RagLand

Beijing

2006-02-26T11:23:00.001-05:00

2005-04-12T21:07:00.000-04:00

From my hotel window, I saw the sun rise thru the veil like Beijing haze one more once... it was magic.
Zia Jian and Xie Xie, Beijing. Min tian jian. Wa hwe la la in Mei Guo and I hope wa hwe la la to Zhong Guo (translation: good bye and thank you, Beijing. I will see you. I am back in America and I will be back to China...or I think that's what I am saying!!)

2005-04-12T20:59:00.000-04:00

Our last group shot on the morning of departure. Everyone had mixed feelings, we wanted to stay and see more but we were also a bit homesick.

2005-04-12T20:55:00.000-04:00

On our very last (whole) day in Beijing, we visited a silk factory. Here is the group learning the difference between a good quality silk worm cocoon and an ok quality silk cocoon.

2005-04-12T20:52:00.000-04:00

This machine threads and spools the silk from the cocoons. Cool, huh?

2005-04-12T20:50:00.000-04:00

Sara and Allison making the silk cocoons into soft thin sheets. With 150 of these ethereal silk spider web sheets, they make the most amazing bed spreads.

2005-04-12T20:44:00.000-04:00

This is the finished product. The softest and most dangerous bed covers in the world...I would never get up to get to work if my sheets were this soft.

2005-04-12T20:38:00.000-04:00

On our last lunch together, (Day 7..I think) we ate Pekin Duck. According to our tour guide David, there are 3 things one must accomplish when traveling to Beijing: Climb the wall (check), see the Peking Opera (check) and eat Pekin duck (hat trick!!).

2005-04-12T20:34:00.000-04:00

Here is what our Pekin Duck dinner looked like. They served the sliced duck in the cute little duck shaped platters (see picture). They served the head as well which made our two vegetarian travelers turn all sorts of colors. In this picture, Brad and Ben are trying to cope with this feast. No matter how much we ate, we never seemed to make a dent on the food. See for yourself (from the bottom and clockwise: Pekin duck, deep fried chicken with lemon sauce, brocoli and pinenuts, I think some sort of pork dish, in the middle you see sliced beef, bean paste sauce, pink lotus root with shallots I think, steamed bokchoy, fish with Chinese cabbage, green beans, next to the Pekin duck deep fried shrimp...and that's just the food on this side of the table)

2005-04-12T20:21:00.000-04:00

I had a chance to stroll through Beijing's antique market on our last day. The kids all rolled their eyes when I asked if they wanted to come with me! So they all returned to the hotel and I got to hang out on my own for a bit. It turned out to be one of my favorite outings cause of all the old fashion tea shops and tiny little traditional Chinese medicine apothecaries. I saw beautifully carved antique furniture and all sort of odds and ends that came from old Buddhist temples.

2005-04-11T18:42:00.000-04:00

Today we visited an award winning master painter. He told us about life in the Hutongs. His favorite paint subject is the Lotus blossom.

2005-04-11T18:40:00.000-04:00

We got to tour the artist's house. Here is Zach standing in the kitchen. To Zach's left is the stove, to his right, the sink and behind him all the counter space in this kitchen!

2005-04-11T18:38:00.000-04:00

Patrick was fortunate enough to purchase this painting called "Cranes in the Fall" from one of the Hutong District Hidden Dragons (humble and harmless on the outside an very powerful and moving on the inside)

2005-04-11T18:22:00.000-04:00

We were privilege eat lunch at the home of a Chinese family. The hosts taught us how to make dumplings and we were each able to make and eat our own. In this picture, you can get an idea of how fast she could roll those dough balls into beautifully thin and perfectly round dumpling wrappers. Traditionally, in China, dumplings were eaten when there was a successfull harvest season because farmers could afford the ingredients (flour, eggs, very little pork, green onions or scallions). They are eaten especially during the Chinese New Year to signify wealth.

2005-04-11T18:11:00.000-04:00

If I had my way, I would travel the world visiting the smallest and most remote kitchens and learning all their culinary secrets. Learning to make Chinese dumplings in a real Chinese home, from a real dumplin' pro was the closest I have come to realizing that dream!!

