Returning after 16 days on the move, seeing much of Tibet, unpacking was a sad experience. It meant that my travels in Tibet were over. Before I departed, I knew next to nothing about Tibet, its people, its language or its culture. It was a mythical place, which only seemed to exist in movies and on TV, but not a place where I would go. Now having finally visited the roof of the world (one of Tibet’s many nicknames), I can say it is no longer a complete mystery to me, yet many of its mythical qualities remain.

The first mythical quality that really struck me was that monastic life is omnipresent in Tibetan society. It seemed like not a single Tibetan person was not at least a ‘lay Buddhist’ – meaning they are not monks, yet abide by monastic law and follow monastic traditions. This feature of society as most strikingly represented by the older people spinning large prayer wheels and muttering Buddhist mantras under their breath as they circumambulated the many temples in downtown Lhasa. Similarly, both old and young would walk around fingering a chain of mala beads of exactly 108 beads, because the original Buddha had 108 disciples to start off with. This practice is followed by virtually everyone I met, and if their mala beads weren’t in their hand, it was wrapped around their wrists, or hung around their necks. I saw the most beautiful and interesting rosaries in Lhasa. They would range from the most basic brown, black or dark red beads, to bright colors, and even some made of yak bone. Many also had tassels and small charms hanging from them. The most interesting thing about religious life however was that praying is not done for the individual, but for the collective. One will go to a monastery and pray that everyone will have a good harvest, or that everyone will be healthy. This complete selflessness was amazing and whilst Tibet might be said to live a few decades behind the rest of China, this set of morals and values is something in which they appear to me to be far more advanced than even the West.

What was further really interesting was the distinctly unique identity of the Tibetan people. Despite reading about the massive influx of Han Chinese into Tibet, the city of Lhasa and especially other, more remote regions are still distinctly Tibetan. And there does not seem to be a large Han population at all. The unique identity is shown mainly through the way people dress, for example many men wear a combination of western style clothing, covered by a robe often made out of yak and a hat very similar to cowboy hats. My favorite part of the Tibetan identity was the dietary customs as well as daily habits. Nomadic farmers would for instance herd their Yaks and sheep, make Yak butter, drinking Yak butter tea, eat Yak meat, and the hallmark of the Tibetan diet tsampa. Mixing roasted barley flower with yak butter tea, which is milk tea, with yak butter, makes tsampa. This mixture is mixed and later kneaded into dough. I like to add some sugar to make it sweet instead of salty. The dough tastes almost like cookie dough. Its really filling, and the local people swear by it. They say it is great for your heart, lungs, and overall health in general.

Lastly, what was perhaps the most impressive was the extremely beautiful scenery. Tibet itself is massive, and it has mountains everywhere. Even when in Lhasa, mountains surround one, and it is hard to take a picture of some of the many beautiful temples without having the amazing backdrop of mountains. Besides just mountains, Tibet has crystal blue lakes, and many wild herds of Yak roaming the wild. We went camping for 6 days as well, and visited many remote regions that most tourists never get to go to. What was sad however is that most tourists seem so hell-bent on destroying the natural beauty of Tibet. Yet despite rude and often downright destructive tourists, the locals seem to appreciate other tourists very much. The locals are benefitting directly from the Qinghai-Tibetan railway, which allows for much more easy access to Tibet. Locals want people to come to Tibet, and to learn about Tibetan culture and life in Tibet. They appreciate foreigners visiting monasteries and asking questions about their daily lives since it indicates that there is something unique and distinct about Tibet, and that people are interested in this, and that it is something worth saving and protecting. 

Location: Beijing, China

In about an hour and a half I leave for Tibet!
We’re taking a train from Beijing to Lhasa, travelling by the famous Qinghai-Tibetan railway. This will take us about 48 hours total.
I’m going on a ‘mobile learning’ course.
This means that whilst I’m travelling I’ll be taking a class.
We will learn things on site, as we move from place to place.
The course I’m currently taking is Ethnicities in China.
The focus is on ethnic minorities in China, with a special focus on Tibet.
We’ll be in Tibet for 16 days.

