We began with a group meeting, cozily convened in Brenda’s room, sharing our impressions of China so far. Then, we split up in small groups to explore numerous special interests and varied non-tourist eateries. Several people went to a Confucius Temple and enjoyed a vegetarian buffet; James found the Bejing mosque and participated in the prayers. Doug, Dixie and Brian went in search of antiques and secondhand treasures at the Dirt Market, but after miles of walking ended up at the Silk Market. Katie, Judy and I made a pilgrimage to the home of 20th century author Lao She.
Hutong (alleys) and siheyuan (courtyard homes) were a recurrent theme. For the threesome who visited Lao She’s home, the afternoon began with an experience of the narrow lanes, just a little more than a meter, wide enough for bicycles and pedestrians. Behind the walls of a hutong near Wangfujing, Lao She’s home, a typical arrangement of small wooden structures around a courtyard with trees, flowers, and an urn for gold fish has been preserved as a museum. In the late afternoon, our small groups rejoined and headed to Neal (Nien Luin) Yeh’s home—a preserved courtyard home. Neal generously hosted us for a barbeque and shared his insights about his father’s illustrious career, cultural issues, and of course, migration trends. We were treated to an amazing performance on the pipa by a 13 year old girl who has only studied the instrument for six months.
Finding our way into the hutong, shopping in markets, bartering for singing bowls, experiencing houses of worship, and being guests in a private home allowed us to have personal interactions with Chinese people in ordinary ways. What a terrific day!
BJ McElderry
Tour Blog
Today we started at the Yonghe Gong Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in Beijing. Next we visited the Emperor’s Summer Palace and took a boat ride across the lake. Next we saw a demonstration about how Chinese Pearls are grown, then went to the Pearl department store. We visited the Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium followed by Dr. Tea’s taste and sell. We ended the evening with tasting and shopping in the Wangfuging district.
The Pearl Plant and Dr. Tea’s was like a time sitting through a share offer. Many of us are going home with Chinese time shares or other small trinkets. Though it was 100 degrees in Beijing we were shaded today and only sweated some of the time. In Wangfuging we saw all kinds of foods on sticks for sale: cockroaches, scorpions, starfish, seahorses, sheep penis and strawberries. Michele enjoyed the strawberries.
In the Bird’s Nest Stadium many of our group were asked to pose for pictures with friendly Chinese people who were also visiting the stadium. They seemed happy to see us and many tried out their English phrases on us. Their English was much better than our basic Chinese. One group of men asked several of our women to pose with them in a picture; a Chinese man posed for a picture with our 6 foot 3 tall Brian.
Rick Givens
Today we started with a visit to Tiananmen Square followed by the exquisite Forbidden City. After lunch, we toured a silk-making factory and then visited the Temple of Heaven.
The center of the city was hot today but I still got chills standing in Tiananmen Square--the place of so much importance and controversy for the Chinese and the world. With Mao gazing down on us all we posed for a group picture and took many shots of our own. The Chinese and other tourists were friendly and polite and we were never lacking for cold water, Mao Zedong watches or pretty silk umbrellas. The beauty of the Forbidden City was astonishing to us; luckily none from our group tumbled down stairs while gazing upwards at the ornate buildings. Our guide, Arthur Hu, explained that the Emperor was allowed to have up to 3,000 wives (concubines) and they were all housed in the private residences of the city.
Our enthusiastic and witty guide to the silk factory inspired many of us who will be returning home with gorgeous silk products—I won’t ruin the surprise for any of you who will be receiving gifts in a few weeks!
In addition to culture and history and architecture Arthur promised us disco dancing at the Temple of Heaven, where historically the Emperor went to pray for good harvest…and dancing we saw. Groups of Chinese practiced their disco, swing, and waltzing in the shady Temple of Heaven park grounds. Some in our group merely took photos of the dancers, but Bethany danced with a graceful Chinese man to the delight of all who watched. Perhaps someone took a good photo of her.
Goodbye for now from Beijing,
Michele Beauchamp
Ni hao from China.
We have had a long day (36 hours), but we are all safe and sound ensconced in our comfy hotel rooms. Some arrived at Dulles airport as early as 6:45 (David, Brian, Jim, Lynda, and Rick), and some arrived just in the nick of time (Doug), but we were all there and ready to go. For some reason, all of us except Brian were seated in the “economy plus” section of the airplane. (Who did you offend, Brian?) Owing to some sweet talking on his part, even Brian was reseated in the economy plus section. What a difference 5 extra inches of leg room makes!
The flight was long with three meals and five movie options (with enough time to watch all five if you wanted). For me personally, “Paul Blart Mall Cop” did the trick. I watched a few minutes and fell asleep for the rest of the flight. Others had a harder time falling to sleep (Jim and Katie). Everybody had his/her favorite method for making the flight tolerable. In addition to Paul Blart, I also used sleeping pills. Katie had an eye mask, Karen had “old woman compression stockings,” and I think I saw Scott cuddling up with a well-worn stuffed animal.
After arriving in Beijing, health care officials boarded the plane and took everybody’s temperature. We were all rather nervous, but apparently, we all passed the test and were allowed to go through customs. I accidentally sneezed just as I was exiting the plane, and everybody gave me a dirty look. We have been informed that we may still be quarantined, but I think we are in the clear.
