Part III: Australia!

G'day Mates! As most of you know, during my stay in Nanjing I also dipped down under for about 10 days and visited a few of my friends studying abroad in Brisbane, Australia. While I didn't have too much time to spend in Australia, it was a great trip none the less and helped me move one step (or should I say continent) closer to my life goal of visiting every continent! As of now, I only have Antarctica to go!

My first few days in Brisbane were a bit chaotic as we pretty much immediately shipped down to the beach town of Surfer's Paradise and moved into a hotel for 2 days. Surfer's Paradise was great, however, and we had an awesome time hanging out on the beach and enjoying the quaint atmosphere of the beach town. The only slight annoyance was the somewhat painstaking public transportation debacle that we went through to make it there. I must say though - I remember a local coffee shop down in Surfer's paradise that had a delicious coffee frappuccino called the "Voltage" which I have never had before - if you ever make it down there, I highly recommend trying one.

The next few days of my trip were spent enjoying the "Uni" (College) life in Australia and catching a glimpse of daily life in Brisbane. I found the Australian student's to be quite hospitable and quite rambunctious when it came to partying! I have never seen such a rowdy crowd before, and it seems like American concepts like "homework" and "attending class" have much less importance in an Australia education!
One of the main highlights of my trip was also a visit to the "Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary." The sanctuary featured numerous live "authentic" Australian animals that I could pet, feed, and take pictures with. Despite my, and my friends, best efforts - the best picture I was able to get with a Koala came out something like this one.

Fortunately, I was able to get some much better pictures with the Kangaroos at the sanctuary and they seemed to be a bit more inviting than the lazy Koalas. For some reason, the Kangaroos reminded me of dogs - they seemed lovable and friendly and they liked to be petted and fed! However, some of the bigger ones would growl if you seemed to be encroaching on their territory.

My last day in Brisbane was by far the most exciting. While the rest of my visit was certainly enjoyable, my friends and I decided to use my last day to go Skydiving! While I don't have the pictures from the dive itself back yet (I do have a video...) I will get them once I get back to the states.

However - I do have a few pictures that were taken by my friends on the ground that can give you a glimpse of my skydive. We dove from nearly 15,000 feet - the highest you can dive without an oxygen mask - and had over a 60 second free fall before our chutes deployed. Of course, I didn't dive alone - first time divers always have to go in tandem with a professional diving expert. I did, however, get to fly my parachute around for a bit once it had been deployed! The dive itself was exciting and not nearly as scary as I had anticipated. The scariest part was probably jumping out of the plane itself, but the entire experience was not even close to as terrifying as the Bungee jump I did last summer in Africa.
My skydiving adventure was a great conclusion to my visit to Australia and the next morning I hopped onto a plane to take me back to China. While my time in Australia was certainly one I will never forget, I must say that when I returned to China it truly felt like I was coming home.

Part II: Random Shots from Chinese Dorm Life

Since most of my blog updates will focus on the various trips that I have taken, I thought I would include a few funny pictures and anecdotes from my stay here.

Here is a picture of my Chinese roomate, his name is Ganghui and he is currently studying to apply to Chinese graduate school - I think he wants to be a lawyer or a judge in the Chinese judicial system - apparently he also doesn't like to have his picture taken. Living with Ganghui has been great so far, he speaks awesome English and he is always trying to help teach me new Chinese sayings and phrases - he also helps me with my homework sometimes - which is a real life saver.

All of the girls in our program also have Chinese roommates - the girls are a bit more shy than the male Chinese roommates, while the guys will often party with us and hang out with us, most of the girls are much more reserved and tend to keep to themselves. However, sometimes they do tend to get a little crazy - I'm still not sure what was going on in this picture.

Sometimes we get a little crazy in our dorm as well. Here is a pretty silly picture of me at our friend Ping Ping's apartment. Ping Ping is a 26 year old Chinese girl who is the assistant director of CIEE Nanjing, but she loves to spend most of her time hanging out and partying with us.