I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to a trip this much.
Tibet, in my mind, is still this mysterious land that I know next to nothing about.
The pictures I’ve seen from the Sera Monastery, Namtso Lake, and the Potala Palace all look surreal in their beauty and majesty.

I’ve heard from students that have travelled before that Tibet is one of the least accessible countries in the world. The altitude and the strict regulations set by the Chinese government make the region difficult to visit. That makes this trip all the more exciting since I am getting the chance to see this area first hand, and under the guidance of expert local guides.

I can’t wait to experience not only the sites, but also Tibetan life, we’ll spend a few days camping as well as a few days with a Tibetan household. These will be great opportunities to experience both the Nomadic lifestyle as well as the more contemporary Tibetan lifestyle.

Food wise, I can’t wait to try all the different ways of preparing Yak meat, as well as the (in)famous Yak butter tea!
Due to lack of internet infrastructure, finding internet in Tibet might be a challenge, but I really look forward to trying everything and reporting back.  

Location: Beijing, China

Last weekend I spent four days in Guangzhou.
This is all the way in the southern part of China, close to Hong Kong and Macau.
Initially I had my reservations because people said there was not a lot to do in Guangzhou, and that it was a relatively dirty city.
But after the pollution cleared up, Guangzhou turned out to be a very nice and relatively modern city. It bore a striking resemblance to Singapore. The climate was very similar, be it a bit colder this time of year, but during the day the temperature was nice and warm and the air humid. In addition to the climate, the city itself had a lot of ‘southeast Asian’ characteristics. It had wide roads lined with lots of greenery, and there was a striking mix between the new and the old. Going underground to take the subway surrounded by tall skyscrapers, one can resurface in a completely different area where the highest building is three stories and the streets are lined with traditional Chinese architecture (another characteristic that reminded me of Singapore). Despite what people said, I did not find Guangzhou very dirty at all. Compared to other Chinese cities such as Beijing and ZhangJiaKou, Guangzhou was really clean. Also, the Guangzhou and Singapore metro system seemed to have a lot in common. Both seem brand-new, or at least very well maintained, with trains running every few minutes. The Cantonese cuisine was much more similar to the Singaporean cuisine, for instance restaurants served ‘dim sum’ (steamed dumpling) dishes, instead of the heaver, baozi (bread dumplings) found in the northern areas of China. Whilst maybe not typically Cantonese, I tried Yak meat for the first time. The texture was very different than I expected, it was really soft and almost mushy. The Yak meat was marinated with slices of pumpkin, which gave the meat a very sweet taste. Interesting to say the least. The most interesting thing about Guangzhou however was that there were hardly any foreigners. When I walked around Beijing road, the main tourist shopping street in Guangzhou, there was not another foreigner in sight, perhaps there were a lot of Chinese tourists, but I did not see a single American or European walking around. This might have something to do with the time of the year at which I visited, but the lack of foreigners was still striking. Overall, I did not get to see as much of Guangzhou as I would have liked, but it was definitely worth the visit, the atmosphere in the city, as well as the pace and the characteristics were very different from northern cities such as Beijing and Harbin. This just showed me again how multifaceted China really is.

Location: Beijing, China

Wednesday, as part of my economics class, my classmates and I went to Tianjin, one of the fastest developing cities in China. In Tianjin, the chairman for the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) gave us a tour through the city, and TEDA, the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area.  The chairman also worked for a major real estate company, so he gave us unique insight in to how real estate in China works. The first stop was the Tianjin urban planning exhibition hall, which has a scale model of the city of Tianjin, and plans for the future. Seeing the model of Tianjin, and walking around in the city center, Tianjin was unlike any city in China where I’ve been so far. The city center was quite small, and it seemed that the population was also very small. The river that runs through the city was surrounded on each side mostly by modern new buildings, but whilst walking through the Italian Concession area, there were hardly any people, except for the few domestic tourists that arrived in tour busses as we left. When we drove through other parts of the city however, there was a similar phenomenon; there were hardly any people out and about.

