adventures-of-a-hapa

[adventures-of-a-hapa]

Day 28 and 29 - The Last Days

In the morning we picked up our transcript from Peking University and had a final walk around campus. We spent the last of our campus card money in the canteen at lunch before heading into the city to do some souvenir shopping. I was looking for a cheongsam - a traditional, figure-hugging garment made of embroidered silk. I found myself in a situation having to bargain with the shop keepers and I might have offended some of them offering a price too low... oops. 

We found ourselves heading over to our favourite buddhist restaurant... again. Ordering ourselves a lavish smorgasbord of dishes, planning on blowing all our money before leaving. We headed back to the accommodation and sat in the plaza chatting away and procrastinating packing; I really don’t want to leave this place. Ash, Josh and I stayed up talking till 5am before realising we needed to leave at noon the next day... and really should pack. Without sleeping we went up to our rooms to pack and clean before sneaking a nap in before heading out to the sunrise breakfast buffet in our complex. Afterwards we met up in reception to hand in the keys and met a bunch of the other PKUSSI scholars where we had a big final goodbye. Then we hopped into a cab and were off on our way to the airport. We bumped into yet more PKUSSI scholars before slurping down a last meal of noodles and boarding the plane. Goodbye Beijing, you were so good to me.  

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Day 27 - The Feast, The Lama Temple and The Flag-Raising Ceremony 

The first event of the day was a trip to the Yonghe Lamasery or ‘The Lama Temple’. It is a temple and monastery for teachers of Tibetan Buddhism but it originally served as the official residence for Emperor Yong Zheng. It famously holds a guinness world record for the 18m tall Maitreya Buddha found in the The Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses. It is sculpted from a single piece of sandalwood and is painted vividly clothed in yellow satin, it would have been nice to snap a photo for the blog however the alters are considered sacred and it would have been disrespectful to.

Next I hopped on the metro and headed back to campus in order to make it to my Chinese medicine class. Today was the last lesson and we were having a feast. My group and I decided to make lotus root and spare rib broth (排骨莲藕汤). We managed to cook a rich, warming soup filled with tender pork falling off the bone and lotus root with the perfect bite. I did say ‘we managed to cook’ however I should probably correct that to ‘Susu and Yue managed to cook' as they were the masterminds behind the dish. I had a go at making dumplings (jiaozi- 餃) but was pretty horrific, Danielle seemed to have mastered the folding technique though. The feast was a hearty moment of the trip as each group in the class had made a range of dishes including cakes, chicken wings and pizza - the soup and dumplings were by far my favourite though. The class ended at 18:00 however we all stayed to eat more food, enjoy the company and sing some of our favourite tunes KTV style. 

In the evening we headed out to Sanlitun with the intension of staying up to watch The Flag-Raising Ceremony. The practice draws crowds to Tiananmen square to watch the Chinese flag raised in unison with the sunrise with the national anthem played in the back ground. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people turn up for a three minute ceremony and a few of the group commented “is that it!?”. We grabbed breakfast from a local vendor frying Jianbing (煎饼) crepes before hailing a taxi and collapsing in bed.

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Day 26 - Mandarin, Manicures and Massages 

Today was a day of luxury... well apart from my final exam for mandarin. I thought the exam went well and was surprisingly simple. As a treat I had booked in a gel manicure appointment with a lady recommended by my flatmate. I took my first bus ride to get there and after pointing and using gestures was able to buy a ticket from the controller. The salon was a cute, cozy place on the eleventh floor of a high rise building. I went with Danielle and Aude and said a final goodbye to Aude as she was leaving that evening. 

For dinner we decided to get Peking duck, one last time, before the trip ended and headed to a highly recommended restaurant (全聚德 - Quanjude). They told us the wait for a table of twelve would be 45 minutes, however we ended up waiting more like an hour and a half for the famed duck. There was a whole setup outside the restaurant filled with chairs and a lady at a desk with a microphone calling out numbers for when tables were free. I was happy sitting outside enjoying the cool evening and chatting away. When we finally got a table we were famished and almost ordered a whole duck each... and after a short wait delicious platefuls of roasted skin with dipping sugar; succulent meat; hoisin sauce with cucumber and spring onion; flavourful stock soup and stacks of pancakes were bought out. It was the most expensive meal of the trip but well worth it! 

Afterwards Tash, Jess, Anna, Tess, and I took taxis and headed over to a spa called Dragonfly, another place recommended to us. We got one hour Chinese and oil aroma massages, a treat after the days exam. It goes to say but I slept soundly that night. 

