May 8,2008-May 9, 2008
The flight to Beijing (14 hours from Chicago) was pretty uneventful—all announcements were made in both English & Mandarin, they served chopsticks with all of the food, and the food was terrible as only airline food can be. Upon our arrival we were met by Ma Lao Shi, our other professor, translator, and Asian grandmother for the trip, along with a group of students from Minda, the university we are staying at. They are all very friendly and speak English quite well, but I missed the introductions so when Anne tried to help me with my bag I thought she was trying to steal it! After that was sorted out, we also had a funny backup on a people mover—the airport was packed, and someone got stuck, causing a huge backup of people and bags being pushed into the mess, which was pretty hilarious! We went to the university and had dinner at the on campus Korean “restaurant”—we had a separate room and the food was definitely restaurant-quality! Chinese meals are basically just ordering a ton of dishes and sharing, they have a lazy Susan on the table to help with the sharing, which is quite handy! With probably 20 dishes in front of us for 6 of us to share, a whole new group of people to meet and the jet-lag kicking in it was an overwhelming meal! Afterwards we walked around campus with the students for a while to be polite but all we wanted to do was crawl into bed, so after a stop at the campus convenience store when they offered to take us out into the city we declined. I went to bed at 10pm on a Friday night for the first time in a very long time, but it was 10am for everyone back in the states! Sleeping wasn’t easy for the first few nights, but I think I adjusted well. Ogden was completely right with the outside all day, no naps philosophy and I will for sure be following that once I get back to the states!!
May 10
We were up at 7am for breakfast in the café. Chinese breakfast is very unique as most of it is fried, sweet, or even pickled. We had scallion pancakes, big puffy pastries that were fried then you dipped in soy milk, fried pastries with sweet bean paste, brown bananas—all very sweet & greasy, not exactly a light meal!
We then headed off to see the Hutongs, the older areas where the Chinese used to live, but which are not being demolished in order to build these more modern (though they all look the same and are kind of 80s ugly to me) apartment buildings. We went through the poorer area first, then to a more grandiose area where many former royalty, the unofficial Beijing Bishop, and many famous people have houses. I am glad we saw the more authentic part first, as some of Houhai is extremely tourist-y (as much as we loved going out there at night for that reason!) as it gives you a taste of life as it was before all of the high-rises and tourists. We were joined by Michael Crook, a British ex-pat who has lived in Beijing for most of his life, including though the cultural revolution, where he was one of literally 6 British allowed to stay in Beijing! I liked Michael a lot, as much as some of his ideas do not align with my own it was a great introduction to China. He is a very dynamic guy and he kept our attention through the day when we were all fighting jet-lag. Jake Hooker, a NYT stringer who lives in Beijing as well, also joined us. He provided a nice contrast to Michael, as if you walked along in the back of the group with him he always had some sort of comment or story for each one of Michael’s—really great contrast, as much as that was unplanned it made me laugh and it was very interesting. Basically Hooker thought Michael was brainwashed by the CCP for his positive views on the Chinese government whereas Michael thought all of us were crazy for our capitalist views. We also saw the cultural center in the hutong— they have some similarities to our community centers here but in addition to social gatherings they also provide low level services to the community such as trash collection, recycling, handle all paperwork for children, run a health clinic, etc. Michael was also telling us that minorities (religious, older people, political dissidents) get special help from the centers, such as heavily subsidized services, but Jake was pretty critical of that and from our later travels I must say I agree with Jake on this one, the Hospital in the Village and the Women’s federation both spoke extensively on how difficult it is for a great many people to receive healthcare; we also looked extensively at migrant workers and I am positive that not many people bend over backwards to help them with things as Michael claimed. Michael is a self-proclaimed socialist who told a group of westerners over lunch why capitalism will never work. So I guess you can take that with a grain of salt, but I really appreciated his candor. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it, but I guess I wasn’t expecting such a vocal communist viewpoint over here (of which we met many) —blame the western media and all of my history classes I suppose for telling me that all people who live under a communist or socialist government aren’t happy and hate the way their country is run. Clearly this trip has taught me otherwise, because as much as China is liberalizing they are still very much a socialist nation!
My first impressions of china:
-There are a lot of weird smells everywhere, including mold in the dorm which is currently driving my allergies crazy. I would end up being sick because of it the entire time we were at Minda. Otherwise staying at Minda was fine, the bugs and water situations were not ideal but we were in China and many people have worse situations, so if you can next year I say go to Minda—it builds character
-I didn’t realize quite how excited Beijing is about the Olympics. To sat that they are euphoric might be a more accurate description—obviously that fervor was topped by another public outpouring for the earthquake victims just a few days after we arrived, but the way the entire country rallied around the Olympics is pretty amazing to see!
-The sprawl is ridiculous here. I can barely believe over 13 million people live here!
May 11
We ended up going to the military museum on Sunday instead of the Summer Palace because of the rain. It wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, as I think if you have seen one tank, you have seen them all. It wasn’t ancient military things, more modern, and that disappointed me as I think the ancient things could have been more interesting. It felt like a lot of propaganda there as well truth be told, as there were trophies all around of things that had been captured in wars against other countries. Apparently outside there are a whole bunch of Japanese and American planes that were captured—their two favorite countries, it figures. They also had a floor dedicated to “The war against Korea and defense against US Aggression”. There was also an entire floor filled with gifts from foreign countries. Now for a museum made up of 4 floors (and a whole half of the 2nd floor was the gift shop) that is an awful lot of it devoted to what I would say is fluffy, pro-China stuff. Oh well.
Afterwards we headed out to do the best rainy day activity for a group of Americans—shopping! There is an entire indoor shopping market devoted to tea, so we headed there. We felt a lot less rich with our 70 cent Yuan when an ounce of tea cost a few thousand rmb! We wandered around collecting free samples and ogling the beautiful tea sets (which cost less than the tea but still expensive, sad story) then sat down for a leisurely cup of tea in a tea room. It was not a formal tea ceremony, but it was very traditional, they serve tea in a small cup, about the size of a half dollar around, and probably only ¾ of an inch high. The waitresses come around and refill it every few minutes, but you are just supposed to sip. It was very good tea, but not black tea as you would expect—I learned that black tea is very common, and it is the least expensive, so it isn’t considered good. The best tea (in their minds, I will still be ordering hong cha) is oolong, a light and sweet tea. We had oolong and snacks—tea olives (pitted olives soaked in a sweet tea mixtures then dried, they are sweet and pretty good), jasmine plums (plums soaked in a sweet jasmine tea mixture, again very good), and pumpkin seeds. Kind of weird but when in China, I suppose!