The main purpose of the field trip was to TEDA. This was about forty minutes outside of the city. TEDA is strategically located close to the Tianjin port, and is easily accessible from both downtown Tianjin and Beijing (by bullet train). It has more foreign business than in all of Shanghai. TEDA can be seen as an industrial park of sorts, being an area for industrial production, research and development, and as of late, for the service related industry. But in addition to the focus on the above, TEDA already has a university; it is constructing more housing, shopping malls, restaurants and much more to create a city of its own. This was emphasized when visiting the TEDA administrative building, and we were taken to the TEDA museum, where they showed us a TEDA ‘propaganda’ video of sorts. The strange thing about this video was that it portrayed TEDA as a sort of utopia. It showed all these modern new buildings, it showed TEDA as being at the center of cutting edge research that would change the world. But when walking around in TEDA, and seeing the actual buildings and the places, it had a really clinical, and sterile feel, almost as if I was walking around on a movie set, or in a hospital of sorts. The buildings were all modern and brand-new, the lawns perfectly manicured, there was plenty of greenery, there were parks and everything was neatly organized and well maintained. Much like the city of Tianjin itself however, there was almost no one walking around, and what came to mind as well, was why would anyone want to live in an industrial park? It was a really strange and surreal feeling walking around in TEDA, since it was being portrayed as the future of China, and that other cities would be developing similar industrial parks. But it seemed so impersonal, and lacking so much in any sense of community, that the thought of this being the future of China was a really scary one.

Despite that however, the visit to TEDA was really interesting. Whilst probably not a very popular tourist destination, it was interesting to see a city trying to re-brand itself and still trying to figure out its identity. Tianjin is definitely a city to watch over the next few years.

Location: Beijing, China

Xi’an was an amazing daytrip.
I took an overnight sleeper train from Beijing, and arrived in Xi’an just under 12 hours later. Having traveled by train several times, I think are trains probably the best way to travel in China, especially if you have the time. Trains are cheaper, more comfortable, and a great way to meet the local people. The only draw back is that trains are slower than traveling by plain. On my way to Xi’an I was in a cabin (6 people per cabin) with 5 other Chinese people. My ability to speak some Chinese impressed and intrigued them, and soon they were chatting away.

Arriving in Xi’an early in the morning, I took the bus from the train station straight to the Terracotta Warriors. This was about an hour outside of the city. The Terracotta Warriors were truly amazing. The vast scale of the excavation project, as well as the immense detail of the warriors was breathtaking. Especially since these statues were made over 2000 years ago with much more archaic technology.

After the Warriors, I returned to Xi’an for a Shaanxi lunch. After a nice local lunch at a Xi’an restaurant, I rented a bike and biked on top of the city wall. The wall’s circumference is about 13.8 km and biking above the city a great way to get a birds eye view. Due to great weather and little pollution, the bike ride was very nice.

For dinner, I went to the Muslim district in the northwest part of the city (inside the city walls). This district is known for its amazing food and its distinctive cultural influences from Xinjiang province and the Middle East. I was not disappointed. I had one of the best meals of my stay in China in Xi’an. The surrounding district was also very nice to walk around and do some shopping. The only problem was I had a train to catch to go back to Beijing.

Xi’an was an amazing city, and one day was nowhere near enough to explore it. Hence it is definitely worth a longer stay, and I look forward to going back again. Next stop is Guangzhou, in the south of China for a four-day weekend!

Location: Beijing, China

We arrived in Chengdu late at night, and got to our hotel a little after 1am. The next day was more eventful however, since we went hiking. Whilst the city itself offers many places to walk to and explore, we went to QingChengShan, about an hour outside of the city.

