Friday morning in Beijing

And just like that, it's our last morning in Beijing ... and what an incredible time we've had. In the past few days we went to the Emperors' Summer Palace (spectacular), visited an active Buddhist Temple ('Lama Temple'), went to a show of the Chinese acrobats (awesome!), were taken to an unbelievable, multi-story, ultra-modern karaoke club, attended a lecture/discussion on Chinese business practices, learned Chinese calligraphy from a calligraphy master, and did a LOT of shopping. I believe that everyone now owns a Rolex watch. The average price was about $12 US, after some negotiation. I'm sure they're authentic! ;-)

Speaking of shopping ... It's quite an experience here. Don't expect to just browse ... forget it. "Hey lady, you need a Rolex? Shoes? Purse? One for your husband? Your friends? Buy more than one, it's cheaper! You are very beautiful! This dress will look very nice on you!" Also, you NEVER pay the asking price. In fact, if you pay more than half of the asking price, you're getting taken to the cleaners. A better deal is 1/3 to 1/4 of the asking price. Also, it's a learning process: the vendors start off asking a high price. Then you counter with a much lower price. Then they get indignant: "What? This is very high quality! You're killing me! I will lose money!" Then when you start to walk away they get serious. All of the students have described it as a lesson in real-world "international trade and negotiation" ... International Business 101!).

I should say that our Chinese hosts have been absolutely wonderful. We have had faculty, staff and students from the university with us at all times, and they have been incredibly warm, helpful and generous. Our students and the Chinese students have become great friends -- they all went out together on several evenings, exchanged gifts, took photos together ... It personally fills me with a great sense of satisfaction, and frankly, I'm very proud of our students for adapting so well to a different culture.

This afternoon we fly to Shanghai ... We'll leave the campus here for the airport at about 1PM, and our flight is around 4:30 (our entire itinerary is on the study abroad web site).

Finally, and just to prove to Sarah Brown (Study Abroad 2003 & 2004) that I am indeed smart enough to upload photos to the internet ... Yes, that's right ... drum roll please ... I have a photo! ... And you can probably guess from where. ;-)

Sorry I only have one photo ... This process is a little challenging, particularly because of the technology. I'll try to post more photos from Shanghai.

And yes: there's more to come from Shanghai, which Time Magazine has called THE new world city! :-)