This weekend will be the last weekend of my trip to China. Our group will be visiting Beijing city. While in Beijing we of course went to the Great Wall of China. We also went to see a Chinese opera. At Nankai University (where I lived and attended class) our group had an opera class. Of course, this class taught us about Chinese opera; however, even though I had Chinese opera class, I was still surprised about the way the opera was performed. The opera I watched was much shorter than I expected. In addition, this opera had very little dialogue and lots of aerobics; also the plot was difficult to follow.

The people who ran the opera house decided to perform the opera this way, however I would have preferred more dialogue and plot development.
Visiting the Great Wall of China was also very interesting. The wall was also nothing like I thought it would be. The height at some parts seemed to be only about 20 feet. The wall was long, however it was short in height.

This picture can show you how narrow the wall actually was. Before I came to visit, I was expecting the wall to be much wider and taller. However, as you can see it’s not that wide. Even though the wall was not what I was expecting, visiting it still was very interesting and fun. The best part was viewing the scenery while walking on the wall. The area we went to was up in the mountains; as a result, when walking on the wall a person can see quite a long ways, and also can have a great view of the sceneries.
After our trip we spent one more night in China and then Monday we all went our separate ways. This trip taught me a lot about the history of China, and the history of China has taught me a lot about the culture of China. My teacher has ordered us all to write a 5 page essay on this very topic, the topic of what did we learn on this trip.

Obviously, this battle took place because a war started between these two countries. A war started because China didn’t want Britain trading opium to their country. The emperor of China at that time was apparently very cocky and asked all foreigners to bow down to him The emperor at this time believed China was very strong. However, he was mistaken; China lost to the British. As a result, Honk Kong was given to Britain and Britain was free to trade as they please.
However, nobody knew how small this area actually was; as a result, we all left not to longer after arriving. Afterwards, we saw a part of Tianjin I never seen before. In this area, many people were selling strange sea food I have never seen. This made me realize how large the difference was between what American’s believed tasted good and what Chinese people like to eat. The food item that seemed most popular and peculiar was the octopus.

historic harbor

This weekend our class visited a historic harbor. This harbor is now a very small museum. The tour guide taught me the history of the precise area I was walking on. This made what he was saying much more interesting. The tour guide explained how once the British Navy attacked this area in order to obtain control over the land. At the time of the battle the British wanted to capture this harbor because they knew if they could capture Tianjin their chances of taking over Beijing were much higher, because Tianjin is very close to Beijing. . This all took place in the Qing Dynasty. In Qing Dynasty, if China lost Beijing, China would be lost.

Our group also visited another interesting place. This area had many Chinese Muslims. I believe many people don’t understand how many Chinese people are actually Muslim. Usually when people think of China they think of Buddhism, Daoism and atheists. This area of Xian revealed a part of China’s culture I knew little about. I noticed that the food in this area was different than the Chinese food in Tianjin. Practically all the food I saw was definitely influenced by the Islamic culture.

Our group also visited another interesting place. Long ago a princess would come to this place to bath. This area has many hot springs. I noticed that most people like to soak their feet and wash their faces with the water. I didn’t understand why until I did it myself because I never knew that the water from a hot water spring was so different than normal water. I washed my face at almost every statue I saw. However, soaking your feet in the water cost money and is only possible in certain areas.

This week we went to a trip to Xi`an. Strangely, the thing I and everybody else will probably remember the most is our stay in the hotel; because we all got calls asking us if we would like to have a prostitute come to our room. However, this isn’t the first time I have heard talk about prostitutes. This trip exposed how prostitutes are a part of Chinese cultural.
In Xian we travelled to a very special and interesting place. In the 1970s, a farmer digging a well made a historic discovery. Only 5 years later, the museum was done being built. This museum of course was built around the discovery and according to the tour guide archeologist every night still go into the dirt and rebuild the terracotta soldiers and search for more.

In short, these soldiers are here because a very power emperor was buried here. And even before his death his grave was being built. According to a video we watched his grave took longer to build than the Great Wall of China. This emperor built the great wall, and unified China by defeating all the surrounding countries. The emperor was buried here with all of these soldiers. These soldiers were once actually painted. After this trip, I grasped how much more history China has compared to the US.