This 36 peak mountain range was one of the most important centers of Taoism back in the day, and now hosts many temples and pagoda’s spread out through this mountain range. The temples were all beautiful and well maintained, and it wasn’t really crowded. There was the option to take a cable car up to one of the highest peaks, from which one could hike up to other peaks, or we could just hike all the way up the mountain. We decided to hoof it. The hike was beautiful and the temperature was perfect, the only issue was the pollution. Chengdu is one of the fastest growing cities in China, and receives one of the highest amounts of foreign direct investment in all of China. Some people in Chengdu joke that there are more buildings being built than buildings that are already completed. This caused some serious pollution, which hampered our view on top of the mountain. Chengdu’s geographical location didn’t help either since it is located in between mountains, this means the pollution lingers. But despite the pollution, it was still a great view. We could only imagine what it would be like on a clear sunny day.

Apart from the nearby mountains, Chengdu is famous for its Pandas. There is a Panda reserve about 30 minutes outside of the city where one can see Panda’s, and pay to take care of the animals for a day, or take pictures with them. We did not visit. To hold a young Panda for 1 minute and take a picture with it is roughly the equivalent of $320 USD, which on a student budget is a stretch. But there were plenty of other things to see.

At night we had amazing Sichuan food, which Chengdu, and the surrounding province is famous for. We had ‘huoguo’ or hot pot, which is a large basin of boiling broth with many spices in it, and you can order many things to put in it. This was by far the best hot pot I’ve ever had. The food was extremely fresh and of really high quality. The fish were so fresh that after they were gutted, their tails still flapped at random intervals before we added them to the broth.

Amongst other things we saw was a ‘Tibetan street’ with many Tibetan restaurants and shops, and even more impressive, was Jinli Street. This street had much of the old architecture, and had many small restaurants and cafes. Thus overall, Chengdu was definitely worth the visit. Next stop is Xi’an this weekend!

Location: Beijing, China

Today all the students have exams.
For me, today marks the end of my first ‘block’ of courses.
I just completed my Government and Politics of China course, and after the weekend I will start my Chinese Economy course.

To relax after studying for the exams, the program has given the students a long weekend (3 days). I’m going with a group of to Chengdu, in Sichuan province.
These long weekends are great opportunities to travel and explore the country.
We’re flying out tonight, and we return Sunday evening.
In Chengdu, the people speak ‘Sichuan hua’, a dialect very different from the Beijing dialect.
It will be interesting to see how different the cultures are, and I’m especially interested in having the food. Sichuan is famous for its spicy food, which I am a huge fan of.

Apart from that we might go see the Panda’s, which is one of the main attractions in Chengdu, as well as go hiking at a nearby mountain.

Also, it will be really nice to go and have warm weather. In Chengdu the weather report says it will be around 70-80 degrees. This seems very agreeable compared to the Beijing temperatures of around 40-50 degrees.
Next week I’ll follow up on Chengdu, and hopefully add some awesome pictures.

P.S.the weekend after I come back from Chengdu, I’m going with friends to Xi’an to see the terracotta warriors!
Busy life we lead here!
But its great that we have the time to make the most of our study abroad experience.

Location: Beijing, China

It’s really cool that in Beijing there are many opportunities for foreigners to earn money, especially students. Last summer when I was studying in Beijing, a few local students were developing a hand writing software program; they were looking for western educated students who could write in cursive. They paid me two hundred Yuan to write a few sentences on a cell phone and on a tablet device.

Similarly, last week, a Chinese student who was looking for native English speakers approached my friend. He told us we were going to a summer camp in ZhangJiaKou (a city in nearby Hebei province) and that we had to just stand around and speak English to some of the people attending. The idea was that we were a promotional stunt, and our presence gave the impression that the children who would attend this summer camp would learn English. We decided to go.

