bottom - how many times will one get to alpine slide down from the Great Wall of China? The slide ended up being a lot of fun (and a lot quicker than walking). I took a 3.5 minute video of me going down and checking out the scenery.

Time to go eat dinner with some Michigan alums who live in Beijing, then go to sleep so I can wake up at 4:30am for Shanghai!

His lecture was unbelievably interesting and beneficial to understanding the past, present, and future of the Chinese economy. He unveiled the truths about the Global-China import/export situation, potential growth for China, challenges to the Chinese political and economic situation, and mega-trends of the Chinese future.

One of his most interesting points was the idea of mega-cities throughout the eastern coast of China and high-speed train networks to link them all together. These mega cities would have 100-million or more people in them (Beijing would have more people than most of Europe) and would curb China’s inevitable resource crunch. It was interesting to view cities as energy efficient compared to behemoth energy consumers.

Another interesting point was his view that the Renminbi would be an international currency in 15-20 years. Currently, the RMB is not open to free trade as the government is afraid of a massive bank run. However, once the Chinese allow for free trade, Professor Li predicts the RMB will account for 20+ percent of the World Bank’s reserves. I will either upload my lecture summary or a copy of the lecture slides sometime after I get back.

Meanwhile, apparently dust is being blown in from the dessert at the moment and the city/area is covered in dust. It’s extremely difficult to breathe and walk around as dust flies into your eye. I can feel the dust in my teeth – it sucks. Staying in until Shanghai.

Our trip was almost cancelled when our taxis got lost and we arrived at the meeting spot about 10 minutes late. Luckily the bus waited for us. I was surprised that a) the bus was completely full and b) we were the only people who looked under 25 on the trip. For the hour and a half bus ride, I sat next to and talked with Helmuth from Germany – a man who has lived in 12 different Asian countries, has been in Beijing for six years, and hikes almost every weekend. He was a really cool guy.

When we arrived at the park at 10:00am, we were given a short introduction to what our hike would consisted – an extremely challenging climb up the mountain, a two mile long walk along the mountain ridges, and additional smaller climb, around another mountain, and then down through a village. Our guide warned us about how tough the first stage of the hike would be and she certainly proved right.

After grabbing a walking stick and some additional waters and snacks, we set off on our adventure. Things started off relatively alright until we hit the first set of steps. In a nutshell, we climbed up steps for literally two hours straight – only taking two or three breaks for water and pictures. At times, the steps were so big that I had to raise my leg as high as it could go. We went up and up and up, climbing over 3,500 feet. At about 12:15, we reached the first “Fire Tower”. These ancient structures were built to be a network of warning signals in case the Mongols were starting to invade. They were quite cool, although nothing spectacular to look at. The scenery was spectacular. Unfortunately, the pollution made things in the distance really hazy and prevented any good pictures. We still got some great action shots though.

We ate a brief snack and decided to go on a bit further so we could eat lunch at a more scenic area. The next phase of our hike was pretty relaxing due to the flat trail. About 30 minutes later, we found a spot that overlooked a giant valley which led up to another section of the mountain range. Lunch was great – a PB&J sandwich, some 100-Calorie packs, and a protein bar.

An hour later, we came to the second part of our incline where we had more steps and another 600-800 feet of climbing. At the peak, we were at least 4,000ft above sea level. The rest of the hike was just some rugged downhill. We came across donkeys and horses, and met a child who was not accustomed to “foreigners”. He was cute.

When we reached the bottom, it felt so unbelievable to have gotten through the hike. I definitely didn’t expect to be able to do it, let alone do it, keep up with everyone, and not be too dead afterwards. How many people get to say they hiked up a mountain in China?

After we got back, we all watched “Into the Wild” – it’s about Emory students who in 1990 donated all his savings and goes to live in the wild. He ended up dying from eating a poisonous berry in Alaska, but it was an inspiring movie about just doing what you want and living free. This weekend was absolutely one of the best 48 hours ever and just barely loses to my weekend in Cairns, Australia.

Have lots of pictures, no time to add them right now

1. Walked around the Military Museum of China

2. Visited the Lama Temple (largest Buddhist temple in China). Offered incense and prayed to the largest buddha statue in the world (146 feet, all carved out of a single piece of sandlewood).

3. Spent over an hour drinking tea at a hole-in-the-wall tea house where we tried over 20 kinds of tea.

4. Discovered a side street full of about 30 vendors of Chinese antiques. Bought an original poster made in the 1960's of Mao Zedong giving a speech at the Capital.

5. Walked around Tian'anmen Square and the Capital building at night.

Wish me luck on my hike tomorrow!

