We arrived in Beijing a little later than expected because the flight (for whatever reason) was delayed from Qingdao. When we got there the sun was going down, but I noticed that it looked different than sunsets I had seen before. When we walked outside and I got breath of air, I realized why it looked so different. That haze I noticed was smog. I have never experienced smog before, so that aspect of Beijing was quite unpleasant. The landmarks that I was able to see, though, made up for the air. I did a university hosted trip in Beijing, so I got the chance to meet with several students from Tsinghua University. It was very interesting to get the chance to talk with these students. I learned about their perspectives on things, which made me understand Chinese culture more. I will discuss this a bit more later.
My itinerary for the 4 days that I spent in Beijing was something like this (this is for those of you, like my sister, who prefer to see an abridged version of the things that I have done):
Day 1: Arrive in Beijing, Peking Duck dinner with Tsinghua University students, check into hotel, walk around hotel area at night
Day 2: Trip to the Great Wall of China (it was AWESOME!!), Mongolian hot pot for lunch, Giant Panda Zoo, Dinner and visiting with University Students, Bowling after dinner with some of our new friends from the University
Day 3: Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, Chinese Laundry (dumplings) for lunch, The Temple of Heaven, Silk Street Shopping, Chinese Acrobatics Show
Day 4: View of the “Bird’s Nest” where the 2008 Olympics will be held, The Summer Palace, Lunch at the University, Depart Beijing for Hong Kong
As you can see, we fit a lot into a short time. I felt busy the whole time. It was nice that I went with Semester at Sea on this trip, instead of trying to do it independently. It seems like it would have been very difficult to plan and travel independently in China. I am planning most of my trips in other countries independently, with small groups. The driving situation in downtown Beijing was unlike anything I have ever seen. Lanes really don’t seem to matter. The vehicle with the loudest horn and the courage to pull out is the one that gets to go. It was kind of scary, except for the fact that we were in a huge bus.
My favorite visit in China was to the Great Wall. I was just amazed at the size and length of it. I wondered how people could build such a thing so long ago. The earliest construction of the Great Wall began during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC). I found this incredible considering the huge structure that stood before me. I cannot imagine how much time it must have taken to build the individual sections of the wall that were eventually joined together. The wall itself was quite steep. We were able to climb it. It has stairs to several different levels. We went about as far as we could in the time allotted. The views kept getting better the higher we went. The t-shirts for sale got cheaper the higher we went, which I thought was interesting. I loved staring out at the natural beauty of the area. The mountains are amazing there. I am not from a place with mountains, so just to see this was fun for me. The wall over all of it just added to the beauty because it is such an unreal thing to see. Another thing I really liked about the Great Wall was all of the languages that were spoken there. There were so many visitors from all over the world. It seemed like a modern day Babel with all of the languages and people gathering there together. I also liked that despite or varied backgrounds, everyone was there for the same purpose and everyone was very friendly.
I visited Tiananmen Square in Beijing, which is like their version of the Mall in Washington, D.C. Their Congress building and other important national monuments are there. There is also a building that houses the body of former leader, Mao Zedong. The citizens really seemed excited to visit this site. We arrived in Tiananmen Square at about 9 am and there was already a huge line waiting for entrance to see Mao’s body. I found it kind of odd that they were so excited to see the embalmed body of their former leader, but this just reinforced the idea of cultural differences. We walked around the Square and I got this eerie feeling remembering what had happened there almost 20 years ago. The Tiananmen Square Massacre (as it is referred to by many Americans) is not mentioned in China. The event basically was a bunch of students protesting communism by sitting in Tiananmen Square and participating in a hunger strike. There is a red book that is a compilation of sayings from Mao, which the students burned and desecrated in the Square during this time. The government responded to this uprising by bringing in tanks and military personnel to basically mow down the protest. Thousands of students died. As I stood there, knowing what had happened here, I wondered how many of the Chinese people there knew about this or were ever taught about it. I also wondered if I would have been one of those students had I lived in China twenty years ago. It was a strange feeling. I couldn’t take a picture of me smiling in Tiananmen Square because of the odd mix of emotions I was feeling.
We were given a pamphlet by the university that hosted us that describes the landmarks that we would be visiting. In the section about Tiananmen Square, it only mentions the Massacre in 1989 as the Tiananmen Square event of 1989. It does not say anything about the event and disregards it as unimportant. I found this so interesting. It reinforces the ideas of censorship and governmental control of speech and expression in China. Another interesting thing about speech and expression in China is that I could not access my blog while I was there. I tried to access my blog to update it a little, but when I entered the web address, a page appeared that said “this site does not exist”. I tried to access my blog several different times on 3 different computers to make sure that it wasn’t a computer glitch or a typo. I found it interesting that the Chinese government has strict enough censoring of websites that it would censor my blog. I asked some of my new friends from the University about this and they basically told me that freedom and speech are not important to the Chinese government, “propaganda is number one”. I found it interesting that the students themselves referred to the media as propaganda. I thought this word was something that people use about other governments or an idea that people are unaware is being used, but I was wrong. Wikipedia is also not allowed in China. I thought that this was interesting, as well.
All in all, China was quite an interesting port. I am very glad that I went there. I learned a lot about the Chinese people, culture, and government. Many of my preconceived notions were also challenged, which is something that I needed and am glad to have experienced.
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