WLE Newsletter May - July 2001
Summer Palace, Sunday, July 29th, 2001
World Link 4 week students went to Summer Palace as their first weekend excursion. It was a bit cloudy, but the Summer Palace seemed more beautiful in the haze. Pity that there were so many people for a summer weekend. But it was still enjoyable. The most fun part was taking the boat across the lake to get to the little island. It was such a pleasant to enjoy the breeze while appreciating the view out of the fan shaped window
Night Out Olympic Night, Friday, July 13th, 2001
Social night for our new 6 week students was also an exciting night for all Chinese people - especially those in Beijing. Beijing got the Olympic bid for 2008! We were heading to a celebration party the moment the result was announced. The announcement was made while we were still on the bus to our destination. However, the sound on the radio was good enough so we could clearly hear the word "Beijing". When "Beijing" was announced, all the people on the bus gave a great big cheer! Hundreds of people ran onto the street with China's national flag in their hands, others drove down the streets screaming out car windows, still others crowded onto San Li Tun bar Street and celebrated the bid in general high spirits. An unforgettable night for those in town!
Kaoya 4w Students, Friday July 27th, 2001
The newly arrived 4week students, the last lot of students for the Summer '01 program, enjoyed a famous Peking duck dinner. Pity Patrik couldn't join us that day since he was not feeling well! After dinner, of course followed the routine activity--social night! This time we went to Dirty Nellie's-an Irish Bar as our first stop. They had a live band there playing covers of U2 and CCR. A surreal moment for anyone newly arrived in Beijing. Then some of our students headed to Vics-a popular R&B dance club. The music kept most of our students on the dance floor late into the night!
Cherry Lane Movies, Friday, 20th July, 2001
World Link students went to Cherry Lane movie theater to enjoy their first movie in China - Fragrant Vows (Fen Fang Shi Yan). It was a very interesting story of an old man who went to Taiwan in his twenties, coming back to his home in Chongqin after 50 years to look for his old friend and an old lover. The movie was more in a realistic and peaceful style than fancy and thrilling. Some students liked the story saying it was very touching. But some felt the acting and the directing could have been better. Still a nice way to practice listening to Chinese!
Chao Yang park, Sunday, July 15, 2001
The first weekend trip for our 6 week students - a visit to Chao Yang park. This is a newly built excursion place. Inside Chao Yang Park is an amusement park. Our students could have a taste of the Chinese concept of amusement parks! We tried out many of the different rides. A memorable ride was the observatory ride that went straight up and down, giving us a great overview of the city. Later on after some other exciting rides, we took a nice, peaceful boat ride on the lake. A nice and relaxing way to spend a Sunday afternoon!
A Tour to the Temple of Heaven and Li Yuan Theatre
On the morning of June 30th, World Link students visited the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven was the place where emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasties went to worship to the gods of heaven and pray for a good harvest.
Everyone showed great interest in it. They could not believe that people could build such a wonderful structure 580 years ago. They learned that in ancient times emperors paid great attention to the god of heaven, regarding themselves as the "sons of god". They also learned some basic knowledge of Chinese architecture, history, culture and the worship ceremony.
In the afternoon, some students went to Li Yuan (Qian Men Hotel) where the famous Beijing opera is performed to learn more about Beijing Opera and the famous "face painting process". The students later painted their faces in the style of the "monkey king", the "clown", the "young lady" and the "tough guy".
Farewell Dinner, Friday, June 29th
We had our biggest farewell dinner for the 1semester, 12 weeks, 8weeks, 4weeks and 1year students. The farewell dinner was held at the Hui Zhong Palace, a newly built restaurant with a very traditional Chinese atmosphere. It was a big courtyard with a main dining hall and several private rooms decorated into various Chinese motifs such as a teahouse, a sitting parlor, and bedrooms. In the main dining hall, our dinner was accompanied by traditional Chinese music played on the Gu Zheng. It's sad to say goodbye to those who are leaving, but maybe someday in the future, we will meet again!
Birthdays
This month we had quite a few birthdays to celebrate. Starting with Melanie Lim (CL12W), Shawn Harris (CL8W), Janet Yong (CL1Y), Nancy VanDoren (CMA1S), and Nicole Lee (CL12W) on June 26. We were rolling in birthday by the time July rolled around!
Underground City, June 16, 2001
World Link students went to the "Underground City" for their weekend trip. Many people have heard about it before, but it still sounds like an urban legend to many others. But it really does exist! The extent and capacity of the tunnel system are often exaggerated by Beijingers and the writers of travel guides alike, but the existence of the complex itself is no myth.
