From Xi'an we flew to Beijing, another huge city full of high-rises, wide boulevards, expensive hotels and shops, and of course, the Olympic Village. We visited Tiananmen Square (the largest in the world) and the Forbidden City
the Birds Nest
and a Kung Fu demonstration
before spending the afternoon hiking the Great Wall. Shockingly, instead of the hordes of people I had been expecting to see, we ended up on the wall practically by ourselves. The weather was perfect, the light subtle, and the wall itself as billed: a veritable wonder. You go up to the top by cable car, hike along it, and then zoom down from it on a long and thrilling toboggan run.
Two of my Semester at Sea students from summer '07 (Nick Aronoff and Scott Clelland) now teach English in Beijing, so they came over to catch up and to take some of our current students out to the clubs and bars.
Our last evening treated us to a Chinese acrobats show, and the last morning we flew out to Shanghai, another strikingly futuristic city.
We'll be in Japan tomorrow.
From Xi'an we flew to Beijing, another huge city full of high-rises, wide boulevards, expensive hotels and shops, and of course, the Olympic Village. We visited Tiananmen Square (the largest in the world) and the Forbidden City
the Birds Nest
and a Kung Fu demonstration
before spending the afternoon hiking the Great Wall. Shockingly, instead of the hordes of people I had been expecting to see, we ended up on the wall practically by ourselves. The weather was perfect, the light subtle, and the wall itself as billed: a veritable wonder. You go up to the top by cable car, hike along it, and then zoom down from it on a long and thrilling toboggan run.
Two of my Semester at Sea students from summer '07 (Nick Aronoff and Scott Clelland) now teach English in Beijing, so they came over to catch up and to take some of our current students out to the clubs and bars.
Our last evening treated us to a Chinese acrobats show, and the last morning we flew out to Shanghai, another strikingly futuristic city.
We'll be in Japan tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment