China 2006

Thank you very much for the last few sentimental entries and for all your nice bloggings throughout the journey. Please enjoy your last evening in Beijing and be safe coming home. I look forward to seeing you soon!

Hello again everyone, this is Alicia checking in for the whole group.  Last night we visited the Peking Opera, one of the most popular forms of entertainment in Beijing.  I had a picture in my mind of a western style opera with a lot of singing in two different acts.  The Peking Opera, however, consisted of two different short stories.  Each one of these stories conveyed a simple message to the audience.  The performance was a combination of singing, dialogue, dance and acrobatics that I have never seen before.  It was very different than most of us expected, but it was a great time, and a few of us are considering going back tomorrow.  I woke up this morning very hesitant about the day’s activities – being pulled around and old Beijing neighborhood in a rickshaw.  I finally calmed down enough to go through with it, and it was one of the best parts of the trip.  Each rickshaw held two people and they were pulled by a driver on a bicycle.  We then had lunch with a local family in their home.  Although I’m sad to be ending the trip so soon, I miss my family and friends.  I hope everyone is doing well, and I will see you in a few days.

Yesterday we climbed the Great Wall of China. It was quite a workout. The wall itself has been restored some number of years ago. For a very long time Chinese thought the Wall a dissappointment; the wall did not serve its military purpose. Within the recent decades, however, the Great Wall has been labeled as an amazing wonder of the world. The pathways on the wall were extremely steep. It was like walking up a wall, many of us tired walking down the wall backwards. Even the parts with steps were hard to walk up. But it was most definetely worth it. Although the smog cut down on our view of the country, it was still extremely pleasing to look at. In the distance you could see many mountains with other parts of the Great Wall on top of them. I only wish I could have seen it in the spring or fall. But it was a great experience and we all enjoyed it.

Today, we visited a Buddist temple. It was very big and there was quite alot of people there; not just tourists, but buddists and monks as well. What really blew us away the 75 foot statue of a budha, covered in some kind of gold. It was four stories tall, spectacular.

The trip is now winding down and I am both happy and sad. Overall, the trip has been a success. I have learned many things and enjoyed the country very much and the people whom I shared experiences with. Beijing is a very big city and is unlike Shanghai and Xian. It is more spread out and there is so mush construction going on for the olympics in 2008. But now I’m kind of looking forward to seeing that pittsburgh construction again. 

This will most likely be my final blog entry from China.  All day, I have been contemplating (with great effort) a way to suffiently summarize my experience in China with a paragraph or two.  Unfortnately, a few paragraphs woud not do justice.  I would like to talk to everyone when I return home; share my pictures, souveniers, journal enteries, and thoughts.  I know it sounds cliche, the time I have spent in China has literally been an experience of lifetime, and one that I will never forget.  As I begin to think about returning to the U.S., and also embark on the packing process, I am compiling a mental list of things I will be taking home with me.  More important than the knock-off Gucci bags, silk, fans, and tea, I am leaving China with a much greater appreciation, respect, and understanding for a culture once unknown to me.  I have learned that my previous beliefs and (mis)perceptions were often not reality based, but rooted in my own ignorance and judgements.  I had images in my mind of what I thought China would be like, look like, taste like, smell like, etc.  And the most suprising thing of all is how similar the Chinese people are to you and me.  I remember the children in the farming village who played and laughed and hit, just like American children.  The Chinese also enjoy many of the “luxuries” we do- Starbucks, McDonald’s KFC, department stores, fancy restaurants, and the like.  I am also leaving China with a deeper thanks for Pennslyvania’s traffic laws and enforcement, clean water, “Western” toilets, and abundance of paper products.  I owe an insurmountable amount of gratitude for everyone who made this trip possible- my parents, Washington& Jefferson, Dr. Caffrey, Dr. Gai, and the 14 wonderful people who accompanied me on this journey.  It wasn’t always easy; we were often cranky, tired, and cold; but all of this was a mere price to pay for a life-changing experience. Xie xie. 

I am so glad that you had a chance to meet with Professor Wang whom most of you met at W&J last November. I am sure she very much appreciated seeing you and showing you her university in Beijing.  Now that you have visited three of the best universities in China, Fudan, Bei Da, and BISU, I really want to encourage you to consider studing at one of these universities this summer or next academic year. I’ll try my best to work with you on that. Also, I want you to know that the College is offering a first semester Chinese language class this Spring (yes, Spring 2006). I strongly encourage you to take it if you are not already enrolled in a Chinese language class. It seems logical for you to do that, and it will be fun! Please take care and enjoy the Great Wall!

