Busy in Beijing

It feels so good to be in a big city again. We landed in Beijing after a long and stressful plane flight - our connection in Shanghai was only and hour and had most of us running through the airport to catch our plane to Beijing. Thankfully we all got to our seats before the doors closed and landed safely in Beijing! We are staying in the dorms of the International Plaza at Capital Normal University. CNU has mainly teaching students, but also lots of international students who come to be immersed in Chinese. Since the language barrier is the most intense we have experienced so far, I am very grateful for our Chinese buddies!

Each of us has been paired with a CNU student to do activities and hang out with throughout our month in China. On our first full day we grouped up with pairs of buddies to go shopping for some warm clothes! Here it finally feels like fall, and none of us are prepared in the wardrobe department. My buddy is named Patti, and we joined Alexa and her buddy Aviva for a trip to the mall. Patti is my buddy's English name, and she picked it because of Patti Smith, her favorite singer! She is a traditional Chinese painting major, and pretty much the coolest person I have ever met! It was great to get to know the lay of the land and learn how to use the subway, and we ended the evening getting dinner at a delicious restaurant near campus. I am looking forward to spending more time with both of them, and we might even go visit Patti's studio sometime!

The next day after class we visited the Summer Palace, the holiday home of China's emperors of 300 years ago. We walked underneath a painted wooden hallway that tells the story of the passing of a single year through the seasons. The entire palace complex was centered around a beautiful lake, with an island off the shore. A few of us decided to make the trek over the bridge to take a while to sit on the dock. We had a nice conversation about homesickness. The lake was bringing out major nostalgia for all the Minnesotans, and it felt good to acknowledge the things we miss about home. Most of the time I'm doing well at avoiding the homesickness, but I definitely miss fall. We haven't seen many leaves changing color, and it feels strange not to be on campus seeing the colorful leaves fill the quad. Other than the changing seasons, I miss people. My family, friends at home and school - FaceTime helps, but it's just not the same. To anyone back home reading this, I miss ya!

Okay, that's enough of that - can't get too nostalgic. On to the subject of school! We have already gone on one school visit for education class, which absolutely blew me away. It was a public school but in addition to the regular subjects, they have an extensive art program, innovation labs, practical tech design, and tea art, and calligraphy class! We also had the opportunity to chat with some students, which was a great first-hand look into the Chinese education system. They stay at school far more hours than we do (most students don't go home until 5:30 or later) and much more of their lives are focused on studying than I was used to in high school. However, despite the academic differences, these students are happy teens like anywhere else in the world. We talked about music, favorite shows boyfriends, and, on that last topic, numerous girls and even one teacher asked to take pictures with Patric on our way out! Will his ego ever come back to normal after that? Stay tuned for more updates. We are also a week into our Political Economy course (awesome) and Survival Chinese (intense). We also took a Chinese painting class which was a fun break from regular academics, see below.

That brings us to this weekend! On Thursday we took a trip to Datong, a city about five hours away from Beijing. We visited the Yungang Grottoes, a set of Buddhist cave temples that are carved straight into the face of the mountain, beginning in 465 A.D. I knew that this would be cool, but I was not expecting it to be one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life! When we walked into the first cave and saw the enormous Buddha statue towering above us, I was floored. The caves were elaborately carved and still brightly covered with paint surviving from the 5th century. The next day we visited the Huayan Temple and the Hanging Temple, two other Buddhist sacred spaces. I was able to spend time at the Huayan Temple exploring alone and with the group, and I appreciated the opportunity to wander and get a little lost. There was calm chant music playing throughout the temple's various buildings. Some of us climbed up the Huayan Pagoda which yielded both some incredible Buddha carvings as well as beautiful views of Datong.

The Hanging Temple deserves its own paragraph. Built more than 1,500 years ago, the temple has been a place of pilgrimage and worship for Buddhists and Taoists throughout the years. We climbed up the narrow stone steps into the temple, and although I'm fine with heights I definitely did more than a few double takes at the seemingly spindly supports of the temple. Even though I didn't know it, this was another huge check off my bucket list. I wish I could have taken more photos to show you all what the shrines inside looked like, but I certainly won't forget the experience.

On Saturday we went to the Silk Market, a shopping mall full of fake designer goods. This was the perfect opportunity to practice the bargaining skills we picked up in Tanzania. I shopped with Claire and Noah which was perfect because they both actually know their designers, and together the three of us did quite well! I picked up a few Christmas presents, but my favorite purchase of the day is the North Face duffel I got to offset the extra weight in my suitcase for the rest of the trip. The lady I bought it from started at 1,885 RMB (the Chinese currency), and I got it for 250, the price I wanted to leave with. It was so fun going back and forth on price, chatting about where I was from and if I was a student, and in the end I got the bag "because I love you so much," accompanied by a little wink from the saleswoman.

All in all, an amazing first week in Beijing! Thanks for reading :)

-GMH