We took a six a.m. train to Hebei, the province that surrounds Beijing. After having lunch, instead of going to some summer camp, we went to a hotel. After sitting us down in a conference room of this hotel, we were told that instead of going to some summer camp, we were going to be judging a children’s English competition. And that we were the ‘celebrity’ judges, from the US. The competition was held in a big hotel ballroom of sorts, and it had a stage and many seats for all the parents. The competition was for students from grades 2 through 7. Our job as judges was to read off first a Chinese sentence, and have the students translate them into English, and then read an English sentence, and have the students translate it back into Chinese. We as judges were scoring the students on their fluency, pronunciation and clarity.

This was the first part of the competition. The second part was short plays, all 6 grades, 2 through 7, did the same play, Cinderella. It was really funny, especially since the plays were all exactly the same. The last part of the contest was 6 students who all sang the same song. This was also really fun, since the kids were all dressed up and I could see they really tried their best.

After the competition, my friend and I had a photo-shoot with the kids. It seemed like the kids had not seen Westerner’s before. Even during the competition, some kids would stare, and parents would try to take pictures of us without us noticing. It was really a great experience, and I earned some money as well. I guess this is part of the China experience, doing strange and odd jobs, just for the stories.

Location: Beijing, China

Having spent 26 hours on a train, to spend 21 hours in Harbin, I can say it was totally worth it!

On the way to Harbin, I took the overnight train, and had a soft sleeper.
This was the nicest option, which I chose more out of necessity than anything else, but I have to say it was really comfortable. The ride went smooth and without a hitch.
Arriving in Harbin early in the morning, we first went to the Chinese Baroque district. This was a quaint area with nice architecture and some small markets and stalls. After the Baroque district we walked on the frozen river, all the way along the riverbank to the main shopping street. This shopping street was really nice, but very touristy. It had a lot of Russian influence. Examples would be the Russian architecture as well as many shops with Russian products and staff.
Overall, the city of Harbin was a really nice city, it was well maintained and clean (especially for a Chinese city).

The Ice and Snow World Harbin, the largest ice park in Harbin was amazing. It was absolutely breathtaking, with massive ice and snow sculptures, ranging from Angry Birds and Smurf village, to a giant Buddha and a traditional Chinese pagoda. It was really amazing.

Pictures do not do it justice, but they will (hopefully) follow soon!

Location: Beijing, China

I’m about to start packing for my weekend trip to Harbin.
Saturday the temperature will reach a whopping 17 degrees Fahrenheit, and -10 Fahrenheit at night. I have never been in weather that cold, so I’m curious to see how cold its really going to be. Having said that, I’m preparing for the worst! I’ve collected all my warm clothing items that I have with me, and plan to wear them all.
But I am going with 15 other students from my program, so it should be an awesome trip!

These are the packing tips I have for anyone else trying to conquer arctic temperatures in the future:
1. Wear a hat, you loose a lot of heat from your head, so a hat will help keep you warm
2. Wear many layers
3. Wear sturdy shoes, preferably lined boots, you also lose a lot of heat through your feet
4. Bring a change of socks, in case the socks you’re wearing get wet
5. Wear a scarf to protect your face from the icy winds
6. Bring hand / foot warmers

I will only have 21 hours in Harbin, after that I have to take the early morning train back, otherwise I won’t be back in time for class on Monday morning. It’s not a lot of time, but enough to see the Ice Festival, which is the reason I want to go to Harbin. I’ve heard there are also a lot of snow sculptures that are supposed to be amazing. I look forward to reporting back next week with some pictures.

In addition to that, I went on a field trip to the Great Hall of the People, next to Tiananmen Square today, as well as the Police Museum. These were both really cool. It was interesting to see how imposing the sheer size and lavishness of the Great Hall of the People was, and it reminded me of the Capitol building in DC, but with Chinese characteristics.
T minus 8.5 hours to Harbin!

Location: Beijing, China