Author Archives: Chloe Melnick

Finding Pittsburgh In China

Our last day on the boat was nice. We were given a really nice dinner the night before and they even brought us a pizza. The boat had a good chef so the pizza was actually better than a lot of the pizza I have had in America. That night we hung out and made friends with some of the people who were on the cruise. We all sat in a big circle and they spoke Chinese and we spoke English, but we just danced and laughed and had a good time. That night, I learned that it is even more difficult to understand Chinese when it is coming from someone who is drunk. In the morning, we had one last breakfast on the boat and then we left to take a bus to Chongqing. When we got off the boat, there were so many stairs that we needed to climb to reach the bus. If I were to guess, I would say there were about 60 stairs we had to haul our luggage up. Some of the local people were standing at the bottom of the stairs because they charge a small fee and will carry your luggage on their back up the stairs for you. By the time I reached the top of the stairs, I was really sweaty. Everyone was. When we got on the bus, the driver did not have the AC turned on so the windows started to fog up. We all thought that was pretty funny.

Fancy napkins on the cruise ship.

When we finally got to Chongqing, we were trying to turn around so we could get all of our luggage off the bus, and while we were doing that, our bus hit a car. There really don’t seem to be any rules when it comes to driving in China, and because of that, I have absolutely no idea whose fault it was.

Good noodles right next to the hotel! Perfect!

Once we got to the hotel we got some lunch and headed over to the Three Gorges Museum.

Three Gorges Museum Plaza. The landscape upkeep in China is amazing. Especially on highways and city streets.

We explored the museum for a few hours and watched a 360 degree movie. It was mostly in Chinese, so a lot of it was hard to understand, but it was cool to be able to look all around you, even behind, and see the movie. I wondered how the made the movie and fit each of the screens together so perfectly. It was like an IMAX movie but the film extended the whole way around the theater.

After visiting the museum, we went to the zoo for an hour. We got to see pandas, tigers, yaks, hippos, rhinos, camels and a lot more animals. The zoo in China is a lot more lenient than the zoo in America. There were people throwing Cheeto type food directly into the animal cages and there were no guards yelling at them or anything. I feel like you could walk right into the cage and not get caught for a minute or two.

I saw this woman walking down the street and thought I had to get a picture. We saw this occasionally. Seems like a lot of work.

After visiting the zoo, we were on the way back to our hotel when our bus broke down. We waited an hour for a repairman to come fix it, but once he did we were able to get back to the hotel.

It was bound to happen eventual, and of course we were all interested (and slightly aggravated?)

That night, a lot of us went to Pizza Hut for dinner. My Chinese teacher told me that Pizza Hut in China was a lot different than Pizza Hut in America, so I wanted to check it out for myself. The biggest differences were the elegance and the portion size. The medium pizzas were a lot smaller than they would be in America. A medium was basically equivalent to a small. And they also charge you extra money to get cheese on the pizza. I guess they usually don’t get cheese on their pizzas?

Better than Pizza Hut, my friend bragged about where she ate instead.

Sometimes I don't think people would believe me unless I had pictures.

Sometimes I don’t think people would believe my stories unless I had pictures. This was our bus driver for about two weeks…he became our friend.

After dinner I talked to family and then went straight to bed. I have been sick for a week and I am still hoping that I can just sleep it off one night and wake up perfectly fine, so I have been going to bed as early as I can.

The next day in Chongqing, we went to visit the Changan Ford assembly line. I have watched a lot of How It’s Made episodes, and this was a dream come true for me. As we were walking through the factory I felt like I was watching How It’s Made in person. The CEO of the factory was explaining everything as we went, so it was really amazing me. I think I had my jaw dropped for 75% of the tour. There were a lot of automated steps along the line and a lot of robots assisting the employees. I was amazed at how calm it was in there. There really wasn’t much noise because everyone was focused on doing their job. There also was almost no dust or debris. The factory was very near perfectly clean.

We were told that Ford caters these cars specifically for the Chinese market. They add more seating in a lot of their cars due to the fact that many people live with their grandparents, parents, and children all in one household. In the smaller cars, they give a more luxurious backseat than we may be accustomed to in the United States. They say the main reason they do this is because a lot of Chinese businessmen will have a driver, so they want to accommodate their needs and give them a nice backseat. They also told us that the most popular color of vehicle in the Chinese market is white. They said that 50% of the cars sold per year are white, so most of the cars coming off the assembly line were white.

After viewing the factory, we got to ask some questions. I found it really interesting that the employees of the factory work 11 hour shifts 6 days a week. That seemed insane to me. And instead of closing the factory at night, they just have another set of workers work the night shift. So the factory is able to really increase production and maximize the factory’s capabilities.

After leaving the factory, we went to meet the CEO of Changan Ford. He talked about the company for a while and then he gave us a very motivational speech about making the most of our lives and believing in yourself. The visit with Changan Ford was definitely my favorite part of the trip so far and I think it will be hard to top.

With the president of Changan Ford

After visiting Changan Ford we went to see a building that starts on one street level and leads you out onto another street level. Chongqing is kind of like San Francisco so there are a lot of hills the city is built around. We climbed up a bunch of stairs from the ground level of one street and when we got through the building, we were at the ground level of another building. I have never seen anything like it before. It was really cool. It was like going around the block, but instead of walking around on a sidewalk you can zigzag up some steps and make it to the same place in just as much time – although I thought the stairs were pretty tiring.

After visiting this building (I have no idea if it has a name) we went to dinner. Ting’s Dad does a lot of business in Chongqing so he hosted us for dinner at a really nice restaurant. It was really good food and a lot of fun. We got to see the city light up at night. It was really beautiful, especially because it is alongside the Yangtze River.

The Yangtze River from Chongqing. The city reminded me of Pittsburgh.

Location: Chongqing, China

Boats and Soldiers, Or Soldiers and Boats

Over the next week, we visited the historical city of Xian and had a more relaxing week aboard a cruise.

