Today we took the bus to Fragrant Hill. As soon as we arrived, I knew it was going to be a tiring day. Fragrant Hill turned out to be a mountain that we had to spend about forty five minutes climbing. There were a combination of ramps and stairs all the way to the top, with nice views along the way. I have to say I did feel accomplished when I reached the top. Some people got their fortunes on red ribbons and tied them to trees at the top. Before climbing up, I fully expected to take the chair lift down, but once up there, I felt good enough to walk back. We ended up running down the mountain and waiting by a pretty waterfall at the bottom until everyone was back.
Later, we decided to return to Wangfujing Street to do some bargaining and to eat something special. We started off bargaining at the same place as in the beginning of the trip, this time getting much better deals because we now know what certain things are worth. After shopping a little we stopped to eat scorpions. I wanted to do this the whole trip and was surprised to find how good they were. The scorpions started out alive, then they were cooked, and I think seasoning was put on them. Once everyone (except one person) ate scorpions, we went to McDonald’s.
That night, we took taxis to Tsinghua University to meet with students majoring in international studies. The taxis did not know where they were going and looped around before getting to the right place, with one taxi completely lost and arriving late. Once there, we paired up with the students and talked for awhile. I gained a lot of insight into typical views of students in China. The student I talked to is planning to study in the United States after graduating, which I found out was common among the students we met. He was also very interested in my views of China, my country and international affairs. From him I found out what schooling was like and some of his views on the government in China.