One of my favorite parts about living in China is the fact that many Chinese people don't really know what to expect from foreigners, or 老外 (lao wai). The end result of that is that we can usually get away with doing some pretty ridiculous stuff. The following picture was taken at Hunan Lu - one of Nanjing's most upscale dining and shopping districts. My friends and I had just finished a birthday dinner at an expensive Japanese restaurant and we decided some antics were in order. While something like this would certainly get you in big trouble back in the states, I merely caught a few strange glances from the nearby security guards and then went on my way. The next picture is one of my personal favorites. For those of you that don't know, drinking, for a variety of reasons, is often a very important to the Chinese business culture. As of now, I have been working for a little over 2 months at a private Chinese IT Consulting firm (AOKY Consulting), and I have slowly become more ingrained in the Chinese business culture. Each month, around the 15th, my company holds a dinner party for the entire staff (about 45 people) that often results in somewhat heavy drinking. The following picture was taken at one of our previous dinner parties, please note: the man waving his arms strangely in the middle/back of the picture is my supervisor! Not only was nearly everyone at the party fairly drunk, but I even engaged in several chugging contests with the companies CEO and various other key executive members! I must say, I do like the way they do business here.

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For....

Hey there folks! Since I've been a terrible blogger for the last four months or so, I figured that I would do a few independent update posts for all my loyal readers (or lack thereof), hopefully at least one or two of you still check this website every once and a while.

I now present you with Part I: Lian Yun Gang

During the first few weeks of my stay in Nanjing we set off on a weekend trip to the coastal (I hesitate to say beach) town of Lian Yun Gong. Our trip encompassed a three day tour of the town and its surrounding tourist attractions. We arrived late on a Thursday night and were sadly greeted by wind a rain. Looking for a somewhat nicer weekend at the "beach" I hoped that the next day would bring more beautiful weather. Wrong. I awoke to a morning of gloomy skies and rain.

Little did I know that our main "adventure" for the first day was to climb down a rather large mountain. (I would later learn that climbing down mountains is a rather frequent Chinese tourist pass time). After taking a treacherous and speedy bus ride to the peak of what I believe was called HuaGuo Mountain (the home of the fabled Monkey King) we reached the peak only to be greeted with pelting wind an rain.

As you can see in this picture to the right, the weather conditions were less than "optimal." At this point I thought to myself, surely we are going to take a bus back down, now that we've made it to the top and the weather is ridiculous. Wrong again. After a grueling 3+ hour hike through wind, rain, and what I would argue were several small rivers, we finally reached the bottom of the mountain and went to lunch.

We spent the afternoon on boat tour of Lian Yun Gang's (absurdly choppy) harbor and got a view of it's beautiful (mud) beaches. When given a bit of free time to rove the beaches for ourselves, a few friends and I decided to search a nearby set of shops in hopes of a place to play Mahjong, a famous and incredibly popular Chinese game - similar to Gin Rummy - that is played with domino-like tiles.

The second day of our visit to Lian Yun Gang wasn't quite as treacherous as our first, however. We visited a sprawling "valley," which I can only describe as a sort of Chinese-style water park. Given that there were no rides or anything like that, it was a series of beautiful waterfalls, pools, and rivers, that extended deep into a nearby mountain. There was actually a slide that took you from the top of the mountain down through the valley but it was closed on the day we visited. When walking around the valley it was nearly impossible to stay dry, as we constantly had to cross through large and small rivers, pools, and even waterfalls. Despite the fact that it was a bit stormy when we visited, I can imagine that visiting such a place on a warm sunny day would be quite fun.

After our visit to the valley, we hopped on our bus and got ready for the five hour ride back to Nanjing. Despite the various antics and the chaotic weather, our first weekend excursion as the official CIEE Nanjing, Class of Fall '07 was quite enjoyable.

Hello Nanjing!

Now I am finally in Nanjing, the "southern capital" of China, where I will be studying at Nanjing University (we call it Nan Da or 南大). In addition to my studies in Nanjing, and thanks to a little bit of help from one of my friends in Beijing, I also have an internship in Nanjing working with Aoky Consulting, an IT consulting company that specializes in foreign export companies. Not only am I very excited to be studying at the prestigious Nanjing University (it is normally ranked between 3rd and 5th best school in China) but I am also thrilled by the prospect of working with a Chinese company, especially one that focuses on such a developing field as foreign export.