2005-04-11T18:04:00.000-04:00

In this picture you can sort of see our finished dumplings. Patrick's dumpling was so ugly and so very bad that the host said she couldn't possibly put it in the boiling pot!! (she was kidding) But Patrick, that was one sad lookin' dumpling.

2005-04-11T18:01:00.000-04:00

Her name is Willow and she told me (thru an interpreter) what it was like to go thru Mao's Cultural Revolution. I was incredibly touched by her testimony and it shamed me to realized that my generation has it so very nice despite all our whinning!
To any World Study student reading this entry: You can earn extra credit by researching the Chinese Cultural revolution and presenting your findings to your class. It is a fascinating period in history.

2005-04-10T20:42:00.000-04:00

In China, all school kids "drive" their bikes to school. Some of our epals ride for an hour to go to school everyday!!!

2005-04-10T11:32:00.000-04:00

These are our epals from Beijing No. 5 High School. This high school is a model school and sponsored heavily by the government. The students are scouted from all over Beijing for their academic prowess. 100% of these students will pass the very rigurous college entrance exams. 100% of the students will be accepted into college and complete degrees in China's most prestigious universities. 70% of the students will choose science degrees!! The school has its own science observatory and very high tech physics and chemistry research centers. If you want to see more pictures of this very cool school click on their website http://www.bjno5.cn

2005-04-10T11:03:00.000-04:00

Zach and Patrick showed off their skills to their epals on the basketball court.

2005-04-10T11:01:00.000-04:00

Allison was impressed by how friendly her epals were.

2005-04-10T10:48:00.000-04:00

Ben is partial to Asian women. Meeting his epal was an awesome experience.

2005-04-10T10:37:00.000-04:00

Christy's epals thought it was awesome that she looks like Avril Lavigne. They loved her dyed hair tips because they are not allowed to dye their hair or wear jewelry to school.

2005-04-09T23:43:00.000-04:00

This is one side of our future sister school

2005-04-09T23:39:00.000-04:00

Sara's epal idolized her from just her emails. She knew everything about Sara!

2005-04-09T23:36:00.000-04:00

Meredith, explaining to her epal the finer points aof American teenage life.

2005-04-09T23:34:00.000-04:00

Our epals have over 60 students per class

2005-04-09T23:33:00.000-04:00

Evan's epals

2005-04-09T23:26:00.000-04:00

Day 5

2005-04-09T23:25:00.000-04:00

Brad showing off his 2 new Rolex watches from the back of his rickshaw

2005-04-09T23:22:00.000-04:00

Sara, shopping in old China.

2005-04-09T23:21:00.000-04:00

The Hutong Daycare center has children from age 2 to age 6. In this movie, the kids sang us "Are you sleeping" in Chinese

2005-04-09T23:19:00.000-04:00

This little boy stole my heart.

2005-04-09T23:18:00.000-04:00

The Hutong Daycare center was amazing!

2005-04-09T23:15:00.000-04:00

Wait Brad! the driver is suppose to ride the bike!!

2005-04-09T23:14:00.000-04:00

One of the millions of alleys in the Hutong District. The Hutong neighborhood is the oldest area of Beijing. Although the Chinese government has torn down much of the Hutong style areas to accomodate newer apartment building, they will not be destroying this area. Instead they will be preserving these quaint homes.

2005-04-09T23:06:00.000-04:00

Meredith and Sara posing with their rickshaw driver

2005-04-09T23:03:00.000-04:00

This is a pic of the Sterlings weaving thru the Hutong streets

2005-04-09T22:56:00.000-04:00

Today we got to ride on rickshaws in the Hutong district. Here is Sara, Brad and Ben getting ready for their ride

2005-04-07T07:24:00.000-04:00

Beijing Snapshot: Very cool architechture. Tomorrow, I will post pictures of us riding rickshaws thru the old part of the city (Hutong District)

2005-04-07T07:23:00.000-04:00

Beijing Snapshots: Oceans of Bikes

2005-04-07T07:22:00.000-04:00

Christy, Brad, Allison and Meredith living up this incredible moment in their lives.

