Living in Beijing

The first day we got to the hotel. We changed(ish) and crossed the street to eat. Most of the food was spicy. It was good but unexpected. The girls sat together and Jose and I sat with Ms. McMurdo and Ms. Lo. Then we went to our rooms. Keyla is with Julian, Monica and Alex are together next door, then farther down is Ms. Lo and Ms. McMurdo. Two rooms away are me and Jose. We changed, took alkaseltzer, showered, and went to sleep.

The next day was our first full day. We got up and showered, changed and went down to eat breakfast. It was a buffet and we ate a lot. Then we headed out with Kathy, our tour guide, who was cool, to the Great Wall to become men. We quickly realized how hard it was. ¼ of the way up, we were all struggling, except Ms. Lo and Keyla. Then we stopped and went down because Julian felt bad. We also went to the Jade Market. It looked very beautiful but expensive!

Day 3 we went to the Forbidden City and walked A LOT! Not cool, but it’s the past. 

We saw their subway and the buildings, we also went to the Temple of Heaven, where we danced, played kick-feather (I’m good at it) and made a pyramid for a group photo. 

Michael Murillo

Skinny Jeans--to wear or not to wear?

What we have done so far here in China has been fun and a great experience. The first day we went to the Great Wall of China, which was much harder to climb than I expected because I didn’t think the steps would be so difficult—sometimes they were huge, normal, or tiny. I had a lot of fun climbing it, and I finally became a “man” according to Chairman Ma’s words. Something I learned was that the Great Wall was built to stop an invasion from Mongolia. I also learned to never wear any kind of skinny jeans to climb.

The second day we went to visit the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City. The Temple of Heaven was an interesting place to visit because of its history, and because of the activities that occur in the parks around it. The Temple of Heaven wasbuilt to sacrifice people to give to the gods. The activities that occur in the parks are Chinese dancing and a game where you pass an object with feathers on it using your feet to another person. The Forbidden City was also interesting because it has a lot of Chinese history such as the Garden, and all the different buildings with different thrones for different purposes.

Today we went to visit the Summer Palace, which had a lot of interesting stuff. The things that the Summer Palace had were extremely amazing. One of the most amazing things was the gigantic manmade lake in front of the palace. Another amazing thing was how huge the entire palace was, and the beautiful giant garden. 

The other thing we went to visit was the Lama Temple, which had the most amazing statures of Buddhas that I have ever seen. The Lama Temple had five different temples that all have statues of different buddhas. The most amazing of all the statues was the one in the last Temple because it was gigantic compared to the rest of the big statures, and also because of its beauty. The last reason why it was so amazing was because it only took 6 years to be constructed.

So far I’m really enjoying being here because of China’s history, art, food, music, and its people.

Jose Frias

Temple of Heaven

My favorite part of the city of Beijing has been visiting the Temple of Heaven. That morning, on our way to the Temple, we walked and approached a park. This park wasn’t an ordinary one, it was one in which people, mostly the elderly, carried on with their morning exercises. We stopped to take a few pictures and continued on.

As we walked into the Temple of Heaven, we were amused by the amount of locals that were there dancing, playing games, and simply viewing breathtaking Chinese architecture. We joined those who were playing and locals stopped to look at us, give us a few tips as to how to play, and took pictures of the “Americans.” Furthermore, we joined those who were dancing to traditional Chinese music, and again the locals admired us and seemed amused by our presence.

We continued to walk further into the temple and stopped to create a human pyramid of the Chinese exchange Club. Locals laughed and clapped and decided to take pictures of us while we continually failed to build a symmetrical pyramid.

From our trip to the temple we learned of the place where ancient Chinese citizens worshipped their emperor and made sacrifices for good harvest. Walking into the temple gave me an overwhelming feeling of honor as I stepped on ground which for many years was closed to the public.

Keyla Inoa

Capital of China

The city of Beijing is a beautiful city with thousands of years of history engraved in it. This city has many beautiful people with a good sense of fashion, many common dishes served in their many restaurants, and overwhelming architecture in their ancient places. This city welcomed us with stares from all around, and people wanted to take pictures of us as if we were celebrities!

This city is different from New York City in many different ways from the intense traffic and the thousands of people riding bicycles to get to their destinations, to the high tech subways and the many street vendors.

I liked everything in Beijing from the many different dishes we tried in different restaurants like the Mongolian hot pot and the roast duck. The reaturants were something new to us and I feel we all enjoyed it in Beijing. Seeing the ancient palaces and the Great Wall of China—one of the seven wonders of the world—were the opportunity of a lifetime and an experience that I’m glad I took part in. My favorite place that we visited in China was today, the “Lama Temple.” The Lama Temple is where mostly Mongolian Lamas (Buddhist monks) worshipped a type of Buddhism from Tibet mixed with some elements of their own religion from northwest China. This temple was filled with beautiful flowers and trees. It seemed so relaxed, comfortable, and welcoming. People from all over the world came to pay their respects to Buddha by burning incest and praying. I enjoyed seeing real life lamas and monks. They really caught my attention and piqued my curiosity about religion, because I didn’t know they still existed. The most interesting thing in the Lama Temple was the huge Buddha statue carved out of wood that was a gift to the Buddha.

The City of Beijing is a beautiful, advanced, and historical place that I enjoyed visiting. The food and history were definitely the highlights of Beijing. 

Alexandria Silva

Heaven in Beijing

Beijing is a beautiful city that is welcoming and friendly. It also has a lot of ancient historical sites like the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heave is where the emperor would worship and where the people would sacrifice animals for a good harvest, good luck, etc. The best part of the this visit was dancing along with the locals in the surrounding park. There were vaious areas where locals were either playing games or dancing along to music. The local Chinese helped us learn the moves and rather than make us feel uncomfortable, they encouraged us to keep trying, Back home I’m so used to people disregarding what others think and do that it felt good to know that strangers were interested in us.

The second best thing in Beijing has to be our dinner on the third day. The waitreeses were very friendly and the food was awesome.

My favorite dishes were the eggplant and the sweet and sour pork. I never really liked eggplant but there was something about the flavors that had my taste buds dancing. Beijing is a wonderful place where I discovered some food and the friendliest people I’ve ever met. 

Monica Escanio