At tea I sat with Mark, along with a student from Minda and Ma lao shi. Ma lao shi is basically our little Asian grandmother, ordering us food at restaurants, making sure we all have jackets, and obviously translating when we meet people who do not speak English. We all just call her “Ma”, which adds to the Asian grandmother feel. I got to know a lot about her and she is a very interesting woman-- she worked at a law firm in Chicago as a translator for a very long time, and just recently retired. She also taught at Beida, does work with businesses to date on translating and other things which she just said we would think were “boring”. Also throughout the trip she has been a great insight—I think at times later in the trip, once we associated her with our group, we lost sight of the fact that she has experiences firsthand a lot of the things that we are learning about.
Afterwards we went to the silk market, which sells not silk but knockoff designer goods with varying degrees of legitimacy. The best part about it was the haggling—I think I may have found my true life’s calling—personal shopping in the silk market—my mother is going to be thrilled that this is what my finance degree has gotten me haha. It was fun though, some of the knockoffs were so bad it was hilarious—a polo shirt with the pony in Burberry plaid, anyone? Or how about a D&G shirt with Mickey mouse on the front? It was really a hilarious experience; the ladies tending the stalls are all vicious and know English. The real bargains were to be had for those who spoke mandarin, though, so we were all probably being ripped off. I did buy a few things, but I secretly felt a little guilty about buying knockoffs, but not really. I spend too much on clothes as it is… A uniquely China experience, though by the end of the trip I wasn’t doing any buying but I was doing a lot of haggling for other people in my broken Mandarin. I missed what little Mandarin I did know by the end of the trip once Mark and I were on our own for that very reason (and for things like the bathroom!) but it was a good trail by fire way for me to learn the numbers, which I was having trouble with for a while.
The day turned from consumerism at its best to a more serious topic at dinner when a migrant worker from a rural village came to speak to us. She grew up in a rural village, only went to 4 years of school until her brother didn’t make it into high school when she was forced to work on the farm because her parents couldn’t afford the 1yuan registration fee.
She is currently sending money home to care for her son, who comes to visit her during his summer vacation but she does not see him otherwise, and she only gets to see him at dinner even when he is with her. Her husband is currently out of work because of the Olympics; the parking lot he worked in is being developed. She said she is not satisfied with her life, but she works so her son can go to college, and if he cannot go to college then she hopes that his son can. The migrants are a very downtrodden group; in the past 2 days we have focused on them and heard comparisons both to African Americans in the 50s and 60s to illegal immigrants today. The Beijing-ers see them as both necessary to keep the incredible growth Beijing has seen over the past 25 years increasing but also as an inferior class of “dirty” or unintelligent people who they do not want to have to deal with.
It was absolutely heartbreaking to hear her story, especially the line about working hard so her son can go to college, and if not her son then working so that her son’s son could go to college. I was struck by the fact that we all were eating leisurely while listening to her speak then once we were done she quickly ate before she had to run home. It made me think a bit about how hard her life is—she must never be able to sit and have a leisurely meal between work and caring for her husband (and son when he is there). I joke that I always have too much to do at school between classes, student groups etc but that is all enjoyable in a way for me. Another thing I realized was that as much as the Olympics have been great for Beijing as a whole, there are many people who have lost work or been hurt by the preparations for the games. Amazingly enough she still supported the Olympics as they were good for Beijing despite the hardship that it has place on her family. This trip has been incredibly eye opening in showing me just how lucky I am. I feel like I have heard it all my life, and I try not to take things for granted but China has put a new perspective on everything: from hot water to education to women’s rights to simply how lucky I am to have been born to a middle class family in America-- I have a lot of privileges that a great number of people in this world do not.
May 12
Today we visited a school for migrant “women”, age 16-20. It is similar to a technical high school in the states, they apply for a skill class and are accepted- there are classes in computers, beauty, dress making, cooking, entrepreneurship, and teaching. All of the women are taught grammar, English, childcare, and probably most importantly marriage and labor laws so that they cannot be taken advantage of when they head into the big city. It was interesting to see the school and learn about it, but In comparison to other schools we visited later in the trip it didn’t leave as much of an impression. I did like hearing about the school and all that they do though, I suppose I just wish we could have dialogued with the students but I realize what a challenge that is becoming. The dorms were quite a shock, with 4-8 girls per room. That is an unheard of number for colleges in the states! The founder came to speak to us back at Minda as she was in Beijing for the day, and she was quite a character.
She is a representative to the Beijing government, and according to her she was the first person to do about 15 things (including study the constitution and slice bread). She was interesting in the sense that she is a very vocal dissident yet she has retained a teaching position at Beida. She is the first person who has told us she is against the Olympics which I give her a lot of credit for saying so, even though she doesn’t seem to be the type of woman to censor herself. As much as she was kind of a crazy old lady, she was inspiring in the way that she still had so much love for a country that did her wrong during the cultural revolution and she works so hard to change it into a better place.
Afterwards we went to a Sichuan restaurant for dinner. Sichuan is known for being very spicy and some of the best food in China. The restaurant was more upscale, and they had tanks where they caught the fish as people ordered them. We all were nearly crying at the end of the meal because it was so spicy!
May 13
The next day we went to the Temple of Heaven – to say it was beautiful is an understatement! It was again nice to walk around outside for the afternoon, I am really getting to know everyone now and we always manage to have a great time together! The temple was large, with multiple buildings and an echo wall. The most interesting place was a long corridor (outside) where old people sit and play cards, music, and other games. Watching the people unwind on the weekend was great as I am an avid people-watcher and I doubt you would find a scene like that at many parks in the states. These temples are all parks basically (which you have to pay to get into, obviously) where there will be a few buildings spread out then basically a lot of wandering pathways and gates between each one. After some shopping we finally went to a famous Peking duck restaurant called La Quin in a hutong area. It is this little house that frankly would have been really sketchy in the states but we have coined a phrase for situations such as this, TIC: this is china. We aren’t surprised anymore, so paired with the wall full of famous people who have trusted the place (including Al Gore) and the line that was two dozen deep, we wandered in past 20 ducks suspended above an open fire on hooks and another 3 dozen in a back room on hooks as well. We later found out that it is actually kind of a touristy restaurant, they advertise abroad a lot so locals have a low opinion of it but many foreigners go there... Oh well. Kristen Sward, an NU student who is doing a coop at the US Embassy in the Commerce Dept joined us as well. The duck was great and Kirsten was interesting, hearing about living in Beijing as a foreigner (one who speaks a bit of Mandarin though) it was fun to imagine what it would be like if I were to do it. After dinner a few of us walked around the hutongs, we were not in Hou Hai (the hutong area we visited earlier in the trip), so it was a bit less glamorous, many of the buildings were falling apart. The locals were either inside as it was getting late and could be seen cleaning from dinner and taking in laundry, others were gathered outside playing games in groups if 15 or so. Once we came to a main road maybe a half an hour later, we got a take and drove past Tiananmen Square, where many of the buildings in the forbidden city and Mao’s mausoleum were lit up with Christmas lights—it was honestly a prettier sight than when we went to see it a few days later! I really enjoyed myself that evening—our stroll through the hutongs reminded me a lot of the evening walks I take often in the summer. The weather was great, I was full of delicious food, and the scenes of China at night from the cab were spectacular—what else do you need, really?