Nanjing is a beautiful city. It has much less pollution than Beijing and it has much more vegetation all throughout the city. Nanjing also has a much more home-like feel to it and it doesn't suffer from the often overwhelming hustle and bustle of a massive city like Beijing.

On the morning of my second day in Nanjing I stumbled into the CIEE Office (CIEE is the name of my foreign exchange program) and ran into a fellow named Andy who actually studied in Nanjing a few years ago and is currently researching in China with a Fullbright Scholarship. Andy was kind enough to show me and a few of my friends the lay of the land and within the first few days we were able to see many of the good restaurants, bars, and markets in Nanjing. While Andy is leaving today to continue on his research, his help was invaluable in our first few days in Nanjing.The people that I am studying with in Nanjing are also great. Not only are they all very friendly but they are also quite an interesting bunch.

My accommodations are also high quality. The dorm I am staying in was built only a year ago. I only have a few gripes about my room in Nanjing. While my bed in Nanjing is nice, I think that I slept much more comfortably in Beijing. On a similar note, the shower here requires that the hot water be turned on two hours before hand to ensure that it's hot, so I would say the showering situation in Beijing was also much more enjoyable. Overall, however, my room is very nice. Check out this picture that I snapped on the first day. The true test of my dorm room comes tomorrow - when my Chinese roommate moves in.

I started classes today and both of my teachers seem to be very helpful and intelligent. I think that my studies this summer in Beijing definitely helped prepare me for my experience in Nanjing. I am off to go do my homework now, but I will leave you with a picture of my favorite part of my room in Nanjing - the view.

Bye Bye Beijing

Ni hao! I know that it has been a really long time since I updated this thing but I am finally back at it. I have been super busy in the last few weeks with my stay at Peking University ending and my brief return trip home.

I spent my last few weeks in Beijing spending time with my friends and enjoying the city as much as possible. My friends and I ventured to our favorite bars and restaurants for the last time and tried to enjoy as much of Beijing as we could with what little time we had left. Sadly, my studies in Beijing finally ended on August 12th and I returned home to Nashville.

Here is a picture of all of my friends from Beijing and my teacher Tan Laoshi.
Sadly my return was not without incident. My connecting flight from Tokyo to Detroit was suffering from a serious overbooking crisis and they told us that it would be a minimum of 2 or 3 days before we could return home. To add insult to injury the majority of my friends traveling from Beijing back to the U.S. were on a different flight than I was and everyone, save me and 2 other friends, was on a flight that had no problems.

Luckily for me and my friends we were able to secure passage on a different airline (free of charge) and make it on a flight to Newark. However, we couldn't make it out of Newark that day and ended up spending the night at the illustrious Newark Airport Ramada. I would have felt great about staying in Newark if it weren't for the giant billboard right outside of our hotel that read "Help Wanted: Please Stop The Killings in Newark." If that wasn't already frightening enough the moment I walked into the hotel lobby I saw the scene in the following picture. Yes ladies and gentleman, my friends and I were privy to the 1st Annual FurFinnity Conference of 2007. What does that mean? Well, your guess is as good as mine. All I know is that my friends and I spent the entire evening cowering in fear of the pack of animal-suit-clad weirdos running around the hotel. Needless to say, my welcome back to the U.S. was a bit stranger than usual. Luckily I still had fun hanging out with my remaining Beijing friends that night and we even managed to meet up with one of their friends who lived in New Jersey - escaping the fur fanatics and making our way to a local Applebees.

The next morning I flew out at 6am on my return flight home with a tinge of sadness knowing that I wouldn't see any of my friends from Beijing until January 2008 at the earliest.

My short stint in Nashville was a great breather from my previous 2 months in China. I was able to relax, recover, and see some old friends. Unfortunately I didn't have too much time and before I knew it I was already packing up again and heading back to China - this time to Nanjing.
I woke up bright and early the morning of the 22nd and hopped onto a plane bound for China.

Cheng De & More

The highlight of my last week was most certainly our visit to Cheng De. Cheng De is a small mountain city that served as the massive summer home for several emperors in the Qing dynasty. While the sights were fun to see, Cheng De also offered me a very unusual and authentic Chinese experience as well.

Our journey to Cheng De began with a nearly five hour bus ride out of Beijing on Friday afternoon, with our arrival taking place some time around 6 p.m. Our first night in Cheng De was largely uneventful, save a group journey to a local KTV (karaoke bar) that was quite fun.

