jiayan

This post will be dedicated to some of the arts I have been exposed to in Beijing, China.

Acrobatic Show: “Flying Acrobats”
During our first week, as part of our orientation to 北大 and Beijing, CIEE took our group to see an Acrobatic Show, which was amazing! The performers were all extremely talented and exhibited skills that seemed almost impossible – with the way they were bending and twisting and flipping and what not. Right from the opening of the show to the very last act was mind-blowing. The technical aspect of the set is very hard to describe so I’ll try my best, if what I write does not make sense then hopefully the pictures will be a little more descriptive.

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As I mentioned in my last post, this weekend CIEE took us to Henan. Henan is located near the southern part of Yellow River, hence the name 河 (river) 南 (south). According to the information package CIEE provided, Henan has a population of 92,560,000 people, with ethnic groups of Han, Hui, Manchu, and Mongolian.

For transportation, we took an overnight train (9 hours!) from Beijing to Zhengzhou, Henan – we left on Friday night and arrived on Saturday morning. After eating breakfast and freshening up, we took a bus to Shaolin Temple, the most famous Buddhist temple in China. One of the more notable aspects of Shaolin Temple is its beauty, as it is in proximity of the Songshan Mountain. Unfortunately, it is also a very tourist-driven location; the entrance of the Shaolin Temple is so over-saturated with souvenir shops, that it takes away from the cultural significance.

One of the several scenic pictures I took..

Aiden and Songshan Mountain in the back

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大家好！

Sorry for the late post but my internet has been giving me trouble, resulting in this much delayed post. As promised, below are some pictures from my tour of Forbidden City. CIEE had planned to take us to Tienanmen Square as well but it was closed for the performers practicing for the Nationals. I do plan on going there though sometime throughout this semester so stay posted for pictures!

Before I post the pictures, I want to share a story the tour guide told us. During the Qing Dynasty, there was a female empress known as “Dragon Lady.” Her real name is Tzu-Hsi and she was the wife of the seventh emperor in the Qing Dynasty. There are three things she loves the most in life: luxury, beauty, and power. Her favorite animals are phoenix and peacock because of the power and beauty they represent. Before her husband passed away, he had a premonition that Tzu-Hsi is thirsty for power. At that time the couple had a six-year-old son. Tzu-Hsi’s husband appointed eight high-ranking officials to guard his son and prevent Tzu-Hsi from taking power.

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Hello everyone!

If you could not read my title, it said “Hello everyone! I am in Beijing!” I have been here for a little over a week now but it took me a while to get my internet set up and to get settled, thus I apologize for starting this blog so late.

北大 (Beijing University) is great, it has such a beautiful campus and there are so many places to eat on and off campus. The campus is also ridiculously big – I got lost on my first day of class (Monday) and was late .. I am still getting lost all the time but I think I am slowing learning my way around campus. The dorm I’m living in is pretty nice as well. It is one of the newer dorms and is sort of like a hotel – 服务员 (people who serve) would bring us (my room and I) hot water every morning and replace our towels. They also change our bedsheets once a week. I’m posting all the pictures at the bottom of the blog.

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