In every Chinatown throughout the United States, the street corners are filled with people selling knockoff sunglasses, watches, purses, and DVD’s for relatively cheap prices. The tradition of Chinese selling knockoff designer items and inexpensive goods originated from Beijing’s Silk Market. Originally, silk traders would travel in from around the country to sell fresh silk and bargain with customers in order to sell their wares. Over the years, this market (still in its original location), grew to include a variety of other precious materials and items. Today, Beijing’s Silk Market is the world’s capital of knockoff items and cheap stuff as it sits in a eight story building with thousands of vendor stalls ranging from Polo shirts and Gucchi purses to hand crafted art to raw silk.
When I walked into the market, I was immediately overwhelmed with the sea of people and clothing that was for sale. It was absolutely amazing. As you walk, people yell at you to come look at their stuff and jump out at you to try to block your path. There was every single brand of stuff there, even fake iPod’s, Xbox’s, and Wii’s (all of which wouldn’t work if you bought them). Each floor had a designated focus – clothing, accessories, jewelry, art, etc.
My first goal was to buy a piece of luggage to carry home all the stuff I buy and try to get my suitcase’s weight down in case I get charged. We went downstairs to the luggage area and I picked out this Tumi rolling travel briefcase that fits some clothing and a laptop. I was so nervous to start bargaining with this girl, as I knew I did not want to pay too much. She started off at 1500RMB ($210) – I countered with 100RMB. It’s really hard to gauge what to pay because although it is cheap knockoff stuff, the luggage is still worth something. Bargaining with this girl was pretty awesome, and we went back and forth with numbers between 100-400RMB. Settled on 250RMB ($25), but I could have gotten less if I didn’t think I lost my friends.
From here, I ended up buying some chopsticks pretty cheap and two nice silk ties for $1.25 each (a silk tie is a silk tie wherever you go, such an amazing deal, wish there were more styles I liked). The best part of the day was with these two girls at a Polo stall. Me and my friend Seth went saying we did not want to buy a polo shirt for more than $5-$7 and figured that we could get it cheaper if we bought them together. We somehow ended up getting these two girls down to 30RMB($4.30)/per shirt for 4 shirts from 220RMB/shirt. The kids that went a day before could not get a Polo thess than 70RMB and when we walked up someone had just bought one shirt for 100RMB. After this sale though, one of the girls asked us if we could help her with her English. We spent an hour at this stall going back and forth between helping this girl with English and then learning Chinese words. It was so much fun….and the girl’s name was Fung Fung.

Class got out today at 3PM so we had plenty of time to get to downtown Beijing via the subway. However, we were going to a new place today and transferred to the Red Line at a new stop. When we got to the train, there were these women, who we assume worked for the subway (they had no uniform on), arranging us into single-file lines. This gave off the impression that each line would align with a door of the subway to get on. This was definitely not the case. Our pillar of people ended up in the middle of two doors, except the lines of people on either side of us had a door. My entrance into the car consisted of being smashed by the battering ram of people behind me. This train was the most crowded thing I had ever been on and was well beyond maximum capacity. It was so jammed that when the train started and stopped, nobody moved because of the density of people. Getting out was an impossible task that ended with me lunging out of the car like Superman. Crazy stuff.

1. Class was pretty good today, especially the afternoon Chinese lesson. Actually learned some stuff.

2. After class, we went back into downtown again to get our suits fitted. My suit is amazing and fits perfectly. Going in the subway today was particularly painful on my lungs. It sucks so much.

3. Went to a hotpot place for dinner. A hotpot is basically Chinese fondue, where you get your own pot of a kind of broth you like. Then you order a bunch of meats, vegetables, etc, then make your own sauce. You cook everything yourself. Extremely tasty, although we didn't get enough food so I am still hungry.

4. Spent the rest of the night reading and taking notes. Sucks.

We come up to this guy making loud chants and banging this stick. As he moves out of the day, we see a cardboard box that was moving. It took us a moment to understand what was in the box. Puppies. Those dogs were so damn cute and it is so sad they were either stolen or bred in a basement. We could have bought them all for about $50 then set them all free. Who sells dogs on the side of the street!

The Summer Palace is an absolutely beautiful place. The architecture is what you vision for Ancient China and it is full of amazing statues, buildings, walkways, ponds, and attractions. It is extremely large and has a few pretty large hills on it. You can see most of Beijing from up top.

There was a path/hill that goes up to the Temple of Incense, a giant Buddhist Temple that houses a 400 year old statue of some crazy Buddhist icon that looks like Medusa. It was a real steep, long hike up rocks, stairs, a windy path, and through some tunnels. Really cool and a lot of kids turned back because they were scared or were too lazy to climb. It felt really good to get up there and was definitely worth it. I took a decent amount of pictures, but will wait to share them until after I get home. The picture here is of the Temple of Incense.

The Banana club tonight just wasn't as good. Maybe because I was kind of bitter about dinner. However, the additional $3-4 taxi, another $5 cover, another couple of rounds of $8 drinks, and another evening listening to deafening Chinese pop, seeing blinding strobe lights, and dancing like a sardine was a bit over my limit tonight. Oh well.

Goodnight.

Our cab driver on the way back was awesome. He kept pointing to everything and saying “Gugu”…which I think means “Go Go”. He made this gesture near Tian’anmen square, some other major buildings, and this huge arena looking thing. He also turned on the radio in the middle of the ride and it happened to be “Don’t Stop the Music” by Rihanna. The five us in the cab (including the cab driver) started to dance and he wanted us to sing. It was so much fun and we took some funny pictures.

Off to dinner and then back to Banana. Goodnight.

On the way back from dinner, we stopped at a huge grocery store where we picked up some “supplies” for the evening. At about 10:15, we started pregaming in Tarun and Cory’s room. It was so funny to watch Steven and Lenny sip on beer and this weird hard drink we made. After about an hour of this, we decided to head out to Banana – supposedly one of the better clubs in Beijing.

When we got three cabs, two of the cabs knew where to go and the other one (the one I was in) only kind knew where to go. Nevertheless, when we got to the club, we were missing eight members of our group! We freaked out, and it turns out there is two “Banana” clubs in Beijing – CocoBanana and GTBanana. We were at the latter, while the rest were apparently at the former. About an hour after we got there, the res t of our group got there. Very relieving.
The club itself was pretty awesome. Crazy packed on a Monday, tons of Asians, fireworks, a spring loaded floor, and good music. When an American song came on (Sean Kingston – Take You There), only us knew the words and when the Asians noticed this, they cleared a circle around us while we danced. It was awesome. Got back at 3:00 to wake up at 7:30 for class. Good times.