The Wheel: Beijing Journal

John spent the summer in Beijing, China, studying at Tsinghua University, seeing the sites, and attending the Olympics (as seen on NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams).

Arrival
June 17, 2008

Our group flight was delayed by around 5 hours out of Chicago O'Hare. Once at the airport, the flight was overbooked by around 30 seats so they were offering $600, a hotel, food, and an upgrade to business class to take a flight the next day. In order to stay with the group and Professor Gu, we all kept our seats. The flight was long an uneventful.

When we arrived at the airport in China and got through immigration and customs we all boarded buses and headed to Tsinghua University. Once we arrived and got checked into our rooms, Professor Gu took us out to dinner (around 11PM local time). After dinner we dispersed to settle in to our dorm rooms and get some rest before orientation the next morning. No internet connection tonight but that should be fixed in the morning.

My dorm room is nice but small. I have a private room with a twin bed, tv, desk, closet, and private bath. Also, we get maid service a few times per week. I was pleasantly surprised when I found that no converter is necessary to plug US appliances into the wall. They have both types of outlets, although it is still 220V especially because the one I have does not fit the socket.

Current number of animals eaten: 1

We woke up on the 1st full day and went to breakfast. First thoughts were of how cheap it is here. A full buffet breakfast cost only 10Y ($1.25ish). Breakfast was a real guessing game. All the food was labeled in Chinese so I really have no idea what I ate. There was some really good food and some really bad. I guess I just have to learn to differentiate before I put it on my plate.

Then we went exploring around campus. We are apparently at a satellite campus for Tsinghua as all the dorms at the main campus are being occupied for the Olympics. As we were exploring we found a small convenience store which further confirmed the cheap prices. I bought some toiletries for a few dollars and a liter soda for around 40 cents. We are about to head down to orientation.

After orientation, we found out that we might not be staying here at this satellite campus as they are trying to get us rooms at Tsinghua or at the Capital Medical Institute. If we cannot move, none of us engineering students can do research as there are no labs here.

Current number of animals eaten: ? Not really sure what I ate for lunch. I figure I am done trying to keep track after Day 1.

First Few Days
June 19, 2008

We went downtown (I think) tonight to get away from campus and to see other areas of Beijing. One of the people on our trip, a Beijing native, organized an excursion for us tonight. We went to Club Mix, a very European/American style club and with it came Western prices. However, it was still cheaper than most places in America but more expensive than China as a whole. Through this we had our first experience with Beijing driving. It is crazy, not like the US. People don't respect traffic signs and regulations as we do. This led to an interesting cab ride there. Outside the club there were dozens of Chinese citizens playing music and dancing in a town square. After coming back, we decided to go to bed as classes are starting in the morning. Chinese class will actually be interesting as I will learn some immediately practical knowledge.

The first day of Chinese class was interesting. They split the 30 beginning Chinese students into three classes of 10 each. Our professor, Wang Fang, doesn't speak much English. This will be an interesting summer. Chinese is a very hard language with the different inflections of tone meaning completely different things. Hopefully I can pick up some of it this summer.

After lunch I went to a Chinese Communist Party history class because we cannot do research at this satellite campus. Maybe next week I can get into a lab if we move campuses. But for now, this class is at least very interesting. The professor is from Northwestern and speaks fluent English, which is very reassuring. He is a great lecturer and because it is a history class, he tells it like a giant story which makes the material very fun to hear and learn. We are all getting tired of the dining hall's food because we have had every meal there since we got here (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). We are going into the city tonight to get some better food and explore a bit.

So I ended up falling asleep at 7pm instead of going downtown. It worked out fine because now I am fully un-jetlagged. This morning was our second day of Chinese class. We started to learn how to write/read. The characters are hard to figure out. Our teacher's teaching style involves saying something in Chinese and us having a blank stare then just repeating what she said in Chinese but slower until we finally pretend to understand. Over the course of the summer I think I will figure it out. Each part of class we come up with another revelation on how it works.

This afternoon after class we are taking a bus downtown to do what I meant to do last night. The program is supplying the bus to and from the city, which is nice. We have also heard that in the next week or so we will be moving to Tsinghua's main campus. Right now they are just rumors but we are having a meeting tomorrow afternoon for final information. Hopefully we can get there so I can get into a lab and do some actual engineering work although I do find the history class interesting.