This afternoon we got to speak and visit with Professor Wang at Beijing University. She invited us all to tour her University and eat dinner with her and some colleagues. She first showed us some dorm rooms that would be for foreign students like ourselves. The dorms, although older looking on the outside, were roomy and nice. The one dorm room we saw had a living room and a bedroom so that was very nice for us to see! The students are not crammed into one small room with their roommate. Professor Wang took us into one building where she teaches at and we spoke with a department chair member. He told us about the college and the students that attend Beijing University. We then moved to another room and spoke to the Dean of Economics and Business. He told us about this specific school of Beijing. After our discussion we proceeded to eat dinner with Professor Wang and the colleagues that we had just met. It was an interesting dinner and we were served great food! Although I was a bit hesitant at first glance, Prof. Wang insisted on me trying different dishes and I liked the food. Overall I think our visit with Prof. Wang went very well and we all had a great time. 

Hello everyone!  I am writing you from Beijing University, China’s equivalent to Harvard.  And, yes, there are computers on campus for us to use!  We arrived in Beijing yesterday, and had a wonderful dinner, featuring the famous Beijing duck.  When Dr. Caffrey warned us it would be cold here, he wasn’t joking.  Even with seven layers of clothing on, I still could not feel my extremities.  I guess that is the price one pays for the experiences had.  We began the day with a visit to the Mao Zedong memorial, where we actually saw his preserved body.  There were guards everywhere, hurrying us along, as thousands poured in to pay their respects many years later.  Some were crying, others praying, many leaving flowers, of all ages and status.  After Mao, we proceeded to Tinamen Square and the Forbidden City.  I had no idea how large the once secluded and private city of the emperor was; it just seemd to go on and on.  But it was a beautiful site, nonetheless.  Tomorrow we are having dinner with Professor Wang (I think that is how you spell it); she was the professor that visited W&J a few months ago.  I am really glad that our accomodations are inside of the campus this time, as I hope to interact with some Chinese students (although a lot have returned home for the Chinese New Year).  We are all having amazing experiences in China, and words cannot suffice.  Oh, and one more thing, GO STEELERS!

Great to read about your tours in Xian! I am particularly glad about your visit to a rural village. As I always say, Shanghai is not China. One has to see the interior China and the rural China in order to get a more complete picture. Most Chinese people live like the people in that village and I am glad you had a chance to see that. Have a safe trip to Beijing!

Although we have had a very limited time here in Xian, I still am led to believe it is a very interesting city. Today, we visited a Buddist temple, which was quite Beautiful. We also walked up the seven stories to look at the city below. We had a pretty good workout walking up all those steps.

After the Pagoda, we visited a small farming village outide of Xi’an. At first I thought it was somewhat inappropriate, it felt like we were making a tourist attraction out of their land and homes. The families living there were lower middle class at best, and it was obvious that tourists did not come here often, if at all. But they were all so welcoming and friendly. The children were also very playful. We would take pictures of the kids and than show them the pictures on the digitial cameras, and they all got a good kick out of that. It was nice to see that even kids from a different country and a different class still act like typical boys, throwing firecrackers and fighting with each other. I have some funny pictures of them punching and wrestling each other. We also saw their school. It was not an environment we would be used to, but I would say it was the bare minimum for a school setting. The children were learning the parts of the body in english. It was quite humorous when Mr. McMurray stood at the front of the class room and (jokingly) told the students to take their seats. To our surprise they all did. The professor than had a quick lesson about the parts of the body. The houses were broken down and pretty dirty, but the people still seemed in relatively good health, especially the children.  Their crops were corn and wheat. The population was over 1,000, with 130 children attending the school. Before we left we made a small contribution to the school. All in all, it was a good experience. It was the first time we were able to see the middle ground. We have seen were the rich sleep, and we have seen the homeless, and today we saw people who were definetely struggling to get by, but still able to led a decent life; one of the “village leaders” had a nice TV in his house. Their hospitality shocked all of us.

Tomorrow we leave for Beijing.

I am talking on behalf of the whole class again! We have been very busy these past couple of days and unable to get to an Internet Cafe. Yesterday we traveled from Shanghai to Xi’an. We were all very sad to leave our tour guide Rickey. He was such a great tour guide. Each day he would tell us a humorous story just to make us smile he said. Some of us were very upset that we had to leave him because he taught us so much and he was very nice. We had a wonderful time in Shanghai and maybe some day some of us will be back! Today we visited the Terracotta Warriors and I think it was a great experience for everyone. We had a wonderful tour guide that explained each of the piets to us. We learned that the Terracotta Warriors were made to honor Emperor Qin. They haven’t escavated all of the piets but there are many! Our tour guide told us that they hope to have the tomb where Emperor Qin is buried to be open to the public in 50 years. We got to tour four piets. One was for the most part escavated, another one had a lot of broken pieces. There was a third one that was not escavated at all really. The fourth one was the chariots and horses. It was more of a museum design. They were all great to see! It was great for all of us and we were allowed to take many pictures. Tonight we had an American meal. I think it was a nice break for us all from Chinese food. We had pizza from Pizza Hut. A famous American meal! 

