Beijing!

Our Beijing trip was a success!  There is so much to discuss, so I will break it down by day.
Thursday
After waking up at 4:00, we left our apartment complex at 4:45 and headed to the Shanghai Hongqiao Airport.  We then took a 7:00 flight to Beijing.  I was surprised that the airplane was a huge Airbus like the ones that usually go from the US to Europe or Asia.  But I guess with so many people in China, many flights use large planes.  We got into Beijing at around nine and boarded a bus to our hotel where we had a buffet breakfast.  I am very happy to report that there was toast and jam.  After breakfast, we headed to the Hutong district of Beijing, which preserves the traditional residential style of Beijing.  The hutong were alley houses somewhat similar to the Shikumen of Shanghai.  We also tried some Beijing street food including crab apples on a stick dipped in candy, honey flavored drinkable yogurt, and scorpions (not me personally).  We toured a few family homes and even had lunch prepared by a local family.  We then went to the Lama Temple, which is a Buddhist temple built in the 1600s.  The temple was previously the home of an emperor, who made it a Buddhist temple so that his father might make it into heaven.  There were many Buddha statues including one at the end that was around 60 feet high and carved from one tree!  Unfortunately, photography was not allowed inside the buildings.  There were also many Chinese people burning incense in front of the temples and bowing to the Buddhas.  Needless to say, the air was very fragrant.  We finished the day with a tradition Peking Duck dinner.  To eat Peking Duck, you wrap the pieces of duck with some sauce and onion in a tortilla-like shell and eat it like a burrito.  I had never had duck before and really enjoyed it.  We were so exhausted from getting up at 4:00 that we went to bed early after arriving at our hotel.

Friday
We started the day at the Forbidden City, which I was very excited to see after reading about it in my Chinese modern history book.  It was very crowded and I had my first experience with a squat toilet, which was something I prefer to forget.  There was also trash all over the place right outside the entrance.  The Forbidden City was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties.  It was built in the early 1400s and was used until 1911 when the republic started.  I was surprised by how huge it was.  The buildings just kept going and going.  After lunch, we went to the 798 art district, which is a converted factory area.  We walked around the art galleries and did some shopping.  In the evening, we rode the bus to a local tourist street and had the worst Western food ever for dinner and then went into some shops. I tried to get a taxi back to the hotel at around 10:00, but none of the taxis would take me.  I later learned that nobody else in our program could get a taxi in Beijing either.  The drivers would stop, look at us, shake their heads, and then drive away.  It seems that there is more racism in Beijing, so we were all glad that we chose to study in Shanghai instead.
Saturday
Saturday was definitely a highlight.  We traveled to the Jinshanling portion of the Great Wall.  The Jinshanling portion is less touristy than many other parts of the Great Wall, which was much appreciated.  We drove for several hours to get there. The mountains were absolutely beautiful.  We hiked for a little over two hours and even made it to an unrestored portion of the wall, where we really had to do some climbing.  It was so much fun and it was something that I will never forget.
Sunday
We woke up early and headed to the Panjiayuan Market, which is a huge fake antique/jewelry/souvenir market.  We had about an hour to shop and there was an overwhelming number of vendors and products available.  We then went to the Temple of Heaven, which is a Taoist temple that the emperors would visit to pray for a good harvest.  Right outside of the temple complex was a large park that was very popular for exercise.  We saw some really muscular Chinese men doing gymnastics as well as people dancing to live singing.  We then had lunch at a buffet and visited the Hongqiao Pearl Market before going to the train station to catch the high speed train (gao tie) back to Shanghai.  The train ride was only 5 hours, which is pretty amazing!  Overall, the trip was a great experience and I am very glad that I got to see so many historic sites that I have read about.  With the end of the trip, however, came the return of reality.  My capstone research project is due in just over three weeks and I have so much to do!  Chinese class is also moving pretty quickly.  It is strange to think that i will be coming home in less than 4 weeks.  There is so much to do by then!  Thanks for reading such a long post!