May 14
Wednesday we had 3 hours of Mandarin lessons, which meant we were all very confused by the end of it. Learning Mandarin is a good idea, but the teacher doesn’t know much English. Initially I was annoyed by this, but Pung Lao Shi has grown on me so much, she is an incredibly sweet woman and after we got the hang of it she taught is so much. I didn’t care about learning Mandarin at the beginning of the trip but I am so glad that we did. It was incredibly rewarding to go to a place like Xi Dan and actually buy things on my own!
Afterwards we went to Yong He Gong Buddhist temple-- as much as we have all overdosed on traditional Chinese architecture a bit by now, the Buddhist temple was one of the best places we have seen to date. There were many, many smaller temples inside of the gated area, all with progressively larger and more ornate Buddha statues. The largest was easily 40 feet tall, in all of his fat, golden glory. The buildings are so ornate and it is neat to see the monks running around as it is a functioning temple after all!
Afterwards we went to a Confucian temple, same idea with the gated temple with many smaller buildings, this one had marble animals that were “sacrifices” to the gods (life sized, of course). It ended up raining, so we hid out in a temple for a bit. The whole area we were in was devoted to the temples, as people buy offerings to make for the gods (or tourists buy them) of jade jewelry, Buddha statues, incense, etc. I bought incense at the Buddhist temple and you light it, pray for your wish, and bow/kowtow to Buddha. Not that I subscribe to any particular school of thought when it comes to religion but hey, when in China. It is interesting that Buddhists are one of the few religions where it is encouraged to ask Buddha for him to give you things: money, prosperity, good health, specific wishes, etc. Maybe if my wish comes true I will become a Buddhist! It seems like a much more relaxed religion than the Roman Catholic I was raised (and resent, if you hadn’t already picked up on that) which actually appeals to me—less being told you are an inherently bad person who is going to hell, more focus on bettering yourself and just being a good person. That is just my small impression though; I could be way off base with that.
Finally we had dinner at David Chu’s house, he is a HK businessman and NU alum. He lives in a restored hutong that has over 100 gold dragons on the ceilings/beams etc. We had a fantastic meal of homemade jouza (dumplings) and this crazy wine that was spicy. It was a bit weird because he wasn’t actually there, but it was definitely nice of him to let us come anyways. His basement is actually set up like a Japanese teahouse, and we played a little karaoke before we wandered home in the rain. It was a really pretty day despite the rain, the rain cut through the mugginess and smogginess so the air felt cool & fresh. Silly as it may sound ,sitting in the Confucian temple watching the rain falling was quite relaxing, a nice respite from what has become our frenetic pace running around the city, cramming as much into each day as we possibly can. Another beautiful walk home that evening-- the warm, slightly humid but not too hot weather and the early evening sky are absolutely intoxicating.
May 15
Thursday after classes we had a lesson in how to tie Chinese knots. I wish I could tell you I learned something, but it was quite difficult and mine is currently a jumble of string on the bottom of the suitcase. Afterwards we went to the Forbidden City. A must-see in China, it has many gates, the idea is that you walk in, kowtow to the emperor, and go through the next one. Once you get through all of the doors, you are humbled (and exhausted). The outer wall has a moat just inside of it, then inside the second wall is the place where the emperors 3,000 concubines (I was floored by that number) and many eunuchs lived. Inside of the many other gated walls (including the Meridian gate, the one where they both determined what day it was in all of China and where they held executions) there are many assorted temples (Buddhists are polytheistic in the sense that they accept and frequently pray to deities from other religions, including Jesus or Mohammed).
We went into the city from the west gate, which is in the back, so when we exited we were in Tiananmen Square. The largest public square in the world, to say that it is absolutely massive is an understatement. Mao’s Mausoleum was directly across from us, along with the historic Worker’s Monument. Something interesting I’ve noticed from aerial pictures is how much larger the square was before Mao’s Mausoleum was built, random observation. On either side of the square there were regal looking government buildings adorned with the red party symbol. There are guards everywhere, and it is absolutely impeccable: there is not a spec of trash. Here I really felt the presence of the government: despite all of the people, there was almost a reverence and everything felt very controlled. You almost felt like if you made a sudden movement or yelled that you would be thrown into Chinese prison and the government would deny your existence. We wandered a bit then headed to Wang fu jing, a large shopping area. We went to the Olympic headquarters, and bought anything you could thing of Olympic! Many big stores work in a weird way—you get a slip form someone saying what you want, pay at a central location, and then go back through the store to pick up your purchases. We hurried back to Tiananmen to see the flag lowering at the end of the day and see all of the guards march out of the square of the evening (though I’m sure the next shift just sneaks in the back, as that place is never without a few hundred guards. We then studied some more for our mandarin test the next morning.
May 16
Testing in China is intense: you sit in a chair facing the teacher and another person (the teacher’s boss, who I assume also grades you so that the grading is fair). Pretty nerve racking! They asked me all sorts of questions which I had to answer (all in Mandarin, boo) then held up flashcards of characters and I had to say its mandarin word. I was nervous because I went first (no one ever uses reverse alphabetical order when it would be good for me!), but I ended up doing fine. After that we had a Calligraphy lesson, the characters are actually a lot more complex than they look when you use a brush to write them! We finally went to Renmin da to sit in on a women & gender issues class there. It was a bit dull as the teacher just read us her syllabus, I’m not sure I got much from it as we had been up late studying and we were all struggling to keep our eyes open. We then walked around with the students for a few hours and talked with them. It was nice to meet a new group of students as the Minda students have kind of finished with our “dialogue” as our professor puts it. I feel like whenever the students come with us (probably 4 times so far and a few more outings are planned) they feel the need to take care of us and once they are done being mommy they get really bored with us, as the only thing they want to talk about is school and we are sick of telling everyone about our plans for grad school. They have all been incredibly helpful and nice to us, but it has definitely been an interesting culture clash for all of us!