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Day 24 and 25 - The Five Storey Bookstore and Studying

These two days were rather uneventful in comparison to the packed travel weekend just previously. I spent my time attending classes, writing up one of my assignments and studying for my upcoming Mandarin exam. Our favourite study spot was the cafe in our accommodation complex. It’s kind of hard to find and you must sign in at a security desk before heading up but once you reach it, a warm atmosphere greets you with quirky decor and good cafe music. The perfect place to memorise mandarin flash cards, plan essays and practice speaking Chinese. I made a friend named Billy, a New Yorker with Chinese heritage and a willing listener to help me with my Chinese. 

The other day after classes we headed into the city to visit a humongous book store as some of the group wanted to buy a few texts. I also picked up some beautiful gold plated book marks there as gifts. After that we decided to do a bit of shopping around the Wangfujing area and of course ended up at our favourite buddhist restaurant... again. When I got home my flatmate was finally back. I hadn’t met her yet but she had left a little welcome note letting me know when she’d be back from her travels. She was a lovely Aussie with a pet turtle named squirtle. It’s a shame that I only got to hang out with her for the couple days before the trip ended.

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Day 23 - Huashan National Park  

We had a very early start since we were planning to hike Mount Hua in a single day. Our hostel manager was incredibly kind - I don’t think a more suited man to the service industry exists. Last night he waited up until we made it to the hostel, texting us he had turned on the aircon so that the room would be cool upon arrival and even offering to pick us up from the station. Furthermore, instead of just handing us the keys and disappearing off to sleep when we arrived he sat us down and helped us plan a hiking trip, giving us thorough, detailed advice. After a hearty breakfast in the morning he gave us a lift to the Huashan Visitor Centre and came in with us to help buy our tickets and send us off in the right direction telling us to text if we had any problems. A truly friendly, generous, good-natured and considerate man. 

Since we only had a day, it wasn't feasible to hike up the mountain (I would have loved to been able to do so though) thus we opted to take the gondola up gliding along the steep inclines and cliff sides. If you google Huashan you’ll come across articles calling it “The World's Most Dangerous Hiking Trail” and this was a reason why the group split up back in Xian with others going straight home to Beijing. You can watch someone walking the infamous Plank Walk in the Sky here - a path formed of planks built into the side of a vertical cliff face. 

The mountain is one of the five sacred Taoist sites in China and has been part of folklore for thousands of years holding an immense amount of historical significance. Emperors from all different dynasties have held large-scale ritual ceremonies here and many other emperors are said to have pilgrimed to the mountains. Famous poets and notable monks have also left their mark leaving behind inscriptions, poems and verses carved into the rocks. Another marvel of Mount Hua are the pines, they grow upright and elegant in unique shapes and are well respected as they are considered to represent a hardworking and upward spirit, standing proudly and withstanding the forces of nature. 

We decided to rent a harness and trek to The Chess Pavilion. It juts out from the East Peak and sits as a lonesome pavilion in a precarious position. Reaching it requires a 50m climb down with footholds carved into the cliff face and a metal chain to hook your pathetic harness carabiners into. 

This has to be one of my favourite days of the trip. Even though we had a few mishaps I feel fortunate and glad to have been able to visit the sacred Mount Hua.

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Day 22 - The Bell Tower and Big Wild Goose Pagoda 

Our first stop of the day was to see The Bell Tower. It was built on a thick brick base, in 1384 AD, to warn the city of attacks and ring the bell in alarm. The tower is built in the centre of old Xian and now has a large road encircling it with roads built to the North, East, South and West city gates - the only exits out of the fortified part of Xian. We had a hard time figuring out how to actually get to sites in Xi’an since the crossing for pedestrians are underground. For example we could see The Bell Tower from a mile off, however having a large road encircling it we were unsure how to reach it and walked around for a while before figuring it out. The inside of the tower was intricately decorated in such brilliant colours, pristine and vibrant. I found a corner with a cool fan and just stared admiring the ceilings intricacies. 

The temperature reached 44°C that day and heat lethargy was really hitting us so we spotted an ice cream (冰激凌 - bing ji ling) cafe from the balcony of the tower and decided to head there. After a necessary rest and cool down we headed The Big Wild Goose Pagoda - another example of Chinese names loosing their elegance through translation. It has grand fountains surrounding it, which have a light show in the evening, and has Buddhist temples and shrines as you reach the inner courtyard of the pagoda. Josh and I parted with Bea and Jihwan as they headed back to Beijing. They managed to avoid the rain as, just after they left, it started spitting. As the rain beat down, we sat in the courtyard under the red and gold eaves of one of the temple buildings, people watching, talking and taking in the moment and appreciating where we were knowing that a week tomorrow we’ll be flying back to the UK.  