Hutong area in Beijing

Candy covered crab apples-definitely a blend of sweet and sour

Amazing honey yogurt drink

Lama Temple-notice the incense burners

More Lama Temple

Me at Lama Temple

Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square

Moat around Forbidden City

Forbidden City

Me at Forbidden City

Great Wall

Unrestored part of Great Wall tower

Unrestored Section

Temple of Heaven

Interior of Temple of Heaven

Recent Happenings

World Financial Center in Pudong-had dinner here

Oriental Pearl Tower

Hot pot restaurant

Lupu Bridge

Lupu Bridge

Picture of a picture of lupu bridge

About to start climb

Foggy view from partway up

Foggy view of French world expo pavilion

Fired dumplings at Bellagio Cafe

Awesome mango shave ice dessert

Metro City

More metro city

    Sorry for the lack of recent blog posts.  I have been very busy and not very many blog-worthy events have occurred.  Last week after class on Tuesday, we ventured to the Metro City area and checked out a huge fancy mall with Western brands.  We had dinner on the top floor at a fancy Chinese restaurant called the Bellagio Cafe.  Highlights included a large variety of frozen drinks and the most amazing mango shaved ice dessert (see picture).  The mango was incredibly sweet and juicy, albeit likely injected with sugar.  On Friday after class, we ventured to the  People Square area for some shopping and manicures.  There was even a Hershey's store!  I then went back to Yu Yuan and did some gift shopping for family and friends.  We even had our first encounter with people who wanted to take pictures with us.  Some young guy approached us and said in perfect English, "Excuse me, can I take photo with you?"  That then started a trend and several others followed, including a mom shoving her little girl towards us.  For dinner, we decided to try hot pot, which in my opinion was fondue gone horribly wrong.  We ordered two "pots"-one hot and spicy and one mild.  The hot and spicy was very much so-perhaps too much so.  I accidentally got a little spice ball of some kind in a bite of food and my mouth was on fire afterward.  The mild one had a huge bone floating in it, which was also odd. 
     On Saturday, we had a group outing with our program to do the Shanghai climb at Lupu Bridge.  Unfortunately, the weather was really foggy/hazy, so we could not really enjoy the view from the top. It was cool to climb stairs along the arch of the bridge though.  After the climb, we went to a large market in the Museum of Science and Technology metro stop.  After waiting in line for over 20 minutes at KFC, we did some cool shopping.  The highlight was definitely the pearl market.  We had way too much fun there if you know what I mean.  The prices were really low and it was fun to bargain because the vendors spoke decent English.  We all got gifts for people and enjoyed buying a few things for ourselves too.  On Saturday, my addiction to counterfeit DVDs also began.  There is a store right next to our complex that sells all kinds of American movies and tv series.  They also only cost 10 yuan, so it is kind of addicting.  Yesterday, we went on a trip to the Propaganda Poster Art museum with our culture and society teacher.  It was so interesting to see all of the history that I have read about propogandized in the posters.  The posters started with the Korean War in the early 50s and then continued through the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution.  Many glorified peasant families and showed fat babies to symbolize and abundance of food.  Others glorified the red guard and the sending of young people to the countryside.  There were also anti-imperialist/anti-American posters.  Overall, it was very cool.  Afterward, we decided to check out Nanjing road.  I then had dinner in Pudong in the World Financial Center at a Canadian restaurant (yea pancakes!).  It was really neat to walk around the business district and see the WFC and the Oriental Pearl Tower up close.  Today, a large group of us went to Morton's steakhouse in the IFC mall.  There is a great happy hour special there.  If you buy a drink, you get unlimited free filet mignon sandwiches on really good homemade bread.  The sandwiches are really expensive, so it was great.
      Tomorrow morning we leave for Beijing bright and early at 4:45!  I am super excited and can't wait to blog about all of the great things we will see including the Lama Temple, Forbidden City, Hutong area, 798 art district, the Jinshanling portion of the Great Wall, and the Panjiayuan Market.  We are flying there and taking a new high speed 5 hour train ride back.  We will also be trying Peking duck tomorrow night for dinner! 