The next morning we were woken bright and early (maybe a bit too early) for our tour of the summer palace. The palace grounds themselves were quite beautiful, featuring several old pagodas and buildings, as well as boasting a massive lake with many different islands that we could visit.

After touring the grounds for a while we rented a private boat for our group (about 20 kids) and toured some of the various islands on the grounds. The boat ride was quite fun and the islands themselves were beautiful. Everyone enjoyed climbing the rocks on the different islands and exploring their various towers and pagodas.We spent the afternoon visiting "Sledge Hammer Peak" - a very tall and oddly shaped rock that has become famous in Cheng De. The peak is very difficult to reach and requires a nearly 20 minute chair lift ride. The ride itself was enjoyable, however, and featured some scenic shots of the peak itself.
Once we made it up to the top of the peak it was quite scary. With no surprise to me, the Chinese tourist attraction lacked almost any safety measures, you could easily walk right up to (and over if you wanted) the edge and peer down, even right at the base of the "sledge hammer" itself.

The one safety measure the peak did have was this delightful sign. After spotting that I felt much safer. We decided to venture all the way to the narrow base of the sledge hammer itself because our guide, Susan, told us that if you touch the stone you will live for 130 years. I don't know about that, but I figured I would give it a try. Worst case - I still got some great pictures from up on top of the cliff.

After a long day of sightseeing the night still held some adventure for us. To make a long, and somewhat unfortunate, story short - I highly advise everyone reading this to NOT get a "milk bath" under any circumstances - especially if your friends tell you to.

Other than that, one of my friends actually had to go to the hospital that night to receive treatment for a mild infection, nothing serious but the journey to the Chinese hospital was a bit scary as well. Luckily I think I made it out of Cheng De A-OK!

A few other highlights from the rest of this week - on Monday night of this week Ben and I visited a local "English Coffee Shop" where the owner will give free food to anyone who teaches English lessons. Needless to say, Ben and I seized the opportunity and taught a class (with a few other Americans who Ben had met before) about American popular music. We spent an hour or so instructing a classroom full of Chinese people how to say things like "Justin Timberlake," "Alan Jackson," and "Dave Matthews."

After giving the lessons Ben and I sat down to sip on our free coffee and chat with some of the students from the class. Remember - these "students" were really just every day people and most of them were much older than I. One thing that I found to be most interesting - when we were discussing various topics with one of the older Chinese gentleman he somehow produced his business card and handed it to me and Ben. One look at the card and I was blown away - this man had a Ph.D. in Oncology and was a teacher at the Beijing University Medical school. It was truly amazing to think that I, a humble college student, was teaching someone so intelligent and who taught at the very school that I was studying Chinese!

A final anecdote - We discovered another delicious pizza restaurant in Beijing that just recently opened. Named "Pyro Pizza" the restaurant serves delicious pizza with traditional western toppings and sides, and has several local Chinese beers on tap. While eating dinner at Pyro on Wednesday night we actually ran into a friend of mine named Kevin Curley who I had known in the High School debate community. He too was studying Chinese in Beijing for the summer and we had a great time exchanging stories and information about Beijing.

That's all for now! My time in Beijing is really winding down. Only a little over 2 weeks left before I come home! I can't believe the time is flying by so quickly.

Oh - one final note. While many of you know that I used to play a bit of golf now and then, I recently acquired a full set of Callaway X20 Clubs, Irons, Woods, and a putter for about 700 Yuan (less than $100 U.S.). Think that's a steal? Check out the real prices - the irons alone cost about $900 U.S. when they are new. I think I might try to hit up the golf course a little more often now. (Watch out for these in the mail Mom and Dad)

Over a month....

Well... as of last Thursday I have been officially living in China for one month. Wow, the time has passed by so quickly, I feel like I just got here! Before delving into my blog entry any further I thought I would included a picture of my room to show everyone how awesome my living conditions are - this is a picture of my own private room, which is then connected to a private suite/living room that includes a TV and a private bathroom.