As the rain began to lighten and as our stomachs started to rumble we ventured on a quest for food. The excursion took us away from all the touristy areas into alleyways where we finally sat down at a street food place by the road, there was no kitchen so we watched as the cook prepared the meal and began roasting our food on skewers in a barbecue set by the side of the road too. The menu was in mandarin and nobody spoke any english so all we could read was the characters for different types of meat (lamb, pork, beef, chicken) and the character for vegetables. We randomly pointed at two lamb dishes and a vegetable dish and assumed that something tasty was going to arrive as the other guests had stacks of meat skewers, a large platter of fish and stewed vegetable dishes. However, what arrived for us was lamb genitals and roasted chilli peppers...  

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Day 21 - The Terracotta Army and Xi’an City Walls

After getting in late last night we decided to have a little bit of a lie in and so we woke up for bunch time. I chose what I thought was a plate of noodles with lots of colourful vegetables however those colourful produce were in fact all different kinds of chills and I had chosen an incredibly fiery dish. I’m normally decent with spice but I couldn't eat it all, by the end of the meal my lips were tingly and my mouth was numb.  

It took us a short while to figure out how to reach The Terracotta Army but the journey was hassle free.  Upon arrive we formed a little tour group with a couple from India and France and had a guided tour by a sweet lady who carried her umbrella around everywhere. My impression of The Qin Tomb Terracotta Warriors and Horses was awe. An estimated 8000 terracotta soldiers, 130 chariots, and 670 horses have been uncovered crafted over 2000 years ago each by individual artisans. Each terracotta soldier looks different - some short with heavy brows; some plump with rounder faces; some broad-shouldered with high cheekbones; some lanky with rugged hands - each as if they were an individual themselves, modelled off of the single artisan whom created each soldier. I saw it as a nod of appreciation to the 700,000 craftsmen and laborers who worked on the statues and tomb complex. 

Afterwards we headed back to Xi’an to visit the city walls - the largest and most complete city fortifications in the world. We headed there for sunset and stayed to watch the lights come on and lanterns glow red chatting as we strolled along the wall. To one side we looked over old Xian with an illuminated avenue looking toward The Bell Tower (photoed above) and to the other side we surveyed new Xian with its skyscrapers and high rise buildings. Next we headed to the muslim quarters of the city to eat dinner. We ate stacks of steamed buns before walking around the markets, buying some souvenirs, prior to ending up in a fish ‘foot massage’ shop.  

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Day 20 - TCM Class Trip and Travelling to Xi’an 

Today was a busy day. Bea, Josh, Jihwan and I stayed up late into the morning trying to finalise all our details for the Xi’an trip. After that I had to wake up early, quickly pack my rucksack and catch the coach for our Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) class excursion. The professor had organised a day trip to the TCM university here in Beijing and to a TCM hospital afterwards. 

We visited Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and were given informative tours of their two museums: one called The Exhibition Hall of Chinese Materia Medica, the name is self explanatory as it displays the medicinal herbs and specimens describing their benefits. The second museum was The Exhibition Hall of Chinese Medical History with a name equally as self explanatory. It houses many artefacts including Bian Stones (針砭) - sharp stone instruments used in, what is thought to be, humanities oldest medical procedure and an early form of acupuncture. Photoed above is a depiction of the Dao Yin Tu (導引圖) a physical exercise chart drawn on silk. It is dated from 2000 years ago and was used by the ancient people for health preservation as body exercise and is an early form of Qigong and Tai chi. 

Being able to visit the museum gave me a deeper understanding of TCM and health preservation. Reflecting on the knowledge people, 2000 years ago had about healthy living - that a healthy lifestyle is about what you put into your body; about the exercise you do and about the state of your mind. I’ve come to understand the thought that food is not just supposed to taste good. My grandma used to make pearl barley water (薏米水) and she would try and make my siblings and I drink it, but I never wanted to because it didn’t taste nice and I never understood why someone would willingly want to drink the barley water. But I think I understand now, it’s the notion that food is supposed to be nourishing and good for your body - even if it doesn't necessarily agree with your taste buds. Food should first and foremost be wholesome and beneficial not simply palatable.  

