Farewell Dinner

That night we were all sad to be eating our final dinnner in China. Our ten days had passed in the blink of an eye. We each gave a short, impromptu presentation about what we had learned from the trip and what we hoped to bring back home. The Indians surprised us with some amazing presentations, singing and performing in Hindi. After dinner, the celebration turned into a dance party when the Indians shared some popular Hindi music. By the end of the night, none of us could believe we were getting on planes the next day to take off for different parts of the world.



Once back at the hotel all of the Global Citizens gathered for an after-party celebration. Jason and Max actually moved one of the beds out of their room to clear space for all twenty of us. Jason, Diviyanish, and Abhishek experimented on Abhishek's new guitar and the rest of us sat around until the early hours of the morning, exchanging contact information and talking. None of us wanted to go to bed, knowing that it was our last night together.





(top) Jason with his guitar. (top right) Max and Brooke. (bottem) Shivang, Rishika, Devika, and Erika.

Max's Doodle

Max's doodle for Krishna about our trip.

Some Adventures

The Great Wall at Last

On our last day in China we finally visited the Great Wall of China, something I'd been looking foward to the whole trip. I have to say, the Wall definately lived up to the "great" in it's name. Although much of it was built over 500 years ago during the Ming Dynasty, it still remains the longest man made structure in the world. Visible from space, it is one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.



I was surprised to find that climbing the wall felt like as great a feat as building it. For over a half an hour we staggared up hundreds of stone steps that wound their way through the humid jungle. When we stopped to rest, feeling like our limbs were on fire, we were swarmed by huge bugs surfacing from the tangled undergrowth. The agonizing journey to the wall only made it more amazing when I stepped foot on its breezy summit.




































The Wall was spectacular. Only about ten feet wide and punctuated by watch towers every so often, it snaked and dipped across the mountians, dissapearing into the mist. As we climbed over the weather-worn stone I marvalled at how, even after hundreds of years, something built by hand could have lasted so well. Though we profess we've come so far as a society and have built such amazing things beyond the wildest dreams of ancient architects, they have not been built to last. In a hundred years our skyscrapers will probably be crumbling, but the Great Wall will still stand.
























A top the great wall, backdropped against a seemingly endless expanse of jungle, the film crew recorded the last of its promotional ads. It was amazing to think that another student would soon be watching me standing in such an incredible place, proclaiming "this is my classroom," and would be inspired to travel with EF. On tour I really learned the importance of travel, of how it can truly open a person's world view and provides learning through experience that is unequivocal in textbooks. All students should have the opportunity to travel; I know I never would have been able to visit a place like China without aid from a scholarship.

June 25th

That afternoon we were able to test our bartering skills at Chi'enmen Market, a market place near Tienanmen Square. We separated off into groups to explore, trying our hands at a little bit of independence and strengthening the friendships we'd been building. Unfortunately for me, it was then that I discovered my wallet was missing. I spent the afternoon frantic until we returned to the hotel and cancelled my Visa card (waking up my poor mother at two in the morning!) Needless to say, I learned a hard lesson about watching out for one's belongings.



We relaxed together at the hotel for a little while, playing some team-building games and then simply spending time with each other, whether it was obsessing over our new favorite hackey sacks, ordering mass amounts of food from the French waiter at the cafe, or just sitting and talking. I was realizing just how close I was becoming with my fellow Global Citizens--and how sad I would be when we all went our separate ways in two days time. The ten days had truly flown by.

After dinner we stepped out into Beijing for a spectacular kung fu show. Some of the feats performed were truly incredible and we were all absolutely awestruck. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed so I can only let you use your imaginations.

The Temple of Heaven

Beijing's Temple of Heaven is surrounded by a huge park. As we walked up to the Temple, we caught a glimpse of Beijing's people visiting a place beautiful to both them and outsiders. They practiced tai chi. They strolled hand in hand. They danced to the sounds of traditional music vibrating from speakers. They played dominoes. They kicked feathered hacky sacks. It was amazing to see such vibrant and colorful life surrounding me.


The Temple it's self was beautiful. Three tiers of elaborately painted blue, red, and gold, the Temple was surviving from the fifteenth century, a place where farmers would come to pray for a good harvest.



In the park, we were given a tai chi lesson. Tai chi was different than I thought it would be--often it's confused with Kung Fu. However, although tai chi was about self defense, it stressed slower, fluid motions and control over one's body. At first glimpse it seemed easy, but I discovered that truly mastering the intricacies of the poses would take years. Our tour guide, Jacky (not Chan) was a tai chi master in several of the different styles.



Our tai chi lesson in the middle of the bustling park contributed to what seemed to me to be a separation between modern China and traditional China. It felt as though the country was caught between progressing forward through new technologies and celebrating its past. Cities like Shanghai were focused on building the tallest and brightest skyscrapers, the most fantastic World's Fair, the most affluent citizens. I wondered if China's push to be a modern world power was at the expense of its traditions.

