So last weekend (June 25th) we all went on a day trip to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. That was an absolute blast. This particular section of the wall boasts the most reconstructed area of the Great Wall, as well as some very interesting features. For example, it’s the only part of the wall with as many watch towers as it has, probably to protect Beijing, along with the nearby mausoleums. The section also boasts the most Ming-style intact architecture, along with places from which to shoot arrows on both sides of the wall. There’s a name for those [View Full Entry]

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I want to elaborate more on Cuandixia before moving on to my other stuff I have planned to talk about (there’s literally a list in front of me so I won’t forget). The place itself is incredible, but way too touristy. Every twenty feet there’s a vendor with a cute little kid who comes up to you and says, “Hello”. By the way, I’ve figured out that one of the most fun things to do in China is let people greet you in English, then say something really complex in Chinese back to them. Their facial expressions are incredible. I quickly [View Full Entry]

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I must start this blog off again by apologizing for the gap in between updates. As I’ve said before, it’s really difficult to find time for them, but I’ve been writing stuff down, both weird and interesting, so I don’t forget to mention them in my subsequent update. So, needless to say, since it’s been a good two weeks since my last update, this one will be a really, really long one. Now where to begin? More observations from China - note that all of these are based entirely on speculation and due to my lack of exposure to “real China” [View Full Entry]

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A lot has happened since my last update. I got placed into the 300 level class. The level system goes from 100, 150, 200, 260, 300, 400, and 500. The course information itself seems a bit lower than what I was doing last semester, but the vocabulary and grammar are lightyears beyond what I was doing in 305 and 306 at UNC. The classes themselves are also incredibly rigorous. You literally must stay tuned in for four hours. If you zone out once or look out the window, you'll be completely lost by the time you tune back in. I almost [View Full Entry]

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Aight, first and foremost, I want to apologize for the delay in between blogs. The train ride from Hangzhou to Beijing was, of course, without internet, so it kind of threw me off my blogging schedule. Additionally, blogs will start to be written less frequently as the days go on because I now have stuff I gotta do in the evenings. So, day two in Hangzhou. GO. We got to wake up kinda later because we only had two things to do that day. Everyone was pretty sluggish. Tucker and Greg had stayed out late at the club and were recovering [View Full Entry]

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Okay, here's the post where I freak my mom out. Today was mostly ordinary in the never-been-to-China sense. So yeah, not really ordinary, but kinda like the past four other days. If you want to skip to the exciting parts, our bus was hit by a very small truck, and I just got back from a night club in downtown Hangzhou, where we were the life of the party. Don't believe it? Yeah, me either. No really. Less exciting stuff first though. We woke up at 7 and drove around 2 and a half hours out of Suzhou to Hangzhou in [View Full Entry]

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6-14-09 I feel like I should start out with an apology. I am leaving quite a bit out, because whenever I write these entries, it’s after everything’s done with the day, and needless to say, I’m always really exhausted. We’re all pretty much on the move constantly, seeing and experiencing China. As a result, a lot of anecdotes and hilarious stories aren’t being told. I will be going back to edit certain days to add in funny stories, etc. for my previous entries, so be sure to check back often if you’re interested in what else is going on. We started [View Full Entry]

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A note on Chinese driving, at least in Shanghai. I can’t decide if they just suck really hard, or if they’re just so good that they have the skill to do what they do. I really can’t tell. We’ve had serious discussion about this on the bus, or at least I had a two minute one with Rachel. My assessment is that they’re just really, really good at sucking at driving. All this time, I’ve seen really aggressive driving, but not a single accident or flattened pedestrian. Due to this, I really do think that they are really good drivers, but [View Full Entry]

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6/12/09 I can’t get enough of this city. While it’s really obvious how much of a mask Shanghai is trying to put over itself, I still took in every skyscraper with characters on them. Today was definitely busy as hell. We woke up around 7, showered, then headed to breakfast on the hotel’s seventh floor. It was pretty sweet, to be honest, though I really don’t feel filled up by the food. Maybe I just haven’t adapted to it fully yet, but it’s not really that different from American food. I have a feeling that our guide is trying to get [View Full Entry]

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Greetings from twelve hours in the future! This is probably the first trip I’ve been flying on where I wasn’t legitimately motion sick for most of the time. It’s nice, because instead of trying to will away nausea for 14 hours, I can be bored and do stuff like shift in my seat and switch the playlists on my iPod. The flights were interesting, but the story starts at about four in the morning in a Cary hotel, being woken up by a loud phone. We drove to the airport and started getting boarding passes, only to discover that the [View Full Entry]

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