(5/18) When we arrived in Xian, we boarded a bus and went to see the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower. We then went to dinner at a theater that had a huge buffet on the second floor (there were french fries here and this had everyone jumping for joy). After dinner, we went to see the Big Wild Goose Pagoda.

We didn’t have access to the Pagoda at night, but it was still beautiful from far away.

The lighting made the shot magnificent. This is the entrance to the fountain and pagoda.

We got to go to see the City Fountain. There was a light and music fountain show. It was really neat. There were so many people there watching and a lot of other tourists too.

They were playing music and coordinated the water with the music.

After seeing the fountain, we headed back to our hotel to check in. The city of Xian is sorrounded by a city wall so it is set up like a grid. There is a North, East, South, and West side. Our hotel was in the middle of the city so there was a great view from my room.

The next morning, after eating breakfast, we went to see the terracotta warriors.

The first view you have when you walk into the room.

It was amazing. I really wish we could have seen the tomb that the warriors were built to protect, but there is a mercury river running through it, so they don’t know if that will ever be able to open to the public. There were three major pits that we saw. The excavation process was not done in any of them, but they went from most to least excavated. The number of soldiers and the amount of area that the army covered amazed me. The tunnel system they were built in was crazy. It was hard to believe that this was achieved so long ago and only so recently discovered. We visited the site of the terracotta warriors for about 3 hours.

This was a side view of some of the best excavated soldiers. This is in the first pit.

A better view of all the detail that went into a soldier. Each soldier had a different face.

This is a general. There is more detail in his clothing and all the generals have a similar gestures with their arms and hands.

Golden Chariots

When we were done viewing the warriors, we went to eat and I got some Biang Biang noodles. I learned about them last year in my Chinese class and was so excited to eat them. They were really good and watching them being made was really entertaining. They stretched them out really long and then twisted them and pulled them together.

After lunch, we got to visit the city wall. Me and Ting rented a tandem bicycle and we cycled the 9 miles of the wall. We could see the city all around us as we rode. It was really awesome, but it was made from bricks, so when we finished riding our butts hurt so badly!

The city wall on the outside of what used to be the ancient city of Xian. The city now surrounds area well beyond the outside of the wall.

After visiting the city wall, we went to Muslin Street. Muslin Street had a lot of street food and cool shops. I ate lamb for the first time and I was with Nate, who kept talking about anthrax which was comforting. After that, Xinli ordered us a bunch of “juicy dumplings” and I ate until I was full. I then went and bought a few gifts along the street.

After we visited the street, we went back to our hotel and just hung out for the night because we had to wake up at 6 a.m. to catch our train to Yichang.

This is in the same design as ancient coins.

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(5/20) Yesterday we were on the sleeper train all day. I slept a decent amount of the trip because I was not feeling well. Since we all eat from the same plates, it is very easy for sicknesses to pass from one person to the next. Almost half of our group is/has gotten sick the past week.

On the train ride, other than sleeping, I watched a couple of movies and ate some food and just hung out and talked. The train ride was 14 hours long, so we had a lot of time to kill. When we arrived at Yichang from Xian, we were picked up by a bus. We then went to the port and got onto our cruise ship. The cruise ship is huge. It is 6 stories and it has a deck on both sides and balconies for every room. This is my first time on a cruise and I am able to confirm that I do not get sea sick. There is a buffet at every meal so I have been eating a lot. I didn’t eat a lot in Beijing, so I am just making up for that now.

We went and visited the Three Gorges Dam Thursday afternoon. It is the biggest hydroelectric plant in the world. The dam is gigantic. There were huge turbines, 46 of them in total, generating the electricity.

Three Gorges Dam

The tour guide explained to us that the dam was built to end devastating floods in the area. In China, the government owns all property, so when they wanted to build the dam in this location, all residents currently living here were relocated. He said that many people in the older generation were very reluctant to move, because this is where their family had lived for generations. However, the younger generation was more willing to move, because they knew that in the cities there was opportunity to make a better life for their families.

This was taken from the highest point above Three Gorges Dam. It was a beautiful, but extremely hot, day.

We explored Three Gorges Dam for about an hour and a half and then returned to the boat. We then were welcomed by the captain at a cocktail party. After the captain and his crew were introduced, they started playing music, but no one was on the dance floor. A bunch of us ran onto the dance floor. We were having a good time, and almost the entire room was watching us. There were a few people who joined us and there was even some very good dancing happening between Steve and an older Chinese man. He was getting as low to the ground as Steve. I was really impressed.

After dancing and some dinner, we hung out on the deck until midnight. At midnight we reached the ship lock. We went into the ship lock with two other boats and the gates closed behind us.

The doors of the ship lock in the process of closing. I actually was able to touch the side of the canal we were that close as the water level rose!

The water from the channel we were in and the channel ahead of us started to level out. Once the water from each channel was in equilibrium, we moved on to the next channel to repeat the process. I am not sure how long it took us to get through the ship lock, but the crew said it would probably take about 4 hours. I went to bed when we got to the second lock.

In the morning, we boarded onto a smaller ship and explored the Lesser Three Gorges while our boat was cleaned. The Lesser Three Gorges looked like the Grand Canyon except they had a lot more trees growing alongside the cliffs. The water was fairly deep here and took around an hour and a half to go from the beginning to the end, but at the end we had to turn around and come back, so it took about 3 hours total. We were allowed to stand on the deck of the boat and instead of whale watching, we were monkey watching. There were a lot of tiny monkeys climbing the cliffside. They were really fun to watch and I was amazed that they could climb along the rocky cliff. When we got back on our boat we just hung out for the night. We got Wi-Fi for the first time in four days, but it did not work very well, so I just gave up. I went to bed pretty early because I got really sick, and when I woke up, I had lost my voice!

An early morning aboard the Yangtze Gold 1.

I didn’t talk much the next day…mostly because I couldn’t. We went to see the Ghost City in Fengdu. We had to climb up a mountain so it was a lot of work. There were tests along the way so the people protecting the mountain could decide if we were good or bad and whether or not we would be sent to heaven or hell. We got to see the temple of heaven and hell. The temples were used for Taoist prayer or Buddhist prayer, depending on the design and decorations. There was a temple of 100 babies and our tour guide said the local people go there to pray that their child will be healthy before it is born.

