Well, we are officially in China! It's Saturday evening in Beijing, around 10PM local time. I'm writing this note from an internet cafe about 10 minutes from our hotel on the campus of Beijing Jiatong University.
Japan was amazing. We rode the maglev 'Linimo' train to the Aichi World Exposition on a beautiful sunny Tuesday. What an experience -- We saw huge hi-definition video screens, various robots, pavillions from many different nations, and a LOT of people!
On Wednesday we took a 3-hour bus ride to Kyoto, where we saw several beautiful shrines, including the Kiyomizudera, the Nijo Castle, and the Golden Pavillion. We also had a traditional Japanese lunch and did some souvenir shopping. On the way to Kyoto we discovered that the bus had a karaoke machine, so you can probably guess what we did to pass the time!
On Thursday we took a *5* hour bus ride to a traditional Japanese Inn (a ryokan) near Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately, the weather was too cloudy for us to actually *see* Mt. Fuji, but otherwise our stay at the ryokan was amazing. We all stayed in traditional Japanese rooms, complete with tatami mats and other Japanese amenities. We all dressed in Japanese robes ('yakutas'), visited the hot baths, and had a traditional Japanese dinner. After dinner we karaoked again, went to bed, got up, ate breakfast, and visited the hot baths again (not necessarily in that order!) What an incredible experience!
On Friday night we took the bus to Narita airport, and then flew to Beijing, where we were met by our hosts from Beijing Jiaotong University. Today (Saturday) we attended a lecture on Chinese culture and religion (including Taoism and Confucianism), and then visited Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City (where the emperors lived for several centuries). This evening we had one of the most incredible meals you can imagine: a multi-course Peking Duck dinner at one of the most famous Peking Duck restaurants in China. It was absolutely HUGE -- five stories each containing a huge room -- and the food was amazing ... incredible ... awesome ... and every other adjective that I've been over-using in this posting!
The pace keeps up for the rest of the week. Tomorrow we have another lecture, then visit Baihai Park, the hutongs (alleys), and finish up with a dumpling dinner at a local family's house. Then on Tuesday we'll visit the Great Wall.
Uh ... once again photos are a bit of a problem here -- although I'll try to post photos later this week if I can. That said, you'll be happy to learn that we've probably taken 10,000 photos as a group so far ... and I really don't think I'm exaggerating. We plan to consolidate them all and distribute them to the entire group sometime after we get back. This will certainly be the most photographed study abroad trip in history ... and we also have video! ;-)
More to come ... probably in a couple of days. Stay tuned!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment