This morning, we took the bus to Fragrant Hill. The name was extremely misleading – it was more of a small mountain. The walk up, though strenuous, was also very scenic – the surrounding forest was beautiful, and I got a good sweeping view of some of the city. Had it been a clear, smog-free day, it would have been possible to make out all of Berlin, which would have been really interesting. I’ve been all around the city, but I don’t really know what it looks like as a whole. I wish I had walked up the slopes a little slower, but I still got to observe the multitude of people walking through the park. At the top, many members of the group purchased ribbons to tie to trees at the summit, which was supposed to bring a certain type of good luck (mine represented luck in my career). A group of us walked down a different way, starting out along the cable car but breaking off, which gave us a chance to see more of the park, which was really nicely built with well-maintained trails.
For lunch, we went to what Vivienne claimed was one of the best restaurants in China to eat Peking duck. The duck was completely delicious, and I also liked the duck soup we had later in the meal. After lunch, Rachael, Krysta and I took a taxi to a well-known tea street. We settled down in one tea shop, where the shop owner served us at least five different types of tea. She knew very little English, but we were able to communicate mainly in gestures and the names of the teas (she could say things like “oolong tea” and “jasmine tea”). After her attentive service, all three of us ended up buying tea there, and I purchased my tea set from her as well.
In the evening, our group went back to the Tsinghua University campus to talk to a group of students there. The girl I talked to is a sociology major, and we ended up discussing a lot of differences between our college lives. One major difference I noticed was the major requirements – at Tsinghua University, all the students have to take many semesters of math classes and Communism classes. Though this is somewhat comparative to our general education requirements, their requirements seem more extensive and specific. Also, our dorms seem more luxurious compared to theirs – her dorm room that fit four people seemed comparable in size to my double room last year. I thought our meeting with the students was a lot of fun, especially since most of them spoke English really well; it was good getting new perspectives into everyday Chinese life.