Anyways, after Renmin da we walked through a cute park to dinner where we met Zach. Zach is an American who took two years off to live in Beijing after high school, he will be a freshman at Suffolk next fall. The dinner was at a restored home on the edge of the park. We sat on the roof deck and relaxed after our busy day. After dinner Zach wanted to take us out on the town, so we went to a place called face bar. En route to this place, my taxi got lost and none of us had phones on us. After wandering around for a while trying to find the other group of people (including Zach, who is the only one who knew where we were going), Anna managed to use a pay phone and call her friend who she had called earlier from someone in the other group’s phone. It worked, amazingly, and we were only a block away. There is a trick in Boston where if you don’t know where something is you just have a taxi take you there. Maybe it is because we can’t really read road signs, but that does not work here as the cabs in Beijing frequently drop you off 2-4 blocks away from your destination. So we got there, afterwards when to this ridiculously overpriced club and decided Zach was too rich for us (even though we really only spent like $25usd all night) so we cabbed it home.
May 17
Saturday morning we were supposed to go to the foreign language festival at the Olympic village and get a tour of the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube, but because of the earthquake it was cancelled. Instead, Chen Lin, the speaker from the festival and friend of Ma Lao Shi, came to speak to us. He is the coordinator of Beijing speaks English for the Olympics. He spoke to us about the idiosyncrasies of the languages and his career as a professor and his work with the government. He also have us a few great sign translation examples:
“Do not go into Greenland”
“Import / Export”
We realized during this lecture that all Chinese are not humble—all of our speakers have bragged about how famous they are and all of their accomplishments. A few did not, notably Ma, the migrant worker, and Ma’s cultural revolution friend. I’m not sure if it was because they were speaking to Westerners or if it a cultural thing, because while I would have liked to know some of their accomplishments before the speech (which we were given I believe), it just seemed awkward being thrown in with their lectures.
He was actually really interesting and funny even if the topic seems a bit dry. I definitely enjoyed his presentation as we have all learned firsthand how difficult it is to translate the two languages and to speak the two languages! We had lunch at a place near school that has a ton of goldfish (I love goldfish!) then went to the Olympic site. It was anti climactic as we couldn’t get very close, but it is still cool to see it in person! The Olympic village is honestly the most interesting thing we saw, it is massive. It takes up multiple street blocks for the main complex. They you have communications towers, media centers, parking structures, smaller facilities, new bus & train stops—it really impresses upon you what a huge undertaking it is to host the Olympics! We did a bit of shopping, including a traditional medicine shop. It was interesting to look around but it would have been a lot more interesting if we had a short lesson so we knew what we were looking at.
We went to dinner at the closest thing we have seen to an American Chinese food place with two Americans studying abroad for the semester at Beijing University (Beida), Joanna and Kate. They then took us out in Hou Hai (the old city, same area that we visited hutongs in our first day with crazy Michael). The area we were in is pretty touristy, it is basically a circle around a lake maybe a half mile ling with lots of clubs and bars. We decided to skip the tourist scene because we soon realized that drinks and food is probably a 5th of the price at little convenience stores off of the loop, so we peddle boated for close to 2 hours. We even stopped at the island in the middle of the lake. It sounds silly but it was really a lot of fun. After wandering we got a table outside one of the bars and enjoyed the scenery, as the juxtaposition of the hutongs and the flashy neon of the area is quite a scene.
May 18
Sunday brought another early morning as we headed to Mao’s Mausoleum in Tiananmen Square. If you ever needed to be reminded of the authoritarian elements that still remain in China this is the place: metal detectors, so many guards, no phones, cameras, bags or wallets—all had to be checked across the street at the police station. We waited in a line that moved quickly, mainly because you only get to see Mao’s body for a few seconds, they force you to go quickly past it. Before you see the body there is a huge statue of Mao here people leave flowers and kowtow to him. Someone sat there an organized the flowers into an arrangement, and our professor told us that they are plastic flowers and during the day they bring them back outside and sell them again. There are 4 armed guards standing watch inside the glass case where Mao’s body is, and a strange orange light that makes it look like his face is glowing from within. Our professor told us that Madame Toussaint made a wax replica of him after death and no one is sure if the body is really his or just the wax one, and I can tell you it looked about as real as Pam Anderson. We then took the longest bus ride ever to the Summer Palace.
The Summer Palace is where the first (and only) female empress went to escape the summer heat in the suburb of Beijing. There is a lake, a mile long corridor with paintings, and many temples. We were with the Minda students again, and at one point early on I got separated from the group. I wasn’t worried about it as I know all of the essential mandarin and have my phone on me (at about $497/minute international roaming), so I was pretty excited to spend a beautiful afternoon with my camera and relaxing. Sounds great, right? Wrong. My camera battery died about 5 pictures in. My charger doesn’t work so I have been loaning one from Mark, and at Minda it literally takes overnight to charge the battery. My spare was dead for the same reason, and apparently leaving it on the charger for 2 hours before we left didn’t give it any juice. Murphy’s law having ruined my plan for a relaxing afternoon, I easily found my fellow NU kids as we actively annoyed the Minda students (not intentionally, of course) because we wanted to sit & enjoy the scenery of the lake while they wanted us to hike up a mountain. It ended up not being relaxing sitting by the lake as every 2 and a half minutes they asked us if it was time to go yet, so feeling sympathetic to our own parents we gave in and hiked up a mountain. There was a cool Buddhist temple up there (just one building, not the compound from the last time) and a nice view of Beijing (what parts we could see through the smog). The afternoon was beautiful, sunny with just enough breeze to keep it from being hot, and despite our minders we had a great time.
After the Summer Palace a teacher from Minda invited us over to make Jouza! It is actually a lot of work, and even with the skins and fillings prepared it took us some time. A funny TIC moment: while our host was demonstrating how to make the fillings, he pulled out a bunch of what we assumed were spices: salt, white pepper, msg…. wait, what? Bu, bu, no msg! I totally had forgotten about that… I am now completely grossed out by all of the food I eat (well ok, just lunch the next day). Anyways, my msg free jouza were fantastic, leek & pork dumplings are probably one of the best foods ever.
Note added from the Shanghai village: Ma has been telling all of the restaurants not to put msg in our foods, thank god.