2005-04-07T07:19:00.000-04:00

Tieneman Square was the most amazing thing we saw today. Here we are posing with our tour guide David infront of Chairman Mao's picture

2005-04-07T07:15:00.000-04:00

This what the Chinese Opera actors look like. Traditionally, men play the role of women.

2005-04-07T07:13:00.000-04:00

We got a chance to see these little girls contort themselves into all sort of pretzels and do some physics defying stunts. The students at this school are scouted from all over China. As young as 6 years old, they come to live in the Opera school bording school and study here.

2005-04-07T07:11:00.000-04:00

Christy bravely volunteered to be made up as the Monkey warrior. Gentle Christy looks scary in this make up. She is the first American teenager that the Master make up artist from this school has ever made up! You go Christy!!!

2005-04-07T07:08:00.000-04:00

Today we spent the morning at the world famous Beijing (or Pekin) Opera School. This is where the students train to be Opera actors. It is a very difficult craft that includes acrobatics, elaborate costumes, extreme make up and exaggerated expressions. The children in the picture picture above must learn to stand in that crazy (standing) split position for half and hour at a time.

2005-04-07T07:04:00.000-04:00

Day 5:

2005-04-07T07:02:00.000-04:00

Today, we were honored to go to the Beijing's most famous master kite maker. We were taught the finer points of Chinese kite making. Master Wang's kites are so amazing, they can fly without wind. Yes, I couldn't believe it until he made his kite fly inside his house. Yeap, I seen it!! He recently went to an international kite competition. All the other competitors were waiting for the wind to pick up and all of a sudden, they saw an eagle kite flying without wind. Needless to say, Master Wang won hands down.

2005-04-07T06:58:00.000-04:00

In traditional (real) Sechuan cooking, the meat is served raw (see raw chicken and beef in the picture). Then you are suppose to toss the raw bite sized pieces of meat into this boiling soup pots that are placed in the middle of the table. The meat cooks within 4 seconds. You then fish out the meat, toss it in some sesame sauce and eat it. Here is Meredith, Christy and Meredith expertly eating Sechuan food.

2005-04-07T06:52:00.000-04:00

We girls are having trouble using the squatting toilets. We call them the squatters. There are everywhere and very difficult to use without getting your socks wet!!!

2005-04-07T06:50:00.000-04:00

This is a short film of what the elderly here call Tai Chi badminton. I am not sure if it will play on the blog since the Chinese government has craked down on all personal websites. I can circumvent the block, but cannot see what I am posting.

2005-04-07T06:47:00.000-04:00

The Temple of Heaven was magnificent!! Sorry, I have not time to say more...I will try to add more details later.

2005-04-07T06:44:00.000-04:00

We got to plant trees at the foot of the Great Wall with our Chinese student friends as a gesture of friendship and colaboration. We planted small pines that will hopefully grow a long time.

2005-04-07T06:42:00.000-04:00

At the magical Great Wall: It was one of the most incredible yet exhausting experiences ever!

2005-04-07T06:38:00.000-04:00

Day 4: Meredith, Zach, Sarah, Pat, Evan and Brad at the Ming tombs

2005-04-04T06:41:00.000-04:00

Today we saw the unbelievable Forbidden Palace. Here is our group posing infront of the Emperor's office.

2005-04-04T06:38:00.000-04:00

Strolling by the Kunming Lake.

2005-04-04T06:36:00.000-04:00

2 of Christy's many groupies!

2005-04-04T06:32:00.000-04:00

4/4/05
You cannot eat shark fin soup and bear claw soup at the same time (Chinese proverb)

We saw Beijing wake up today thru the seemingly perpetual haze. First a trickle of early birds on their bicycles, then more bicycles and walking school children, and then all of China got on the same road we were using. It certainly felt that way. However, crowded and confusing to the foreign eye, the morning commute was calm, efficient and productive.