Afterwards we visited the TCM hospital and were able to try and witness acupuncture, flesh cupping, auriculotherapy and moxibustion. On the ground floor there was a waiting room like any western hospital however these patients were waiting for their packages of herbs to be made up (photoed above). 

Straight after the class trip ended I took the metro to Beijing West Railway Station and met up with the rest of the Xian group. We had been warned to get to the station with at least one hour spare since the security was more inline with an airport than a train station. After successfully picking up our tickets, navigating our way through security and finding the right gate we were able to board the bullet train to Xian. Props to Jihwan and his Korean as even though the languages are very different the similarities meant he was able to read certain signs and say certain words that helped everything run more smoothly. Over a thousand kilometres, a 5 hour train ride and a taxi later we arrived at our hostel ready for a goodnights sleep and adventures tomorrow. 

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Day 18 and 19 - The Temple of Heaven and Peking Duck 

The best parts of these days were visiting The Temple of Heaven and going for Peking Duck with the University of Reading Alumni. 

The Temple of Heaven was one of the main points of interest that I wanted to see when I was in Beijing. The famed Alter of Prayer with three tiers of eves, set on a circular raised platform with stairs surrounding the entire building is in fact set in an entire park. The park even covers more land than the forbidden city. Since the emperors were considered ‘Sons of Heaven’ their palaces had to be smaller than those dedicated to the Heavens. I went with Bea, German Chris and Josh and unfortunately we went on a particularly grey day meaning we were not able to get any spectacular shots of the Alter of Prayer for Good Harvest. I have realised the names of Chinese palace buildings and other names do not translate so well. I noticed this in the Forbidden City and during classes when different martial arts position names seemed excessively long and do not have a nice ring to the ear but have been assured by Mandarin speakers that the names all sound poetic and elegant in Chinese. I feel as though I am missing out not being able to appreciate the names.

I have also noticed that the Chinese and especially the elderly seem to enjoy being outside a lot more, they seem more social. Parks are full of families - and it’s the entire family, Mum, Dad, Child, Grandma and Grandpa or they’re full of the older generation playing card games, mahjong, dice you name it or there are just regular joes taking a nap on the grass or a bench. Even the evenings are full of life, even more so than the daytime - children playing, performing rollerblade routines; people dancing to music practicing salsa and ballroom; adults performing martial arts. Perhaps it is because the temperatures are much more favourable and warm but perhaps it is the collectivistic culture.

A favourite dish of mine is Peking duck. I’ve grown up having it on special occasions when we go to Chinese restaurants with family, so I was extremely curious to try the authentic stuff in Peking. The duck was delicious, though I like to think I’ve had some pretty delicious Peking Duck in the past, however the part that was new to me was dipping the crispy skin into sugar before eating it. It may sound unappealing but oh my is it good - a definite recommendation to any meat eaters. I also learn the correct way to fold the pancake - but using a chopstick to roll up the parcel. It was eaten in brilliant company with the UoR alumni, trying to find time to actually stop talking and eat as we were deep in conversation. 

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Day 16 and 17 - Alumni and Beihai Park

The highlights of this Sunday and Monday were meeting up with some University of Reading alumni and going to Beihai park. 

We grabbed coffee with David, the president of UoR’s Alumni Association in Beijing and his friend. It was interesting hearing about his education, career and just general life advice. Since I am interested in working in China it was also really useful being able to ask him questions about the work ethic, culture and about his life in mainland China. He also offered to take us out to dinner with some other UoR alumni working in different sectors later on in the week. So, I am looking forward to that! 

Gui, Arth, Bea, Ash and I also decided to go visit Beihai park. A large, imperial garden in the centre of Beijing famous for its lake and Jade Flower Island with The White Dagoba (白塔). The structure is built at the highest peak in the park and was used as a Buddhist place of meditation in addition to having military functions as a vantage point. After strolling around the park for a few hours we stopped to sit down and get out of the sun. Whilst resting Arth noticed a lady spraying a water canon and he instantly ran off, with the energy of a kid, to go get drenched in the cool liquid and Bea followed, eager to pop all the bubbles being blown. 