May 19
Monday I survived the Great Wall! We woke up at 5am and hopped on a bus for the 3 hour ride to a more remote part of the wall that our professor said would be less crowded than a part closer to Beijing. We arrived right at 9am and started to climb. We initially thought we had to climb up the entire hill on dirt paths, turns out we just had to climb a few thousand stairs. To everyone who ever thought that the great wall is smooth (as it looks in all the pictures that I have ever seen), you are incredibly, horribly mistaken. It is all stairs, all uphill. We walked through 12-watch towers, the entire walk able part in our area (I was so confused what the end was on a thousands of miles long wall, but I found out when there was a gate with a guard). It was rough, and took us about 3 hours for the climb up and to the last tower, but the view was incredible. We took a gondola down because we were running a bit late and it was absolutely stunning—the air was clean, there wasn’t as much smog, the hills, mountains, and wall itself were all so pretty and green. It was a nice relaxing ride down contemplating the fact that we climbed the Great Wall of China!
We then headed off to a village to meet with the communist party leader from there. At 2:28pm we observed three minutes of silence in a center for retired party members for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake. We then had lunch at the village secretary’s wife and then talked with the party leader, she then took us to a school, where we saw the kids going out for gym class. I saw four girls all walking hand in hand who were absolutely adorable, so I asked Kenny, one of the Minda students with us, to ask them if I could take their picture. They agreed, and afterwards they asked him if I could be in a picture with them. They told him they felt “lucky” that I had wanted a picture with them. Also, when I was at the Summer Palace wandering around for a few hours so many people asked to take a picture with me. It is really different how here if you look Asian they assume that you must be Chinese, whereas if you look western you must be a foreigner. That is not so much how it is in the states but they don’t get that. It is especially bad for one girl, Stacey, who’s parents are from Hong Kong so everyone just speaks to her in Mandarin and she kind of just stares at them.
The village was ok, I liked seeing the kids but we were all so exhausted from climbing the wall that after lunch we were sitting on beds listening to the party leader and it was really a struggle for all of us to stay awake, I’m not sure I can really say I got anything out of that.
We went out with Joanna and Kate from Beida again to a western pizza place/bar to watch the Celtics game. It was a nice touch of home, even though I’m not really homesick at all. The food here is still good, I don’t find myself really craving much (I do have western snacks like crackers though, not dried bugs haha). I can’t believe we are so far into our trip-- it has been flying by!
May 20-Tuesday
We barely made it to class the next day because we were so exhausted from the day before, but after our standard mandarin lesson we had a very interesting lecture on the environment and air pollution from an economist who teaches at Chingwa(sp?) University, China’s equivalent of MIT. Maybe it is me being a business student and all, but I found that the most interesting lecture we have had to date. She was a bit difficult to understand but the topic was so shocking, really—when you see the air pollution and energy consumption graphs in front of you it is incredibly powerful. The numbers are just so staggering. I think I have decided I am going to do my research paper on the exportation of pollution to china by manufacturing industries. After that we went to the Capital Museum to see an exhibit on photographs from the 20s-40s in China. It was cool to see the western influences creep in with clothing and customs. It was all very interesting, I love photography (obviously) and it is always inspiring to think that these pictures, which may have seemed like pictures of everyday things to the Chinese people at that time, can be so moving in the future. I like thinking that I can capture how life is now and preserve it for the future for others to see and to learn from.
We then headed to the avant-garde 798 district. There were lots of little shops and galleries, it was fun to wander around but it felt just a little bit too western at times. I am all for modernization, and I did rejoice when I saw Starbucks in hou hai last week, but all of the restaurants were little cafes with paninis and $4 coffees. This may sound jaded, but aside from the smog it felt kind of like NYC more than Beijing. Except for all of the construction going on, that definitely felt like Beijing!!
We finally went to dinner at a Cultural Revolution restaurant, where our very own Ma Lao Shi and a friend of hers spoke about the Cultural Revolution. The restaurant itself was based on all of Mao Zedong’s favorite foods, including pork fat and egg & tomato soup. The cultural revolution was a 10 year period in which Mao decided that China was becoming too revisionist in its views of communism, and workers and the peasants were the ones to be honored. Students were told to rebel against teachers and authority figures who they felt were teaching capitalist or revisionist topics, so they clearly didn’t abuse their power and send teachers that gave them bad grades to the countryside… right. Ma and this other women were both teachers of English at Beida at the time, so they were harshly criticized and sent to the countryside to be “reeducated” by the peasants by working in the fields. They did this for two years before they were allowed to return to the city. It was interesting to hear their perspective on Mao, who is still widely revered here. The other woman and her husband (also a professor) have even become friends with some of the students that persecuted them during this time.
Today we woke up at 3:30 am to see the flag rising at sunrise in Tiananmen square. Today was the third and final day of mourning for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake, so there were thousands of people when we rolled in around 4am. The actual raising was at 5am, where the soldiers marched in, raised it all the way up then back down to half-staff and played the national anthem. We were just in awe of the ceremony—it clearly meant a lot to the literally thousands of people who were there and it was a special moment to be in such a historic place, mourning along with the Chinese people. We were able to get a quick nap in before classes at 8am, but we had 3 hours of mandarin so it was rough regardless. We then had a lesson on how to cut characters out of paper, by far our best arts & crafts lesson yet. We learned how to make the double happiness symbol, which is prominently displayed when there is a marriage in your family.
We them headed off to the Women’s Federation, a government organization dedicated to the education and rights of women. They do research to suggest and support public policies that are in the best interests of women in the country. They also organize a lot of service events, their most recent being a food and clothing donation for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake. After the women’s federation, we went to Xi dan, essentially a Silk market except they don’t speak any English with a few of Anna’s friends from Northeastern who live in Beijing. It was a lot of fun, we got a few bargains and I got very good at haggling in Mandarin (Chinatown here I come!).
Wednesday, May 21
Class as always in the am, followed by a visit to the US Embassy! We met with Kristen Sward again, the NU coop from the Commerce Dept. Her supervisor and the Beijing director of the Commerce Dept talked to us about the difficulties of trade and commerce in China from a US perspective (both are US ex-pats). It was very interesting to see how pollution and other seemingly unrelated things can affect trade between countries. I found it really interesting, and if it wasn’t for the fact that the job is a marketing job I would really love to take Kristen’s spot someday! Who knows… after that we headed back to Minda to study for our Mandarin final!
May 23, Friday
Our final was the same style as the rest of our tests, I accidentally said that banana’s cost 200 Yuan ($30USD), but otherwise it went well. I ended up getting an A- in the class so I was happy about that. We then went to an exhibition on Tibet which was incredibly funny in a way, there were two rooms: one devoted to Tibet pre-China and how barbaric & poor they were; the other devoted to Tibet as a part of China and how happy & prosperous they all are. I think Tibet is absolutely a part of China and people need to focus on having the two parties work together to improve things for everyone instead of fighting, but the “museum” was a bit much by way of propaganda.
