This morning, Karen, my roommate, and I both woke up around 5:30, about an hour and a half before we wanted to. We tried to go back to sleep, but I found it to be very unsuccessful. So around 6:15 I got out of bed to get ready. We both finished getting ready by 7:00 which is when they start serving breakfast at the hotel. We decided to get an early start and go right away.
Having been told that they serve a continental breakfast, I assumed that there would be predominantly westernized food. Upon arriving we both quickly realized that the only thing we recognized was corn on the cob and french fries, not typical breakfast foods. So I looked at what was being served and picked things that I recognized or thought I understood. The breakfast turned out to be very good, convincing me further that I'm not too much of a picky eater.
After breakfast, Karen and I went back to our room and spend some time relaxing. About a half hour before we had to meet with the group, we decided to take a walk through Beijing to see what it looks like in the daylight. We walked down the road out of the hotel and came across a small exercise park. The 'elliptical machines' had almost no resistance and the 'tread mill' was basically a series of rolling pins on a slight slope. The park had a lot of other equipment which we did not recognize and were unsure of how to use, however we were able to spend about fifteen minutes trying out the equipment which we did understand. I think we're going to try to visit the park everyday; it was a fun way to wake up.
At 9:30, our group walked over to another building which is a part of the hotel to have our first lecture on Chinese economics and history. The decor in the building was very impressive. When we came into our meeting room, we found legal pads and tea cups waiting at each seat with hot water to share between two people. We were introduced to our lecturer, Claudia, she is a graduate student at Tsinghua University. She has lectured to Plus3 groups in the past and students have been very impressed with her. I can see why, she is very engaging and her English is excellent.
Claudia talked to us today about Chinese landmarks, mainly those in Beijing and ones we will see. Much of the lecture was spend discussing the Great Wall, and clarifying that, until very recent years, the Chinese people did not view the wall as 'Great'. It has historically been viewed as symbol of death and tyranny. But around the time of the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese people embraced it as a symbol of power and antiquity to help foster a sense of national pride.
Claudia also spoke about the effects the Cultural Revolution had on the historic sites of Beijing. About two thirds of the city's heritage sites were destroyed between 1966 and 1976 by students who had been influenced by Maoist propaganda. Because of this destruction, it is hard for many people visiting to view China as a country of history; it is now seen more as an economic miracle.
We had lunch as a group with Vivienne, Ruby and Claudia, the three Chinese girls who will help guide us through Beijing during the next two weeks. The presentation of lunch was very different from restaurants in the United States. The food was brought out in small courses and it was placed on a Lazy Susan. Everyone helped themselves to the food they wanted to try. Much of the food was unfamiliar to us, and we were still trying to get used to the chopsticks. They brought out a large amount of food, because, as I learned, in the Chinese culture it is not expected that you eat all of the food presented to you. In fact, if you finish the food, they would feel that they need to bring more food.
After lunch we took a bus to Tsinghua University. Tsinghua is a very prestigious University in China, essentially anybody who is anybody attends Tsinghua University. The campus is enormous, and also very beautiful. When we first entered the campus, most of the buildings had western style architecture; in fact, a few of the buildings were modeled directly from famous University buildings in other countries. As we got further into the campus, it was easy to see a transition from the new Western architecture to the Chinese architecture in the older campus buildings. The section of campus we spent most time in was a beautiful garden that had once been the emperor's brother's garden. The garden was very large, so large, it seemed it would be possible to fit another small campus on it. Tsinghua University provided me some insight into how living in a campus in Beijing could be different from the 'typical university' in the United States.
For dinner we went to a mall located just a few blocks from our hotel. We ate at a restaurant on the 5th floor of the mall. Dinner was very much like last night. After dinner, Karen and I walked around the mall and went into a few department stores just to browse. We found a supermarket and bought bottled water. This was the first time when we were alone in the city without anyone who could translate for us. There were a few times when someone in a store tried to communicate with us, and we had to either smile and nod or communicate with hand gestures. Hopefully as we spend more time here, we will be able to communicate better with people despite the language barrier.