After exiting the park through a different entrance the closest subway station was pretty far away but we enjoyed walking through the local areas, a lot less  touristy than all the other areas in Beijing that we have been going to. We kept stopping at different bakeries along the way purchasing custard tarts (my absolute favourite treat), cream-fruit-eclair-type pastries, various nuts and fruits and after spotting this delicious cheese toastie we all had to buy one. Bread, cheese and all dairy are very western foods so seeing a cheese toastie in China had my eyes pop out of my face, cartoon style and my mouth watering. However, to our dismay the toastie was completely sweet... all the components of cheese, ham and a creamy sauce were savoury but everything seemed to have a lot of sugar added to it and the whole thing tasted bizarre. 

In the evening we went out to another delicious Buddhist restaurant to celebrate Gui turning 22. 

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Day 15 - The Great Wall of China 

Today was the second Saturday of the trip and we had another Peking-university organised excursion to The Great Wall. One of the great wonders of the world and a UNESCO site with over 2000 years history - it is with a great deal of respect and appreciation that I ‘climb’ The Great Wall of China. We were advised to take the cable car up the wall, to avoid a sweaty walk and to be able to spend more time actually on the wall. When we go to the top I stopped and scanned the wall, my eyes following the great structure amazed at how it meandered with the mountains. Built at the highest points using the steep embankments and mountain range as a natural defence. I learnt that one can not see the wall from space and that at it’s peak construction it is estimated that one in three men were conscripted to erect the wall - MILLIONS of men built it and that was a lot of people back then. 

We visited the Mutianyu section of the wall, which was about a 2-hour bus ride from Beijing, it’s a well preserved segment that is more densely distributed with watchtowers than other parts including some rare architectural towers including the ‘Big Corner Tower’ that connects three portions of the wall to the east, south and west. It was refreshing to get out of the city and see the vast forest covering the granite mountains that occasionally emerged from the greenery as if it the earths bones were visible. Vibrant flora in oranges and pinks were dotted around the vegetation with butterflies and beetles dancing along the wall. I even bumped into a tranquil praying mantis on the top of a watchtower. 

After a sweaty couple of hours walking along the wall - and at points climbing the wall (some of the steps were a good metre high and I’m only a small person haha) - we took the toboggan ride down the hillside ready to get on the bus back to Peking. Oh and we grabbed a subway on the way too. 

In the evening we went out to KTV - karaoke where you can rent a booth and sing your hearts out (and loose your voice whist doing it hahah)! After a superb sing-a-long session it was time to say goodnight and goodbye to our brilliant dutch friends Chris and Timo who were only on a two week program and how those two weeks have flown by. 

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Day 14 -  Fu Hui Ci Yuan and Wangfujing

After classes we all decided to go out for dinner. We decided to eat at Fu Hui Ci Yuan, a place that is quickly becoming a favourite. It’s a buddhist, vegetarian restaurant that follows the philosophy that one should not eat the flesh of any sentient being. Having four vegan and vegetarians in our group, and myself having been vegetarian for almost two years in the past, we were more than happy to try out the food. They have good prices and especially authentic fake meat, including a veggie Peking duck that we wanted to try since we are in Peking after all. My favourite dishes were the pineapple rice, that was served in a pineapple husk and a type of corn bun cup that you scoop a ‘meaty’ mixture into - měiwèi de (delicious)! Chris also tried to order a double expresso but instead got two cups of filter coffee, which we all had a laugh about. 

Afterwards we walked down the busy Wangfujing and went to the Donganmen, a famous road full of vendors selling street food. They have squirming scorpions, starfish, lizards, locus and centipedes on skewers for the adventurous diners. Though bare in mind these are not traditional Chinese delicacies - it’s a tourist attraction! The vegans all agreed to try the scorpions since they considered insects to be sustainable protein options with a greatly smaller carbon footprint.

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Day 12 and 13 - Tai Chi, Qigong and The Summer Concert

The highlights of Wednesday and Thursday were learning about the Chinese Martial art forms Tai Chi and Qigong. Tai Chi is based upon Taoism philosophy that stresses a balance between man and nature and that the physical and spiritual must align with the patterns of nature. Tai Chi is used as a type of body exercise for health preservation and typically uses soft and steady movements contrasted with explosive, sharp movements.

Qigong is another style of martial arts that centres on the five animals. Anyone familiar with Kung Fu Panda may be familiar with some of these animals - the monkey, bear, crane, deer and tiger. The moves imitate the characteristics of the animals in mind, body and spirit. For instance one Qigong movement involved clenching one fist and glaring fiercely at it. This movement is performed to strengthen the body’s tendons through the liver and gall bladder. But without the glaring, which is a movement of the mind and spirit, the exercise is renderers useless. A mantra of Qigong that illustrates this can be translated as “Movement without purpose is meaningless and thought without action is a daydream”.