I just got back from downtown for the first time. We went down right after class on a bus to Tsinghua's main campus. It is very nice but very smoggy. You could hardly tell the sun was up. You could look directly at it and not have to squint. All the buildings were in a haze. Other than that, it was nice to see people our age and to explore the city. We got our pictures taken for Tsinghua student ID cards there. As we walked around campus many locals were taking pictures of us and admiring us as being different. This made us feel like we were actually in China for the first time. Then we went a bit off campus to the heart of downtown and bought a cell phone, my first experience of haggling in China. Luckily there were a few people on the trip that are fluent to do the negotiating for us. We ended up getting a prepaid phone for around 40USD.

Then we had dinner in a Korean karaoke restaurant where we got our own private dining room with giant tv, disco balls, lighting, and mirrors. We ate our fill and enjoyed the atmosphere for around $6USD, which is expensive for a meal but we were paying for the atmosphere rather than the food. On the cab ride home we drove past the Olympic stadium. It looked interesting from the outside but definitely a spot to go back to and explore more.

Moving
June 22, 2008

We just got news that we will be moving campuses to the Capital University of Medical Sciences on Sunday afternoon. This is very good news because we will be literally in downtown Beijing instead of in the suburban outskirts that remind me of suburban Illinois. When we move, we will move into double occupancy rooms and I am rooming with Mike Zhou. Where we are staying apparently has 3star hotel type amenities, which will be good. This whole debacle was caused by the Chinese Communist Party. They are housing Olympic "volunteers" in those rooms now and they are getting displaced and living in classrooms in bunk beds for us to stay in the nice rooms. "Volunteers" is in quotes because they are Chinese citizens of the CCP who believe it is their duty to serve the party to pick up trash and whatnot for the summer to aid in the Olympic efforts. This country is so Communistic minded it is ridiculous. This move should be very exciting though for everyone. We will be much closer to city life and have interactions with actual people for a change.

So tonight we went to a ritzy area of Beijing for dinner and drinks. It is a beautiful area of town, overlooking a lake. At dinner, I can't even count how many different types of animals/animal body parts I ate. We had everything from duck brain/head to cow intestine to scorpion. The scorpion was actually pretty delicious. It came fried but still intact. I would munch on a bowl of them if it was sold that way. Tastes like potato chips. The only thing is that instead of picking potato out of your teeth you are picking scorpion leg out. No big deal. We ordered the "meat platter" which was described as beef and pork in the menu but turned out to be intestine. It was pretty gross. Then we wondered around the bar area and found some nice bars to chill in for a while until we came home. Tomorrow we have a big day planned at some Beijing history museum.

Today was our first scheduled field trip. We went to the Capital Museum. It had everything from Beijing's history and had a nice area where it showed a Chinese history timeline and artifacts versus a Western world timeline so you can see how the two compare in each time era. Most of the exhibits were kind of lame because all the plaques were in Chinese. The artifacts were nice but we didn't really know what they were. After the museum we had a nice lunch at McDonalds and KFC. Surprisingly it was the same/better than in the US, and cheaper. Side note, I feel almost bad about how cheap I have become over here. Now that I've been here for a week, I know the general prices for different things and won't pay more. For example, today I wouldn't buy a liter soda from one store because they wanted nearly 75 cents US for it, how preposterous!

After the museum they bussed us to a western shopping area which was nice but with it came western prices. It also didn't feel too Chinese. It seemed like we were in Europe with Chinese characters on the signs. There we got a nice hour long full body massage for around $15 USD. It was really relaxing and energizing. Pretty good bargain. Then. as we were wondering around, I checked off another animal from my "to eat" list. We came across a cart that was selling live scorpion (already had last night), cicada, seahorse on a stick, silk worm cocoons, chicken heart, and other weird food. I had the seahorse on a stick. It had the same texture as the scorpion but was spicy. I don't reckon I will have another one, however I might have more scorpion. Next on my list is cicada though, I think or possibly starfish. Gotta keep eating these animals. We are going out again tonight to a different district.