Trip to Xitang

Yesterday, six of us went on an exciting (perhaps too exciting?) trip to Xitang. We got up bright and early at 4:30 so that we could leave at 5:00 and catch the first metro train at 5:30.  We arrived at the Hongquiao Railway Station just in time to catch our 7:00 high speed train to Jiashan.  The train ride only took 20 minutes and it was interesting to watch the speed reach 350 km/hr (see picture).  When we got off at Jiashan, we realized that two members of our group were still on the train and headed to Hangzhou.  Thus began the difficulties of the day.  Next, we were supposed to catch a bus that would take us to Xitang.  However, that would be too easy I guess... We found a bus that went to a bus station where we could catch a bus to Xitang.  So, we went through that process, but when we got off of the final bus we did not know where to walk to get to the touristy part of the town.  There were many bicycle rickshaws around and we had no choice but to take them.  The rickshaw ride was amusing to begin with, but then we were led towards a tourist scam.  Some people wanted us to go through their house and some creepy alleys in order to access the town by paying a lower admission fee.  A lot of Chinese people were following them and one of our group members thought maybe we should follow them. Anyway, they said "no foreigners" (in Chinese of course), so we were still confused and unsure of where to proceed from there.  We got in another rickshaw, which took us to a more official looking entrance.  We bought admission tickets and walked into the town without trouble and started exploring.  Xitang consists of many small alleys along canals with a series of stone bridges crossing the canal and leading to other alleys.  There are shops, restaurants, and some small museums and temples to look at.  We wandered around for a while, bought some slushy beverages, and waited for our other group members to get to the town.  When the other two arrived, we all took a boat ride together on the canal.  The perspective from the water was definitely unique, and we even saw some Chinese opera on a stage right by the water.  The town was incredibly touristy, which resulted in the loss of some of the Ming dynasty ambiance that the town is noted for. 
Several local "delicacies" are also available for purchase including stinky tofu, dragon's beard candy, and sticky rice wrapped in leaves.  For lunch, I ordered Xiaolongbao.  They were incredibly disappointing though; they tasted much more like baozi and had barely any meat in them.  The shopping was also not quite what we expected.  The main item available was western style sundresses.  I did manage to get a beautiful embroidered Xitang scene that was made by the family of the seller in a small shop.  The owner even asked my nationality and then said I was beautiful, which was interesting.  I have noticed that people here are always very curious about our nationality.  I think that I have definitely noticed more Europeans in Shanghai, so they are usually pretty excited to meet Americans.  Some people see us and excitedly say "hello!" and then we respond with "ni hao!" It is definitely amusing. We also felt like somewhat of a tourist attraction ourselves, as the only Caucasian people in sight.  We soon realized that there was not much to do in the town besides shop and eat, and we were more than ready to leave at 3:00 in order to catch the return train to Shanghai.  After returning to Shanghai, we were very hungry and decided to give Papa Johns in Wujiaochang a try.  Our waitress's name tag said "Alien," which we found highly amusing.  I order chicken and corn pizza, which was quite good and some breadsticks.  We then proceeded to fall asleep very early out of exhaustion!  Overall, a pretty successful day!

Standing on a tall bridge in Xitang

Boat ride!

Me on the boat

Me, one of my roommates, and George on the boat

One of the many bridges-view from the boat

High speed bullet train

Fastest speed

Rickshaw ride-enroute to scam...

street in Xitang

Unique bridge

opera

Boat take off area

Xintiandi fashion district

more Xintiandi

Xintiandi

fountain in Xintiandi

Alley in Xintiandi

Kids playing in the park-needless to say I was very jealous!

Me at the park

more park

gazebo at park

Tianzifang

Panda shop at Tianzifang

Site of first congress of CCP

Sorry about the lack of recent posts!  I have been very busy with classes and trip planning for this weekend.  Last Saturday, I participated in a scavenger hunt organized by our program.  The hunt took us to the former French Concession Area, where we visited the Shikumen Open House Museum, the site of the first congress of the CCP, a popular park, Sun Yat Sen's former residence, and Zhou Enlai's former residence.  We took our time and we were still the first group back because other groups decided to do other things when they got downtown.  Our prize?  Cool three piece tea cups.  On Sunday, my Culture and Society class went to do our field observation in Xintiandi and Tianzifang, both of which are in the French Concession area, so I had some familiarity with the area.  Our assignment was to observe the differences between the two areas and their successes as cultural preserves.  We all enjoyed Tianzifang more than Xintiandi.  Tianzifang is an art/shopping district that consists of a maze of narrow alleys.  It attempts to maintain the essence of "old shanghai" and in our opinion does so rather successfully.  The shops were unique and fun to look at and there were also many international restaurants.  Xintiandi is more of a fashion district and largely elicits the feeling that you are in Europe.  Both locations seek to preserve the historic Shikumen architecture: alley houses that Shanghainese lived in during the 20th century.  In the second week, classes are getting intense, especially my culture and society class.  We have long reading assignments with difficult quizzes given at the start of each class as well as weekly field visits and presentations.  We also have our 15-20 page capstone project to worry about.  For the capstone, we have to take advantage of being in China and conduct interviews and surveys.  For my topic, I am leaning towards covering the allure of American universities to Chinese students.  I hope to survey Fudan students, asking their opinions of American universities, perceptions of differences between Chinese and American universities, whether or not they applied to American Universities, if so which ones, and whether they are considering attending graduate school in the U.S.  I have been spending a lot of time finding suitable journal articles to use in my paper as well.  I had my first Chinese test this morning and it was very short and relatively easy.  This afternoon we have a cooking workshop where we will learn to make several Chinese dishes, including Xiaolongbao.  I have also planned a day trip for tomorrow to Xitang: a canal town outside of Shanghai.  So far, six of us are going and we have to leave at 5:00 a.m. to ride the subway to the train station and then board our high speed train to Jiashan where we will catch a bus for a short ride into the town.  In the town, we will take a boat ride, see some historic sites and museums, and do some shopping.  The pictures look so beautiful, so I am very excited!