Sunday September 16 - flying back to Eugene

This morning we said goodbye to Beijing and to some of the group who were staying on in the country... we got to the airport, and got onto the plane smoothly and then waited... for eight hours (!) everybody was a good sport about it though -- Jesse, Cyrene, Drew and I played cards and shared the snacks that we had packed. It felt so good to land back in the US -- while waiting in the line to get checked in we ran into Merry from the Lord of the Rings (we also got a 100 dollar coupon from US Air which helped make up for the wait in Beijing)

Saturday September 15 -- Final Review

This morning we went to the immense Panjiayuan flea market, and spent several hours bargaining to pick up things to take back to family. I picked up some great Red Army caps for my cousins Victor and Laura, as well as several scrolls and keychain ornaments that I think would be great for Christmas tree decorations. In the afternoon, we had our final project review in the courtyard of the hostel, and Ying surprised me with a deck of cards of China's historic emperors (she had given out cards to everyone the day before and I had been secretly envious of them -- they were a very attractive set of cards) We had our final dinner at Quanjude -- or tried to -- it was packed and we finally decided to go next door. Quanjude is world-famous for its Peking Duck - we ordered Beijing Duck at the second place and found out that they got their duck from Quanjude -- the same tasty famous bird without the wait and a lot cheaper! We then went to the Laoziteahouse, where we got to sample tea and see a great variety show that mixed comedy, Chinese acrobatics, and excerpts from the famous ancient Chinese story "Journey to the West".

Friday September 14 -- Tiantan and Houhai

Today we went down to Tiantan - the Temple of Heaven - which is just south of the Forbidden City -- we all stayed together, making it there without any problems, but then it started to rain... Tiantan was really impressive, with beautiful, spacious gardens. In the afternoon Ying, David, Peggy and I went to Zhongnanhai, which is where President Hu Jintao and the other leaders of China have offices and homes in an immense complex surrounded by a simple, elegant, gray stone wall.

At night we went out to Houhai bar district, and went bar-hopping -- one of the bars even featured a bathroom with an aquarium in its floor. The bars were a little pricey but they were packed and a lot fun and in a really beautiful setting.

Thursday, September 13 - 北京

Today we visited the Forbidden Palace, Jingshan Park and Tiananmen square. We got split up on our way to Jingshan Park with the taxi dropping off Katie, Cyrene, Joel and Jesse some-place far away from Jingshan Park, but we met up again with them in the Forbidden Palace. Jingshan Park was quiet and beutiful -- ancient cypress trees and the early morning mist added a spooky feel to the place where the last Ming Emperor committed suicide. Had lunch with Drew at a cheap home-style restaurant off of TIananmen where we were the only non-Chinese.

Wednesday September 12 - Simatai and Beijing

Today we woke up to coffee, muesli and bananas (on top of the Great Wall) - we then hiked about 3 hours from Jinshanling where we were to Simatai were we rode a zip line down over a lake and down from the perch of the Great Wall. We then drove into Beijing through the crazy Beijing traffic and visited Beijing's new art district - 798 - which was a lot bigger than Moganshan and really cool -- lots of Westerners and Western cafes, and really expensive artwork on sale... We then dove back into the new Beijing's roaring river of luxury cars and SUVs, getting into the hotel after 8 -- we had a nice dinner though at a local Dumpling Shop. The Hostel is in a traditional Hutong, with a beautiful lush courtyard and several really cute kitties and its run by a set of spunky English-speaking 20 somethings...

Tuesday September 11 - Night on the Great Wall

After getting off the train to Beijing, we went to China's premier Art's School: CAFA (the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts) for lunch with one of Ying's many former students, who is now a professor at the School. CAFA was beautiful -- gray stone, just built, with an extremely international student body which includes China's most promising artists -- they accept less than 1% of their applications from Chinese Students. We also got to see the design studio where many of the emblems for the Beijing Olympics were conceived, and saw some of the school's state of the art equipment. We then went to the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall -- a "wild" part of the wall where there were very few tourists, this portion of the wall hasn't been re-constructed since teh fall of the Qing Dynasty and it was a barren, imposing landscape. We had a dinner of dumplings and beer at the house of teh farmer whose family is arranging our overnight stay on the wall, then in pitch darkness we climbed up to the guard-tower wehere we spent the night in sleeping bags. Couldn't see many stars because the sky was overcast, but had a great time playing cards --- Time experimented with some night-time photography and we must have stayed up until 1 or 2 in the morning... an unforgettable experience

Exhibition Ceremony - Sept. 10

The University President -- the Big Tiger