I spent most of my week busily studying my Hanyu and Koyu homework (Written Chinese, Spoken Chinese) but I have certainly been enjoying Beijing to the fullest. Other than occasional afternoon games of ping pong with Kyle, Ben, and whatever locals happen to be at Bei Da's massive (and free) outdoor ping pong "park," we visited several new and exciting restraunts and shops, and even a few places that reminded us of home (did you know Pizza Huts in Beijing are high quality sit-down restaurants?). Check out this shot of Ben and Kyle (respectively) hanging out in our room.

I will provide a quick recap of a few exciting things that I've done over the last week or so. Last Thursday night we watched the Beijing Acrobatics show and, while I forgot my camera (sorry mom), it was still quite impressive. I must say on the whole I think that Shanghai definitely out-performs Beijing, but the Beijing act featured several unique feats that I did not see at the Shanghai show - including a different type of plate twirling, two people standing head-to-head (one balancing their entire body with their head on another person's head), and twelve people on one bicycle.

After the acrobatics show we visited Ho Hai for dinner. Ho Hai is a massive collection of bars and restaurants situated around a beautiful and rather large lake. Overall there are easily at least a hundred or more restaurants in the area. Most of them (including the one we ate at) featured comfortable and plush outdoor couches and tables where we could sit and watch the glimmering lights of small Chinese boats milling about the lake all evening. The atmosphere was fantastic. As per the recommendation of my friend Jackie who studied in Beijing last summer, I want to visit Ho Hai at sunset to see how truly gorgeous it can be.

Friday night we found a delicious western-style restaurant off of the western gate of Bei Da called the "Kro's Nest." Serving up killer pizza and mouth watering Philly cheese steaks, the Kro's nest also offers free poker chips to anyone who eats there. Needless to say, we spent a good portion of the evening engaged in a cut throat game of poker, with me being the ultimate victor.

Saturday was a very busy day! We left campus at 8am to venture to the Great Wall (this would be my second visit). After a bumpy and noisy bus ride we finally arrived at the Mutanyu section of the wall, which was the same place I had visited before. However, my experience was very different. For starters, we hiked up to the wall itself through a forest side trail, which was a much more intense experience than the quick gondola ride up I had previously taken. On the way, however, we stumbled upon a gorgeous mountain pagoda with a beautiful view.Not only did this new path take us to an entirely different section of the wall, but I also hiked much farther along the wall than I had on my previous visit. In fact, I even climbed up what my friends and I affectionately titled the "stairway to heaven" all the way to the end of the Mutanyu section of the wall. Here is a shot of me staring up to the top of the stairway, though it is shrouded in the thick mist that once again thwarted my attempts to take some quality pictures of the great wall.

After nearly 20 minutes of intense climbing up an increasingly steep staircase we finally reached the top - drenched in sweat we posed for our ultimate victory picture with our Chinese friend Jared.
After venturing home and recovering from our day long adventure we spent the evening at Lush, one of our favorite restaurant/bars in Beijing - I didn't take my camera out with me that night but I did manage to snap a picture of Kyle and myself at Lush when we ate there for lunch today. Lush has spectacular pitas, grilled flat breads, and breakfast foods - not to mention chili fries (Ben's personal favorite is the ranch dressing). Along with Lush, which is located in the Wu Dao Ko section of Beijing a mere 5 minute taxi ride from campus, some of our other favorite hot spots is a delicious coffee shop with a great atmosphere named Sculpting in Time, where Kyle and I spent a majority of last Sunday studying for our tests this week.

I know I said this in my last post but I will try to get more pictures and more updates! Don't fret if I don't manage to however, I am learning between twenty and forty new Chinese words a day and trying to experience as much of Beijing as I can!

R.I.P. Starbucks

I will post a more lengthy update about the last week tomorrow, but I'm amazed it's already been a week since my last update! My time here in Beijing is flying by. I just wanted to make a quick post to point out that I was one of the last customers ever at the Starbucks in the Forbidden City - it closed yesterday for good. Check out what CNN Money had to say about it.

Here's one last picture of me, clutching my beloved Starbucks, at the Forbidden City.

Finally...

I'm finally making another post! I know it's been a long time since I have posted but now I am finally settling into life in Beijing and I have a little bit of free time as well. Quite a few exciting things have happened since the last time I updated.

