January 18th, 2011

Anonymous

Today started with clinical at the TCM hospital bright and early. We divided up into our groups. Everyone was exhausted today and a lot of people feeling sick with the sniffles. During clinical a lot of people got to study Tui Na manipulation. Our afternoon lecture was Professor Jin Song's last one. During class we practiced accupuncture and various types of manipulations that we have learned so far. Professor Jin gave us a hand wood carved wooden plack to congradulate us. After lecture was tai ji (chi) time. Cloud (our master) gave us a demonstration with a quarter staff and then rushed us through the rest of our tai ji moves. Mindy also decided to surprise us today with our second test. Most people used the little evening time they had to work on the test.

 

Phil (Li Fu)

January 23rd - Jade, GREAT WALL, McDinner and Statues

Anonymous

January 23, 2011 - Part 1

It was our first morning in the new hotel at Beijing. We started off a great day with the best breakfast we've had yet. There were still steamed vegetables, grilled meat, and odd buns... but we had the friendly new additions of fried eggs, toast, coffee, bacon, sausage... even cereal!!! With warm milk... but you gotta work with what you get in China.

We took off in our tour bus with Raymond our tour guide to a Jade Factory North of Beijing. The enthusiastic guide in the jade factory invited us to watch some of the craft workers as they etched some of the jade stones into beautiful figurines. Some of the existing pieces were worth up to $100,000!! The tour was beautiful and ended with some good deals on beautiful jade jewelry.

After some happy purchases, we headed for the Great Wall with much anticipation. We could start to see the wall lining the tops of the mountains as we approached. I have to tell you, this is one tourist attraction that lived up to... even exceded my expectations. And my expectations were sky high. Sky High is where we seemed to be headed as we climbed up hundreds of stairs, some that were 15 inches tall! The air was freezing, but the sights were gorgeous. My group took tons of pictures and enjoyed racing up sets of stairs, dancing at the top, and just spending time being amazed at the beautiful landscape all around us.

After a great afternoon climbing and smiling, we trudged back the bus and rode away from one of the greatest ancient wonders of the world. I was in a daze of disbelief for the whole bus ride. I couldn't believe we had just been on something that is so huge it can be seen from the moon!

We visited the Ming tombs (see Sara Swetz entry)

We stopped by a row of statues and walked for 30 minutes. We got our only group jumping picture here. It was a peaceful walk in the setting sun. I was just grateful to see the sun after the smoggy Chengdu.

Because of Beijing's wild traffic, we were running a bit late for the Kungfu show. We considered missing dinner, but grumbling tummies vetoed that idea right away. It was decided to go with the classic fast and easy food: McDonalds.

This wasn't McDonalds from home though. This was China McDonalds. Some unique treats included: Taro Root pie, Pineapple pies, Black Currant and oreo McFlurry. There were some gold standards though. Mcnuggets and Bigmacs. We scarfed down our delicious semi-American food on our way. With smiling tummies (and later some not so happy tummies) we headed to the show.

See Sara Swetz for the Show

Mary Wuest

First Day in Beijing: Part 2!!! (By Sarah Swetz)

Anonymous       So after the Great Wall we took off to the Ming Tombs! About 50km north of Beijing, it once housed the bodies of the 13 emperors from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The Ming Dynasty was the second to the last dynasty, before the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Anyways, it was pretty neat to see. It was very serene and fengshui. The tombs were underground with many different chambers. One of the most unbelievable things was that the emperors were buried with their concubines...who were still ALIVE! Ah! That must have been horrible. And the sheer amount of wealth that each emperor had was crazy too! chests and chests full of jewelry! It was just amazing how massive the tombs' architecture was. Then, we rode a short distance to an old thoroughfare with an expanse of magnificently carved animals. There were elephants, camels, lions, and other exotic animals. I was surprised that the Chinese knew of such animals that long ago, but I guess with the silk trade these animals were probably more common. Another idea I had was that maybe animal populations were more spread out hundreds of years ago because of the climate and that there were less people that could interfere with their natural habitat. In any case, the statues were really beautiful and very well preserved. Although it was really cold outside, it was cool to see such a historical Chinese landmark.
     Later that night we went to go see the most EPIC Kungfu show I have ever seen! It was known as the "Legend of Kung Fu." The story chronicled the life of the great gong fu master known as Chun Yi. Words can't really describe the show. If you ever come to Beijing, this show is definitely worth seeing! We saw kung fu artists do back flips and land on their heads instead of their hands. They broke metal bars in half using their heads. We even saw a guy emerge from a bed of knives unharmed with heavy stones and ma board of nails placed on top of him. We saw one kung fu master place all his body weight onto a single tip of a spear by focusing all of his inner Qi on that point. It was crazy. Overall, it was a pretty epic day! I definitely slept well! :D

Today's word of the day is: Subway- 地铁 di tie (dee tee-uh)
Until next time!
~Sarah Swetz

Jan 22nd!

Anonymous

Zaijian Chendu…Nihao Beijing!

Today we got up bright and early to catch our flight to Beijing. Although we were sad to leave our new friends in Chengdu, we were excited for what was to come.

After about a two hour flight we arrived in Beijing. We got our luggage and met up with our new tour guide, Raymond. Who greeted us with a Pacific Lutheran University banner!  

We then headed to the Feng Ze Yuan Hotel, which is very close to Tiananmen Square.  After we got settled in we went to dinner and a delicious fist meal in Beijing.

Our last stop for the evening was to the Laoshe Teahouse Show. While sipping on tea and eating snacks we were able to enjoy everything from folk music to oral mimicry to Chinese Kungfu! 

