Greetings from Beijing!
I’m writing this post from the Qianmen Jianguo Hotel, which I finally reached after two plane rides and a bus trip. I cannot believe I am here at last, given that I have spent the past two weeks getting ready. I have been to Target and Walmart more times than I would care to count. I have spent hours in line at the NYC consulate first applying for and then retrieving my visa. But, all that is behind and I am here!
I should take a step back and say that as the title of my blog would suggest, I will not be staying in Beijing very long. For the CET Harbin program, we fly into Beijing, spend a night here, and then take an overnight train up to Harbin. So, I arrived at the airport last night and then went to dinner with a group from my program. For dinner we invaded a restaurant in an alleyway near the hotel. A group of about 13 college students would usually seem loud and out of place, but we were much more quiet than the rest of the clientele. In spite of some awkward moments with the fuwuyuan (she brought us a plate of forks, which some in our group deemed the ultimate act of condescension), we managed to get some pretty good food. After dinner, I tried to stay awake as long as possible (to avoid jetlag), but only made it until about 10:30 PM.
Today we have orientation and informational sessions in the morning, afternoon to tour the city (Beijing in 4 hours sounds pretty feasible), and go to dinner before loading onto a train. Rumor has it we will be getting hard sleepers on the train. I have never been on an overnight Chinese train before, so I have no idea what to expect. All I know for certain, is that it should be an experience.
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