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We awoke this morning at the homes of our host students from
Beijing. Although our stays with the students were short, they were
definitely—especially from my experience—rewarding. My student Ding
Yilin (commonly referred to as “dingaling”), is currently preparing for
the SAT II subject tests in physics and chemistry, which entails
learning every chemical element and scientific term in English.
After living in that environment, we had both a recognition of our own
laziness and an understanding of the Chinese way of life.
We all arrived at the hotel at 8:30 this morning—except for
Sarah, who arrived at a few minutes after 9. Luckily, however, the
group was all tired and enjoyed the extra 30 minutes of rest before
traveling to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.
Our first “stop” was Tiananmen Square; it wasn’t an actual
stop because people are not actually allowed to enter the square. Armed
guards surrounded every inch of the square, which is larger than 60
soccer fields in area. We learned that the square is comprised of 9
gates, which were built for the use of the emperor. After viewing
Tiananmen, Joelle and I came to the conclusion that “Chairman Mao is big
in China;” massive pictures of him were at every corner of the square.
After driving by Tiananmen Square, we took the short ride to
the Forbidden City, which was just across from the square. We got many
insights into the mindset—or paranoia—of the 5 dynasties of emperors
that inhabited the palace. The courtyard adjacent to the “wu’men” gate
was unique in that it was one of the few courtyards in China that
featured no trees; the emperors were afraid that assassins could use the
trees for cover. Additionally, the brick pathway leading up to the gate
was 15 layers thick in order to prevent tunneling. Couple those
pragmatic fears with other superstitious ones (such as the belief that
no trees could be erected because nothing could tower over the emperor’s
palace), and it is easy to conclude that the emperors who inhabited the
palace were really paranoid guys!
We continued to walk by the 8,380 rooms of the palace
(remaining from the 9,999 that once existed), but unfortunately we could
not see the central parts of the palace. A Belgian dignitary was
visiting the Forbidden City and giving a speech in the more popular
parts of the palace. This was doubly difficult because not only could
we not see some of the more interesting portions of the palace, but we
were also met with huge traffic jams due to the extra security
precautions. We did, however, get to enjoy the controversial Starbucks
Coffee inside of the Forbidden City.
After waiting almost an hour for the crowds to clear
following the dignitary’s speech, we took a 15 minute walk to our
restaurant. At the restaurant, we enjoyed more “Americanized” foods of
sweet and sour fish and general chicken. It was a great meal, but Liz
did find a fly in her food. Because of this, we received a special
portion of their signature meal. This meal was called the “your dreams
will come true” rolls, in the words of our tour guide. The food
received its name when Empress Ci Xi had a dream about the rolls and
then awoke the next morning when, to her surprise, the food she had
dreamed about was served for breakfast. Thus, the rolls received their
name: “your dreams will come true” rolls.
After the meal, we took an hour and a half trip to the NCR
Cooperation. At the factory, we watched a 30 minute presentation from
Mr. Low, a senior member of the management team. After the
presentation, we proceeded to a short tour of the factory floor and a
question and answer session. Liz, Joelle, and I also met with our
hosts, who were all extremely excited to be hosting us.
Following the NCR meeting, we took an hour ride to the KFC
and had our first school-sanctioned American meal in China. We
struggled with ordering American dishes such as fried chicken and French
fries in Chinese, but we all managed to receive our meals through a
series of broken Chinese sentences and pictures on the menu.
After the quick meal, we went to the last event of the day, a
Chinese acrobatic performance. The performance was amazing! We
witnessed dancers, actors, contortionists, and fighting kung-fu monks.
The hour-long performance was definitely worth it!
Today entailed much walking, so many of us slept on the way
back from the performance. Finally arriving at the hotel, we were all
eager to return to the rooms, finish packing, and go to sleep.
Overall, today was a busy, but exciting, day. The food was
great, the palace was beautiful, and the performance was amazing!!
Shout-outs:
To
my family; I hope Ruth and Mom have fun in Spain.
Also, Ms. Lee would like to say a belated Happy Anniversary to her
husband, and to apologize for being away on the date.
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