After the museum, we had our going away doings at Minda. They actually held a “Graduation” for us, where we all got certificates and the dean of the college spoke for a little while. Apparently most short term programs don’t take it seriously, so they were all impressed by how much we learned, and we were all just happy we all passed! We also performed a skit in mandarin for our professors, and then the Minda students sang us some songs in English (“Country road” and “Lemon Tree”, absolutely hilarious). We then went to dinner with all of our professors from Minda. They are all very cute, Pung Lao Shi didn’t speak much English but she got a bit misty when we left, we traded emails because she can read & write English well and promised to keep in touch. We then went back to Hou Hai with Alex, a student from Minda. He learned English by watching BBC, so he speaks with a touch of a British accent but his English is some of the best we have heard! We had another fun night getting lost, bargaining for trinkets, and enjoying the inexpensive food & drink that are all over the streets.
Saturday, May 24
My roommate Rachel and I woke up at 6:27 for our 6:30 bus to the airport, so we packed at lightening speed and tried to sleep on the plane. A group of us were eating a good old fashioned KFC breakfast in the airport and proceeded to almost miss our flight, as you need to take a bus onto the tarmac then you get onto the thing that you usually walk onto the plane from. So after sprinting to the plane we had a rather uneventful flight and bus ride to our hotel.
When I say hotel I mean it—there is a building devoted to international short-term housing (conferences, trips like ours, etc) at Nanda so we were staying there. The awful housing situation at Minda couldn’t be farther from what we stayed in here—shower that was the correct height and hot water 24 hours a day, a toilet that worked most of the time, no bugs that we could see, internet that worked and air conditioning!! It sounds silly, but staying at Minda definitely made me appreciate a lot of the things that we take for granted in the United States! We then went to lunch at a restaurant that looked like maybe 20 years ago was nice, now it looked pretty run down. This trend continued all throughout Nanjing, the restaurants left us all a bit sketched out (dirty plates, etc) and a bit nauseous—the only three times on this trip that a meal left me queasy was at the Nanjing restaurants, no idea why. After some pepto bismol, we headed out to meet with another community center which we all slept through because we had met with one in the Hutongs in Beijing and had basically heard already and we were all exhausted. We were with the other dialogue, the language-intensive mandarin dialogue that is staying in Nanjing for the majority of their time. They are a huge group (with 22 compared to our 12) and not terribly friendly either.
After the community center we went to a deaf school which teaches adult deaf people sign language and skills as well as fun activities like dancing and singing. They sang us a song in sign language then we saw a photography exhibit they had put together, which was beautiful. We then met with a family in the city, which was by far he best part of the afternoon. The woman didn’t speak much English, but she was a sweet lady, she had a son who was in his late 20s and getting married soon, she was excited because he was going to be moving in with her because he was starting his own company and needed to save money. In China I have noticed a trend where the outsides of buildings and the hallways/elevators all look disgusting, like no one would want to live there, but the inside of the apartments are very well kept, and this woman’s apartment was the same way. She gave us fruit and a great insight into the life of the average citizen of a 2nd tier city. She works in a factory and her husband and son are working on starting their own company. There was also a little boy from the town who came with us, and he was playing with Stacey’s camera, which was adorable. The woman was so gracious, telling us personal details of her life and letting us see her home, all the while telling us how lucky we are and how special we are.
This trip we have been stared at, cursed at, given special treatment for, ignored because of, and caused countless scenes because we are western. Not only are we western, we are American (as we proudly state: wo tsong me gourlai—I am from America.). We have 3 boys who very tall, we have a blonde girl, we have blue eyes and big cameras and western clothes and walk around speaking perfect English. When people cause such a big scene, be it positive or negative, about just the fact that we are standing wherever we happen to be is kind of crazy. It makes me realize two things: I am incredibly lucky to live in a country where it isn’t weird to see a person who looks more than a little different from me walking down the street. Also, just talking to these people about how difficult it is to get into college and how hard it is to rise above the average income, how hard it is to rise above the generally poor living standards, this trip has given me a lot of insight into just how lucky I am, how lucky we all are in all of our different situations, as much as we may complain about our lives in the states.
After the apartment, we went to a generally uneventful dinner with the other group, awful food we were starting to get used to (as spicy as it can be, Sichuan is absolutely by far the best Chinese food there is, I’m not sure what they eat in Nanjing but we had already been spoiled by the influx of Sichuan food that has overtaken Beijing).
Sunday, May 25
After an early night, we went to the memorial of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the founder of the Republic of China—he led the revolutionaries that overtook the last dynasty, so he was the first non-emperor leader of China. We walked up over 400 stairs in some crazy muggy weather to his mausoleum and enjoyed the clear air despite the heat. The grounds were beautiful, located in a park with lots of trees that reminded me so much of summer at home. I think another realization I have made (pardon the fact that it is clichéd and silly of me) is that I was expecting China to be like, a whole different planet. I expected everything to be different in huge ways, which some things are. But when things remind me of home or the beach or school, it reminds me that it is still the same world, we all have the same underlying values, the same issues, the same concerns. The differences I have noticed manifest themselves more in many small differences, not a few big differences. For example, the trees were almost all the same in the Sun Yat Sen memorial as we have at home, but the toilets… well, lets not talk about the bathroom situation in China.
After my existential moment at the memorial, we went to the memorial of the Nanjing massacre. This is when the Japanese invaded Nanjing and killed over 300,000 Chinese people, one of the main reasons why the Chinese hate the Japanese. Interestingly enough, the memorial was in three languages: Chinese, English, and Japanese. It was touching, though the sheer size of the memorial and the heavy subject matter left us all exhausted. I must say though, it was a beautiful memorial, with a grassy area, large black monument all enclosed in a walled are. The most interesting part was when they were building the museum they found a mass grave from the massacre during excavation, so there is an underground exhibit where you can actually see the partially uncovered graves, along with markers and plaques explaining the likely cause of death of each skeleton you could see. Afterwards we went to see a museum and production center for elaborate silk production. I wouldn’t say factory, as they had about 8 enormous looms and it is a slow moving process, with about 2 inches of silk being produced per loom every hour, and 2 people required to operate each loom. The people who work on the looms actually learn songs which they sing to themselves so that they do not loose their place, with each part of the song corresponding to a different type of thread or action on the loom.