When we were in the temple of hell, there were a lot of figurines depicting very disturbing forms of torture. When the temple was built they wanted to scare people so they would not be bad, and this was one way that they did it.

We then enjoyed the view at the top of the mountain and climbed back down to get back to our boat. When we were towards the bottom I went to talk to some of the people selling items at stands they had set up. I learned that they spoke a different dialect. They were trying to sell me beer and I tried telling them I don’t drink beer, but they shook their head no. I told them I really didn’t drink it and they laughed because the way I said drink was different from the way they said drink. Instead of saying he, they say ke. So I was saying a completely different word to them, and it must have been funny. It surprises me how much the language can change in just 100 miles. At our previous stop, they also said a lot of words differently. I know that most native Chinese speakers can understand each other even through the dialects, but for me, I am not as flexible with my Chinese so it is more difficult to understand and pick up on these nuances.

How I went about drying my clothes. I was definitely afraid of them falling overboard, so I secured everything as much as I possibly could.

Location: The Yangtze, China

A Seaside Paradise

My first impression of Dalian was that it is a lot less crowded than Beijing.

It seems to be nicer here in terms of air quality, cleanliness, and modernity. When we arrived we got picked up by Xinli’s friends and some bus drivers. We packed all of our luggage into one bus and rode into the city from the train station. I got to ride with an employee of the hotel in a really nice BMW X5. We were listening to some really cool Chinese music, which I loved. I liked being able to experience a more normal car ride, and not always being on a bus. It was a nice change and I enjoyed the ride to the hotel.

Once we got to our hotel we changed and got ready for breakfast. We then went to visit a high school and an elementary school. The elementary school we visited was very high-tech and was beautiful. Many people were asking if it was a private school and how much the tuition was only to find out that it was actually a public school. The principal of the school stressed to us how much they valued education. They showed us a classroom that had a gigantic touch screen in the middle of it. It was probably 10 feet high and 20 feet wide. It just looked like a giant iPad. You could do homework problems on it. It looked like a great tool for collaboration. There were also projectors that touched three walls in the room. It was amazing and the capability of the classroom made me jealous that we don’t have anything like it at Penn State. We also saw a coffee shop, a pottery classroom, and a huge stadium with a soccer field and track and field equipment. The stadium was really large – bigger than many high school stadiums in the United States.

This is what a public school’s elementary soccer field looks like.

When we arrived at the high school, the students were outside waiting for us to come. They were so excited to see us and they ran to meet us and greet us with gifts; they were extremely welcoming. We got to tour their school and they even let me play soccer with their soccer team. I wanted to play soccer in China, and being able to play with a high school team was probably the best experience I could have asked for. We didn’t play for long, but it was really fun and I am glad they let this random American girl join their game. After playing soccer, they let us practice writing characters and gave us a great lunch. The two girls I was with had near perfect English, I was very impressed. They asked me questions about America and I learned that their High School years are much stricter than ours. They have to live on their school campus for a month before their gaokao exam which could be compared to our SAT’s. It is a huge 2-day exam that determines if they can go to college and which college they can go to. They also told me that they have mandatory study time and practically study all day in preparation for the gaokao. They go to class 6 days a week and sit in rooms studying. I also found it interesting that they said they can’t date anyone. Although some of them do, they have to do it in secret. The students I was with were also explaining to me that if you play sports that means you will usually go on to play professionally and if you don’t play sports they make you focus on studying and you will usually go on to go to college. It didn’t seem like there was a middle, you had to pick a side. Many of the students I was with said they didn’t play sports much and many of the students who were playing sports focused on the sport a lot more than classes. I learned a lot about the culture difference when it comes to high school from meeting with the high school students in Dalian.

My new friends from a high school in Dalian.

We then went to visit the UFO and got a great view of Dalian. We hiked up a lot of stairs to the top of a huge hill and could see Dalian all around us from the top.

Great view of the city from the UFO. (A little smoggy)

After visiting the UFO, we went back to our hotel and got ready to go to our first dinner in Dalian. At dinner they provided us with a lot of beer and seafood. They brought out Rice Liquor, which is very popular in China, towards the end of the meal. It is a really strong alcohol, you can smell it from 3 feet away. I was surprised that everyone of all ages in China was pretty good at drinking socially. They were very good at handling their liquor. Apparently they start drinking very young in China and it helps build up their tolerance. After dinner, we sang some Karaoke and then went back to our hotel rooms for the night.

Our next day in Dalian, we went and visited a large square. It used to be ocean and they built this square right where the sea used to be. We then got to walk around Dalian a little bit, see some nice architecture, and then head to lunch. After lunch we went to another plaza that had a huge ramp. The ramp looked like a halfpipe and you could run/walk all the way up to the top of the ramp. You can get away with a lot more in China than you would be able to in America. On the ramp there is a yellow line that you aren’t suppossed to cross, but everyone was crossing it and getting all the way to the edge of the ramp. There was no one stopping them from doing so either.

Yeah, we went to the top of the ramp too…

The ramp was located next to a small amusement park, so we were given an hour to go explore it. There were go karts, bumper cars, roller coasters, pirate ships, and many more rides all around. It surprised me that kids in China have the same type of rides at amusement parks as us and that they have the same type of fun. I don’t know why, but I didn’t expect it, but it was really cool to find out and see.

After visiting the plaza, we went back to our hotel to get ready for dinner. One of Xinli’s friends was hosting an extremely fancy dinner for us.

We all got dressed up and headed to dinner.