After a kings breakfast of at least 30 buffet choices, we headed out to The Summer Palace. This is where historically, the Chinese nobility of the Qing dynasty vacationed. We took a short cruise on the Kumming lake on a boat shaped like a colorful dragon and walked the length of the longest corridor in the world (half a mile long).

2005-04-04T06:27:00.000-04:00

Never could we had finished all the food served to us and left the restaurant wishing we had paced ourselves better. Luckily we got to walk off our gluttony and arrived at the hotel ready to rest. Some in our group ordered massages which are provided right in ones hotel room for about $15-20 for a full body massage. Some relaxed in the hotel pool facility and some turned in early.

2005-04-04T06:25:00.000-04:00

Within minutes, David arrived with our waitresses. He ordered for us and the food flood gates broke open. The wait staff brought dish after dish of delicious foods that they placed on the lazy susan. We, of course did not know how things were done but in the spirit of adventure grabbed our chop stickes, spun the giant lazy susan like a wheel of fortune contestant and reached for every thing in our grasp. We were served whole steamed prawns complete with head and staring eyeballs, deliciously spiced roasted shrimp, Chinese salad, a fantastic Schechuan pork dish, 4 different vegetable dishes with impossible spice combinations, chicken with pine nuts, hot and sour soup, beef and broccoli, chrysanthemum tea (with a handful of flowers floating in it) and much, much more. Zach was attacked by a really, really hot chili pepper that had him turning colors, sweating and tearing up at the same time! It was pretty funny to see him squirm.

2005-04-04T06:23:00.000-04:00

Yummi!!

2005-04-04T06:21:00.000-04:00

Look at this spread!

2005-04-04T06:20:00.000-04:00

Our first real Chinese meal

2005-04-04T06:19:00.000-04:00

I took this picture of our small private room thru the window from the alley

2005-04-04T06:17:00.000-04:00

The dimly lit alley
David wiscked us to our hotel in a private minibus, while giving us tourist tidbits and historical information about Beijing on the way. After freshening up and getting a chance to exchange currency, we walked behind our hotel for a traditional Schechuan dinner. We entered a beautiful restaurant with the typical Chinese décor and were ushered thru and to the back door. There, we found that we had been thrown back into a more traditional China. This was the stuff I saw in dubbed Chinese movies.

We walked thru a dimly lit, very narrow alley, semi covered with corrugated tin roof. The eaves drops were lined with big tasseled red rice paper lanterns and what looked like Christmas lights. We entered a small and very cozy private room. The group was seated in a big round table that took up most of the space. In the middle of the table, there was a very large glass lazy susan.

2005-04-04T06:13:00.000-04:00

After a 28 hour trip, we finally arrived at our final destination. It was all very surreal because Beijing airport area looks much like Detroit. We immediately posed for pictures after the passport check point and retrieved our luggage.

After a short delay due to bus troubles, our tour guide, David met us at the airport and made us feel very welcomed. He taught us how to say how do you do? and thank you in Mandarin Chinese. David is young and immediately bonded with the group. His English is great and he tries very hard to use Americanisms whenever possible. This is very funny sometimes.

2005-04-03T09:00:00.000-04:00

This is our group! We arrived safely.

2005-04-03T08:59:00.000-04:00

We had a wonderful flight today. This is a shot our commuter plane flying over Lake Michigan. The Beijing flight was bumpy and crouded but a lot of fun. We flew over the coast of the North Pole, over icy Siberia and Mongolia.

2005-04-03T08:56:00.000-04:00

Let's go, come on.

2005-04-03T08:55:00.000-04:00

Are we there yet? No, we are still at Lansing Capital City Airport

2005-04-03T08:53:00.000-04:00

D-Day Check in.

2005-04-01T07:42:00.000-05:00

This is an aerial map of our hotel location. We are within spitting distance of everything!!!

2005-03-31T14:56:00.000-05:00

Party on!

2005-03-31T14:43:00.000-05:00

This trip is going to be awesome

2005-03-31T14:41:00.000-05:00

I love Chinese history and can't wait to see everything I have studied!

2005-03-31T14:39:00.000-05:00

Wait till Beijing gets a load of us!!

Flickr

2005-03-21T10:43:00.000-05:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.