Today when I woke up, I got packed and ready for the move to the new university. I just got settled in at the new university. We are staying in a hotel, or what reminds me of an American hotel. I have a double occupancy room with a private bath. It is very nice here. There are people all over the place and much more life around than where we were. Tonight we are going to go explore the new neighborhood and see if we can find anything cool to do around here. Tomorrow we start classes again. Gu laoshi is going to talk to Tsinghua tomorrow to see about lab placement for the research program. Since there are only 5 of us we got put as more of an afterthought because we can easily do one of the other programs instead. However, I think starting later this week or next week I will be in a lab.

Research
June 26, 2008

I went to Tsinghua University for the second time today to check out some labs. I am now going to be studying in an automotive engineering lab. They have an elaborate car driving simulator set up in the lab consisting of a real car and movie screen to simulate driving on a street. Their goal is to reduce traffic fatalities. My first assignment is to make the steering wheel and pedals more realistic feeling. I go there 3 days a week for around 4 hours each day. It will probably be a week or so before I get any real work done because I need to play some catch up on what is going on.

Just letting you know I am now in a lab.

Settling In
June 29, 2008

Today during Chinese class our teacher gave us our Chinese names. Mine is Chang Xiao, smile often. She gave a different one to each person in the class based on how well she knows us after 4 days. After class this afternoon we are going to explore the area more and check out our surroundings.

We got some really good and cheap street food about a 5 minute walk from our dorm. There are a lot of really cheap restaurants around this area as well. We are going to have to check them all out at some point.

I talked to Gu laoshi today about the research again and he thinks I will be in an automotive engineering lab starting late this week/early next week, which is nice. We will be bussed to Tsinghua's main campus a few days a week to work in the lab and then hang out there for a bit for rush hour to subside then cab back to where we are staying. The cab fare and bus are covered by the program. However, the history class is very interesting. Learning about how Mao and the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) took over China from feuding warlords with the help of the Russians.

Tonight we are going to explore a shopping area that is apparently known for knockoff items and to get some duck dinner. It should provide for an interesting and fun evening. We went to a huge flea market that sold anything you could imagine for really cheap. I didn't buy anything but I will go back at a later date when I have more time to really do some buying.

Today when walking to the convenience store, Geoff and I made a new friend. When all you have is two white guys walking around together Chinese people go out of their way to come up and start conversations with you in English so they can get some practice. He wanted to set up a time and place that we could meet regularly to practice language. We just told him that we go to the store frequently so if he is ever there he will probably run into an American student.

We made friends with a Danish bartender who recently moved here and bought a bar for 250000Yuan. A pretty ridiculous deal. We talked to him for a while and asked him about the crazy foods, like scorpion and sea horse. He laughed and said no one eats that over here that it was for the tourists. It makes sense. They are behind the counter thinking "man we can get Americans to pay to eat this!?!?!" We are going to hang out at his bar later this weekend. Today we took a field trip to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City is awesome. Such a big palace filled with great gems and treasures. We could spend weeks there and not really see everything. There are 9999 rooms. We came back and napped and then we are about to go to dinner.

I tried doing some laundry today for the first time on the trip. We bought some detergent and hand washed some clothes in the bath tub. They are now hanging up in tub to air dry. Hopefully they actually come out clean.

Long Weekend Plans
July 2, 2008

Living in Beijing
July 9, 2008

Earlier this week I figured out how to use the public transportation system here. It is much cleaner and dependable than in the states but so many more people. You get herded onto trains and busses by people whose job it is to push more people on. It is really cheap too. It is about 25 cents US per ride.

We are looking into what we are going to do for the long weekend next week. We are either going to go to Inner Mongolia for a few days or go up north to a mountain and coastal city. Either option will be really fun and a completely different experience. I'm excited for the trip. Both will cost around $150-250USD each so they are not too expensive.

Beijing is trying to clean up the city and pollution to meet Olympic standards. Starting this week they are only allowing half the cars in the city to drive each day. It is decided by license plate number. If it is even you get certain days and if it is odd you get the others. This will last until September when the Olympics are over. They also have hired so many people (coerced volunteers) to go around and pick up trash, plant trees, remodel public transportation, and other general beautification projects. It is actually really interesting to see them prepare for the Olympics.

