Aside from spending time with Steve, the highlight of the Beijing stay this time around was visiting the Olympic sites. The Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube are open to the public to visit and I was able to spend a lot of time walking around and inside these two phenomenal venues. You can’t really appreciate the design and architecture of the Bird’s Nest until you stand right under it. I was just amazed at how someone was able to come up with the idea of a stadium like that and how it was actually able to be fully executed. Once we got inside, I did a lap around the track and then just sat down in the middle of the field and chatted with my friends and some Chinese people who were equally in awe at the grandeur of the Nest. I went back a couple of days later to check out the Water Cube and in the short time had a few thoughts racing through my head: First, “this is where Michael Phelps and the U.S. Men’s swim team owned the world,” and second, “if Dad were here, I’m sure he would have put his jammer on under his clothes in the hotel, would have found a phone booth inside the stadium and pulled a Superman. He would have stripped down and fought through security, jumped over bleachers, and dove in the pool, once again showing American dominance in the water.” I actually thought a lot of that up just right now, but I did imagine my dad drooling at the sight of the pristine water.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Beijing
Our trip ended with a five day stay in Beijing which was a blast. We visited the Forbidden City which was the Emperor’s pad--it was huge! I could not believe how big the city was. We visited the Summer Palace which was the summer home for those who were sick of the Forbidden City. It is the ultimate summer home. The emperors knew what was going on. I was able to meet up with my Uncle Steve one night for dinner with my friend Wen Xun and a few of his current and former law students. Steve’s students obviously have a lot of respect for him and love him as a teacher; it was really cool to see some of the people that he has been able to influence here. A few days later, I met up with Steve again and we walked around some of the alleys around his place and had lunch. It has been really great to see be in China and spend time with family.
Xian
Xian was a fascinating city. Xian is home of the Terra-cotta warriors which are these 8,000 individual and unique pottery soldiers. The first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, had this army built and buried to protect him after he died. Qin Shi Huang was a very power hungry fellow who became emperor at the age of 13 and essentially created China--He united several different countries into one China; standardized China’s language, monetary system, and measuring system; and connected several separate walls into the Great Wall of China to keep invading countries out. Apparently, he was also very paranoid--he must have been to have all of these Terra-cotta soliders to protect him...in the after-life.
Luoyang
Ten Day Trip Intro
On October 16, my classmates and I left Nanjing to spend 10 days traveling around various parts of China. While traveling we spent a total of three nights on sleeper trains which believe me is an adventure. My favorite part about the sleeper trains is waking up at 6:30 in the morning to bright lights, the blaring radio overhead, and people speaking in their normal tone of voice which would be loud enough to hear perfectly well if you were at Autzen Stadium and 59,000 were watching highlights of Dennis Dixon on Duckvision (the jumbotron video screen.) Wow I really miss Dennis Dixon and Oregon Football... In all seriousness, I actually did sleep pretty well on the trains and have fun memories of being with my classmates and making friends with our fellow Chinese travelers. SInce we were gone for 10 days and I took over 400 pictures, I’ll split these next few entries up and try to explain a bit what we saw.