Final Trip

I am currently sitting in the first-class lounge at the Beijing Airport. The comfort this adds to traveling is well appreciated. My flight boards in 35 minutes so this blog will have to be short. This is unfortunate as there is so much to tell, especially about the last week I have spent in China. During the last week our program here at Peking University brought us to a few of China's famous and beautiful destinations. We visited the Qingdao Beer factory, Confucius' temple and home town as well as climbed and slept in a hotel on top of Mount Tai. We also got up at 4:20am to watch the sunrise. The view was incredibly beautiful and brought with it a feeling of peace and serenity. I took very many pictures so I hope you will be able to experience partially what the view was like. The picture is one of many I took that morning.
I am now very excited to be heading home and not too terribly excited about sitting in planes for the next three days :P
I have to board the plane now. I will write one more blog to conclude this trip once I return to Canada. I hope you have all enjoyed reading along during the past 2 1/2 months.

The End at Last

With the final exam, Chinese classes have now drawn to an end. Tomorrow morning a last formality in the form of a graduation dinner and ceremony remains to toast to a successful summer semester. Once the ceremony is over, later that afternoon we begin our end of the program trip. The itinerary is something like this: Qingdao City, Qin Island, Qufu City, Mount Taishan (Confucius' birthplace), Jinan City and then back to Beijing on Saturday July 21st.

The names by themselves probably don't mean much, but the main event include visiting the Qingdao beer factory (famous beer here in China) and Mount Taishan, on which we will be sleeping the night. The view from Mt. Taishan is said to be quite nice and I believe will prove even nicer at sunset and sunrise (I hope to get pictures of both).

Aside from these attractions to visit, I believe the trip will bring other benefits such as relaxation and the relief from going to class :D I think it will also be a nice way to end my stay here in China. I admit I will miss the culture and being surrounded by all that is Chinese (Chinese characters and all). Being home, however, is irreplaceable!
Here is also a last call out to anyone that has any particular requests of items of such that they've always wanted from China. You can either leave a comment on here or send me an email. I'll do my best to get it :D

Other things that have happened since the last blog are a swimming competition, of which there are some pictures on Flickr. I did not participate in the competition as I am not quite that advanced, although we had two McGill teams participate and one of them won the competition. Wahoo! Last week I also went to eat some Korean BBQ, it was quite delicious. It is actually the second time I eat Korean BBQ here, but this time the cooking was done over a bowl of charcoal: very cool! That's also the picture for this blog.
That's all the news for now. More after I get back from my trip.

While trying to upload this blog my internet connection seems to have been cut off. It took me a while to get it back after seeing the reception desk and other problems. The internet will be cut off while we are on the trip. I will hopefully get another day of internet access right after the trip so I can blog when I get back. At the latest I can definitely write an update from the lounge at the airport.

See everyone soon!

Beijing Aquarium and Zoo

It has been far too long since I've written a blog. Much has happened since the trip to Shanghai, although my visit to the Beijing Aquarium and Zoo proved to be significant enough to finally post another blog.
After coming back from Shanghai I first had to get re-acquainted with eating 3 yuan ($0.50) Ramen noodles and settling for the scenery of my hotel room. The times of splurging on delicious food and views from an 87th floor bar were left behind in Shanghai. Nonetheless, I was happy to return to my home away from home here in Beijing, where all my current possessions awaited me.
Classes have continued at the usual vivace tempo and required my catching up what I missed while in Shanghai. With some diligent effort all was well and my dictations and quiz did not suffer in the department of grades.
I don't remember if I mentioned it before, but I also got my first hair cut here in China. It was quite the interesting experience. It came with a straight-blade shave and all together only cost 20 yuan ($3).
Last Sunday I went to visit the Summer Palace. It was a really nice and hot day, so walking in the sun was a bit of a chore, but the ice cream vendors on the paths up the hill helped out with that. The Summer Palace is an elegant scenic spot. It is right by a lake and from the top of the hill the view extends up till the Great Wall on a clear day. I spent a good hour an a half sitting in the shade on some pagoda with a beautiful view studying in my Chinese book. It was very relaxing.
Now to the Aquarium and the Zoo. Yesterday, I successfully carried out the first activity on my own since I've been on this trip. I have had a need for some self directed adventures for a little while now, since most activities tend to take place in a group. I took the bus from our hotel bus stop (颐和园路东口) "yiheyuan lu dongkou" to the metro station (五道口) "Wudaokou" then the metro to Xizhimen station (西直门站) "Xizhimen zhan". From there I walked to the Zoo. What I did not know at first is that to get to the Aquarium you have to go through the Zoo. So I also went to visit the Zoo. I felt like a little kid all over again, looking at all the animals that we usually do not get to see on a daily basis. Of course the most famous attraction particular to the Beijing Zoo is the Pandas. I went to see them, but then also many other animals: ostriches, zebras, giraffes, elephants, monkeys, birds and many more.
At the Aquarium I saw many different kinds of fish and also watched a dolphin show. That was also very entertaining. In the Coral reef section of the Aquarium I also reconstructed scenes of the movie Finding Nemo. I found a clown fish with an anemone and a glowing blue fish that looked like Dory. So if you look at the aquarium pictures you should be able to piece together the characters of Finding Nemo. :D
Finally, at the end of the day I beat the rain home and headed straight for my bed to have a little rest. I began my trip that day at around 11am and came home at 7pm and most of that time I was walking, so a little rest was just the right thing.
Today in class we had our last quiz (in class test) only 4 days left and on Monday we have our final exam. It has gone so fast.
I will write some more later. There is still one more trip at the end of the program that will surely incur many pictures. Hope everyone is enjoying their summers as much as I am :D
Till next time!