On the research side, it is starting to get really interesting because I am now done with orientation and all that hoopla so I can actually do things now. I am working with Rui, another Northwestern student, to create/drastically improve a car simulation. Currently they have a crude program written that is just made to work, not to actually be real. They have a car that you drive and the program takes input from the pedals and wheel to move a simulated car on a movie projector screen. When driving the car now it seems very unrealistic because the car does not handle or behave as one actually should when using the pedals and wheel. It will be very interesting creating the new model. We go to the lab 3 days a week for around 3-4 hours each day. We take a bus to Tsinghua University to the lab and then take the subway back to the campus we are staying at. It is about an hour commute each way.

Our new plan for the long weekend (next weekend July 10-15) we are planning on taking a train from Beijing to Qufu, the birthplace and home of Confucius. Spend a day there visiting his birthplace and decedent's palace. Then we will travel to Taishan, one of the most beautiful mountains in China and the most beautiful in the Shandong Province of China. We will spend a day hiking in the mountains and spend the night at the top to watch the sun rise the next morning. From there we will travel to Qingdao, a coastal city that is home to the Tsingtao beer brewery, the Chinese version of Heineken. It resembles Heineken because the city was controlled by Europeans until the CCP took power in the mid 1900s. Here we will also find Asia's #1 beach, as described by a many China travel guides. The pictures we saw online were fabulous. Then from Qingdao we will take a day trip up the coast to some small island that I forget the name of but is supposed to be really cool. Then we will catch a train back to Beijing. We are thinking the trip will cost around 1500RMB for everything (around 225USD). Today we went to the Great Wall. We went out to a not as touristy area a few hours out of Beijing. It was really cool. We climbed the wall up into the mountain. It was raining which kinda sucked but at least it wasn't hot. I bought a rice paddy straw hat that kept most of the rain off of my head. The wall got slippery as it got increasingly more wet. The wall is really sweet. You get some awesome scenic views from the top down into the mountains. I cant imagine building that. On the way down there is a zipline that carries you over a river down to the base of the mountain and where the restaurants and souvenir shops are. This is so far the coolest thing we have done.

We have started to get into tea here. The tea is really good and cheap. We have hot water heaters in our rooms and we bought a tea pot to brew the tea. I will probably bring some tea home with me. It is around $20US for a kilogram of good tea.

We are going to leave tomorrow night for our long weekend. Our final plan is an overnight train to Qufu. Spend the morning looking at Confucius's stuff then going to the mountain for a few days. We will hike and climb the mountain. Then we go to Qingdao to spend some time at the beach. From there we will come back to Beijing.

Long Weekend
July 15, 2008

We departed late Thursday night for our long weekend. We arrived at the Beijing train station at around 10.30 PM for an overnight train to Qufu. We had hard seats. It was a two fixed benches around a small table. It wasn't the best living conditions for an overnight train, but it was cheap and available. When we tried to get off there were too many people between us and the door and we couldn't get out before the train kept moving. We had to get off at the next stop.

When we got off we got looks like "why are you here" and "this can't be where you intended to get off." It was in the middle of no where China. We drew crowds just because we were white. Every time we stopped to figure out where we were or what we were going to do groups of locals crowded around us. It was weird. From there we caught a bus back to Qufu. Once in Qufu we visited Confucius's Temple, Mansion, and Forest. His tomb and decedent's graves are all in the forest. His family mansion is huge. It rivals the Forbidden City in appeal but not in size. It was really cool and definitely worth the visit.

Then we boarded a bus to take us to Taian, the city at the base of Taishan, the mountain we are going to climb. Our plan was to make it halfway up the mountain tonight and stay there and get up to see the sunrise tomorrow morning but we are all exhausted from the trip so we got a room at the base and are going to stay on the mountain tomorrow night.

Today we hiked halfway up the mountain after a good nights rest. We got a small room in a small hostel type place. From there we had dinner and hiked up to a Daoist Temple to watch the sun set. Tomorrow we are getting up at 2.30 to hike up to the summit to watch the sunrise. On the way up we stopped and prayed and lit incense at a little prayer area. This place is really interesting. At night we had dinner with some locals outside a small restaurant and hotel and convenience store. It is a pleasant life style. Living your life with no real connection to the greater world with beautiful scenery all around you. I could retire to that.