Afterwards was the best part of the trip—we went out to Bird Flu Alley as the other group affectionately called it and bought some of the best (and most inexpensive) food on the trip from the street vendors out there. We had ji dan mien tan (noodles with egg), bouza (steamed buns with pork or veggies in the middle), jouza (pan fried dumplings), and skewers with every type of meat imaginable on them (seriously: lamb, squid, and sting ray were all present, along with the standard chicken or vegetables). All of these delicacies cost less than 5 kuai each, so with a conversion rate of close to 7:1 RMB to USD, you do the math. We wandered around eating the amazing food and bargaining with street vendors for more trinkets such as Olympic flags, paper fans and big canvas bags to ship things home in.
Monday, May 26
The next morning we went to Nanda for a lecture on the environment which was a bit numbers-intensive, even for myself. We then went on a boat ride down the Chingwah (sp?) river with the other group. We even had entertainment, as the boat was a tourist type deal, so there were what looked like paper mache scenes on a few of the river banks and the hostesses tried to tell us about them, but we also had a grad student from Nanda who wanted to tell us about the environment. They battled it out over our attention and we happily had a cup of tea and relaxed, as sometimes we feel that we don’t even have the time to talk to one another in our jam-packed days.
After dinner we were supposed to go to a temple but found out it was actually closed, so we wandered around an older place that had been turned into a commercial area. The juxtaposition of the old architecture and the neon lights was beautiful, but dinner didn’t sit well again so I headed home early. After lying down for a little while, Mark and I went out to Bird Flu Alley again to take pictures. While pictures were a bust, it was nice to spend some time with him on our own. We polished off a huge plate of skewers and caught up, I have been trying not to make people feel weird about the fact that we have knows each other for a while, but as a result we haven’t seen much of each other!
Tuesday, May 27
The next morning we again peeled ourselves out of bed for another exhausting day of traveling. We took a train into Shanghai proper, then hopped onto a bus to go into a village. We had lunch at a little shack-looking place (which in the states you could assume would not meet health code regulations by looking at the yard) and had the best meal we had in a few days to be quite honest. Much simpler fare than in Beijing or Nanjing, but lots of fresh vegetables and delicious dishes. The restaurant put us downstairs because they were very busy and the ceiling was literally only a foot from my head! We then got to walk around in the village and meet the party secretary. It is hard for me sitting here to describe the village because I have gotten used to China and the living conditions. For example, the Gu’s house is made all of concrete, has about 3 large rooms (bedroom, kitchen, family room-type where we ate) and a few smaller rooms (bathroom, pantry). All of them have big doors that go outside which they leave open during the day so they can go back and forth between the rooms. Many houses are also built in a more western style (almost Victorian but a lot simpler) but we did not have a chance to see the inside of those. There are long dirt pathways and a few cars, but many bicycles and walkers. There were tons of little fruit vendors set up on the street.
After a brief introduction to the village, we saw two of their biggest income sources—a pig farm and Double Happiness Sports. The pig farm was a bit stinky (and now I probably can’t give blood for the rest of my life) but interesting, it looked very similar to the US to be completely honest, but probably just a bit less high-tech. Lots of old buildings, pens outside for the pigs. Double Happiness Sports, or as it is more frequently knows as DHS Sports, is a world-known manufacturer of ping-pong equipment. They are actually the official supplier of all of the equipment for the Beijing Olympic games, we even saw all of the tables, chairs and boxes being packed up to be sent to Beijing!
I realize this may sound not so village-y, what with factories and such, so here is a bit of background on the village: it is an hour away from shanghai proper which gives it an advantage, as location closer to cities tends to mean the village will be richer. It is a very rich village compared to others outside of Shanghai province. Despite the factory though, it is absolutely Chinese countryside though. This is much more what I expected China to be as opposed to Beijing, which is just this massive, sprawling city.
We finally had dinner at the Gu’s house. The Gu’s helped us set all of the village arrangements up, David Gu has a successful welding company in Shanghai proper, but his parents still live in the village. They made us a home cooked dinner that was again much simpler than all of the restaurant food we have gotten used to but still very good. After asking them some questions and some watermelon freshly picked from the field, we walked back to the hotel about a half an hour away.
The hotel was nicer than any of us were expecting, complete with a pool and bowling alley. Apparently the Shanghai-nese enjoy going out into the countryside from Shanghai proper for vacations (even though there weren’t many people at the hotel when we were there). We had breakfast there the next morning and weren’t too thrilled with it, however. Just not our taste—give us back Minda breakfasts, please!
Wednesday, May 28
Since it rained we were not able to see the shrimp farm and rice fields, so we hung out at the Gu’s house and asked them random questions and just laughed among ourselves. We had lunch there again, and he sent us off with two watermelons for the road. We then went with the party secretary to a primary school, where we sat in on an English lesson. The children had to repeat after the teacher and memorization is stressed in all of their classes, a very different system than here. We later found out that the teacher only speaks English at the level of the class, so that is literally the highest level she could teach. We then talked with the children for a bit, they didn’t understand our mandarin and spoke little English, but talking to kids is pretty easy and we found common ground singing each other the Mandarin (or was it Shanghainese?) and English versions of different songs. After the school we went to a hospital and spoke with the director. Health care has become incredibly unaffordable since the state stopped providing it for all of its residents in China, so the director explained how they go about trying to provide healthcare for as many people as they can. The way the system works is that each village in a township has a clinic, then the township has a hospital, which is what we visited. The hierarchy of the land breakdown is village, township, province, China. We also discussed how traditionally the children were supposed to take care of their parents as they got older, but there are a growing number of people putting their parents in the hospital as a type of nursing home, which is sad but unfortunately becoming the norm here as it has in the states.
Afterwards we went out to dinner in the town at a little seafood restaurant that was very good with David Gu. When we returned to the hotel we all went bowling, then hung out and watched our favorite tv channel ever, the CCTV channel that plays old Olympic events and more recent competitions of Olympic sports.
Thursday, May 29
The next morning we left for Shanghai proper. When we drive into Shanghai and saw the Bund and all of the skyscrapers the feeling was just electric—the same kind of excitement I get when I go into NYC. Just knowing that there is so much here and so many people and I don’t know, it is indescribable. It also has a lot of historic areas and buildings that remind me of Boston a bit. We stayed at the Astor Hotel, the first hotel in Shanghai. It is very cool and old looking; it looks as if it could have been transplanted from Europe. Our rooms were enormous and we all had our very own full sized bed. The air is noticeable cleaner than in Beijing and the sky is actually blue sometimes, what a surprise!
We saw a museum located in the school that the communist party founded itself in, then went to a very modern area where there was shopping and restaurants. We had ourselves some nice Shanghai local foods such as Starbucks and Coldstone and enjoyed the beautiful day. We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the Bund, where we could look across the river and see all of the modern architecture on the other side.