There was more seafood and I tried a bunch of new food. There was sea cucumber which I did not really enjoy. I thought it tasted like a slimy gummy bear. I wasn’t able to finish it. I also ate a piece of chicken wrapped in leaf. I was sitting next to our friend Tong, who is the son of the host, and he was helping me learn how to eat some of the food. At the end of a meal, the Chinese put out fruit. We have been eating family style meals so every dish is placed on a huge lazy susan. The table we ate our meal at was gigantic and there were about 35 of us seated around it. The turntable was also huge, but because there were so many people around the table, the difference in the circumference of the table and the lazy susan was a lot greater than if we were sitting at a small table. This caused the seats to be further away from the lazy susan – or more importantly, the food! Sometimes we had to stretch to reach for food, and just to make it more difficult, the turn table was automatic! It kept spinning and sometimes a dish would pass you by before you even had a chance to grab what you wanted. When I saw nectarines on the table, I knew that the meal was over. They usually like to provide melon. Watermelon is very popular, but canteloupe and honeydew are often given at the end of the meal. I have really been missing fruit, I eat so much fruit back home and that is not as common here. So when I saw the nectarines on the table I grabbed a few. A lot of people had been having a lot to drink, so they weren’t neccessarily paying attention to the table. I was lucky and got to grab some early on. I shared them, but I definitely could have eaten all of them on my own if given the chance.

After dinner, we went back to our hotel and Tong took us to a Karaoke place. We sang for a while and then headed back to our hotel. The next morning we were able to go up to the top floor of the hotel and see the CEO’s penthouse. It was amazing up there. It was so beautiful and spacious. There was even a secret elevator to get up to his penthouse. I wondered what it would be like living in a hotel. I’m sure he is used to it at this point and it is probably no different than living in a really fancy apartment building, but it is very different than anything I have ever experienced.

Once our tour of the penthouse was over we were able to head to the airport to catch our flight to Xian. When we got to the airport, we saw a Subway and everyone freaked out a little bit. I wouldn’t say I am sick of Chinese food, but the way meals work in China, especially the meals we have been having, causes a lot of repetition in food choice. There is not much differentiation between breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And we have been eating family style meals, which often causes you to eat a little bit of the same things every meal. So seeing a Subway, (with bread!) made us go crazy!

We saw a lot of people wearing these around cities, Kent wanted to give it a try.

Location: Dalian, China

One Down, Thirteen To Go

The Power of Punctuation

Everyone makes mistakes.

We Teach English, Right? We Teach English RIGHT! We Teach English? Right! As you can tell, I wouldn’t be the first to suggest this company as an English teacher.

This was all originally written almost a month ago, but I didn’t have access to the blog. I am going to post them now since there are so many experiences I didn’t get to post yet.

My first week in China!

Although I arrived a day late, my experience in Beijing was incredible. There were a lot of things I noticed right away. The money was different, the street signs were different, the driving rules were different, the lifestyle was different. But as I started to spot these differences, I also noticed so many similarities between the United States and China.

In China and the United States, providing for your family and making sure they have a good life is very important. It was easy to tell that the people living in China put a lot of time and effort into creating and maintaining a good family life. I also noticed that as much as I want to learn about China, they want to learn just as much about America.

After landing at PEK, the largest international airport in the world, being delayed an entire day, not sleeping much on the plane, and having trouble locating luggage, I was too tired to think much more beyond getting food into my mouth and putting one foot in front of the other, but our taxi driver had other plans. I was so excited to finally be able to use my Chinese for the first time while actually being in China, but I was not at all prepared for the driver’s relentless attack. He asked me question after question about America. Everything ranging from “How much would this car cost in America?” to “Teach me how to count to ten!” It was also 6:00 p.m. on a Tuesday evening (May 12th) while we were on our way to the hotel, so we had a LONG drive due to the Beijing rush hour traffic. 30 minutes later, I never realized how important it was to remember all of the Chinese vocabulary words I was taught. I definitely had a good plunge into the language upon arrival.

That night our professor, Xinli Wu, took the 5 late arrivals out to get dinner. The drinking culture in China is very different than America. A lot of people drink at younger ages here and there really is no restriction on alcohol, however people don’t tend to abuse alcohol here from what I have seen and heard. So over a 2 hour period 12 beers were shared, we got to try some authentic Chinese dishes, and we got to learn more about how the Chinese toast. We also were properly trained to use chopsticks – some making out better than others.

5/13 – The second day, I woke up extremely tired. After having a meal with almost everything I could possibly want for breakfast present, we drove about 1 hour and 30 minutes to reach the Great Wall. I thought I knew a decent amount of facts about the Great Wall, but until I stood in front of it and walked up it, I did not fully understand its true significance and power.

Such a magnificent view from the top.

The biggest shock I had while climbing the wall was that the stairs were very uneven. You could have a change in elevation ranging from 3 to 16 inches between one step and the next. This made climbing the wall a real workout. After climbing the Great Wall, I cannot imagine how soldiers used to run up and down the wall carrying equipment and weapons, but I do have a great respect for their drive to protect their territory.

Although everyone did not end up making it to the top of the wall, many of us did. We had to take a selfie at the top to signify our accomplishment.

Selfie sticks are very useful! Penn State conquers the Great Wall of China.

It was beautiful. You could see mountains in every direction and could look down and see tiny cars driving along the road. It was a terrific view, one that I think would be hard to ever forget.

On top of the world.

After visiting the Great Wall, I was so tired that I could barely function, but I somehow was able to muster up the energy to eat. After lunch, we went to explore the Bird’s Nest and the Olympic Village before we headed to Silk Street. The Bird’s Nest seemed a lot bigger inside than any stadium I have ever been in, but our tour guide said it only held 100,000 people. The seats were a lot further apart than Beaver Stadium which added to its size.

Walking through the Olympic Village, China’s Bird’s Nest is a staggering site, but smog clouds the view a bit.

When we first arrived at Silk Street I felt kind of dumb…because it wasn’t a street at all. I would compare it to the most condensed New York City Macy’s you could ever imagine. There were probably 100 stores per floor, all crowded so close together and each store was only between 50 and 200 square feet large. Somehow, I woke up in a way that I never thought imaginable. At first, I stuck with a few of the Chinese students that are taking the class with us, because I wanted them to help me buy items. Then I thought, “I can do this on my own,” I broke away and started bargaining like crazy. A side of me that I didn’t know existed started shining through. I started bargaining with the shopkeepers in Chinese, I was buying things left and right and was having a great time. I bought 5 or 6 items and did not even spend more than $50. It was a great experience.