So far I've been living on my own in Beijing for over a week and I have taken a full week of classes at Beijing University (in Chinese we call it Bei Da). I have to say - life here at Beijing University is much different from my experience traveling around China. However, that's not to say I'm not having a great time!

For starters, the language barrier is much more prevalent now that I no longer constantly attend "tourist" locations and have a translating guide with me at all times. When shopping, ordering food, or even taking a taxi English is not usually an option. Luckily my friends and I have gotten great at point at the menu and, with our limited Chinese skills, we can usually piece together a decent order.

My dorm is awesome as well. I am living with two fellow Richmond kids named Ben and Kyle and the accommodations themselves are pleasant. We have our own private bathroom, air conditioned rooms, and access to a vast array of on and off campus restaurants. Classes are going well so far, but one thing that makes them very interesting is the fact that the teachers speak almost no English, and even those that do speak it refuse to use it when talking to the students.

Other than my living situation, life in Beijing has been really fun so far. In order to save time and not write a massive entry I will break the last week into 3 main events.

Last Thursday our whole group took a group trip to the Temple of Heaven and the Hong Qiao market. The Temple of Heaven was actually quite different from last time I visited it. Since it was raining last time we only saw the temple grounds for about twenty or thirty minutes. This time, however, I was able to see an entirely different entrance to the temple and visit several different locations on the temple grounds that I hadn't seen before. It was also great to see the temple on a sunny day without rain obscuring my view. The only downside to the sunny day was the withering heat - check out this picture of me and my friends Rebbecca, Ben, and Kyle.

Once we arrived at Hong Qiao the crack bargaining team of myself, Ben, and Kyle went to work frustrating merchants left and right. Our powers combined we have negotiated some ridiculous bargains at various marketplaces throughout Beijing (including the Beijing Silk Market this past Sunday). After hours of haggling with various Chinese vendors we have learned some of the finer points of getting the best deal and discovered the best prices for various items (Polo Shirts for 25 quai - that's about $3.20, North Face Jackets for 100 Quai). I have to say, I have a great time just haggling with these various shops. We would go to various shops and bargain for stuff we didn't even want just to see how ridiculous of a price we could get it for.

The second thing I wanted to write home about (har har) was the Fourth of July. It was truly strange to experience July 4th in a foreign country. The weirdest part about the entire day was that it almost passed without notice. Around about 10 P.M. Ben, Kyle, and I decided to head out on the town to try and find someone that was celebrating our great nation's birthday. Entirely by accident, actually, we stumbled upon a massive outdoor "International Beer Town" (garden), and within a few minutes of our arrival a few Americans jumped up and began singing the national anthem, prompting many others to join in. We spent the rest of our night celebrating and singing with the other American's at the garden - it was a great time.
Lastly, on Saturday morning I visited Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City (again). I didn't take as many pictures this time but I did enjoy the Starbucks (maybe even more). My other favorite part of the visit was being harassed by the various merchants peddling hats, books, and other trinkets throughout the day. With my new bargaining skills the merchants usually ended up far more frustrated and annoyed than me! That's all for now, I don't want to write an essay. I will try to keep my updates more frequent and less lengthy, so until next time Zai Jian!

Stay Tuned...

I just wanted to make a post to clarify how the blog is going to operate from here on out.

I will keep updating the blog on a somewhat regular basis (once a week, or so, depending on how things go). But please don't expect daily updates, since they would probably get somewhat monotonous after a while. However, I will be updating cool and exciting things that happen to me so be sure to stay tuned every once in a while to see how things are going.

Remember - I will be in China (almost exclusively) until December 2007, so until mid December '07 I will keep updating the blog with some frequency.

Thanks to everyone for reading my blog and giving me feedback!

P.S. If you're wondering what the picture is, I visited a local fletcher (bow maker) this morning. He is one of the last masters of this ancient craft in all of China, and he is trained in a style of bow-making that dates back 10 generations. Check out this NPR story about him.

Day Fifteen

I'll begin my post today with a fact I forgot to mention yesterday. Following what I suppose is becoming a tradition on this trip of being housed with world leaders, we found out (and saw them both first hand in the lobby) that the King and Queen of Spain are staying in our hotel. Luckily for us their "security apparatus" wasn't nearly as obtrusive as the Iraqi President's, but they royal family did manage to freeze downtown traffic for nearly an our upon our return to the hotel. It looks like our hotel is truly fit for kings!

