On Friday afternoon at 2:30 (sharp!) the whole bunch of us ACC students are heading to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in south-west China. We are taking the train there, which is twenty-five hours and we are flying back. I'm not really sure of the plans, aside from I know we will be visiting a panda research center and climbing Emei Shan, which is one of the four sacred Buddhiust mountains of China. Sichuan also has a reputation for very spicy food, which I'm looking forward to.
Last weekend I went with a few other students and a teacher to Prince Gong's Palace, which is an extremely elaborate former palace of this prince. He lived there in the late 1700's during the Qing Dynasty and built the palace using money extorted from the peasants through raising taxes. He is rregarded as a villian in chinese history. The compound has many buildings, including a few two story buildings, an opera house and many acres of gardens. He also build many miniature foresty areas, so you can walk down winding paths and pretend you're out in nature. They all have names like "pathway to seclusion". He also built a miniature Great Wall that you can climb up and look down on his pond and ducks. He also decided that bats are good luck since bat is bian1fu2 and the word for abundance/good luck is fu2 so there are tiny bats carved in lot sof the railings and decorative carvings around enterance ways. There is even a bat shaped pond. It is quite extravagant.
After visiting the palace, we wandered around the Houhai Lake area and the hutongs. The hutongs are narrow alleyway like places where people used to live (and some still do) in Beijing. Most have been demolished to build bigger roads and buildings (and for the Olympics), but a few have been preserved. Since the hutongs are such a popular tourist destination, there and endless amounts of bicycle drawn "carriages" that you can ride in so you don't have to walk through the hutongs (becuase walking is so tiring). The men that pedal these bicycles are really aggressive about asking if you want a ride. Since we clearly look foreign, they all surrounded us and tried to get us to give them money. There are literally hundreds of them lined up waiting where cabs drop people off. After walking around far a while we took the bus home (for 14 cents).

It's been snowing for the past few days, which is unusual since before this it had not snowed all winter in Beijing. As soon as it starts snowing, people equipped with brooms rush out sweep the snow into neat little piles at the edge of the road and the sidewalk. It was pretty warm today, though, so most of the snow has melted.
The third year students all went to a you4er4yuan2 (preschool/kindergarten), and let me tell you the children are all ta4i ke3ai4le (too cute)! Their teachers said they were very excited for us to come so we could "work together". I'm not exactly sure why we went to a kindergarten, but they had us play guessing games with the children and then they could earn xiao3 li3wu4 (small presents) if they guessed correctly. The children I was with were all 4 years old and at first just stared at me, not knowing what to make of the situation. It was also interesting because one of the xiao3 peng2you3 (small friends/students) is a French girl, and she clearly stands out. The teacher said it took her just a month before she could speak Chinese with her classmates and make friends. When we arrived, all of the students were doing some sort of exercise dance to very cutesy music. We were encouraged to join in. They all take dance, singing, English, reading, math (they do multiplication at age 5 or 6), and art. They also must drink lots of water and eat lots of green vegetables (must be green, no cauliflower or carrots). They also have to play outside for an hour each day.
Next week is the last week of classes before we have a week off and all of us are taking the train (25 hours) to Sichuan and traveling for a week. But before the break, we have the midterm exam, which is, as far as I know a two hour written test and a half hour oral presentation. gahhh.
Photos: http://s591.photobucket.com/albums/ss353/klebling/

Yesterday, for the language/culture practicum (fun activity after the weekly test) the third year students went to Niujie Mosque, which is the oldest and biggest mosque in the Beijing area. It was very nice weather due to the rain the previous day, so they sky was blue and the ground was washed clean. After the visiting the mosque we went to try traditional Mu1si2lin1 (Muslim) food. I had some sort of noodle dish, but others were more adventurous and tried cow's stomach with peanut sauce.
Today, a teacher took a bunch of us to the Temple of Heaven Park (tian1tan2gong1yuan2) and then to the hong2qiao1 pearl market. The park was quite lively because of the good weather, there were lao3bai3xing4 (regular people) singing, playing instruments, flying kites, painting characters with water on the sidewalk, dancing, playing cards...
After the park we went to Hongqiao market, which is a very westernized market. The first floor is all cell phone acccessories and electonics and such. The second floor has clothing and bags and the thrid floor has chuan1tong3 (traditional) items like scrolls, fans, chopsticks, jewelry and of course oodles of pearls. Because the market attracts so many westerners, all the vendors try to speak english to us and some of them are a little pushy. They are usually a little nicer when they realize we can speak Chinese. I ended up buying a carved seal of my name- you pick out a stone and write your name (Chinese or English) and come back in ten minutes and they have carved you name into the block and it can be used as a stamp. I also bought a Mao propaganda poster. We found one vendor who had lots of original photos, books, posters, etc. from the Mao era. He was quite nice and willing to show us all kinds of pictures and photos.
Then my roommate and I tried corn juice (hot corn juice). There is a store near us that sells only corn juice of many different varieties.
Lots of photos: http://s591.photobucket.com/albums/ss353/klebling/

