Academics
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Saturday, May 17 – Terracotta Warriors, Xi’an After leaving the factory, we drove another half an hour to the Qin Terracotta Warrior Museum. There we saw the terracotta army guarding the tomb of the Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi (literally, “Qin ‘the first Emperor’”). Built over two thousand years ago, the terracotta soldiers are among the best preserved evidence of a critical period in Chinese history. The Eastern Zhou dynasty, which preceded the Qin, ended in a period of division called the “Warring States,” during which the Qin were but one of many local kingdoms. As the king of Qin consolidated his empire—for the first time ever, unifying most of what is now China—he became progressively more vicious and paranoid. In his effort to protect himself from enemies in both this world and the next, the emperor ordered the construction of a massive tomb system, complete with a large standing army, rivers of mercury, and scores of traps. The terracotta army displayed at the museum is only the tip of the sword: pits still remain to be uncovered, and the emperor’s tomb itself has still not yet been excavated. After viewing the pits, we ate a part buffet-style, part communal-style lunch at the museum. We then drove to the Wild Goose Pagoda and temple, which was both built and mostly destroyed during the Tang dynasty. The pagoda’s name refers to its founding myth: during the seventh century, some Chinese Buddhists were vegetarian and some were not; during a meat shortage at an omnivorous temple, a row of geese flew overhead, and the head goose fell down to the monks. Believing that the goose was a gift from Buddha, the monks decided to immortalize the event. It is plain from the remarkable architecture of the pagoda that it was, at one point, a particularly special temple. On entering, the reason for this is apparent to any student of ancient Chinese history: there is a marble walkway in the middle of the staircase to the main temple carefully etched with the image of a dragon—a sign that emperors once worshipped there. Incredibly, though this temple resembles nothing so much as a tourist attraction on most days, there are still Buddhist monks living and worshipping there every day. After an all-too-short forty minutes in the pagoda, we had an opportunity to explore the one-thousand-year-old wall, which encloses the city of Xi’An. The government of the People’s Republic of China placed a museum to Feng Shui inside the ancient eastern gate to the city, which we also had the opportunity to visit. There, we learned the reason why some buildings place decorative lions outside and why others prefer dragon-horses, among other novel facts about the ancient art. On leaving the museum, we had the opportunity to ride bicycles on the sections of the city wall between the eastern and southern gates. We returned for a brief respite before dinner, which was scheduled to be at a traditional Xi’An dumpling restaurant. A downpour led to traffic jams, which prevented us from following through with that plan. After half an hour in traffic, our guide recommended an excellent restaurant specializing in southern cuisine. As usual, we ate dinner communally, finishing around 8:00 p.m. Sunday, May 18 - Xi’an to Kunming Early this morning, we took a plane from the city of Xi’an for Kunming, which is in the Yunnan Province. Even from the airplane windows, we witnessed the dramatic change in climate and landscape in this southern city. To our surprise, we were greeted at the gate by our travel guide, Yuan, who also goes by Betty, with a beautiful rose of a unique variety brought fresh from the local flower market for each member of our group. We then took a bus from the airport to the Yijing Garden Resort and Spa hotel, a luxurious resort fit for even British soccer star David Beckham, who apparently spent a few days here when visiting the city! Yuan informed us about Kunming, which is a medium-sized city with a population of around six million in a 6,200-square-kilometer area. At an elevation of 1,890 meters, and because of its mountainous landscape, Kunming has a climate that can only be described as “eternally spring.” A short time after checking into our hotel, we traveled to the local ethnic cultural center, which houses examples of the 26 different minority ethnic groups (the majority population being the Han) unique to Yunnan. With a member of the Dai minority acting as a tour guide, we had the opportunity to glimpse three different examples of minority villages. During this visit, we were surprised to discover that there would be a trained elephant show on the premises, which we hurried to see. There were four elephants in the show (three females and one male), to which we each fed bananas by hand; the elephants seemed very pleased to be fed large amounts of the fruit, taking it with their trunks and placing it dexterously into their mouths. The third village we toured was that of the Mosou people, a close relative of the Tibetans, who performed several traditional folk songs and dances for us, one of which we were allowed to participate in. Our Dai tour guide gave us a little background about the tribe, which is a matriarchal one in which fathers play a very small role as compared to their mothers and maternal uncles, who take on the parenting duties. After visiting the ethnic villages, we returned to the hotel to briefly prepare for a fancy Yunnan dinner with the hotel manager (who also