Our day was primarily focused around our visit to one of the modern wonders of the world (I can check another one off my list) - the Great Wall of China. A structure so vast and impressive that it is one of the few human creations that can be seen from outer space.

We took a cable car up to our portion of the wall because it was one of the highest and hardest to reach sections. Before arriving at the top, however, I managed get an awesome picture with a local who was dressed to kill (I know... there are too many puns in this entry).
Once at the top, we were able to explore for a leisurely amount of time. My mom and I walked a fairly lengthy expanse of the wall, but some of our pictures were slightly tarnished by a thick mist that permeated the forest all around the wall. I'm sure if you look hard enough, however, you can still see how far off it goes into the distance.

Witnessing the height and expanse of the Great Wall first hand was incredible. While it may not look as if the wall is particularity high - consider the fact that the plants reaching up the sides of the wall are not bushes or shrubs but rather the tops of trees. I would have loved to spend even more time walking among the towers and guard posts of the wall but sadly we eventually had to depart.

We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting the Temple of Heaven, a beautiful local temple in Beijing where many locals spend their free time, and the Hong Qiao market - a massive bazaar of cheaper-than-you-could-imagine Chinese knockoffs offering everything from Polo Shirts to Rolex watches.

Sadly, tonight was the last night of our group trip and we had a delicious farewell diner at the world renowned and exclusive China Club. Everyone else leaves in the morning and I have only two more days until my summer study at the University of Beijing starts. I had any awesome trip with everyone and I hope y'all enjoy reading my blog from back in the states. Now the true adventure begins! Zai jian!

Day Fourteen

Our morning began with a trip to Tiananmen Square - the largest public square in the world and an internationally renowned location. The square itself was truly massive - spanning farther than the eye (or camera for that matter) could see. In fact, even buildings that should have been in plain sight were obscured by a mist (possibly pollution related) that shrouded nearly the entire city. Nonetheless, we were able to capture a pretty solid picture of ourselves in front of Mao's portrait, possibly the most famous location in Tiananmen Square.

While the square houses Mao's tomb, which displays his actual body, it was unfortunately closed for renovation during our visit due to China's preparation for the 2008 Olympics. I was somewhat disappointed by this fact because I wanted to check Mao off the list of long dead communist leaders whose tombs I have visited (I've seen both Ho Chi Min and Vladamir Lenin in the flesh).

Following our trek around Tiananmen we ventured into the ominous Forbidden City. Completely closed to the public until 1949, the Forbidden City is one of China's other hallmark tourist attractions. No photographs or descriptions could possibly convey the size and scope of the Forbidden city. We spent nearly two hours in an almost linear journey through the complex, traversing dozens of passage ways, massive courtyards, and, yes, even stopping at a Starbucks (they have on near the inner courtyard... it was a bitter-sweet experience for me to see one of my favorite shops inside such an ancient historical landmark).

We spent almost the entire morning in the Forbidden City and I can safely say that we all felt as if we had barely seen any of it! One of the most interesting sights that we witnessed within the Forbidden City was the changing of the guard at one of the early outer courtyards.
Following a tasty lunch at a local Beijing restaurant near the rear of the Forbidden City, we ventured to the Summer Palace, where the imperial family spent the hotter months of each year. The palace itself is even larger than the Forbidden City - boasting over 1,000 individual buildings and two lakes (one complete with a giant marble boat built inside of it). The lakes are so large that our guide told us the Emperor once had his entire navy engage in training exercises on the lake for his entertainment. Unfortunately, my camera died soon after arriving and I was only able to snap a few shots of the Summer Palace. Check out the one of my mom walking along a massive corridor that spanned the edge of one of the lakes.

In the evening we watched a dazzling and well choreographed Kung Fu performance at one of Beijing's local theaters. While I had managed to charge my camera by that time, they were very strict about enforcing their "intellectual property rights" that prevented me from taking any pictures (ironic?). Some of the highlights included epic battles, a man laying on top of a bed of swords, and people breaking blades on top of each other's heads. We then headed off to sleep, tomorrow we have even more exciting adventures planned!