Joe Zai Zhongguo

Last weekend I checked out the Temple of Heaven, southeast of the Forbidden City. It's where the emperor used to make sacrifices to bring good harvests. Today the area is a nice park around the central temple and other various sacrificial sites. My roommate took a trip to the countryside and asked to borrow my camera so I included the best picture he took. The location is around an hour outside of Beijing. This Friday we had our mid-terms which went very well in my case. Next week there is no class so tomorrow I'm starting out to Xining, in Qinghai province. It's about as far out of civilization I can get with only a week to travel. From what I hear the small city has a good mix of historical religious sites in the forms ... read more

The first of October is Chinese National Day and I figured it would be the right time to check out Tian An'Men. Approximately half of China's population had an identical thought and as the pictures show it was crowded. I bought a little Chinese flag because it seemed like the thing to to do and I got lots of attention as I walked around. A lot of Chinese people took pictures with me using there own cameras and a few followed me around asking questions. They also took the pictures of me in front of various points of interest. It was a very interesting experience, the funniest part being when some a woman brought over her baby to get in the picture with me. I felt like a celebrity. This weekend we are heading to the ... read more

Today was mostly a work day catching up with homework save that this afternoon was my first practice with the Houhai Lake dragon boat team. There were about twenty people there and we split into two boats. A large number of the participants were foreigners and the lingua franca was English. The principle members of the crew are expat Aussies, a Mongolian guy, and a few Chinese. It was pretty easy to get into the swing on the boat. The stroke rate is very high but the strokes are also relatively short. Because you face forwards in a dragon boat the body torsion seems reversed in direction, that is you twist into the boat rather than out of the boat. This way instead of never seeing your teammates face to face like in a rowing shell ... read more

I got lost on my way to Mass Sunday as I mixed up which bus to get on. Luckily the cab I used to get back on track cost only two U.S. dollars to take me a non-trivial distance. Mass itself was interesting. The only phrase I understood was the "Peace be with you" equivalent "Zhu ni ping an." Amen is just about the same in any language. After Mass I bought a Chinese bible from the attached religious store. It is not at all easy to read but I expected as much. Later on Sunday there was a yoga/wushu demonstration set up in a nearby park. Unfortunately I got no pictures as the group participated in various exercises. We started with stretching followed by unarmed forms and then forms with two knives a piece. The ... read more

Orientation continued today leaving the group plenty of free time to explore. This gave me a chance to begin my education in Chinese transportation. Right of way for example is slightly different that the larger vehicle always has the right of way. Also if you beep your horn you aren't liable for any damages incurred on those who don't get out of the way. The subway however is very convenient, as it is only 30 or so cents per trip and you can get a card to hold your money rather then buying a new ticket every time. Several of us took the subway to the People's Revolution Museum which was wonderfully stocked with ancient swords, modern missiles and tanks and propaganda. We Americans especially enjoyed the exhibit on the War of United States aggression (Korean ... read more