We visted the Eastern Wall yesterday and the view from the top was, although not quite as great as I expected, still pretty good. The best part was the informative tour given on Fengshui. Everyone in the group got to rub the Dragon-horse, although some didn’t end up following the instructions completely as told and afterwards felt a tad “cursed”. Then we went to the gift shop at the end of the tour where they had specialty miniature Dragon-horses. We went to a museum today but since I was not as impressed by this as the one in Shanghai I don’t specificaly have anything to write about the subject. It is also quite cold here so dressing in layers is a must. 

Thank you everyone for the nice blogs! I really enjoyed reading them. I am very pleased that you found the Fudan lectures interesting. How about the round-table with the students? Also, would you insert some pictures in your blogs? I’d love to see them. Please take care, and enjoy your last day in Shanghai! 

This is Alicia, and I’m checking in on behalf of everyone.  Yesterday we spent our last day of lectures at Fudan University, and it was sad for those classes to end.  Our first lecture of the day was given by Professor Wu, and it examined the topic of Chinese diplomacy.  His lecture was one of the most interesting, informative and best delivered lectures that I have ever had the pleasure to hear.  He explained to us that while the main objectives of U.S. foreign policy are leadership and partnership, the main focus of Chinese foreign policy is peace, development and cooperation.  Because of China’s rising status in the world, many other countries are concerned that it may become a threat in the future.  Because of this, China is working to improve relations in four main areas: relations with major powers, relations with neighboring countries, relations with developing countries, and relations with multilateral institutions.  Professor Wu explained how China’s relations with major powers such as the U.S., Russia and Japan are the key to Chinese diplomacy for many reasons including protecting themselves and boosting their economy.  Their relationships with neighboring countries are very important because while the U.S. only has two bordering nations, China has 15.  If at any time these countries have internal problems, there is a large probability that they could spill into China.  He talked with a great deal of pride about China’s relationships with developing countries.  Because China is the only permanent member of the United Nations Security Council that is also currently a developing nation, other developing nations come to China with their concerns and expect to be represented.  China believes that the U.N. is a very important part of international relations, both because of China’s growing national interest and their awareness of their responsibility in the world.  He then spoke very candidly about the Taiwan issue, which none of us expected to hear much about.  There were many reason he gave for mainland China’s strong desire to reunite with Taiwan, and I found this part of the lecture to be the most fascinating.  First it is a cultural issue, a movement for greater national unity.  This is particularly important because China has been seeking this complete unity since their land was taken away by Western powers.  He explained to us that this is similar to America’s slogan of “one nation, under God, indivisible.” Also, there are many other areas of China seeking liberation including Tibet and Inner Mongolia.  If China were to give this freedom to Taiwan, there would be no reason these other portions could not seek to split as well.  He also believes that holding on to Taiwan is part of what gives this regime legitimacy, and if they were to give it up the political system could virtually collapse overnight.  It also becomes a security issue because as Professor Wu explained Taiwan “holds China’s door to the West Pacific.” If at any point Taiwan would be taken over by another nation, that nation would have excellent position to attack China’s mainland.  If Taiwan were to declare independence from the mainland, China has stated that they will use all means to prevent this from happening.  In March 2005, China even passed an anti-separation law that allows any means of force to be used if a split were to take place.  China also blocks Taiwan from joining any type of diplomatic or international institutions that it believes only sovereign nations should be allowed to join.  I believe that Professor Wu summed it up well when he stated that although China has many problems including human rights and environmental issues, the best approach is to help them through and not to isolate them.

Hi Everyone! This is Gina, speaking on behalf of the group. I hope everything is well in the States. Our last lecture at Fudan University was perhaps the most important one, especially for the Poli-Sci students. The lecture was entitled “Contemporary Chinese Politics,” led by a wonderfully articulate professor (whose name I have regretfully forgot). He said that if he could capture the essence of Chinese politics in one word it would be “modernization.” And, by spending the past 6 days in Shanghai, I could most definitely agree. The Professor spoke briefly about China’s history, about how China started off as a super-power (during the dynasty age), but fell behind and could not catch up. He said that the reason China lagged behind was due to its lack of a strong “middle class,” a key ingredient in achieving a successful economy and political system.