After Silk Street we went to see a Kungfu show. It was really impressive and there were boys around the age of 5 or 6 years old doing back-handsprings on their heads. It might be hard to imagine, and YouTube is blocked in China, so…happy searching!

(5/14) The next day we woke up at 6:45 a.m. (again) and ate a delicious breakfast. We then went to Tiananmen Square for a group picture and then went to the National Museum of China. We explored the museum for 2 hours and I got to see a lot of artifacts from ancient times. There were so many beautiful ceramic pieces and works of art. I was most impressed by the fact that at one point I was looking at an incense burner from the 700’s and I thought, “wow that is really cool, I would buy that.” For the craft to be that perfected and amazing at that point in history impressed me.

Later that day, we traveled to Beijing University of Mining and Technology. It was really great to be able to interact with other college students. We were able to relate to them in many ways and also learn a lot about China and their culture from them. I learned that deep down, we are all pretty similar. After visiting the University, we looked at some lights on buildings throughout Beijing and along Qianmen Street and Changan Street. Once we got back to the hotel, we decided to get in touch with some of the students we had met at the University earlier that day and go to a club with them. We seized the opportunity of being able to get into the club at the ages of 18-21. Once we were there we saw that a lot of the people at the club were sitting around tables drinking wine and eating food. There was a lot of smoking but there wasn’t much dancing. Once we started dancing it seemed like everyone wanted to come to dance with the Americans. It was a lot of fun experiencing this and learning more about the culture here in China.

Yesterday was our final day in Beijing. We woke up even earlier than usual to pack and get ready to check out of the hotel. Once we were all ready and we had shoved 43 suitcases into every possible nook and cranny on the bus, we took off to head to the Temple of Heaven. We explored the grounds at the Temple of Heaven for 2 hours and learned about what the ancient Chinese people did at the grounds. We were taught that they usually had square walls around temples because they thought the earth was square and then the temple itself was round or had a circular focus because they believed heaven was round.

Circular area for worship within square walls.

After grabbing some lunch, we headed over to the Summer Palace. This was the most beautiful stop we had in Beijing. There was great marble structure and beautifully painted structures.

Lovely ceiling artwork.

We got to cross the lake at the Palace grounds on a dragon boat. Once we got across the lake we walked around for a while and then some of us hiked up to the top of a hill to get a better view of the grounds. I have quickly learned that to get to some of the best sites in China, you have to walk up A LOT of stairs or climb a gigantic mountain.

On top of another mountain!

It was a fun afternoon which ended with us driving to the Beijing Train Station. We took a sleeper train to Dalian and had a great first day, the train was smaller than I expected, just like my dorm room was as well… And I was very disappointed that I didn’t end up at Hogwarts in the morning, but Dalian is equally as nice. I will blog more from Dalian when I get a chance! China has been amazing so far, I can’t wait for what the next 20 days bring!

Location: Beijing, China

Ode To China

On my last full day in China, I woke up and walked down the street to get some juicy dumplings. I ate 10 dumplings and only paid $2.00. I will definitely miss the great food here. If I could, I would take dumplings back to the United States with me.

My last order of juicy dumplings in Shanghai.

After my dumpling brunch, I walked around and did a little shopping. I wanted to spend most of the remaining money I had, so I bought a few more souvenirs for my friends and family.

At that point, it was time to take the final exam. Once I finished the exam, I posted a blog…a day late (oops!) and then I hung out for a little while.

We then walked a block or so away from our hotel to meet Chinese students who will be attending Penn State in the fall. I really like meeting with students because they give us insight into many things that we are curious about, and we are able to do the same for them as well. I paired up with a girl named Meg and we talked for a while about campus and how she decided to go to Penn State. In China, and even other countries now, there is a very popular app called WeChat that is used for communication. Most of the time when I meet someone new I will add them on WeChat so we can easily stay in touch. You can send messages through it, make phone calls, video chat and much more as long as you have WiFi or are connected to cellular data. It is pretty amazing to know that I met people from all over the world while in China and I can stay in touch with them so easily.

After meeting with all of the incoming students, we went to another room to share our personal reflections about the program. Everyone went around and we talked about many things. A lot of people mentioned their favorite parts of the trip or the most exciting things they learned. Many students talked about different events that gave them a culture shock and others talked about how much they learned from the program. It was great to gather and talk about all that we had experienced over the past month and be able to spend some time together as a group before leaving each other.

We have all grown so close. We have essentially been stuck with each other for the past month – if you want to call it that. We have traveled for hours on end with each other, had each other’s backs when we were walking through sketchy areas, helped each other finish food when we didn’t think we could eat anymore, not get hit by a car (or moped), and most importantly we have helped each other grow.

Going to China and experiencing it in this setting has been an extremely humbling experience. There were times when I could not communicate what I wanted to others. There were times when I was definitely lost, but I always found my way back. There were times when I realized how lucky I am in so many aspects of life. I learned so much from the people of China, but I also learned so much from everyone who was with me throughout this entire journey. I know that I saw amazing wonders that I will never forget, but I also know that I made memories and friends that will last me a lifetime.

For anyone reading this, whoever you are, wherever you are, and however old, young, strong, or scared you may be, I would encourage you with all my being to go somewhere new. Going to China was something I had dreamed of, and I think that made my experience so much more valuable. My expectations were not that high coming into the program, but if they were, they would have been exceeded in unimaginable ways. Going abroad and being outside of my comfort zone helped me learn so much. I learned things that you really can’t be taught in any way other than through experiencing them. I would definitely go abroad again for this reason alone.

Going back home is bittersweet. I learned so much while in China that it is hard to leave, but I know I will always be able to take what I learned with me. I might not have my juicy dumplings anymore, but I will always have the new knowledge I have gained.

I’ll miss so much, and I won’t miss so much. Me and China will probably always have a love hate relationship, but if I am lucky enough to be given the opportunity to go back, I would definitely take it.

