Day 4: University Tour

So we woke up real early this morning because we were scheduled to meet a man named Lu Chao at the south gate of the Beijing Jiatong University. This just happened to be a tad more difficult than expected. We really hadn’t any concept as to how big Beijing really was until we took a cab ride from one side to the other. The traffic ended up being rather difficult this morning and we arrived fifteen minutes late to the school. We were actually dropped off at the wrong gate and had to find our way using a map (written in Chinese of course) at the university. We found our way to the South gate and talked loudly in English until four girls heard us and confirmed that we had made it to the right place. Finally!

The four girls were to be our tour guides for the day. They took us to meet with Lu who showed us to an empty classroom where we could sit and interact with the four english majors. Each girl was about to graduate in a couple of weeks and spoke outstanding english. The four of us paired ourselves with the four of them and talked for at least a half hour. The girl I was paired with was called Betty. We spoke about the education systems and how they compared and contrasted. We also talked a great deal about the cultures and how very foreign everything was for us in China. Another major thing we discussed was the situation in Tibet and how the Western world has been mislead. This is something I have researched and looked into significantly prior to leaving for China, so it was of particular interest to me and the insight I received was just as I’d expected. We are so wrong to believe everything we are fed in our media. I won’t go into great detail with all of this, but if you are interested, I found this man’s perspective to be quite interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsoc4-QnplY. Enough with all that though, on with the tour!

Lu and the girls then took us to one of the dormitories which happened to be for foreign students studying abroad. It was rather nice and it was clear that it was far nicer than the rooms the girls had. They were in love with how spacious and new it was. I figure their dorms were actually more like those of Daniel’s Hall with perhaps less space. Regardless, graduation and the start of the rest of their lives was so close that none of that even mattered.

Betty was a sweet girl with great ambitions. She wished to continue her education in the future and maybe be a professor down the road. She very much enjoyed writing poetry especially with an ancient Chinese direction. If I’m not mistaken, I believe she mentioned one of her stories being published not too long ago.

Lu then left us with the girls so they could show us around the campus and continue discussions. One of the coolest things we saw right off the bat was a garden area donated by the University of Cincinnati & GBBN Architecture. What a coincidence. We walked around and took pictures and eventually stumbled upon the Architecture and Design school within the college. It was a lucky find indeed as the girls were even unaware of its location. We kind of let ourselves in and explored for a few minutes before we had to meet back up with Lu for lunch. And what a lunch that would be.

I’m not sure if i’ve described it yet, but the traditional Chinese meal is very much a group process. At the center of the table is a large lazy susan where all the different dishes are placed and shared amongst the entire group. It really is quite an experience. everybody just feeds themselves right out of the community dishes. There were at least 8 or nine dishes at this meal though. One of them was a spicy snack type that actually had bugles (those conical shaped chips with ridges we used to fill with squeeze cheese) and nuts and dried red peppers. That was probably my favorite. Over dinner, we discussed the Ya Show Market that Kim had recommended to us for shopping and they all said it was a big rip-off there and that we’d be much better off on a street called Dong Fang Xin tian di (plus accents and tonal marks).

After dinner we found out that Dr. Mitch Livingston, of the University of Cincinnati, had just arrived and was staying a couple days at the hotel which we’d just ate at in the middle of campus. Again with the coincidences! We considered leaving him a message and offering to take him out to dinner, but he was far too busy. We left the university feeling very much enlightened and thankful to Mark Shanley for setting it up for us. It surpassed any expectations we had.

We tried to explain to the taxi driver to take us to the before mentioned shopping area, but he took us to what was basically a Times Square. It was all kinds of higher end designer stores all up and down the street. It was a cool site, but not quite what we were looking for. We grabbed another cab and headed back to the hotel to grab some loot and take a walk to the Ya Show. We placed our trust in Neil’s uncanny sense of direction, and though it took longer than it should have, our trust was well rewarded. We not only found Ya Show, but also a nice KFC (which happens to be the biggest fast food chain in China) for after shopping. We spent a little while in the market haggling over gifts to bring back to the states. This really became something of a sport for us with group strategies to boot. Much fun. Oh, and KFCs in the states should think about bringing over some Asian wraps.... they were fabulous.

