Still no sign of my luggage – this is getting really frustrating. I think it’s the combination of not having any of my own clothes here and being jetlagged, or maybe it’s that I’m thousands of miles further away from home than I’ve ever been, but I’m actually getting homesick for maybe the second time in my life.
The time difference combined with a really hard bed caused me to wake up at 5:30 AM, despite the fact that we had asked for a wake-up call at 7. Needless to say, we were ready to go to breakfast before we ever got that call. Since we had a couple hours between breakfast and the lecture, Rachael and I decided to look around the hotel area. The smog (or fog?) from last night had cleared. We found a small fitness area on the side of the road leading up to the hotel – it had equipment that seemed modeled after things like elliptical and treadmills, but without electricity. For example, the “treadmill” was a bunch of rolling pins on a slope. We weren’t really sure what purpose this area served, as using the equipment didn’t require much physical effort, but it was entertaining. When we came back from dinner, we saw someone perform martial arts in the center area.
We had our first Chinese culture lecture about landmarks in Beijing, focusing on the history of the ones we would visit. Though I had heard the Western history of some of the sites before, especially the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square, the history from the Chinese perspective was much different. For example, before the rise of imperialism, most Chinese peasants saw the wall as a death trap, built on the bones of many who had constructed it. The Great Wall as a symbol of China’s power was a Western invention that was subsequently adopted by the Nationalists and later the Communists. I was especially interested in the symbolism within the Forbidden City – I found it interesting that the library tiles were black, the color of water, to prevent fires.
After a short break, we had a Welcome Lunch (to replace the Welcome Dinner we would have had last night were it not for the travel complications), which consisted of many, many dishes of food. Some of the dishes were fairly similar to the Chinese food I’ve had in America, while others were very different, like the fish that still had its head and tail attached. We had another break, then took a small bus to the Tsinghua University campus. We saw some of the campus from the bus, and we got out around the former campus’s gate to walk around. The sheer number of bikes parked on campus struck me – it seemed like every one of the 30,000 students there had one! Though this seemed to reduce car traffic on campus, it also looked like driving was a nightmare – on all of the roads, cars had to swerve far into the opposite lane to avoid bikers, and bikers, pedestrians, and cars all acted like they had the right of way. Despite this confusion, I’m really impressed with the use of bikes and public transportation here. Rachael and I are planning to get subway passes so that we can see the main temples during our free time.
A lot of the buildings at the university were really Westernized - it had a couple of the typical college quads. My favorite was the building that was modeled after the tallest educational building in Moscow, but they ran out of funding about 8 stories up and so that's how tall the building is. We spent most of our time walking through the gardens, which were beautiful. They surrounded this canal that circles throughout the city – Krysta called it an “extended lazy river.” There were pagodas and stone formations and statues of important figures like Confucius scattered throughout the area. The area was very peaceful; I think if I studied at Tsinghua, I would get really distracted by the tranquility.
After the campus tour, we had a few hours before dinner. I spent a lot of that time looking at a map deciding where I wanted to spend my free time and how to get there before I fell asleep and almost missed dinner. We went to a five-story mall a few blocks away from the hotel, which is probably where I’ll eat for a lot of meals, since it’s so conveniently located. I got to use the Chinese-style toilets for the first time, which was awkward. Rachael and I walked through all the stores in the mall and ended up in the grocery store to buy water and cereal.
So far, it hasn’t been too difficult to communicate with people here – as long as Ruby and Vivienne are with us. They’ve been liaisons for ordering food this whole time, and I’m a little nervous to venture out on my own tomorrow. When we were buying food in the grocery store, it was hard talking with the cashier. Similarly, when the maid came to clean our room in the morning, we had trouble letting her know that we would be gone in an hour. I think my goal for the upcoming week is to learn some basic phrases in Chinese, especially “thank you” and “I don’t speak Chinese”.