On to more adventures in the USA!

From somewhere over the Pacific, I hope you all enjoyed my blog! Go to China and get the juicy dumplings!!

Location: THE OCEAN

So Many Dumplings, So Little Time

Tuesday morning we went to Shanghai’s Exxon Mobil facility. One of Xinli’s former students is currently working there and was able to help us get a tour and overview of their operation. When we got there, Jay, Xinli’s former student, and Mr. Liang gave us an overview of their company, what they do in Shanghai, and their products. They specialize in lubrication, mostly for engines. At this Exxon Mobil site, they are trying to work with local companies in China. Their plan for the future is to be able to spread the company’s reach to other countries in Asia.
We watched a safety video first, then we were introduced to the company and specifically the work that Exxon Mobil is doing in China. Once we learned more about their work, we learned more about their specilization, lubricants. Jay prepared a powerpoint for us and talked to us about lubricants. He said it was something he never learned about while in school, so it was cool to know that he was giving us an introduction to something we probably will never be taught otherwise.

After Jay explained in more detail the purpose and complexity of lubricants, we got to go upstairs to see the lab that the oil is tested in. There were many tests that they perform in the lab, but testing viscosity was the most important one. They had all sorts of equipment in the lab, and there was a huge atomic absorption spectroscope that they said cost $300,000. There was also an engine in the lab that they said was just a toy. I did not realize people had engines for toys, but it must be the geeky side of oil chemists.
After our tour, we returned to our hotel for the night. We were supposed to go see the skyline from an observation deck of a building, but it was unfortunately rainy and foggy, so we had to reschedule for the next day. I got more juicy dumplings. They are too good to resist.
Yesterday morning, I woke up and had a typical Shanghai breakfast. I have been getting a “pancake” every morning. It is an egg and dough bread and they put whatever you want inside of we it. I get sweet sauce that is the consistency of jelly and cabbage and then some type of meat. I have gotten chicken and pork. Some people are afraid of getting street food, but I think that it is part of the experience and as long as a lot of people are at the stand, I trust it. If local people are eating it a lot then I think that’s a good sign. I don’t want to limit my experience here by being afraid to try new things or by being too cautious.

We took the high speed train to Suzhou this morning. On the train we got a snack bag, even though the train ride was only 30 minutes. The train went 300 kph. That is about 187 miles per hour. So we traveled around 80 miles that quickly. The train uses special windows so the speed does not affect your vision. It looked like a magnifying glass in a way. It would be awesome if this existed in State College and you could get to Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York City, and D.C. that quickly.

You could tell that this study abroad program is for engineering students, because we talked about the acceleration of the train and momentum and the engine required to power it and I thought it was pretty hilarious that deep down we are all just curious about how the world around us works. It is cool to experience so many new things with a bunch of engineering students, because we question everything and are able to talk to each other about everything we see and how it works. I think I have gotten a better understanding of certain aspects of China and just all of the new things I have seen and experienced in general because everyone around me is so knowledgeable and is equally as curious as I am.

When we got to Suzhou, we all went to get food. Naturally, I got fried dumplings. I ate so many of them – probably 12. I love dumplings, but I will be deprived of them when I get back to the United States. I am not quite sure how I will recover.

In Suzhou we toured a garden that was made for an emperor in the Qing Dynasty. We found out that it took 3 years to construct the garden and then the emperor died only a year after it finished which is pretty unfortunate. We then went to get on a boat for a brief tour of the city. Suzhou has so many man-made canals, so you can take a boat around the city. It is definitely the Venice of China. It was beautiful. The canals were built in the Ming Dynasty, so they are really old. Rocks surrounded the edges and concrete was the predominant building material used. I noticed that at the base of some of the concrete pillars that supported motor vehicle bridges, there was some deterioration. I wonder if the pollution in the water got through the pores in the concrete and made the rebar expand. I will probably learn this in one of my classes, but for now I can only guess.

After visiting Suzhou, we took the bus back to Shanghai. The bus driver drove to Suzhou while we took the train, so he was able to bring us back. We then went to the Shanghai World Financial Center to see the view of Shanghai from above. I have seen New York City from the top of Rockefeller Building, but this view was even more amazing than that. The city is so big that you can’t even see everything from above. The buildings just keep going until they dissappear into the sky. The sun was almost completely set when we got to the top so the buildings were all starting to light up. It was very beautiful.

Today we will be visiting with local students who will be attending college in the United States next year and taking our final exam. We will then be having a final dinner together and saying goodbye to everyone, and to this lovely country we have spent the last month in.

Location: Sichuan Zhong Road, Shanghai, China

China’s New York

On Sunday we traveled for about 8 hours by bus to reach Shanghai.

When we arrived we were dropped off at our hotel and we dropped our luggage off before leaving to see the city. We walked a block away from our hotel to see the skyline of Shanghai lit up at night. It was hard to see some of the buildings because there was a lot of smog, but what we could see was beautiful.

After viewing the skyline, we went to eat and then headed back to our hotel. Shanghai is known for its nightlife so we decided to see what was around. We met up with a girl named Julia and she took us to two of the best clubs in Shanghai. There are a lot more foreigners in Shanghai. When we went to clubs with more Chinese people they danced a little bit more conservatively than how many Americans dance or people from a lot of other countries. It was fun to be able to interact with people from all over the world in just one place. There were people from China, America, Serbia, Nigeria, heck, we even ran into a Penn State graduate!

This morning, we woke up and went to visit the eco-city. We saw wetlands and ways that renewable energy will be used to hopefully run a completely green city. In China, electricity is much more expensive than it is in the United States. In the eco-city, if you generate more energy than necessary, you would be able to sell this energy to the power company, put it back into the grid, and actually make a decent profit from it. They hope that the eco-city will be one of many cities to be built in this manner and that soon they will be all over China.