On the Wednesday evening we attended the summer concert, a university wide event sharing traditional Chinese music with some of Peking universities senior members in attendance. I saw a vast array of Chinese instruments such as plucking instruments like the pipa, yueqin and zhongruan and flute instruments like the hulusi and jinghu. An instrument that captured my attention was the sheng. At first gaze it appeared as a cluster of jet-black crystal, glossy and glistening under the stage spotlights. The sheng is described as a mouth organ made of numerous bamboo pipes that vary in length and an incomparable sound. It’s western counterpart would probably be the bagpipe but their sounds are unalike. Another captivating act was The Central Conservatory of Music Plucking Ensemble’s recital of Nalat Grassland based on Xinjiang folk music. The musicians were assembled in and around the audience creating a surround-sound sensation, nothing like any other orchestra I have heard. The concert was fascinating and I feel fortunate to have been lucky enough to obtain tickets.  

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Day 11 - Chinese Martial Arts and The Language Cafe

It was up, shower and into my Tai C’hi suit ready for 8am today because we were performing martial arts. The university team and head coach helped us warm up and showed us some defensive moves before moving on to their own training since they had a competition the next day. The gymnasium itself was one of the older buildings on campus having traditionally painted eaves. Initially rich reds, blues and greens capture your attention drawing your eyes upwards guiding them to focal points depicting mountainous nature scenery.

After a full day of classes, we decided to have a relaxed evening staying close by. We ate dinner in the canteen and I went to the Language Cafe in the evening. It’s a weekly event put on by the university for students to learn and practice new languages. I went there with the intention of practicing my mandarin but after listening to the experienced level of mandarin at that table, I realised I may have been overly confident.  I decided to stick to the english table making new friends and talking about all sorts; from our countries traditions to squatting toilets and memes. I was also able to practice my mandarin in a less daunting environment. A sweet girl called Helen was very helpful and even when I had the entire table giggling at me when I pronounced something wrong I took it in my stride and preserved with her encouragement.

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Day 10 - The Olympic Park

The morning started off with Chinese Health Preservation where we looked at the function of diet in health preservation and the notion of diet balance in the East versus the West. We were then challenged to go to the canteen and choose a balanced meal based on the principles we had learnt about. Some such principles were foods categorised into groups and sub-groups such as foods that restore deficiency; that eliminate pathogenic factors and foods that contribute to longevity.

After classes we headed to the olympic park to have a stroll and see the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube. We ate dinner at a noodle place in a massive underground shopping mall. It was funny, apple maps was telling us we were right at the restaurant but all we could see was paving and water with the Olympic Forest Park Towers in the distance. After asking a passerby, they informed us that we probably were at the restaurant just a few floors on top of it and gave us directions to the entrance of the mall. Afterwards Bea, Tharsan and I stayed a little longer at the park so we could snap some pictures with the neon lights.

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Day 9- The Forbidden City

Today was by far the hottest day since we arrived in Beijing. Which, in hindsight, meant it probably wasn't the best day to go visit The Forbidden City as it was also the weekend. We assimilated the Chinese and decided to crack out our umbrella-parasols which have a reflective lining, we were surprised at just how effective it worked at cooling us down. The Forbidden city was awe inspiring due to the sheer vastness of the walls and gates, buildings and palaces, gardens and courts. It was hard to comprehend that this was all built for one emperor, almost 700 years ago. I noticed the tree trunks in the garden were protected by barriers made of bamboo, a much more environmental and pleasing design compared to the kind of metal barrier one might expect to see in the UK.

After being outside, in 38 degree heat, for too many hours, we headed to a delicious vegan, buddhist restaurant. The heat may have made us all a little delirious or perhaps we finally all felt comfortable enough to be a bit silly, since we were laughing so hard we were choking on our (delicious) food. After longing for dessert; it arriving and finally tucking in… to our dismay it was just bread. The expression of desolation on Chris’ face was comical to say the least and had us all rolling on the floor, yet again.

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Day 8 - The 798 Art District

Peking University organised our first outing as a program today. It was to the 798 Art District, named after an old factory situated there. The vibe is something like Camden with its street art and small independent stores. The 798 Art District was full of galleries, artists workshops, quirky shops and some museums. We entered the Ullens Centre of Contemporary Art that had a vast array of art including photography, paintings and installations using sounds, projections and textures in their art pieces.