I believe that the Professor did an amazing job of clarifying a few misperceptions that many of us share. We often think that China chose communism, to be ruthless and controlling. But, as we learned, communism was China’s only choice. It tried many forms of government, and unfortunately failed. So, in 1949, a very radical step was taken. It was the organization of the masses, the peasants, who were told to “use the potato, no matter how stupid they were.” Since there was no middle class, no voters, the mobilization of the peasants was the necessary step for China’s entrance into the industry, and the way it would grow. The professor explained to us that communism is an extreme form of nationalism, and the government and party leaders (primarily Mao), “just wanted to save China.” Unfortunately, there was an over-centralization of power, no checks-and-balances system, no opposition, and unattainable quotas, resulting in loss of faith and years of ups and downs. People needed to have incentives for themselves to succeed, not just for their country’s success. So in steps Deng Xiaoping, with his “to become rich is glorious” slogan and the “developmental state model,” to achieve growth rates with increased productivity and benefits for everyone.

Mao initially said that only communism could save China- now, only capitalism could save communism! China’s 9% growth rate is nothing short of a miracle, but now they are at a crossroad- sustaining that growth. The political system already made a concession with relaxed control over the economy. Many scholars believe that “democracy is the final destination in China.” Doing it without losing control is key.

We didn’t learn until after the lecture that the professor was an American citizen. I’m not sure if this had any influence on his presentation or views over the issue of democracy in China. But, he seemed to be in favor of it (as others hadn’t been), and believes that it can be achieved eventually. He did stress that radical change in the political system isn’t practical, and would most likely be disastrous. I would also like to mention that this issue came up during the discussion with Fudan students, and they reassured us that communism is the party that the government officials belong to- not the country’s identity. There is censorship, things the students and professors can’t talk about, or perhaps do not feel comfortable talking about. But China is capitalist without argument- one can see this in action by just walking down the streets, with merchants selling anything and everything they possibly can.

Perhaps the most important thing we have learned thus far is just because something is in the paper or on the news, doesn’t necessarily make it true or right. We need to consider others viewpoints, and begin to think “multilaterally.”

Hello,

On Wednesday we started off with the last day of lectures. They were both extremely interesting. After a discussion with Fudan students, we had a lovely dinner and we attended Shanghai’s best acrobatic show. We saw some amazing stunts. There were several things that especially impressed us. One acrobatic stacked chairs on top of each other and balanced himself on the chairs. At one point, he stacked so many that he was almost out of view above the stage, which was about 30 feet high. You could hear the audience ooh and aah as he was able to remain balanced on chairs that seemed to be quite unsteady. Later on, we witnessed approxiamately a dozen women riding on a single bicycle. My personal favorite would have to be the closing spectacle. We all have many pictures of this to show you when we come back, but I will do my best to describe it now. Imagine a steel globe, hollow, about 25-30 feet in height, and 25-30 feet across, with a gate near the bottom. As the lights came on, there was a man riding a motorcycle inside the sphere. Driving at a fast speed, the cycle could ride along the widest parts of the globe. He even could do loops inside the hollow steel ball. It was quite spectacular. I thought one driver was good enough, but soon followed a second cyclist, and than there were two motorcycles driving inside this globe at very high speeds, with less than 10 feet between them. Next, a third motorcycle entered. It was chaos. Two bikes riding around the ball while the other doing vertical loops, coming within feet of a crash. And we knew that if one bike crashed, the others would most likely as well, and the injuries could be quite severe. When the fourth and final bike came in we were all oohing and aahing, trying to look away at what seemed to be a doomed steel caged death. But of course they succeded in amazing us and at escaping the sphere safely.

Today we took a short train ride to Suzhou, a city of 5.7 million people. Suzhou is known as the garden city and the Asian Venice. We took a boat ride down a canal/street lined with houses. Many of the residents would wave and smile at us. We next attended a great garden. Very big and beautiful. It was very peaceful in the garden, I can only imagine how it would look in the springtime. We also went to a silk factory. This was quite interesting. The machines used require much attention and skill. The workers have to thread a single strain of silk so small that none of us noticed until she made us come close and pointed it out. You would not be able to see it in a photograph. The silk in the factory was immediately made into blankets/quilts, as well as other things, and attached to the factory was a silk store, where we could buy the very same silk we saw being produced.

The journey back to the hotel was a good one, but also a sad one. Our stay in Shanghai is coming to an end, and we will all miss our local guide, Ricky, very much. He is very funny and nice, and extremely good at what he does. He was born and raised in Shanghai and knows so much about the city it amazes everyone. Everyday on the bus he tells us a joke, he calls them “Ricky’s humor story.” They are quite bad, but the way he delivers them is what gives it charm and humor. Ricky’s dream is to one day visit New York.

These events have been very worthwile and enlighting. The last two days of lectures have been especially eye opening. China is much different than many of us westerns are led to believe. There is a kind of democracy that is starting to thrive here. I feel so lucky for having the opportunity to listen to some of the leading thinkers of China. This city is a beautiful one and an intriguing one. I now look forward to Xi’an and Beijing.