After visiting the eco-city, we went to the temple in Shanghai, which is one of the oldest parts of the city. We walked around the street and we were able to do some bargaining again and we finally got to eat the famous juicy dumplings. Since arriving in Beijing, both Dean Masters and Xinli have mentioned how great the juicy dumplings were, so I had pretty high hopes for these dumplings from the time I sat down in the restaurant. When we were in Xian, Xinli took me and Nate to get food and we got some juicy dumplings, so he taught me the proper technique to eating them, but not everyone knew. When our dumplings came out, he said, “Watch! I’ll teach you how to eat juicy dumplings.”

When you eat a juicy dumpling, you first have to grab it by the top where all of the dough comes together. Then you have to dip it into your soy sauce. This is crucial so that the dough doesn’t get stuck to your mouth as you are making the first incision. You then have to bite into your juicy dumpling and suck the juice out of the dumpling. It is so delicious! You then dip the dumpling in your soy sauce and eat, repeating the process until the whole dumpling has been devoured.

I am glad Xinli has found such good places to get food over the years. Shanghai juicy dumplings will forever be in my heart.

After eating juicy dumplings, we went to Nanjing Street, the largest pedestrian walking street in China. There were a lot of shops and stores to visit. They had a mixture of name brand stores and local shops. After visiting Nanjing street we went back to the hotel and I ate more food. I had something that tasted like a hamburger in a way. It had pork on the inside and then a doughy bun wrapped around it. It was really good. So far, the food in Shanghai has been very good. Tomorrow we will be viewing the city from a skyscraper and visiting Exxon Mobil. We don’t get much sleep, but all of the great experiences are well worth it.

Unfortunately the WiFi at our hotel is not very good so I haven’t been able to upload any photos 🙁

Location: Shanghai, China

Getting Married in China

On Saturday we attended a traditional Chinese wedding.

In China, there are 2 predominant types of weddings – traditional and western. A western wedding is very similar to a Catholic wedding in the United States and there are some big differences between traditional weddings and western weddings. The first major difference was that the wedding ceremony took place in a hotel. When we all gathered to leave our hotel, everyone was looking pretty good. We got dressed up and some of the guys were even wearing full tuxedos. We then took the bus to the hotel that the wedding took place in. When we arrived, the bride greeted us as we walked in. We took the elevator to the third floor and sat down around tables, about 12 people per table. There was already food at the table when we arrived. Almost immediately wine was opened and poured. Soon after that we started eating. There was a lot of seafood and local food such as fatty pork and spicy dishes.

Halfway through eating, the bride and groom gathered at the back of the room to start the ceremony. A woman came over to the bride and put a cloth over her face, so she was not able to see anything until the groom removed it 10 minutes later. The ceremony started with a boy running across the stage, which was set up in a T shape. The bride and groom were standing at the very bottom of the T behind curtains, but my table was right beside them so I could things that I guess I wasn’t supposed to be able to see. The stage was elevated at the top where the T was horizontal. The boy ran down the stage singing along to a song and beating a drum. Then a girl ran out and was singing along to a song as well. The boy and girl then went with the bride and groom and carried lanterns as all 4 of them walked up the catwalk towards the stage.

Once on stage, there was almost an MC like man narrating the wedding. He had a lot of inflection as he talked and it seemed like it could have been a game show based on the way he was talking. He talked for 5 minutes and then the groom unveiled the bride. She was wearing a crown underneath this veil type cloth. They then bowed to each other 3 times as three separate wishes were read. I only understood 2 of them but they were wishes for good health and safety, I am assuming the last one was for happiness. Then their parents walked up the catwalk and sat down on chairs. They each went to their respective parent and bowed 3 times again and then came back together and bowed to each other 3 times.

After bowing, they approached the bride’s parents together and the MC asked if this was a suitable husband for her. They then did the same with the groom’s parents. Then there seemed to be a blessing and they were married. They walked back down the catwalk holding hands and the little boy and girl ran after them throwing candy to the crowd. The entire ceremony only took 20 minutes total. It was relatively short compared to a lot of the American weddings I have attended.

After the ceremony more food was brought to our table and there was a lot of eating and drinking. There were probably 16 tables in the room we were seated in and the bride and groom had to go around and toast every table. They thanked us for coming to their wedding and were so glad we were there. I would have thought they would have been reluctant to have 40 random college kids attending their wedding but they were more than welcome to have us there and showed us great hospitality.

While we were eating there were a few performances. An opera singer sang for about 30 minutes and then another man came on stage and sang a couple more songs. I think these songs may have been more mainstream songs that the families picked, because some of the Chinese students with us were singing along to them. After the “real” performers were done, some of us went on stage to perform. Jack sang an Italian song from Stepbrothers on stage and a group of students did a dance. People loved it and they were laughing and recording videos on their phones.

Shortly after that, a lot of people started to leave. They were only at the wedding for about an hour and a half total, something that’s pretty different than any of the weddings I have been to. There also wasn’t any dancing. There was no stage meant for dancing or a DJ, which was also different. The last major difference was the way people dressed. Most people were dressed extremely casually. A lot of people were wearing jeans. Hardly anyone was wearing a dress. They just wore pants and a nice shirt, something that might be considered rude in America.

It was very interesting to experience a different type of wedding and see how different cultures and traditions affect the way a wedding ceremony is performed. We were all very lucky to have been invited to attend the wedding.

Location: Shanghai, China

A New Hometown

One Chinese Yuan

We have just landed in my professor’s hometown area.

But first, let me explain why I haven’t blogged the entire time I have been in China. The College of Engineering was hacked and I lost access to my account. I finally found a phone number to call about resetting my password a few days ago, but I was on a boat and the WiFi was almost non-existent. It did not work for more than 3 minutes at a time, so I was finally able to get access to my account back. I am going to blog from my current location and then post the blogs I have written from earlier in the trip once I get back to America.

I have been to Beijing, Dalian, Xian, Lintong, Yichang, Fengdu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Tuangxi, and now Huangshan. We will be heading to Shanghai in a few days for our last stop of the program.