runs the ethnic village center) and several of Professor Chen’s musically inclined friends. The dinner was a traditional Yunnan specialty dish of a hot-pot style meal, complete with their famous rice noodles. Many of us had difficulty with the meal, as the bowls were full of hot broth, making the rice noodles slippery to pick up with our plastic chopsticks, but all agreed that the noodles were delicious. We next took the bus a short way to a traditional Chinese teahouse, where we had a “tea party” with many of Professor Chen’s friends and invited ethnic minority performers, who entertained us with their cultural folk songs and invited us to perform our own. After the three ethnic groups performed, five of the assembled party entered the room equipped with accordions, with which they serenaded us throughout the evening, leading to much merriment, as everyone enjoyed the playing very much. We were pleased to listen to a small choir of female singers, who performed two lovely songs in four-part harmony. We were also serenaded by two singers, one male, one female, of professional operatic skill. A highlight of the evening for us was when Professor Chen led the assembled party in another traditional song. Coach Dau and his wife, Paula, also treated us to a duet of a fun song from their youth. One of the most graceful performances was a harpist on the traditional Chinese harp, who was later accompanied by her husband on the bamboo flute. The evening drew to a close with a rousing chorus of a local Chinese song, for which we all joined hands and danced in a circle surrounding our accordionist friends. As we were leaving, we had an opportunity to purchase some of the delicious tea that we had been enjoying all evening and were instructed on how to brew it for ourselves and our American friends. We bid our new friends a fond farewell and returned to the hotel with warm hearts and high spirits, which will help us have a good night’s rest before our adventures tomorrow. Wednesday, May 21 – Lijiang Today, at 8:30 in the morning, we said goodbye to our beautiful Kunming resort to head to the airport. We were booked on a 10:30 flight to Lijiang, which is in the northwest corner of Yunnan. After a rather turbulent flight (passing over mountains tends to change the air currents around), we touched down in Lijiang and were instantly struck by the beautiful atmosphere. The sky was bright blue, and the air was crisp and oddly good-smelling. It smelled much fresher than the previous big cities we’ve visited. We met our tour guide, a Naxi guy who calls himself Snow (taking his name from the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain), who told us that the atmosphere is so clean because there are no factories there. Lijiang is sustained by the many tourists who come there. After leaving the airport, we took a bus into town and stopped for lunch. The restaurant was a family-owned business that was located in the courtyard of their house. We encountered a delicious new dish that consisted of salted, cooked peanuts, as well as some old standards, like fish and fried rice. After lunch, we visited the Black Dragon Pool, which was beautiful. We followed a winding path that led around the whole site, stopping to take pictures of the pool, the bridges, and the mountains in the distance. We then got back in the bus and went to our hotel, a rustic, intricately-designed space located in the middle of a square filled with stores and restaurants. We all retired to our rooms for a bit to rest before meeting back in the square to get a tour from Snow. We saw all the little shops and stands, as well as a cultural center that had many photos that had been taken by foreigners who have come to visit the area over the years. The cultural center building used to be a house for a wealthy family, but it is now a focal point for tourists and photography enthusiasts. We decided to go a different route for dinner, meeting up at 6:30 to go to the Well Bistro, a beautiful, homey café that had both Chinese AND American food! We luxuriated in our first pizza and pasta in nine days while talking, relaxing, and taking pictures of the view out the window. After dinner, we leisurely wandered through the cool twilight back to the hotel, through the lit-up square still bustling with people. Some headed out to do some shopping while others returned to their rooms to rest for the next day in beautiful Lijiang. Thursday, May 22 – Lijiang, day 2 Our first full day in Lijiang began with a break from our typical morning routine. Instead of our usual breakfast at the hotel, we went out into the city for various non-Chinese breakfasts, with our choice of French, American, or vegetarian breakfasts. After breakfast, we boarded a bus that would take us to the internationally famous Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, at an elevation of about 16,500 feet. On the way, our Lijiang guide, Snow, a native of the Naxi minority, shared with us many different facts about the mountain. Snow explained that the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is the sacred location of the Naxi peoples’ deity and has thus been “unconquered” by Chinese and foreigner alike. This information was followed by Snow sharing with us a few ethnic minority songs, and later, to our surprise and delight, Professor Chen treated us to a traditional Tibetan mountain song. After arriving at the base of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and waiting in a holding area, going six at a time, we