After, we just headed back to the hotel to turn in as we have yet another early morning planned: Li Ho is taking us to Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, and the Temple of Heaven... Boosh!

Day 3: One Hell of a Wall

This morning, Becksworth and I woke up at like 5am. I attempted to go swimming in our hotel, but the recreation area didn’t open until 8. Instead, I just stretched real thoroughly while Zach showered. I knew it was going to be quite a feat climbing the steep section of the Great Wall as we had planned for today. After our showers, we called the boys next door and woke them to go down for breakfast. I brought a backpack with a bunch of plastic bags so that we could snag some fruits and other snacks for after the wall. After all, there were eight of us going. Why not take advantage of our included breakfast buffet?

It was about time for the guys and Charlotte to meet us and our driver at our hotel, so we went and waited outside for them. They all arrived on time and we piled into Li Ho’s van and headed out. I can’t quite recall exactly how long the ride was, but it was something like an hour. We all got to know each other’s backgrounds and personalities quite a bit during that ride and everyone meshed really well. It’s really lucky that so many cool people were able to converge in the same place at the same time. Unfortunately for Charlotte, she’d be starting her first day at the GBBN Beijing office the next day, so this would be her last tour with us.

We got to the Badaling section of the wall in apparently great time. Li Ho really was a badass. We all had to buy tickets which were something like 30 yuan ($4.4) and discounted for us as we are students. This rather steep portion of the Wall was like one enormous staircase to a height so immense we couldn’t see the bottom Granted, it was somewhat foggy that morning, but it was awe-inspiring nonetheless. On the way up and especially on the way back down, people harassed us to try and purchase gypsy trinkets and tourist junk like “I Climbed the Great Wall” t=shirts. This was our first time practicing the haggling system. One thing that western society has lost is the act of bargaining for better prices. I’ve no doubt that I’ll miss this ability dearly.

The Great Wall was one hell of a workout. Thank goodness we woke up and started the climb rather early because on our way down it was becoming very crowded. As Zach and I were heading down, we initiated conversation with some other tourists. I asked them where they were from and the one man I was walking with encouraged me to guess. I stared at him for a few moments and said, “Iran.” He was genuinely surprised and impressed with my correct guess. They were indeed from Iran on vacation with their parents. When we told them we were from America they were very pleased and excited as if they’d never actually met one, but displayed a great deal of admiration nonetheless. We then proceeded to have our pictures taken with them holding up peace signs. It always pleases me to make connections with people from around the world... I think that’s going to be my favorite aspect of this trip.

At the bottom of the Wall, there were gift shops and great scenic views and utter tourist chaos. I met an Aussie named Kent there who was in China for only a few days on his way to Siberia to move in with the girl he met and has been dating from the internet three years ago. He was a real friendly chap whose big smile never ended. When the rest of the crew made it down from the wall and met us, Zach, Jon, Neil and I, payed 50 yuan to dress up in ancient Chinese battle armor complete with swords. We got our pictures taken in fun positions and with countless other tourists who wanted to join in our fun. We then bought Li Ho a coke and piled back into the van. Jennifer, our contact from GBBN, instructed him to drive us to the Ming Tomb after grabbing a bite to eat. Lunch was amazing and we all tried rice wine for the first time. I actually enjoyed it. The tomb was okay. Very beautiful were the plants and trees and I loved the sculptures. It was rather peaceful there.

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped off as close as we could get to the olympic stadium and pool, snapped some pictures, and continued onward.

That night, we all met back up to have dinner with Kim on the last night of his three month stay in Beijing. We all met at a restaurant in Beihei Park which was gorgeous and hopping that night. We ordered snake and all kinds of other weird food, but the snake is what we wanted most, and what they happened to forget. After a hearty meal, we walked around to the other side of the lake and found a bar that didn’t mind pouring a little heavy. We all sat up at the rooftop tables and talked for a few hours about China and business and life in general. It was a great night. We took a couple taxis back to the hotel late night and that was probably the best example of crazy Beijing driving we’ve seen yet. Yet another wild night.