Blogs from Baixinzhang, Shunyi, Beijing, China, Asia

Hi all! My first day in Beijing was trying and interesting at the same time. I'll start from the beginning: My flight on Delta was amazing. Way too much food. Plush leather seats, "rest kit" with mask and ear plugs, blanket/pillow (of course), and headphones for the individual computer on the headrests. Yes, computers. It had so many TV shows and movies. It also had trivia games that could be played live between passengers (I was the only one playing. *sadface*), other games, language trainers, etc. The last international flight I took was on Lufthansa to Germany. They played select movies on scattered TVs. It felt longer, even though I was in good company. This time, I was alone. But the guy next to me was an American from Spokane on his way to teach English ... read more

On Monday, May 19th, 2014, we had a nice field trip, we went to HuNan, HuNan is a city of China, we took 3-4 hours bus to the train station, and took 5-6 hours train, then we final arrived ChangSha of HuNan. We just slept in ChangSha a night, so we didn't play at ChangSha. The second day, we got up very early, because we needed go to Phoenix Town quickly. Phoenix Town is a busy town, a lot of people lived there. When we arrived Phoenix Town the first thing we saw is a big phoenix sculpture. There had many delicious snacks in Phoenix Town, like ginger candy, dry kiwi...we also saw them making ginger candy, it looks very interesting. In Phoenix Town, there had a lot shop beside the load, so it was very ... read more

Visitors to Beijing will quite understandably high-tail their way to the major sites of interests as soon as they get off the plane. The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Temple of Heaven and the Great Wall and so on. These places, whilst spectacular and popular will only give you a certain perspective on this immense and complex city. In the meantime, like in any metropolis, life carries on unabashed and uncensored. In the hutongs (alleyways) and suburbs, ordinary people go about their ordinary lives in happy seclusion. Shunyi County, approximately 17km NNE of Beijing proper is unremarkable in many ways. This though to me is part of it's appeal both sociologically and in terms of images that can represent it. Apart from the airport, gated communities, golf courses and Starbucks (yes, really), Shunyi is a largely agricultural ... read more