Despite my obvious nerves, my trip to China turned out to be even more AMAZING than I had thought.
As we slowly descended into Beijing, all of us exhausted and travel worn from our long flights, uncomfortable positions and stiff legs, the captain gave what seemed to be positive reports of clear skies with light haze, which upon landing I realized is actually what we would call FULL cloud cover with an enormous amount of pollution. After a briefing about some things to keep in mind, i.e. don’t drink the water…EVER…and wary of the bathrooms- porcelain holes in the ground without toilet paper or soap, we began our first day in China.
We first had a brief presentation on the background of Beijing including some really interesting facts about the city arrangement. Beijing is built in a series of “ring roads” or circular roads that expand outwards from the center of the city or Tian’anmen Square. The main historical buildings and sites are also arranged in a linear axis that either stretch north-south or east-west. It was interesting to hear that the area upon which the Olympic venue is now being built had actually be set aside many years ago in expectation of hosting the games in the future. Frankly, after seeing the pollution, traffic and population issues in the city, it is a little surprising to me that Beijing was actually able to host, especially in comparison to the much cleaner cities of Shanghai and Xi’an.
We visited the 798 Gallery where were given a great presentation on Chinese art history and to finish off our first day we visited the Summer Palace,
which was used by the emperor and his family from April to October as a place to rest and relax. It is about 20 kilometers from the city center and is a huge complex of many buildings, terraces, gardens, temples and hallways that covers over 290 hectares. This was our first experience with the insane number of tourists who found a group of American students to be an additional attraction, often wanting to take pictures with or of us!
We were also introduced to the unbelievably persistent sales people that flood the streets, and the absolutely ridiculous traffic in Chinese cities. The density of the population, especially in Beijing, makes travel absolutely insane. There are massive amounts of people on busses, riding bikes, walking, driving cars, taking taxes, and they are all very brave, seeming to risk there lives continuously as they try to get where they are going…it was really quite scary, not to mention that it added at least an hour to our travel time.
Our first night in Beijing we were treated to Peking Duck, where we literally at all parts of the duck. I tried the skin of duck feet (which I regretted) to start off my China experience.
Our second day we were all a little jet-lagged, but we kept up the pace. Breakfast in the student hotel was disappointing, as we dined on steamed rolls, dumplings and fried bread, none of which tasted particularly good, nor was it healthy or easy to eat with chopsticks. (After this hotel, the hotels we stayed at became progressively nicer and more touristy, so we were soon dining on elaborate spreads of mostly Chinese food such as rice, dumplings, and veggie dishes, as well as some western foods such as French toast, or something like it, and cereal.)
We started off the day with a brief lecture on Chinese culture by a Peking University professor before having lunch at the Laoshe Teahouse where I tried Jellyfish (not bad flavor but very difficult texture) and learned to love black seaweed. It was at this meal that I learned a little more about how authentic Chinese dining takes place. In China, you start your meal with many very different veggie and meat dishes served on a lazy-susan with everyone using their chopsticks to pick things from the plates. It is not until the END of the meal that they bring out the rice, which is only eaten if the other dishes didn’t fill you up. They also end meals with soup because it is supposed to aid in digestion, although in many places soup is also served as a drink.
Tian’anmen square was really amazing to see.
Home to the famous picture of Mao Zedong, his mausoleum, the main government buildings, historical watchtowers, large garden exhibits (built on the anniversary of the incident to prevent another protest.) After walking around the square we entered the Forbidden City,
given its name because no commoners were allowed inside. The Forbidden City, with buildings similar to those in the Summer Palace, is home to seemingly hundreds of buildings and I think it is even larger than the Palace. Each building is graded on level of importance by the number of animals placed on the roof- 11 is the highest,
meaning only the emperor can use the building. We ended the day with a hike to another temple with what would have been a view of the city had the haze been less, and then had dinner with some former Peking University DIS students, where I tried what I think was sea urchin!
Our third was one we were all looking forward to, the trip to the Great Wall. We lucked out with the weather, finally having “sunny” skies and warm weather. We headed to a remote part of the wall, about 3 hours outside of Beijing where we would see less tourists.
Not only was the drive eye-opening as we were able to see many of the disparities and challenges in China by passing areas of serious Olympic construction, deluxe homes built for foreigners and rich Chinese, and crowded streets of poverty stricken people, but we also stopped along the way at a local village, where one woman invited us into her house allowing us to look around and treating us to persimmons from her tree.
She was unbelievably kind and it was really interesting to see how Chinese people really live. Once we arrived at the Great Wall, we definitely got a workout hiking up to the wall and along the thousands of steep steps. The view was amazing and actually being on the wall was a surreal experience. It was here that it really hit me- I was in China. The only downside was the vendors who followed us the ENTIRE trip acting as our shadows. While we failed to lose them many times, I found them quite annoying especially because I felt obligated to buy something from them at the end, which I reluctantly did- they certainly need the money worse than I do.