We met some Russian Israeli citizens traveling around also. They just got out of the military and are seeing the world before starting real life. We hiked up to the summit with them this morning to see the sunrise. It was really cool. Very beautiful. The only problem was that it is straight stairs to the top and it is very commercialized with lots of people. I wish we went to a mountain that was more secluded but Taishan is China's holiest mountain and is a Daoist shrine, drawing worshipers from all over China and Asia. After we hiked back down to our hostel to get some sleep before starting to go to Qindao. I am on a train now to Qingdao. This time we have beds and it is very comfortable. We have a hostel reservation in Qingdao and we will buy train tickets back to Beijing once we arrive tonight. This trip has been so much fun so far. We are planning on grabbing dinner and scouting out the city tonight when we arrive and then tomorrow spending most of the day at the beach.

We arrived in Qingdao around 10PM and got train tickets home.
Unfortunately they were sold out of tickets on Tuesday so we had to
leave a day early and catch a night train back on Monday night. After
we got checked into our hostel we had dinner and a few drinks at a
local street cafe with many locals. It is really interesting seeing the local customs and how they live their lives. Tomorrow we are going to go to the beach in the morning and see the brewery in the afternoon before catching our train back to Beijing.

Today we woke up and had brunch in the basement of the hostel. It is a very nice place. Then we took a bus to one of the beaches in Qingdao. Qingdao is a very nice place. Very beautiful coasts and parks within the city and very low pollution in comparison to Beijing. We laid on the beach for a few hours just enjoying the scene and breeze. Then we went to the Qingdao brewery and took a tour ending at a nice seafood restaurant across the street form the brewery. We had a really nice dinner then went to the train station to catch our train back to Beijing. I am currently writing this from the train back. In total on the trip I spent just about 1000Yuan (about $150USD which is awesome) for train transportation, lodging, food, and all related tourism expenses (entry fees, cabs, etc).

My New Haircut
July 23, 2008

Today I needed a haircut so I went to this little barbershop near the campus. It was close and cheap. I got my hair trimmed and cut relatively short. Surprisingly it actually looks good. I am very pleased with it. It will definitely last me until I get back to the states to get a real haircut again.

We went out last night to just see the city. We came back and the next morning we went to the zoo. The zoo is really cool but they have some weird things there like dogs. It is kind of interesting. The most exciting exhibit was definitely the pandas. They had a lot of panda bears. I couldn't have taken a trip to China and not seen any pandas.

We have been suit shopping for the past week or so but just found a price we were willing to pay tonight. We got custom tailored silk Chinese style sport coats for 350Yuan ($50USD). That is the cheapest they said they have sold them to anyone for in the last month. They said this after we bought it so it is more believable than them just using that as a bargaining trick. I got a bright yellow and a baby blue coat with dragon patterns on the silk. We go next week to pick them up. They are going to be really sweet.

Other than that, nothing much new is going on to write about. We are all settled in here and living lives like we would if we actually lived here. We don't feel like tourists anymore running around doing all the "touristy" things here at every chance we get. We still go shopping and see the sites but we do it more casually. We are getting accustomed to life here.

This weekend we are traveling to Xian to see the terracotta soldiers. We leave Friday afternoon and return Monday morning before class. We have sleeper trains both ways. It should be sweet to see the soldiers. Definitely a must while in China.

Olympic Tickets
July 24, 2008

Tonight we are going to camp out for Olympic tickets. The fourth round of sales for tickets happens tomorrow morning at 9am from the official ticketing agency. We are going to stay there all night to try to get a good spot in line and get the tickets we want. They have 850,000 tickets including tickets to every event. We can buy them there at face value (around 30-80USD per ticket, depending on the event). Each person is limited to two tickets so I will only get to see 2 games unless we can scalp more tickets or wait in line twice, which probably wont be feasable. More information to come on tickets later.

...

So we got to the place where tickets are being sold to find thousands of people who have been lined up for a few days now. We arent getting tickets that way. Hopefully in the next few weeks we can Craigslist some or scalp some somehow. We think we have a connection for preliminary boxing tickets. I think we can get 10 tickets so some of us can hit that up. Else we shall wait and see.

...