boarded cable cars that would speed our journey to the snowy peaks near the summit of the mountain. Our ears popped several times, and it grew distinctly colder on the steep climb leading to the top of the mountain. However, little attention was given to these minor discomforts because all our attention was diverted to the breathtaking landscape laid out before us, only blocked a little by the cloud enveloping the summit. Once we disembarked from the cable cars, we found ourselves in a winter landscape that was completely at odds with the warm spring climate down below. Due to the altitude, some of us found that the thinner air prevented us from walking further up the mountain, but others fearlessly climbed higher by making footholds in the snow and then had fun sledding down the slippery slope. The ride back down in the cable car was much more exciting because the cars went slightly faster as we were again treated to a panoramic view of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and the city proper of Lijiang. We boarded another bus at the base of the mountain that led us to a stream in which eight yaks were cooling themselves. This was a photo opportunity for our group, as some of us had the opportunity to actually ride said yaks around the water, who have very coarse fur and a distinctive smell. After viewing the yaks, we boarded our bus again and drove away from the mountain for a light lunch picnic in the shade of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. As it was beginning to sprinkle, we headed back to the hotel in the old town of Lijiang, where we had free time to tour the city and shop if we wished. During our shopping excursions, several of us had the chance to practice our Chinese and try our hand at bargaining. We met for dinner at 6:30 p.m. and headed to Le Petit Paris, where we ironically ordered Chinese food. We also had the chance to sample Yunnan province red wine and were treated with the usual fruit plate at the end of the meal. While we were eating, we were regaled by the sounds of several dueling karaoke bars. After dinner we had a little more free time to look around the vibrant city of Lijiang before going to bed early, as we had to get up at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow in order to leave Lijiang for Kunming and then Guilin. Friday, May 23 – Lijiang to Guilin Today we checked out of the hotel in Lijiang at 6:30 a.m. The early check-out time was very difficult but everyone made it. Our final destination was Guilin, but we first had to fly back to Kunming because there is no direct flight from Lijiang to Guilin. We had a five-hour layover at the Kunming Airport, but one of Professor Chen’s friends treated us to our own VIP room so we were able to sleep and relax comfortably. Unexpectedly, several group members suffered from food-sickness, which made the daunting travel schedule even more difficult. Fortunately, Professor Chen’s wife, Xian, is a nurse at Lake Forest Hospital and gave Chinese medicine to those feeling ill. The medicine worked well, and people felt much better as the day wore on. We arrived in Guilin at 3:45 p.m. and checked into the hotel. Our 4-star hotel was located next to one of four man-made lakes in Guilin. Guilin is a small city with a population of 700,000 people. The weather was very humid, but the scenery was beautiful as various plants and flowers lined the streets. The people who continued to suffer from food-sickness stayed in the hotel as we enjoyed authentic Guangxi cuisine for dinner. The fifteen-minute walk to the restaurant was very enjoyable as we traveled aside two of the picturesque lakes. The paths were surrounded by gorgeous gardens that displayed many exotic flowers and plants. After dinner, a few people stayed out to enjoy the night market. The street we had previously walked across on our way to dinner was lined with hundreds of red tents. The market offered a wide variety of goods including combs, watches, and jewelry. It was quite crowded with both local and tourist shoppers, but we were able to stay together as we made our way down the hectic street. Everyone was tired from a long day of travel and we soon made our way back to the hotel. The walk along the lakes was even more beautiful as various colored lights showcased Guilin’s unique natural beauty. Overall, this was a day of rest and relaxation as people tried to get healthy for the second half of our trip. Saturday, May 24 – Yangshuo Today, most of our group woke up healthy and ready to go, which was a big improvement from yesterday, thanks to the Chinese medicine given by Xian, Professor Chen’s wife. We met around 8:30 a.m. to take an hour-long bus ride to the Li River where we would depart for Yangshuo. We boarded our boat around 9:25 and left shortly thereafter. We were directed to several tables where the staff served us tea. Many of our classmates joined in a game of cards before Professor Chen terminated the game and pushed us to the top of the boat to enjoy the beautiful scenery. Complaining for just a second, we were quickly captured by the charming beauty of Li River and the mountains along the river. Our tour guide, Ricky, informed us that we needed to use our imagination in order to see the named formations throughout the mountains. One of our favorites was the mountain known as “Nine Horses.” On the face of the mountain you were supposed to be able to pick out nine different horses, which were created by contrasting colors of the light-colored rock and the dark-colored