We went to the "Underground City" on 62 Da Mao Chang Road, near Qianmen. This part claims to be the best place to see the Underground City. Run by the Tourism Bureau, the Da Mao Chang section is well-lit and fairly extensive. You can take a 20 minute stroll through a circuit that lies about 10 meters underground. According to tour guides at the Da Mao Chang Underground City, when the tunnel complex was in full operation in 1969 it can house approximately 300,000 Beijingers for four months. The Da Mao Chang section contains a hospital, classrooms, and even a barbershop. Numerous side passages, some of them reaching quite far down, offered tantalizing detours, but we were discouraged from exploring them. Most of the tunnels we walked through were three to four meters wide. A nice off the beaten-track site for those interested in exploring a "different" part of Beijing!
LEP-Meeting, June 12th
The new students for the summer study got to meet with some Chinese students from Beijing Language and Culture University as their Language Exchange Partners. Since most of the Chinese students are language majors, it was easy for them to find common topics to talk about. Surely some of them are going to be good buddies!
Inner-Mongolia
Friday, June 8th, World Link students went to their long awaited monthly trip---Inner Mongolia, where they explored the mysterious desert and grasslands. We arrived at Hohhot early Saturday morning and were welcomed by our Mongolian guide Zandi at the train station. After having breakfast we set off for the famous desert spot: Xiang Sha Wan. After a 2-hour bus ride from Hohhot, we got close to the desert area. Entering a big gate, and made a curve, there we saw an endless range of golden hills extending out under the sun. The desert was beautiful with its soft silk-like sand shining against the clear azure blue sky. It was such a great feeling walking in the deep sinking sand.
The highlight of the day: sand sliding. It was the same as skiing except for it was on the sand hills, so much fun!
Coming out of the desert, it was a long ride to get to the grassland. Due to the construction of the road, we had to make a little circle, which meant another 3 more hours than expected. We arrived at the grassland at about 9:00 at night. It was pretty chilly on the grassland. We stayed in 4 of the 30 tents laid out on the grassland. The tents were made out of wood and oil canvas. The bed was a bit higher than the ground, on which hold about 4 people. The night in the yurt was hard and cold. The drizzling rain in the morning voided our plans of watching sunrise. After the breakfast, we got on the bus and went to visit a herdman's house, where we were welcomed by a 4-member family with their local snacks. The herdmen of Inner Mongolia do not need to live nomadic lifestyles as they did in the past, instead, they have permanent housing. This particular herdman had two small yurts prepared for visiting relatives. After visiting the yurt, we visited the Ao bao, a typical Mongolian site---small hill of stones as a method of showing direction as well as a worship symbol.
The trip was almost over and as a routine schedule, souvenir shopping! There were lot of cute things to buy such as little tents models, Mongolian knives, traditional jewelry as well as outfits and boots. Our last 20 minutes in Inner Mongolia were spent shopping at the night-market next to the train station - we got some very good bargains!
Shaolin Temple 25-27 May
Though we label this May's monthly trip "The Shaolin Trip" , Shaolin was only a small part of the weekend. The trip also included trips to Zheng Zhou, the capital of Henan Province and Kai Feng, and Long Men Caves in Luo Yang.
In 1950, Chairman Mao Ze Dong gave written instructions on disaster relief and regulation of the Huang He (Yellow River) four times, issuing the great call that "The Huang He River must be harnessed!" Looking at the tranquil Yellow River while we hydroplaned down its causeway, it is hard to imagine that the Yellow River is also called "China's Sorrow". On this spring day, sorrow is the farthest thing from our mind. A light breeze rustled the green leaves of the trees in the valley, fisherman were tranquilly awaiting their day's catch. We also passed by the Peach Blossoms Valley, the mouth of the river where General Chiang Kaishek breached the dykes killing one million people as well as displacing 11 million others to prevent the Japanese capture of the railway line.
Later in the afternoon we went to Kai Feng, where we visited the Dragon Pavilion and the two lakes surrounding it. This was one of the most scenic stops on our journey. We leisurely passed a few hours walking around the scenic park surrounding the Pavilion and paddling boats around the lake.
The next day, we went to visit Shaolin Temple, said to be the birthplace of kung fu. According to legend the monks, practitioners of meditation, developed a form of exercise to offset the languor of their meditation. It started as movements mimicking the actions of animals and as the discipline grew until it became a defensive martial art.