The next day we visited CTR market research, a company which gave us some really interesting insight into the Chinese consumer market and also the work environment in China. After the visit we changed hotels to one on the other side of Beijing near the Hutongs,
which are clusters of old, densely packed houses previously used for government officials and private family use. Visiting the Hutongs was another interesting experience. We took rickshaw rides down the narrow and crowded streets to a government subsidized Hutong house, in which the resident is paid to open their house to tourists like us. Like the many other Chinese we have met the woman was extremely kind and very happy- not to mention that the food was, as always, amazing- although we were starting to tire a little from the Chinese food.
I love it, but it’s different when you are eating it at EVERY meal. We had some free time to explore the maze of the Hutongs before heading off to the Opera! The opera was truly incredible. The men and women paint on their own makeup outside so we were able to watch them get ready before finding our front row seats (!) to watch the show that consisted of impressive costumes, classic Chinese singing and amazing acrobatic stunts! We finally ended the night with a trip to a local developing night spot where we went to a few bars and wandered down the crowded streets. Like any other public space in China, we found Chinese ball-room dancing, line-dancing, and doing many other forms of activity. It is truly beautiful to see. Almost everywhere you go, morning or night, the older Chinese population is using public space for dance, tai chi, and games-no wonder the population is so healthy and happy.
We woke up on our last day in Beijing, a Saturday, to some rain which thankfully cleared as we headed to the Temple of Heaven bright and early in the morning.
The park outside of the Temple of Heaven is a cultural hotspot- as amazingly fit middle-aged to elderly men and women use the outdoor gyms, dance in the squares, practice tai chi, play badminton and other games, put on concerts, and generally come out to have a good time. We were put to shame by some old men on the monkey-bars before having impromptu Tai Chi lessons. It was hard to tear ourselves away from the amazingly kind Chinese people to enter the Temple of Heaven itself. While the temple was another truly gorgeous area, its architecture was very similar to the other areas we had visited in Beijing, and like the Forbidden City, and I think some of the summer palace, ALL of the structures were made WITHOUT nails! We left the temple mid-afternoon to go to a local market where we learned how to barter. After being scammed on my first sale my friend Jose was kind enough to explore the market with me and help me learn how to barter.
The amount of goods, especially fake goods including Prada, Gucci, Puma, Nike, Chanel, North Face and many more, was absolutely overwhelming. It was a great shopping day as I got a large majority of my Christmas shopping done and learned how to barter, although the experience left me with a natural high that quickly succumbed to exhaustion. After heading back to the hotel we packed up our stuff and headed to the train station where I took my first overnight train (very Harry Potter) to Xi’an, the second city of our whirlwind China Tour…
Although picking up the rest of the family was unnecessarily stressful because their flight got in at noon and I had to be back at DIS at one, it was so great to see everyone. I loved having the rest of my family here, and it made all of the activities we did and the BUSY schedule I had planned a lot more fun. 
While they were tired, they went to the Round Tower and did some shopping on Stroget before meeting me in Tivoli in the evening of their first day. Tivoli is redecorated for Christmas, complete with an elf village, thousands of Christmas lights, vendors selling gifts, ornaments, and toys, scattered heaters to keep you warm, and yummy Christmas treats sold at every turn. It was a really magical place to be….I LOVE CHRISTMAS!
I was dodging in and out of classes to meet my family in between. We ate lunch at Nyhavn, walked around Christiania and spent more time on the shopping street.
At night we drove back home to my host family where we were treated to homemade frikadeller, a Danish Christmas dinner with the grandparents on Thanksgiving day, and a mini Thanksgiving dinner the day after. 
Saturday was our big day, and although I wasn’t feeling well, we made the best of it. We started off the day with a family run, including the host parents, around the lake. Luckily, the weather cooperated, as it was the only day of sunshine in the past week, 
although it was chilly and I don’t think everyone was as happy to be there as I was….see picture. :) Regardless, it nice way to get the day going. After a delicious breakfast, my family and I drove north along the coast to Helsingør where we visited a castle and ate a yummy lunch, including open faced sandwiches (very Danish!), at the café nearby. We drove back along the coast stopping at Louisiana, a modern art museum that I had always wanted to go to, to see a photography and painting exhibit. 
While we had originally planned to do all of this and make it back into Copenhagen for a soccer game at 5, at the museum we decided we were a little ambitious and chose to go home, watch a movie and have a nice dinner instead. To keep it Danish I made them watch ‘After the Wedding’ a beautifully shot, but slightly depressing movie that was filmed in and around Copenhagen. 