The Summer Palace

After exploring the forbidden city, our next stop was the ancient Summer Palace, a gorgeous place with some amazing history behind it. The Summer Palace was the second home of the Emperor Dowager Cixi, also known as the Dragon Lady, one of the most powerful women in Chinese history and my new heroine.


Cixi was originally a concubine to Emperor Xianfeng in the late 1850s. We actually visited her quarters while in the forbidden city. Cixi bore the emperor a son and when Xianfeng died unexpectedly, her son was crowned Emperor at age six. Cixi essentially ruled behind the curtain, gathering political allies as her son grew up. As he got older, he attempted to drive Cixi from the Forbidden City, and eventually died of smallpox. Meanwhile, the Dragonlady hand-picked one of Xianfeng's nephews as Emperor but continued to rule through him, governing the Hundred Days' Reform, The Boxer Rebellions, and the Qing Reforms among other politics. The new Emperor died two days before Cixi, giving her enough time to pick successor who would continue her policies, leading to speculation that she poisoned. Regardless of whether or not this is true, Emperor Dowager Cixi definately had a major influence on China.

The lake its self was actually man-made, built by the Emperess in an attempt to immitate the breathtaking West Lake in Hangzhou, which we also visited. It didn't quite compare, but it sure came pretty close. The dirt excavated to create the lake was used to build a man-made mountian, acutely named Longevity Hill, atop which the palace rests. It was gorgeous, and we had free time to simpy sit by the water and enjoy the view and the breeze.


Beneath the willows by the lake and Longevity Hill.







The Dragonlady's stone Dragonboat, where she used to dine by the lake.

Music by the Lake

Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City

Today was an action-packed day of sight-seeing, which meant a lot of walking in the very hot Beijing weather. Our first stop was Tienanmen Square, the largest city square in the world. It was absolutely enormous, flagged by huge buildings, statues, and fountains. The square was first built by the Ming dynasty in 1651. As a communal area large enough for Beijing's population, the square has hosted a number of famous historical events.

It was the sight of the May 4th Movement, an anti-imperialist protest marking an upsurge of Chinese nationalism, and also where Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed China to be the "People's Republic," a communist state. We were able to walk past Mao's mausoleum, where his body is crystallized and on display. Unfortunately, we weren't able to actually go inside because of the huge line of Chinese pilgrims waiting to see his body. Tienanmen Square was also the site of the infamous Tienanmen Square Massacre, where pro-democracy supporters, mostly students and intellectuals, protested communism's social and economic controls, resulting in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people when the government tried to put down the riot.



































Tienanmen Square was also the gate-way into the Forbidden City, the private residence of the Emperor. The "Forbidden" in the name comes from the law that no commoners were allowed inside the palace; in fact, nobody was allowed inside without expressed permission from the Emperor. The other half of the name, "City," was fitting enough as well. The palace was enormous--consisting of huge pavilion after pavilion, with hundreds of buildings, a city indeed. It was hard to imagine one family living there.

The city was made up of the Outer Court, where the Emperor conducting business and day-to-day affairs, and the Inner Court, where he and his family resided. We weren't able to walk through the entire city, simply because it was so large. The whole place had an air of ancient China, reminding me irrevocably of Mulan.

Ni, Hao, June 23rd!

Today we said zài jiàn to Shanghai and boarded our flight to Beijing. The flight its self was short--only an hour--but led way to a small crisis. I left my laptop on the plane. I know, I know, that was really stupid, but in my defense, I'm an absent-minded person, and they tell us to stow our possessions underneath the seats during takeoff! Fortunately,

We were able to relax after arriving in Beijing and explore the little street by our hotel, finding a cheap mini-mart with some... questionable items. And a really cute dog.



That evening, we went for a rickshaw ride down the streets of Old Beijing. The rickshaw was pulled by a man on a bicycle and we were able to slip into ancient cobbled lanes, places too narrow for cars to fit. As Max and I rode together in our rickshaw, we noted how different Beijing was from Shanghai. Shanghai was a modern city, built up less than 200 years ago, full of skyscrapers and lights and apartment buildings. Beijing felt much older, ancient, with a history written into its flat-roofed, tiled houses and oriental street corners.








































The rickshaw delivered us at an ancient, family-owned home in the Hutong. The family ushered us in and showed us around the house. In traditional Chinese style, the building was built with four sides facing the four cardinal directions (north, south, east, and west), all surrounding a central courtyard. Within the courtyard was a well for pumping water. It was extremely interesting to explore the house, to look into actual bedrooms that had existed for hundreds of years, where people still resided today. The house would have situated an extended family, with all the girls sleeping on one side and the boys on another. I was startled to find out that there was no bathroom in the whole house- family members would have to walk down the street to the public out-house to bathe and use the toilet! For someone used to a bathroom just down the hallway, this was hard to believe.