greenery. Another one of our favorites was the mountain with two humps that was supposed to look like a cat’s ears. As the trip continued, we were also able to spot many ducks and water buffalo swimming in the river. After admiring the scenery, grey clouds began to move in, so we returned to the bottom of the boat for lunch. Each table was up against the window, so we were able to continue to enjoy the view. It was interesting, however, because every once in a while two men on a bamboo raft would paddle up and latch on to the side of the boat. They walked on the ledge right outside the window and tried to sell us everything from wooden Buddhas to bamboo hats. After finishing lunch, we continued to play cards as we waited for the storm to pass. The boat docked around 1:30 p.m. in the small village town of Yangshuo. We were taken to our hotel by government-required golf carts (for a fee). After checking in, the group split up for some free time. Following Professor Chen, some of the group took a bus to the river to go bamboo rafting at the so-called “Little Li River.” They were also fortunate to see a 1,400-year-old banyon tree. A banyon tree normally begins like any other tree, but as it continues to grow the branches send roots down to the ground. If the branch hits dirt, it becomes another trunk. While the group toured around the “Little Li River,” other members of the group walked around the city or rested at the hotel to get ready for the performance that evening. We all reunited at 6:40 and walked to dinner. At 8:30 p.m., we met at the bus and headed for an impression performance. The performance, entitled Liu Sanjie Impression, is directed by the most famous Chinese film director Zhang Yimou, who is also the director of many internationally known movies, including “To Live,” “Raise the Red Lantern,” “No One Left Behind,” “House of Flying Daggers,” and “Hero.” Zhang is also the general director of the show for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing to be held this August. The show was astonishing and unbelievable. Zhang mobilized more than 600 people of the Zhuang nationality in Yangshuo area to play the actors and actresses. They are farmers from the nearby villages who work in the rice fields during the day and come to perform in the night. The stage of the show was the Li River with the mountains lit up in the background. Needless to say, the show was spectacular. Thanks to Professor Chen’s translation after the show, we learned the storyline of the performance. The story was based on a legend of the Zhuang nationality in late Ming Dynasty. A beautiful woman fell in love with a poor peasant. Her family, however, did not approve of the relationship because he was not rich enough with high social status. The family, therefore, organized an arranged marriage instead, planning to marry her to a wealth family. The woman engaged in persistent struggles against her parents’ will. Toward the end, the arranged marriage fell apart and the two lovers were allowed to be together. We noticed that there are many newly founded buildings and hotels surrounding the theatre area, and we had to wait in a long line to check into the theatre, together with three thousand others from all parts of China. The tour guide told us that since the show was initiated in 2001, it created a fiscal miracle that enormously enhanced locals' living standards. This is a typical example of how the popular culture in China is smartly used toward making commercial productivities. Following the show, we returned to the hotel to rest up for the 22-hour train ride to Shanghai the next day. Sunday, May 25 – Yangshuo and the train After a late night watching a performance produced by famed director Zhang Yimou, we were relieved to have the opportunity to sleep until 9:00 a.m.—at which time we awoke to the cloying heat of Yangshuo. We ate a quick breakfast before boarding our bus back to Guilin, where we were to catch our train to Shanghai at 5:30 p.m. We arrived an hour and a half later and—in keeping with our tradition upon arriving in any city—immediately went to a restaurant for lunch. As usual, the food at the restaurant was excellent. Once again, however, we experienced a phenomenon we call “surprise meat”: one of the members of our group is a vegetarian; when we order supposedly vegetarian foods, we often find that they are either in a meat broth or have small pieces of meat inside. After discussion with the waiting staff, Professor Chen was able to obtain acceptable dishes and we were shortly once again on the road—this time to the Tea Research Institute of Guilin. Our guide at the Tea Research Institute—which began as a tea plantation for the Ming Emperors almost four hundred years ago—began our tour by showing us the tea plants themselves and going over the various parts and leaves which make up the different types of tea. We then had an opportunity to watch one of the workers hand-prepare raw green tea by heating it to prevent fermentation. Following that presentation, our guide led us through a traditional tea-tasting ceremony, where he served high-quality high mountain-yellow, oolong, osmanthus-green, and blended-red (which Americans call black) teas. We now realize that much of the Chinese economy is run by the simple axiom “in any building which tourists visit, there must be a gift shop in front of every exit”—which we were promptly led into. On returning from the Tea Research Institute, we immediately went to the train station and prepared for