This museum also contained antique objects which were not part of the house. I found one of these items particularly interesting. And what was the antique which was used to put out fires. There a bureau created in 1736 to put out fires and they even had their own fire extinguishing equipment.

a trip to the museum

Just yesterday we went on a trip to a museum. However, this museum was definitely not ordinary. It was actually one giant antique mansion. This mansion obviously was once owned by a very rich family. This mansion was a little over 100 years old. This mansion taught me about how life was in china around a century ago. During this tour, I found myself comparing the Chinese history being explained to my own American history during the same era and realized how similar they were.

Obviously, China also has a history of males not seeing women as equals; women were not allowed to divorce their husbands, only the husband was allowed to divorce their wives. Not surprising since in pretty much every country I know this is the case. However, the tour guide explained how this man was actually very generous. Apparently, this man used his money to do many good things. The man had 6 children. However, he had a classroom in his mansion with more than 6 desks and chairs. According to the guide, he had extra chairs because he gave neighborhood kids lessons for free. This man believed strongly about managing his money. The mansion even had a part of it just for an accountant to live in. Also had its own small temple as seen in the picture below.

At Qufu I learned a little about the Cultural Revolution in China. During this time there was a group of radicals who wanted a stronger newer China. They were against Confucius and Mengzi beliefs. As a result they broken and burned many of the tablets. However, the government repaired as much damage as possible and now many of the tablets are still very readable, however the damage they did is visible of most pieces.
During this trip our class visited Mount Tai. I learned Confucius once climbed this mountain. For thousands of years Chinese people would go to Mount Tai to worship the God of Mount Tai (Dai Miao). Near the top there is a very large and old stone carving on the mountain. This stone carving was on the mountain for over 1,000 years old. However, it was kept secret by the temple that once stood on top of the mountain. This temple was destroyed by the Japanese in WWII. Afterwards the tone carving on the mountain could no longer be secret. The carvings are very clear, and almost seems as if it was carved on the mountain only a few years ago.

This weekend (6/4/10) our teacher took us to Qufu , the hometown of Confucius. Qufu has many very old temples built in honor of Confucius and one area built in honor of Mengzi. We saw three of the main areas that honor Confucius: the temple kong miao, Cemetery of Confucius (Kong Lin), and Kong Family Mansion (Kong Fu). In these areas some of the buildings and structures were as old as 1,000 years old.

Above is a picture of one of the many stone tablets writer around 1,000 years ago. These tablets can still be read by Chinese people today. The written language has changed very little. Especially when compared to other languages around the world. The picture below is a close up of one of the tablets.

weekend of 6/4/10

This weekend (6/4/10) our teacher took us to Qufu , the hometown of Confucius. Qufu has many very old temples built in honor of Confucius and one area built in honor of Mengzi. We saw three of the main areas that honor Confucius: the temple kong miao, Cemetery of Confucius (Kong Lin), and Kong Family Mansion (Kong Fu). In these areas some of the buildings and structures were as old as 1,000 years old.

4 days after arrival

After being in China for 4 days I have learned a lot about the culture. The traffic laws are definitely more lenient. As many know, tons of people on the street are on bikes. As a result, cars constantly blow their horns to make the bicycle riders move out of the way. When I was walking down the street for the first time I immediately noticed the top of the sky scrapers were all smoke; in fact, the whole sky was flooded with smoke; everyday afterwards it was the same. In Tianjin China, every morning seems like a foggy morning and every day is like a cloudy day. The sun can’t even shine through the smoke the entire way.

During my first week my teacher took us all to 古文化街. We went by taxi. The ride was only 8 RMB, about $ 1.20 dollars. However, this location was quite far. The cheap price made me understand how services in China are very cheap. At古文化街 I learned about Chinese markets. This shopping area has many interesting items for sale. Here, I experienced my first bargaining with a Chinese person. Actually, before this day I have never bargained for anything.