As one would expect the area around Shaolin Temple is crowded with martial arts enthusiasts, students, and tourists. As we pulled into the temple area, we could see young students from the areas many schools jumping in the air, doing kicks and punches and practicing their wushu. The visit to the temple area was interesting but catered very much to the souvenir hunter. There were numerous stalls manned by men with shaved heads and monk robes. However, they were obviously not monks because they were flirting with the pretty female tour guides. Travelers from all over the world swarmed the place, hoping to see the famous Shaolin monks perform their gravity-defying skills just like in the movies. However, the only gravity-defying trick I saw was the movement of a monk, shifting his weight from one leg to the other. The real highlight of our trip to the temple was a brief glimpse of the head Abbott as he walked from his quarters.
Later on, just outside the temple grounds, we were treated to a wushu show by young martial arts students. Most interesting to our students was the practice of virgin martial arts. In this very specialized martial arts, all the power of the adherent is based on his purity of body, should he ever pollute it with any thing impure, he would lose all his power. Fascinating.
Another interesting sight was the Forest of Pagodas, containing 244 dome shaped shrines with Buddhist relics, each one built in memory of a different monk. The most recent addition was a dagoba for the 29th Abbott of Shaolin Temple.
Later on that day we went to visit the Long Men Caves, dating back almost 2000 years, the area contains stone carvings and bas reliefs of Buddhas. The most spectacular of which is a 17 meter tall figure of Vairocana Buddha. Many of the carvings were commissioned by emperors to bring good fortune to their rule. Recently the sight has been made into a UNESCO World Heritage Sight.
Zhou kou dian
May 20th, Sunday, World Link students went to Zhoukoudian as their weekend excursion. This is where the first relic- a single tooth- of Peking Man who lived there between 500,000 and 230,000 years ago, was uncovered in 1921. Fifty kilometers south of Beijing is Zhoukoudian village. The discovery of Peking Man made archeologists realize that they had found a new genus, a link between Neanderthal and modern man, and they christened it homoerectus Pekineses. Excavations gradually revealed the remains of more than forty individuals, as well as tools and ornaments and parts of animals too. The top of a skull was found in 1929 but lost again during the chaos of the Anti-Japanese War. Students visited the original cave where the skull was found and two museums including a mummy museum and a dinosaur fossil museum. The trip was not as long as we expected, but the view of the mountain was a pleasant one.
Simatai Greatwall
May 13th, a hot summer day in Beijing, World Link students went to the Great Wall at Simatai for their weekend trip, the new 4w and 8w students joined in as well. The Simatai Great Wall is 110 km northeast of Beijing and is one of the most unspoiled sections of the Great Wall near Beijing.
The bus ride took 3 hours bus ride to get there. We then spent about 3 hours climbing the wall, taking a short break for lunch. Some parts of the wall were quite dangerous and we had to use our hands to climb up the treacherous, unreconstructed path. Dating back to the Ming dynasty, the walls crumbling façade is the picture of serenity. The silhouettes of the wall winding through the tree-covered mountains epitomized the image that many expect when visiting the Great Wall.
Welcome Dinner May '01
The May '01 four and eight week students were treated to a welcome dinner unlikely to be forgotten by any present. In an unprecedented WLE move, we had the heads of three animals on the dinner table at one time. Given, the duck head was expected, what Kao Ya dinner would be complete without the eyes of a poor strangled duck gazing lifelessly at you with a Mona Lisa like smile on its bill?
Was it the head of the "squirrel fish", placed mouth up like a fish squirting water from a fountain that unfazed our adventuresome students? No. What caught the attention of our students and some unknowing staff was the white china tureen that came at the end of the meal.
The waitress, with a mischievous smile on her face, placed the hot tureen down, lifted off the cover and let the steam spill out. "Jia Yu!" She announced with a magician's flair. Hmm?Interesting, another fish dish?Then, looking down at the bowl, to our complete horror was not a fish but a turtle! A complete, whole, nothing missing, nothing butchered turtle with four feet, one head, and a shell. Cindy, Cindy, Cindy. What were you thinking!?
In the spirit of goodwill to our new students, Cindy thought it would be nice to try a new dish that was a little "unusual." Little did she know westerners aversion to seeing the complete animal at the dinner table. While many people lost their appetites, a few students ventured to sample the peculiar dish, most notably, Shawn Harris (USA, 8W). Shawn, our hats off to you!
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