our 22-hour train ride. Around half an hour later, we boarded the train, loaded our luggage, and watched the beautiful Chinese scenery roll by on our way to Shanghai. Monday, May 26 – Train (continued) and Shanghai We awoke to a bright, sunny day greeting us outside our close train window in each four-person compartment. At around 11:00 a.m., lunch was served on the train, and while some of us opted for the simple lunch of rice, egg, cabbage, and dumplings, others preferred to stay in our train cabins for a small picnic lunch. We all enjoyed the pastoral scenery that tumbled by outside our windows during the rest of our long train journey. At 3:40 p.m., we finally arrived at our destination, Shanghai. We instantly felt the welcome drop in temperature from the warm and humid Guilin to the tepid Shanghai. However, we could again smell the scent of big-city pollution, one of China’s fast-growing problems. From the bus on the way to our hotel, we observed that Shanghai is a bustling, cosmopolitan metropolis the equal of any major Western city. Unlike any of the cities we have visited, Shanghai seems to be almost completely modernized instead of having the usual juxtaposition of old and new buildings side by side. Many of the street and shop signs not only had the standard Chinese characters but also had English translations or other phrases in English written on them. The highway system seems highly developed, comparable to that of Los Angeles or New York, but the driving seems equally terrifying—perhaps moreso due to the population increase. Many of us were impressed by the sophistication of the interactive street advertisements, which were full of flashing, colorful lights. We had been informed that the local hotels in Shanghai could be considered expensive by Western standards, so we were pleasantly surprised to find that our hotel was to our tastes, especially the soft beds and free internet access. After we checked into our rooms, we were all grateful to have warm showers after our 22-hour train ride from Guilin. At the hotel, we had a pleasant reuniting with one of Professor Chen’s former May China Program students and one of Coach Mike Dau’s former handball captains, Lindsay Ross '07. She was able to act as our tour guide for the evening, sharing her valuable knowledge of the city and pointing out interesting buildings and facts. As it was still early, we opted for a light dinner of various kinds of dumplings at a nearby Chinese fast-food restaurant. We all enjoyed the simple meal of dumplings, and with full stomachs we boarded the bus that would take us to downtown Shanghai so that we could climb the Jin Mao Observatory Building, the tallest building in Shanghai. The 340.1-meter building houses 88 floors, and the observation deck is on the top floor, which we reached by way of an incredibly fast elevator. The elevator moved at an incredible speed of 9.1 meters per second, which allowed us to reach the 88th floor in an astounding 45 seconds, popping all our ears on the way up and down. At the top of the tower, we had a stunning panoramic view of the Shanghai skyline at night with all its twinkling of neon lights from nearby buildings, advertisements, and boats on the Yangtze River. The breathtaking sights from outside were only matched by the startlingly beautiful (yet terrifying) view from within, where what seemed like hundreds of floors bloomed upward from a hotel lobby below in a pattern reminiscent of a lotus blossom that could be observed from glass paneling surrounded by high rails at the center of the building. After our equally quick descent, we left the tower and returned to the area around the hotel, where those who wished explored the city safely before turning in for bed.
We began the day by visiting one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, the Great Wall of China. On our way to the destination, Professor Chen made a brief introduction about the history and legacy of the Wall and its cultural significance in Chinese civilization. The Great Wall was completed by Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi in 221 B.C. and is over five thousand kilometers long. We visited the Badaling section of the Great Wall, which was constructed in the sixteenth century. We were all amazed that such a massive structure could be built across mountainous terrain. It was a hot day and the Wall was quite steep, which made the hike difficult. We spent two hours hiking the wall, and many of us made it to some of the highest sections where we could oversee a vast landscape. After eating various kinds of dumplings for lunch, we proceeded to the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace was restored by Empress Dowager Cixi after being burned down in 1860 by Anglo-Saxon Allied forces. The enormous palace features many beautiful buildings and gardens. We spent an hour and a half in the Summer Palace, which was not nearly enough time to see all it had to offer. We then went to the Chaoyang Theater to see a Beijing Opera performance. We watched three short plays entitled "The Crossroads," "The Goddess of Heaven Scatters Flowers," and "Monkey King Battles against the Arhats." It was very interesting and unlike anything we had ever seen. The performers were dressed in elaborate clothing and spoke in very high tones. The front row of the audience was filled with men playing extremely loud instruments to dictate the actor’s movements. Our favorite play was "Monkey King Battles against the Arhats." The Monkey King, dressed