Breaking News! I think I can see some games! haha. We found a few connections that we are trying to work right now. We are going to pick up preliminary boxing tickets tomorrow for real cheap. They are 200Yuan (like $30USD). Then I found a connection that hopefully can come through for swimming tickets. The tickets are significantly more expensive ($134USD) but are for 4 medal matches (including ceremonies) on the 11th (including 2 or 3 that Michael Phelps will be swimming in). Hopefully we can watch him get some gold here.

Just an update. No tickets are final yet, but that is what we are going for. Hopefully they will come through. We are still looking though.

...

Today we bought 10 Olympic Boxing Tickets and have them in hand. We are actively looking for more but that is what we have so far.

Xian
July 27, 2008

First, I want to start this entry by stating that I am turning into an Olympic junkie. I am reading everything I can about the Olympics, getting excited about it, doing whatever I can for tickets, etc. Watching Beijing go crazy is phenomenal. It is a ridiculous experience.

We left yesterday afternoon for Xian. We had hard sleeper seats on an overnight train which entails a small bunk-bed area for 6 people per cabin. It was much nicer than our hard seats that we had before. Once we got to Xian we had breakfast and took a bus to the terracotta soldiers.

The terracotta soldiers are ridiculous. So much history lies within them. Only one remained undestroyed over the thousands of years. He is a kneeling archer on display in a special case. All the rest are restored figures from shattered fragments. When they were uncovered they were all beautifully painted but within six minutes of fresh air all the paint on them oxidized leaving a dull grey color. There are thousands upon thousands of these soldiers lined up guarding the emperor's tomb. It is very impressive.

From there we had lunch and went to other historical places in Xian. One of note was the emperor's hot springs. We saw where many dynasties of emperors came to bathe in natural hot springs inside a mountain in the outskirts of Xian.

We just got to our hotel for the night and are showering and going to go explore the city some more tonight when we are all ready. Tomorrow is more sightseeing then back to Beijing on an overnight train again.

The next day we started by taking a scenic bike ride along the top of the ancient city wall. The wall is up to 1400 years old at the oldest parts and 600 years old at the newest. It was really cool. We got some exercise while seeing some historical parts of Beijing. From there we went to a feng shui museum where we learned all about feng shui and how you can harness good feng shui to bring you fortune and prosperity. It was interesting, I guess, if you are into that sort of thing.

From there we had lunch and spent the afternoon at a Buddhist temple and the Muslim quarter. We just walked around for a few hours taking in the sites of historical Xian before heading back to the train station to come back to Beijing.

We got into Beijing at around 6.30 this morning and have class at 9.00 so we have a pretty quick turnaround. We are now looking into planning another trip this next weekend back to Qingdao to spend more than just that one day on the beach and the city. Hopefully it works out. But if we go we are going to have to get our tourism A game on to see all the other sites of Beijing we were going to see this next weekend during the week instead. We still have quite a few things to see namely Mao's body and the Temple of Heaven.

Olympics
August 8, 2008

We moved into Tsinghua University yesterday morning but do not have
internet in our rooms. We are supposed to be able to call a number
and get it set up but I dont speak Chinese and the dude on the phone
doesn't speak English. So I am just using internet cafes/there is a starbucks just off campus with wireless that I can use.

Last night's ceremonies were absolutely ridiculous. I had so much fun. We camped out by the Birds Nest for the first hour or so watching some of the fireworks and seeing the insane amount of security. We watched troop after troop of soldiers, volunteers, and police march by detaining the crowds and maintiaining security.

I wore my USA felt top hat. That got me interviewed by 5 news stations asking me about my Olympic experience and what I am doing this summer. We were with a bunch of Chinese that absolutely loved us. I got my picture taken hundreds of times and we were the life of the area. We got them all chanting things from "We love USA" to "Hello China we love you". At one point police came over to ask us to stop creating a scene. We laughed. I got tons of great pictures in the area. After that we left and watched the rest of the ceremonies and the torch lighting in a bar in Beijing. I can't really express how amazing seeing all of last night and being a part of the Olympic fever here was. You all definitely need to go to an Olympics. (tickets for Vancouver go on sale in October...)

I dont know how frequently I will be able to send messages until I get back to the states but I will try to keep you as updated as possible.

Hope everything is going well in the States. Cheer for the Americans!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Beijing Journal

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