China

I spent much of my time in China in Beijing. I went on a trip guided by a couple of students, Linda and Chi, from Renmin University in Beijing. We spent the first day flying from Hong Kong to Beijing, and making our way to the hotel which was right near the university, stopping only for a Pecking duck dinner. By the time we made it to the hotel, I was exhausted and just went to bed.

The next morning we were up early and on our way. Our first stop for the day was a jade factory. Jade is very popular in China and considered lucky. We were shown how to tell if the jade is real as opposed to just colored glass that you may purchase when buying jade on the street. If it’s real jade, it will scratch glass. After this stop, we went to the Ming Tombs. We didn’t actually see any of the buildings on the grounds, only walked a long path with statues along each side. It was a peaceful walk, with soft music playing out of the speakers along the sides. It was a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the city.

After lunch, we made it to the Great Wall. The Great Wall was amazing. It was so huge! And there were about a billion steps to climb up to reach the top. It was quite a workout! Unfortunately the air was very polluted the afternoon we were there, so the view from the top, while it was still amazing, was pretty gray. It was amazing to watch some women hiking the wall in heels. I don’t know how they did it. The steps were all different heights and I sure don’t think I could have done it in heels!

Later that night we went to Renmin University and spent some time socializing with students there. I had two girls show me around campus. They were so nervous and kept apologizing for not being able to speak English well, but I thought their English was great and kept telling them that. For the most part we were able to understand each other. If anyone should have been apologizing, it should have been me. I only know a couple words of Mandarin, I can’t carry on a conversation to save my life! It was amazing though how many people were out and about on campus. There were al kinds of people walking and running on the track and there were people dancing in the park.

The next morning, right after breakfast, we were off to Tiananmen Square. No one seemed to know what was going on that day, but there were a ton of cars parked in the square. It’s apparently one of the largest open public spaces in the world. We then crossed the street via an underpass and entered the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was really huge, making it quite easy to get lost. In the afternoon we went to the Temple of Heaven. I think this was one of my favorite stops. There were people out all over playing cards, singing, selling things, and just relaxing. I found a park area that was beautiful and so relaxing. It was such a serene area in the middle of the city. Our night ended with an acrobatics show. The flips and tricks everyone was doing were incredible. We watched as 12 girls all piled onto a bike riding around the stage at one point. And it was just a normal bike, not oversized or anything. The English translations of what was being said up on the screen were rather funny. The message just didn’t quite translate right. I’m sure it was quite poetic in Chinese, but it was extremely corny in the translation.

Our final morning in Beijing was spent at the Summer Palace. I could have spent all day there. It was huge and relaxing. There was a pond with the most beautiful reflections I think I’ve ever seen. Wandering around the paths it was very easy to get lost. I think this was my favorite stop in Beijing. It was just so relaxing.

Everywhere we went there were tour groups being led by a guide with a flag, and all wearing the same hat. It was quite funny to see. We were also asked a lot by people if they could take their picture with us. So I’m in a bunch of random people’s photos.

Everywhere we went in Beijing there was construction happening in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. There was construction being done on the Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, and all over the roads. There are already a lot of vehicles, so during the Olympics something like 40% of the cars in Beijing will not be allowed on the roads because of all the extra people coming to the city.

From Beijing, it was off to Qindao to meet the ship there. We then had one day in Qindao, which I spent wandering around, using the internet for a while, and just being silly. There wasn’t a whole lot to do in Qindao, and we were so exhausted that we didn’t want to do a whole lot anyway.

Overall, China was a lot of fun. It was really cute to have these little kids coming up to us saying “hello.” They were all excited that they were able to say something in English to us. For the first time on this trip, I really felt the language barrier. We had to show taxi drivers the Chinese characters for where we wanted to go because they didn’t understand us if we tried telling them in English. I actually enjoyed the experience very much. I had to find other ways to communicate through hand gestures and facial expressions. It really is amazing how much you can communicate without words.