We were all exhausted (as we are on every travel day, and every other day for that matter) so we just relaxed in the hotel, a few of us got massages at the hotel which in traditional Chinese fashion we haggled for. That was nice and relaxing, then we all just passed out basically.
We had the next day morning free, so Anna and I went to the Pearl tower, the Jinmao Tower, and the Shanghai Museum. The buildings were amazing, but we didn’t get to go up inside of them because it was expensive (the Pearl) or we didn’t know we could (Jinmao, you owe me). The Jinmao is definitely a favorite, the architecture isn’t so crazy modern and it is just a striking building. We also saw the currently being constructed Shanghai World Financial Center, or the bottle opener as we all have taken to calling it. It is the tallest building in the world for a little while, until Dubai takes the title, and these buildings are massive. It is amazing that people can construct buildings of this size. The museum was great, we didn’t have much time for it because there is a huge line to get in because it is free, but the things we did get to see were exquisite. I saw old seals, iron axes, and calligraphy along with the stories behind them and explanations of how all of these crafts evolved over time. Unfortunately the jade exhibit was closed, but the museum was still worth it.
We met up for lunch and a few people were late, then we couldn’t find where we needed to go. We ended up in the most bizarre French restaurant that served pizza and had awful service, which made us miss Ma Lao Shi as she was not with us for the day. However, once lunch was over we met up with Mr. Zhang, Ma’s husband! He took us to his high former school, a key school. Key schools are high school that traditionally the state poured a lot of money into and were considered the best schools in the country. Everyone wants to go to one of these schools so that they can get into college… not unlike private schools here. The state has taken the emphasis off of these schools, but they are still incredibly desired schools. The grounds were amazing—they have a track, basketball courts, and underground gymnasium, a huge library, and many classrooms. We sat in on an English class, which was fun-- we got to help the students with their pronunciation and in class activities. We then went to another class where we spoke one on one with the students, then we had the opportunity to ask their teacher questions and they had the chance to ask Ogden questions.
We then went to meet with Jesse Parker, the co-founder of Dragonvest Partners, a venture capital firm in China, and also Joanna’s dad! He spoke to us more on the difficulties of learn the culture and language than about his firm but it was very interesting and worthwhile. We went with him to a seafood place across the street and continued to discuss the difficulties of learning Mandarin and why he moved to China from America.
Friday, June 30
Our last day in China was a sad one. Anna had to go home that morning because her father is sick, so that cast a bit of a shadow over the day. We went to old Shanghai, a very touristy area with some beautiful gardens and the typical tourist shops. It was kind of a mad house with so many people all yelling and pushing around one another, but it was interesting to see. Afterwards we went on the psychedelic tunnel that goes under the Bund to the other side of Shanghai, it is a train you can take and it is very weird. There are lots of lights and crazy things… definitely a one of a kind train ride! We finally walked along the bund and went on a boat tour of the river, which was absolutely beautiful: the weather was gorgeous, the sky was the bluest I’ve seen since we left the states, and I got to spend it with people who have become good friend over this past month. We joke around that we are living in camp time: at summer camp, everyone gets to know each other very quickly because you spend every minute together. I feel that I have made a great new group of friends and shared an amazing experience with all of them. Writing this from HK in my first solo journey without them I miss them already!
We had a bit of a disaster trying to find cabs, as it was time for the shift switch and no one would stop for us. The last group there were 5 of us, one too many to fit into a cab, so when a motorcycle cab pulled over, Dan and I jumped on the opportunity. We were laughing hysterically as we climbed into the “cab”—it is a covered bicycle that is motorized, basically. Basically we cut off all of the traffic, ran many a red light, and repeatedly laughed out loud and thought we seriously might die in a car crash. At one point we even saw a cab with our friends on it, the looks on their faces (and the fact that the driver yelled out “Happy holidays” as we drove away) had me in tears because I was laughing so hard. At one point our driver took a left turn on a red, crept along and crossed the street we had taken the left onto, then crossed the street that had been in front of us originally and busted through a group of people so that we had essentially gone straight but didn’t wait at any of the lights. He also repeatedly took shortcuts through areas where pedestrians were supposed to be. For 20RMB that might have been the best cab ride I will ever take in my entire life.
We made it to our final dinner, which was a bit bittersweet. We thanked Ma and Ogden and gave them framed pictures of our whole group, which Anna, Li-Chung and I had been sneakily setting up during out time in Shanghai. We talked about what we liked best and gave Ogden feedback on the parts we didn’t like as much, but the consensus was that we all had an amazing time.
Our final hurrah was at KTV, a karaoke bar all around China. We had a room to ourselves and belted out some classics along with the songs we sang at Minda just for old time’s sake. Brianna had a great idea of doing a “roast” where we passed the mic around and each person said one nice thing about everyone else. It ranged from sweet to downright hilarious, but I think it is a testament to our group that we all had so many memories with each other after just a few short weeks. Afterwards we went walking around the city (which apparently our part closes at 2pm) to prolong the evening and found some random little noodle place to hang out in until they kicked us out.
Saturday, May 31
The next morning Dimitri called a “mandatory” breakfast at 8am so that we could all say our goodbyes. The west coast kids left first, then Mark, Li-Chung and I headed off. It was sad to say goodbye, but most of us will be in Boston in the fall, and even Ma will be visiting next year she said, which made it easier. I can’t believe the trip is over already—I spent so much time planning for and thinking about it, it was kind of surreal in a way.
Note to my prof/ everyone:
I have stories from HK, Bangkok and Saigon if you are interested, but I figure here is where I can reflect and give some feedback. I had a one-of-a-kind experience and I will forever see China in a different light, and I thank you for that. This trip was very well orchestrated, between you and Ma Lao Shi everything was usually covered for us. After the trip Mark and I lamented that we did not have the two if you to plan for us so it was difficult! I appreciate your leniency with meals and taxis, paying for them with the money we already had to pay and also making it so that the trip did not cost us an additional fee on top of tuition—that must have been a feat, juggling the budget like that but we all appreciated it. You and Ma were very approachable about all of our problems and it didn’t feel as if we had many limitations on what we wanted to do, which was nice. I was always tired from the breakneck speed at which we ran about the city but I wouldn’t change much about the way we did it—I am really happy we got to see as much of China as we did, both the touristy things and the off the beaten path as well. 12 people in the group was perfect, I can’t imagine a larger or smaller group working together as well as we did.
I have already found myself back home in the states correcting people’s misconceptions on China and using their questions about my trip to teach them as well. All in all it was a great trip, and it is only a shame that I won’t be able to do it again next summer