Arthur, our Chinese tour guide, met us at the hotel with a bus. The ride to our hotel took about 40 minutes, allowing us our first glance of Beijing. The weather is clear and warm, and we are generally impressed with what we have seen so far from the freeway. We took 90 minutes to check in and decompress, and then we met for the first of our oral reports. (Rick taught us about Tiananmen Square, which we plan to visit tomorrow.) Following Rick’s report, we had the rest of the evening to ourselves to wander the neighborhood and find a bite to eat. About 8 of us found a noodle shop, which was a perfect snack before bed.
Tomorrow we are starting with breakfast at 7:30 and meeting to board the bus at 8:30. In addition to Tiananmen Square, tomorrow we plan to visit the Forbidden City, a silk factory, and the Temple of Heaven. All of these sites are rather close to our hotel. Check back with the blog tomorrow to find out more about these activities.
For now, if you care to contact us, you can either email us or give us a phone call. Our hotel number is: 86-10-6708-1188. That should get you the front desk. You can then ask for your loved one’s room number. Remember, we are 12 hours ahead of EDT. Here are the room assignments:
Bethany, 704
BJ, 719
Brenda, 622
Brian S., 618
Brian W., 614
David, 709
Deborah, 634
Debra, 704
Dixie, 634
Doug, 618
Jim, 606
Judy, 719
Karen G., 620
Katie, 609
Linda F., 615
Lynda H., 729
Michele, 615
Rick, 606
Scott, 614
Sharon, 620
Toni, 729
Thanks for allowing your loved one to join us! We are doing well and excited to get officially started tomorrow. Keep checking out the blog for a daily update. If we miss a day, we will try to catch up the following day.
Hi all--
I'm Adjunct Professor of Chinese Literature in Pitt's Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, as well as being China Studies Coordinator for the Asian Studies Center. I teach a variety of courses on Chinese culture, from love to philosophy to law. My courses often mix past and present, since there are powerful currents from the past that still shape Chinese culture today, and new contemporary perspectives that constantly change our views of the past. Does the evolving Chinese legal system show traces of the Confucian past? Did the arranged marriages of old China preclude the desire for romantic love? And how, in fiction and drama, have Chinese answered these questions for themselves? These are some of the questions my classes address.
Report II from China: Things are going great. Except for today (cold and rainy), the weather has been wonderful. I had some very interesting experiences on Tiananmen Square the past few days. I will tell you all about them in a few days. Things are a bit more expensive than I remembered, due to inflation and the falling dollar. Still, I am confident we will have a great time. See you soon!
Hi, my name is Muriel. I talked about the Chinese education system at the workshop a few weeks ago. I will be leaving for China on June 4th. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about China. You may reach me at mmzhou1688@gmail.com. I will be in Shenzhen for 8 days (7 of the 8 days will stay home, as I was told). Then, I will go to Guangzhou and stay there for two days visiting some old friends. After that, I will be going to Zhanjiang, where I grew up and visit my father, who is 89 years old. My sister-in-law has told me that he likes to visit various markets and buy vegetables. I will be in Zhanjiang for about 10 days and then go to Guilin and meet you there. I look forward to seeing you in Guilin. Can't wait to hear about your experiences in China. I wish you a smooth trip to Beijing on June 23.
Best,
Muriel
I made it to China! First, I had an eventful week in Korea with nuclear bombs, missiles, and presidential funerals. It was very exciting, but I am glad to finally be in China.
The new Beijing airport is incredible. You will really enjoy it. However, they are very concerned about swine flu. Health officials checked the temperatures of every person on the plane before they would let us disembark. Then, our temperatures were checked two more times before we made it through customs. Fortunately, everything went smoothly.
The weather in Beijing is incredible. I have never seen such blue skies in Beijing. I hope it continues in the next few weeks. I have already eaten some wonderful food and enjoyed walking around the streets of the city. Today I went to a Taoist temple and tomorrow I am going to a Tibetan Buddhist temple. I will keep you posted in the days to come as time allows.
See you all soon!
While you are in China I will be checking the blog and enjoying the excitement you express and the adventures you are having. In the past six years the teachers experienced the greatest fun when they ventured off in small groups (2-3) and were accessible to the friendly Chinese.
Diana Wood
Hi, I am David Kenley (Ph.D. University of Hawai'i, M.A. University of Utah, B.A. Brigham Young University) from Elizabethtown, PA. I will be one of the tour leaders in China.
I am a professor of Chinese History at Elizabethtown College and have traveled all over Asia numerous times. I am originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, but I have lived in West Virginia, Hawaii, and the Republic of China on Taiwan. I have lived in Pennsylvania since 2004. My past research area has been on early twentieth-century overseas Chinese communities, but I am currently writing a book about Church of the Brethren missionaries in China during the Republican Era. My wife, Wendi, is from California and we have three children. Together, we enjoy skiing, hiking, and traveling.
Dear all, Welcome to the 2009 Study Tour to China and Vietnam, "Migration and Identity." My name is Brenda G. Jordan and I am one of your faculty leaders. I'm a Japanese art historian and have traveled extensively in Japan. My husband is Japanese and teaches at the University of Pittsburgh. Our daughter, Erika, is 11 years old and adopted from southern China. I love gardening and being outdoors. I'm not crazy about jet lag, heat and humidity, but oh well....we all have our crosses to bear, to so speak. We are going to have a great time and a productive study tour. I'm looking forward to eating Chinese food, exploring new sites, and learning about contemporary China with you.
