Our Trip to China THE ADVENTURE BEGINS We were unbelievably excited to board our plane in Chicago and arrive in CHINA! FLIGHT: CHICAGO ------------> BEIJING, CHINA Our flight from Chicago to Beijing China was a direct 13 hour flight. Although we knew the flight would be very long, we could not wait to board our plane and start making our way to China!! Discovery Student Adventures – 2009 [1] Our Trip to China THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN This complex was used by green, red, and yellow, and had the Emperors of the Ming and a plethora of marble and gold Quing dynasties for annual leafs. After looking at these ceremonies of prayer for good buildings it was obvious that we harvest. The architecture of the were no longer in America. temple was absolutely amazing and very interesting. Most of the -by Cory Bolotsky areas had two walls; a square outer wall and a round inner wall. This represents that the ancient Taoists believed the world was The Temple of square and covered by the round Heaven is one of the heavens. A constant theme in all most well known and of our sights was the Dragon and famous temples in the Phoenix which are signs of China. luck in China. In words I cannot truly explain, there was a beauty in all of the buildings we visited. They were all filled with blue, Discovery Student Adventures – 2009 [2] Our Trip to China Tai Chi On our first day touring in China, we had the distinct pleasure of practicing tai chi with one of the TAI CHI great masters. What a great way to stay in shape and enjoy the outdoors. It was fun practicing in the park. Photo by Cory Key PRACTICING TAI CHI IN THE PARK There were hundreds of people throughout all of the parks in Beijing that practiced Tai Chi on a daily basis. This form of exercise originated in China over 300 years ago. Today was an absolutely watch us. Everyone in China is amazing day! We started the so friendly. Everyone here is so day off with Tai Chi. Tai Chi is excited to see Americans ... it is a form of martial arts where great. you are in complete control. It - by Kim Genero looks so easy when the masters do it but it is not so easy to do! So many local people gathered around to Discovery Student Adventures – 2009 [3] Our Trip to China TIANAMEN SQUARE A photo of Mao, the Founder of the Chinese Communist Party Photo by Cory Key ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS SITES IN BEIJING Tianamen Square is the largest city square in the world and has been the site of many events. After the Temple of Heaven we destination for a delicious lunch got back on our buses and arrived at feast. Tiananmen Square. This square is the - by Cory Bolotsky largest open public square in the world and serves as the entrance to General consensus of everyone the Imperial City and the Forbidden on our trip is that our Asian hosts City. Our group walked around actually seem GLAD to see us! Tianamen Square and we were There literally has not been one amazed by the size of this center. As single place we've visited that we exited the square and entered the someone didn't ask to take a picture Forbidden City area we passed a of us or with us. The students think huge (probably 40 foot tall) photo of this is the coolest thing- they feel Mao, the founder of the Chinese like rock stars (us grown ups don't Communist Party. We passed through mind so much either!) the remarkable buildings that are 600 years old and arrived at our - by Heather Sullivan Discovery Student Adventures – 2009 [4] Our Trip to China THE FORBIDDEN CITY The Forbidden City contained several entrances, and many of them looked similar. The Forbidden City was definitely not forbidden anymore... there were thousands of people touring the historical buildings. On our first day in Beijing, we embarked on a 3 hour tour of the absolutely breath-taking Forbidden City. The City is absolutely huge. It covers about 7.8 million square feet and comprises of 9,999 rooms because the Emperor's favorite number was nine. This metropolis took a million people almost 15 years to construct and their hard work is surely visible. I'm not going to try to describe to you the grandeur of this palace because words cannot at all do it justice. - by Cory Bolotsky Discovery Student Adventures – 2009 [5] Our Trip to China PING PONG Photo taken by Cory Key “We went to a school today and played table (it seemed like she could barely Ping Pong with some younger kids. I see over it) and hit ball after ball over walked in thinking that this was going the net with so much force. I couldn't to simple. Boy was I wrong. Very very help but stand back in awe. Oh Boy. wrong! These kids were amazing! So We continued playing and the kids talented and so skilled. They were sweethearts. It was SO much completely shattered all of my self- fun, and if I could do it over again I esteem in the Ping Pong department, would in a heartbeat. Lack of Ping but that's okay, I had fun while they did Pong Skill and all!” it! After we played for a couple of – by Maha Ezalarab minutes the Ping Pong Master stopped us for a demonstration. He brought up some kids and he showed us how it was done. Out of nowhere this little girl in a yellow t-shirt came up to the Photo taken by Rita Mortenson Discovery Student Adventures – 2009 [6] Our Trip to China “I felt as if I were in an airplane looking down BEIJING URBAN at Beijing. The detail of this masterpiece was outstanding and was made in only six months by a team of 200 PLANNING CENTER people.” - Cory A MINIATURE SCALE OF THE CITY OF BEIJING The second we entered this museum I was in shock over how awesome it was. It was like no museum I have ever seen before in my life. The first thing we saw as we went on the escalators was a 50 foot tall scaled model of Beijing made out of bronze. It was absolutely incredible to see the entire city layed out in front of us. - Cory Today was quite an interesting bird's nest, water cube, and the day. We started of with the Urban performing arts building. This Planning Center. This was probably opened my eyes to the true beauty of the coolest museum I have ever been Beijing. They also had a huge model to. From the outside it looked like a of Beijing, where the buildings were normal building, as if it weren't less then a foot high. You could see special. But as we walked onto the the whole city. We also watched an escalators, you saw the beauty of the interesting movie on how the city of interior. It was one of the most Beijing was created. modern places I have ever been to. - by Drew Regino The whole museum was based on the architecture of Beijing. My “Today was great and so interesting. We went to the Urban Planning favorite part of the tour was the Center and I was so surprised and so amazed at the models of Beijing and to see how much we had walked the day before by looking at the murals of the buildings. Included in models of the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven.” Caitlyn Silk the Urban Planning Center was the Discovery Student Adventures – 2009 [7] Our Trip to China THE HUTONGS “WE FELT LIKE WE WERE IN A PARADE” In Beijing, Hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan courtyard residences. The word Hutong is used to refer to these neighborhoods. “Today we visited smaller the streets. The rickshaw driver towns and shopped, toured driving Emilie and I was crazy! through a local home, and As we drove through the learned how to write in narrow streets many people calligraphy. It was incredible. stopped and waved or tried to After our calligraphy lesson speak English to us! We felt like with a brilliant artist, we walked we were in a parade. I have out of his house and saw a line been very surprised by how of rickshaws (a carriage many people here have not attached to a bicycle). There seen caucasian people before. are about 20 people in our When we visited the touristy Discovery Travel group so many areas many people would come rickshaws were lined up down up and ask to take pictures the street! We all climbed in with us!” Photos by Becca Taylor and Adam Controy rickshaws and raced through - by Melissa Seymour Discovery Student Adventures – 2009 [8] Our Trip to China “Mammoth sized fruits and vegetables seemed to stick out FOOD from no where.” “The hot pots reminded me of meat fondue pots. Colorfully decorated copper pots were placed in front of each guest and a broth was brought to a boil. We were served platefuls of raw lamb, meat, vegetables, and mushrooms.” - by Adam Controy Lets just say were chop stick masters now! The second question many of us watery soup as well. Another received after “how was China?” favorite by everybody was the is “how was the food.” While rice. Rice was often our savor the food was definitely not when we could not manage to American, we all grew to enjoy eat anything else put before us.