like a clown, successfully fought off four different attackers using martial arts. The actors used swords, staffs, and other weapons in enacting the fight scene. We were all exhausted from a very long day and looked forward to going back to the hotel for some much-needed rest. Sunday, June 1 – Coming to an end We met with Professor Chen around 8:30 a.m. in the courtyard of the hotel to have a small-group meeting and reflection of the trip. He clarified the guidelines for our final research paper (due July 15th) and then asked for a one-minute summary from each of us concerning our thoughts about the trip. He recorded our summaries and is including them in the final video presentation in the fall. We are all eager to see the footage Professor Chen has been capturing throughout the three weeks. Afterwards, we made the long journey to the Beijing Subway Station as Professor Chen led us to the pearl market. At the pearl market we were able to do any last-minute shopping we might have missed out on throughout the trip. The pearl market had three main floors. Walking through the first floor was a little overwhelming. Vendors were screaming at us and shoving fake iPhones, cameras and other electronic devices in our faces – all of which we avoided. The second floor consisted of a wide arrange of apparel, including t-shirts, purses, shoes, suitcases, belts, sunglasses, and silk ties, most of which claimed to be expensive designer brands. We, however, were not fooled and refused to pay their high asking prices. Finally, we made our way up to the third floor where we were able to find thousands of pearls of different sizes, shapes, colors, and designs. With the help of both Professor Chen and his wife, Xian, we were able to bargain the vendors down to selling us the pearls at cheap, reasonable prices. For lunch, Professor Chen and Xian led us to a well-known Beijing-cuisine noodle restaurant. The atmosphere of the restaurant was unlike any we had experienced in China. Throughout the meal, we were told to be loud and energetic. Following Professor Chen’s example, we all shouted loudly “Qiezi," which means “eggplant,” or “I love China” to express our excitement and happiness. It was such an interesting lunch and motivating moment. After lunch we were free to explore Beijing. Professor Cody met up with several of his previous students, while Coach and Mrs. Dau went with Professor Chen’s niece to a museum. Professor Chen led the rest of us to the government-regulated department store where there was no bargaining allowed and was therefore out of most of our price ranges. On our way to the department store, it was interesting to see how Beijing was still reaching out to the victims of the earthquake in the Sichuan province. Posters lined the street which pictures from the site of the earthquake and captions that described in detail the suffering endured by those involved. Children were also writing letters and drawing pictures to send to the victims. After free time, some of the group got back together for dinner. Professor Chen’s niece was nice enough to take us back to one of the restaurants we had been to the first time we were in Beijing. Following dinner, we returned to the hotel to pack up and prepare for the thirteen-hour journey back home tomorrow. It is hard to believe that the trip is finally over. Professor Chen has showed more aspects of China than we could have ever anticipated. From the busy city life of Beijing and Shanghai to the rural areas of Kunming and Lijiang, we experienced it all. We arrived at one of the most significant periods in China’s history and for three weeks we became part of their society. It was fulfilling to be able to donate money to the earthquake relief fund and visit a poor elementary school. None of us could imagine learning in such conditions, but these children did not know any different. The preparation of the Beijing Olympics and the biggest earthquake in over one hundred years made this trip an exceptional experience. This trip was unlike anything we could have ever imagined. It would not have been possible without Professor Chen and his knowledge and experience of China.
Monday, June 2 – Goodbye China
After our tour of the apartment, Mrs. Zhang took us to a nearby restaurant for one last Chinese meal. As per usual, it was quite the feast, with all of us seated around a long table to exercise our much-improved chopsticks skills. Following our wonderful lunch, we boarded the bus for the last time and headed to the airport. Once there, we took one last group picture before check-in. We then said goodbye to Professor Chen, who was staying in China for two more months, before heading towards security and gate E30. We boarded the plane without incident (aside from the joy of individual bag checks at the gate), glancing out the windows for one last glimpse of the beautiful country that had been our host for the last three weeks. The plane took off and we headed back to America. We landed about twelve hours later (actually earlier in the day on June 2nd then when we took off), fought our way through long lines at immigration, and headed to baggage claim. Our many bags slowly but surely came through, and our little three-week family went our separate ways. |
Daily Entries Sat., May 17 Sun., May 18 Wed., May 21 Lijiang Thurs., May 22 Lijiang, day 2 Fri., May 23 Lijiang to Guilin Sat., May 24 Yangshuo Sun., May 25 Yangshuo Mon., May 26 Train (continued) and Shanghai Sat., May 31 Sun., June 1 Coming to an end Mon., June 2 |