It was a nice a relaxing first day in Beijing and allowed the class to rest from traveling and prepare for the busy days ahead.

Zaijian,

Danielle Williams 

January 21st - Last Day in Chengdu

Anonymous

Today was the last day in Chengdu.  We had one lecture left which was more Tui Na techniques.  Fortunately, Mindy pushed back the start time to 9 a.m.  Although it was only 30 minutes later it made a big difference.  Closing Ceremony began at 3 p.m. so we had an extended lunch break as well.  It was all very formal just like the opening ceremony, except the President of the school came this time. Each person gave a warm heartfelt speech about what we have learned through this experience, and appreciating every minute of it.   Towards the end Mindy and Barb gave out gifts to each individual that had helped us make this trip as smooth, welcoming, and easy as possible.  After the gift giving they played a slideshow of our trip with pictures they compiled together, while they called out our names for our diplomas, which looked very official I should add.  After that everyone got pictures with the professors and anyone they wanted to, as well as exchange some gifts.  Then it was off to the Hot Springs which was really nice, all the professors, translators, assistants, doctors, etc that helped us in the trip came as well.  The hot springs were amazing, I myself did not go in, it was a nude hot springs.  A few people went in and they said it was very nice with soothing oils in and relaxing atmosphere.  I can't even begin to explain how elaborate and nice this hot springs was. Everyone wore these pajama type clothes and there was free fresh fruit, ice cream, coffee, drinks, and snacks.  There were couches everyone that people just lounged on and some huge flat screens around. The hot springs was broken up into 3 floors the 2nd floor was a pool table, ping pong table, and a movie playing.  That's where most people spent their time because it was entertaining to watch people play.  Some of the faculty members loosened up and played ping pong with the students.  Then after we went to the Shamrock near the hot springs where there was a D.J. that played old school american songs, like Baby Got Back, Ice Ice Baby, Footloose, and many others.  They also played new music like Baby I Like It.  At the Shamrock we saw the most white people there that we have seen this entire trip.  After the Shamrock it was about 12 a.m. and we had to be in the lobby the at 8 a.m. the next day.  Most of us weren't even packed after the Shamrock, so we stayed up even later than midnight.  All in all, it was a great last day in Chengdu, and we will never forget our experince in this great city.

--Zelynne Tang--

Last Days in Chengdu

Anonymous

January 20, 2011

                Today was super fun! Our class got to meet the Masters nursing students. I always enjoy making new Chinese friends. I met three girls named Jin Jin, Xiao Yan, and Qun. They were really nice. I went exploring after during lunch and found a huge park (that was totally fengshui by the way) with lots of tea house and even an amusement park in it! I wish I could remember the name of it. I could spend every day there if I wanted. It was a really relaxing place. I took lots of pictures of it. There were also some really funny English signs.

                But the best part about today was getting to go out to dinner with my host father from two years ago, Duan Yiqiang. Although it has been a while, it feels like we picked up right where we left off—almost like no time has passed at all. We went to the hot pot restaurant across the street from our hotel. Liana was with me, and his long-time friend Dan Gan met us there too. I think that Yiqiang might be one of the only Chinese people that I've met whose English is about as good as my Chinese. We're a good combination (although I am sure quite hilarious to outside observers) because I think that we both learn a lot of new words from each other. I remember last time I was in Chengdu, whenever I would spend a whole day with his family I would come back to my dorm feeling like I had learned a lot of Chinese. I was pretty proud! It is because of him that I have decided that I really want a host family in Beijing. But anyways, it was really a good time catching up! I didn't have much of an opportunity to chat with him last week during the concert. It turned out that yesterday was his younger sister's birthday, but everyone was too busy to celebrate it. So, today we were invited to celebrate with the family! We all went to a coffee house and sat around drinking coffee and Tibetan tea. Their family is from Kang Ding which is a prefecture near Tibet, so they like a lot of Tibetan food and drinks.

                One funny thing that happened was that Liana and I taught the Duan family how to say "bottoms up!" as a way to say cheers. For some reason they just got the biggest kick out of it. I'm not sure if they thought it was "bottles up" or just how their way of saying cheers: "gan bei" (literally: dry your cup) is so similar to the motion of turning a bottle upside down. But in any case, it was a very entertaining cultural exchange. It was also funny how he couldn't remember Liana's name so he kept calling her by her Chinese name, He Xi 合熙. In total, there were about 8 people: Yiqiang and his wife, his sister and brother, his mom, and a niece (3) and nephew (7). His nephew was quite rambunctious. It is always nice though to be reminded how seven-year-olds all over the world are exactly the same. Overall, it was just a great night reminiscing and catching up. I know that I always have a family in Chengdu! J Yiqiang is really a genuine caring man. I am really glad that he was my host father two years ago and that we were fortunate enough this time around to meet up again. I hope that we can stay in contact a little bit better this time.

~Sarah Swetz

Emiy's blog post

Anonymous

Sunday, January 16, 2011

 

Hello Everyone!

This morning we traveled by bus to the San Xing Dui museum. The basic story is that there was farming land outside of the city limits. When the city decided to expand for economic reasons, they found some artifacts of a lost community. There were many bronze masks that were found and most were thought to have some human qualities, as well as animal qualities. There were masks of all sizes. We went to lunch right outside the museum. There were some foods that we had seen before, as well as some pig ear-- it looked very cartilidgey! After lunch we traveled to a minority village and went down a shopping street. There were many handmade things to look at and/or purchase. It was very chilly!

-Emily Nesheim