Today it's raining! According to Xinhua (China's main news source) it has not rained in Beijing since October 26, 2008 so it has been a long time without water. Everything has been kind of dusty and very, very dry. Yay water!

Today is the last day of the New Year Festival, called the Lantern Festival (Yuan2xiao1jie2). This means the last day of fireworks (finally!) and eating tang1yuan2, which are small dumplings made of sticky rice and filled with sweet bean curd and served in warm water. They are fairly slimy, but still quite good. Besides the holiday nothing really exciting has happened recently. The weather has been fairly good, so on Saturday I ventured outside to study. There is a very small "park" on the campus of the university (right now it's mostly dead grass and extremely dry soil, but hopefully when spring comes it might turn green) where people (usually elderly people) gather in the morning to do exercises. When I went, there were a few mothers with their typically over bundled up babies waddling around. The temperature got close to 60 degrees Fahrenheit which was quite comfortable and there was almost no pollution so the sun was shining strongly. These past few days, the weather has also been pretty warm, but the air is so hazy it feels unclean to breathe. My roommate and I also found a clothing store that sells fairly normal clothing (i.e. not too many extra frills and sparkles and bows and lace...) and is also very cheap. I bought two shirts for $2 each.
On Saturday night a bunch of us went to a "western restaurant" called Annie's. I ordered vegetable pizza which was really good after so much Chinese food. Also, they gave us large glasses (!) with cold water (!) and we got to use a fork and knife. Although it did cost about three times as much as a regular Chinese meal. mmmmm.

Well, since yesterday, something exciting did happen. Because of the copious amounts of fireworks last night, a skyscraper very close to the University caught fire. All 44 stories were burning, but the building did not collapse. It was also very near the new CCTV building, but the CCTV building was not damaged. Even after the building started burning (30 foot flames, lots and lots of smoke, etc.) people still kept setting off fireworks.

Yesterday night, the entire group of us (about 50 students) and assorted Chinese host families went to a "Flying Acrobatics Show." First we took a bus ride for all of seven minutes to the theatre. The show was kind of like a circus, but without the clowns and animals- only the acrobatics. The show began with dry ice and lasers and mystical music and some sort of prologue about ancient tribes worshipping the sun. Then a man dressed in some sort of ridiculous costume emerged on a platform about fifty feet up and a few live parrots flew to him from the audience. Lots of amazing tricks were performed and everyone wore over-the-top costumes. It was quite impressive how flexible some of those people were- it seemed like the women had no backbones.
Photos: http://s591.photobucket.com/albums/ss353/klebling/

Today I saw a bird, which is one of the only live animals I've seen in the city so far, besides pets. It made me miss living not in the city.
One of the major parts of the program is the duli baogao (independent project). A component of this includes mandatory interviewing of at least five Chinese people. Since I've only been here a few weeks I don't really know many "real" Chinese people, so I ended up interviewing the people I spent New Year's with and then I sat in a Starbucks and waited for people to come talk to me. I've learned that foreigners are especially intriguing when they can speak (or try to speak) Chinese. So I often study the new characters and lesson texts in Starbucks or other coffee shops and people will inevitably come and talk to me.
My roommate and I also found a store where everything is liang kuai (about thirty cents). They have quite a selection of strange items, like screwdrivers, spatulas, cookware (pots and pans for 30 cents each!), socks, children's toys, etc. I'm still surprised by how cheap things are here.

In hopes of eating something that is not Chinese food, we went to a very nice Indian restaurant in one of Beijing's hutongs (old streets that have mostly been changed due to modernization and the Olympics). The hutongs are quite pretty at night, with lights in the trees and fireworks in the street. (I found out that fireworks are permitted until the fifteenth day of the New Year, so until then they continue day and night.) It turned out the people who worked at the restaurant could not speak Chinese, despite their restaurant is in a very Chinese part of Beijing. Also, that night, all of the patrons were waiguoren (foreigners) so they too were speaking English. It was a very strange experience to be surrounded by English, but only be able to speak Chinese.