First Day in Beijing

The first thing I noticed the moment I left the airport was the smog. It was misty when we left Spokane, so I thought the same might be true here in China, coming in late at night. But the smell gave it away. Thankfully, it has been pretty windy, which has kept the smog away for the most part. We made it safely to the hotel, and some of us explored the surrounding area after we checked in.

We woke up early this morning for breakfast, with a wake-up call at 7:30. Breakfast was served in the hotel, which turned out to be quite delicious! Fried eggs, spicy carrots, dumplings and rolls, noodles, and other dishes were served for us. After our morning meeting, we hopped on the tour bus and headed out to explore the city.

-Bryan

Before I can begin to explain about our first day in Beijing I need to introduce you to Jack.  Jack has joined us as our tour guide and has done so much already to enhance our experience during our time here in China.  Despite having never studied outside of China, he has very good English.  His knowledge of colloquial terms is both impressive and humorous when unexpected.  We all have very much enjoyed having him along with us, because not only does he have an amazing knowledge base of everything from the layout of the Forbidden City to the facts regarding the recent Olympic games, he has gone out of his way to help us by teaching simple Chinese, giving general advice about bartering, helping translate in order to navigate some dietary restrictions of our group, as well as by allowing us to connect with him on a personal level.

Anyways, focusing back on the tour, the first stop we made was Tienanmen Square.  This square was built to commemorate the revolution under Chairman Mao.  To give an idea of the size of this square, on the day of its completion here was a ceremony during which 1 million people stood on the square.  Currently, a mausoleum for Chairman Mao stands in the middle of the square.

After viewing Tienanmen Square we proceeded through the Tienanmen Gate to the Forbidden City.  These ancient structures were used by the imperial family and officers for several dynasties.  Throughout our tour of the Forbidden City, Jack was able to provide an incredible amount of information regarding the customs of the Emperor, the different functions of the buildings, and what the significance of many of the decorations and symbols were.  Upon leaving the Forbidden City we headed toward the Summer Palace, another imperial building, stopping for lunch on the way.

- Jonathan Burge

The Emperors Summer Palace was amazing in multiple ways. One of the most amazing aspects of the Summer Palace was how captivating and scenic the views were. Walking in through the gates and seeing the intrinsic art on the wood was breathtaking. Every inch of the woodwork had paintings and detailed stories of history painted on it. Then, the group walked to the lake of the property where we could see people walking and sledding on the half frozen lake. It looked unsafe but many people were enjoying winter festivities on the lake. We then took a hike up the mountain to reach the top. After hiking up many stairs, there was an incredibly scenic view of the emperors summer palace complete property. 

-Kaitlin