As we walked around the small courtyard, the men of the house watched us, smoking cigarettes. I wondered what it was like for the family, to have intruders in their personal home walking around and snapping pictures, marveling at something that had been ordinary all their lives. If the family had chosen to, they could have sold the house for a small fortune to some sort of historical commission. However, the family refused to give up their ancestral home and its strong ties with the deceased, instead choosing to live poorly but traditionally.

Jason Eats A Fish Eye

Birthday Party!

I have to say, my birthday in China was amazing. The group surprised me and Tara (whose birthday had been the day before) with a delicious birthday cake at dinner that night. Thank you everyone!

Tea Tasting

During the afternoon, we visited the Long Jing Tea plantation in Hangzhou. As a tea obsessive, someone who always likes a nice cup of tea at night, I loved this. Hangzhou is famous for its "Dragon Well" tea, which is the national tea of China. Long Jing tea is made from young leaves on tea plants, giving it a richer flavor that is preserved, along with its natural antioxidants, when the tea is pan-dried immediately after picking. At the plantation, we saw huge slopes of tea bushes climbing up into the mountain on terraces, green hills disappearing into the mist.
We had a tea-tasting session instructed by a man called "Dr. Tea," who taught us all the secrets of green tea as well as its importance to the Chinese. As he spoke, we learned the proper way to receive and drink tea according to ancient Chinese customs. The tea we were drinking was in the form of "loose tea," or tea without a tea-bag. We learned to snub our noses at tea bags, for they destroy all of the natural vitamins and antioxidants within tea. The Chinese do not "drink" a cup of tea, rather, they "eat" a cup of tea, for all of the loose tea leaves are left to swirl about in the cup and can be eaten.

The loose tea was delicious--rich in flavor and especially good for the health, from what I was told. I had never drank tea that way before, but I couldn't wait to bring the custom home to my family, and so I purchased a couple of cans of the Dragon Well tea.

The West Lake

We went for a boat ride that afternoon on the famous West Lake, known as one of the most picturesque lakes in the world. It was absolutely beautiful.





middle (left to right) Melissa, Me, Rishika, Brooke, Tarun, Krishna

Global Citizen's Scavenger Hunt

Over lunch, we had about two hours to separate off into groups of four and embark on a Global Citizen's Scavenger Hunt. The activity was extremely fun and allowed us to test our real world survival skills/limited knowledge of Chinese by interacting with strangers. We each got to stretch our teamwork skills, leadership skills, and street smarts as we raced against the clock to find all the items on our list.

My group was composed of myself, Max, Tarun, and Devika, and here's what we had to find.
Find:
-a restaurant menu (this proved to be the most difficult for our team; for some reason every restaurant we went into had no take-out menu, no matter how many times we mimed and pointed)
-a pair of chopsticks
-something written in English
-a city map
-a Chinese newspaper
-a local bus schedule (involved me going up to a disgrunted bus-driver and asking about a "che zhan." He had no idea what I was saying.)
-a business card
-some foreign currency (not Indian, American, or Chinese
-Chinese candy (we ended up spending 20 yuan on something the judges claimed was "Japanese" candy)
-Chinese loose tea (Devika showed us all the ropes by asking to "smell" a pinch of the tea in a tea store and then simply leaving with it)

Take Photos of the Following:
-A team member in a rickshaw (we stumbled upon this in a moment of chance and it proved our crown jewel with the judges)

-the Chinese characters for bathroom
-a team member with a taxi driver

-Someone doing tai chi

Okay, so maybe he wasn't doing tai chi so much as we found a random stranger on the street to teach tai chi to, but it still counts. Right?

-a Buddha
-Confucius
-An animal
-A team member with a local student

He looks so shocked!

-a bicycle
-Traditional Chinese clothing
-An American company (Pizza Hut)
-A wedding (Okay, this we never found)
-A dragon
-A small red book

Okay, so maybe it's not the small red book of Communism, but close enough, right?

-A passport (not U.S. or Indian) (Never found this one either--who's going to show their passport to a random stranger on the street?)
-A boat
-A sign in English with incorrect grammar

um....?



My team was proud to say that we found everything except the wedding, passport, and foreign currency. However, we didn't win (grrr...) because teams were given bonus points for every additional pair of chopsticks they could find. But it was still tons of fun.

Happy Birthday!

I have to say, my birthday in China (June 22) was one of the most memorable birthdays I've ever had. On that day we all took a one-and-a-half hour drive to the city of Hangzhou, a city regarded as one of the greenest and most beautiful places in China, nestled on the banks of the gorgeous West Lake.

Our first stop in Hangzhou was at an ancient pagoda, where our tour guide explained to us the legend behind it. The story told that there was once a scholar in Hangzhou who fell in love with a beautiful woman who was actually a white snake. For their love, the gods cast the White Snake Lady into a well buried deep beneath the pagoda.