On Tuesday morning we woke up at 5:30 a.m. to catch our flight to Hangzhou. We boarded the plane on time, but we had to sit on the tarmac for an hour waiting for the plane to leave. We ended up getting to Hangzhou late, because besides our plan being delayed, some luggage and passports were left behind. By the time we got everyone to the bus we were 2 hours late. We still got to visit the West Lake, but it was a brief stay. We took a boat out on the lake and rode around the lake for 30 minutes. Since we knew we wouldn’t be staying long we didn’t get a tour guide, but I was in luck! There was a group on the boat with us that had a tour guide. He was speaking Chinese, but I could understand it enough to get the jist of what he was saying. He explained that there were temples for prayer alongside the lake and that the pedestrian bridge is always very crowded throughout the day. The West Lake is also featured on the back of 1 yuan bills. There are many pagodas and legend has it that the White Snake came out of the pagoda featured in the picture when it collapsed in the 70’s. There are a lot of legends in China, so I am not sure whether or not I want to believe this one, but it is still a good story. There were two snakes who learned magic that was so powerful they were able to transform themselves into women. The woman then found a husband, but was locked up so her magic would not harm anyone. She was then trapped in the pagoda. The pagoda is standing in the picture because it was rebuilt in 2000.

West Lake in Hangzhou

After viewing the West Lake we got on the bus to drive to Huangshan. It took over 3 hours to get to Huangshan, but when we arrived we had a huge dinner. Xinli grew up nearby so his family was able to join us for dinner.

The next morning we went to the mystery caves. They call them the mystery caves because they don’t know why or how they were built. They were built nearly 2,000 years ago and are an incredible feat of engineering for modern times, especially ancient times. There are 2 caves and they are both man-made. They were carved out by hand and the ceiling of the first cave we visited has the same slope as the mountain above it. The cave also runs under a river. There are some parts of the cave that have water dripping from the ceiling. That definitely freaked me out a little bit, but I knew we would be out of there soon enough. When we got out of the first cave we went to a second cave. This cave seemed more protected. You had to walk up 100 steps just to get to it, and once inside, there were so many steps to get down. As we descended into the cave everyone was relieved because the humidity outside was causing us to sweat the instant we stepped outside. The cool temperatures inside the cave came as a relief. They think the second cave may have been used as some sort of tomb.

First Huashan Mystery Cave

We left the cave and crossed a long bridge. Since there are so many of us, it was rocking side to side.

The three story bridge to reach the caves.

When we crossed the bridge we went to a small bow and arrow shooting range. I shot some arrows and I almost hit the middle bull’s-eye. It was a lot of fun and was something I hadn’t done since high school so I had a good time. In the middle of shooting, a few cows ran through the range. I was caught off guard when this happened and wondered why cows were just running around freely, but I remembered that in China, almost anything is possible.

Me and some others shooting arrows

After visiting the caves we went to visit the Old Street. The Old Street is over 1,000 years old. There are a lot of restaurants and shops on the street. I was able to buy a lot of cool gifts here and have a really good meal. After visiting The Old Street we went to the hotel and got ready for dinner.

At dinner I had a very interesting food: snake. It was really weird to know I was eating snake, but I told myself I would try new things while I was here. It was flaky like fish, but it tasted like chicken and it really wasn’t bad. It was just hard to get meat off of the bones. There are a lot more bones in snake than you would think… We were also served a whole chicken, head, feet, and all.

Chicken, head and all.

The next morning we got up a little later than usual. We were allowed to sleep in! We went to The Old Street to grab lunch and then we went to the village that Xinli grew up in to see the house he grew up in. We walked around the village and got to see a cave and some of the people who live in the village. We saw a lot of people farming and we ran in to Xinli’s old elementary school teacher. The farmers and teachers and shopkeepers all live within the village so it is a real sense of community. We were walking along a path and Xinli found some berries he used to eat as a child so I tried some. They were really good and looked like raspberries but they had little spikes attached to them. I got one stuck in my tongue and struggled for a few minutes to remove it, but eating the berries was still worth it.

Farming in the village our professor grew up in.

We stopped at the elementary school last. I talked to a lot of the kids there and we looked in their classrooms. They were not very high tech but looked like a typical school. They had desks and a chalkboard. There were a few kids running around and they posed for pictures for us. I unfortunately wasn’t able to take a good picture because I was further away, but trust me, they were really cute.

After walking around the village, we sat down for dinner. We were sitting in Xinli’s house which wasn’t made for 40 people at one time. There wasn’t a lot of space so we were crowded around a few tables and were sweating a lot, but we still were able to eat and that’s all that matters. They brought out a lot of food, just like always, and it was great. It seemed to come in unlimited quantities. My favorite dishes were green beans with peppers and the shrimp. The food was so fresh it was amazing. SO DELICIOUS!

After dinner, I walked around and talked to some of the neighbors in Chinese. I just asked them what they did, told them where I was from and told a few jokes. We then went to watch fireworks. A lot of the kids in the village found out there were going to be fireworks so they ran to watch them. We set off fireworks for about 10 minutes. After the fireworks finished I talked to a lot of the kids in the village. There was one girl who is 10 years old that had amazing English. I was really impressed because she probably isn’t even able to practice her English that much unless she goes to the city which is about 40 minutes away. She had much better English than my Chinese, but we talked in both languages and were able to communicate. She taught me a few of the games she played with her friends. It was really amazing visiting the village and seeing how much life can vary just 30 miles away from the city in China.

Today we went to the Old Street again for lunch. When we eat lunch we usually sit in big groups of about 8 or 12 people, but today I was just sitting at a table with 4 people and I had to order for everyone. There is usually a native speaker at each table, making it much easier to order food. We all split up for lunch so I found a menu and wrote down what we wanted in Chinese for the owner of the restaurant. It all worked out in the end and we had a very delicious meal and got everything that we wanted, so I guess I didn’t do too badly.

After eating lunch, we went to Xinli’s brother’s house. The house was really cool and even had some architectural features that were the same as his mother’s house even though they differed in construction by 50 years. Living in the house were his brother and his brother’s wife. Their son lived there with his wife and daughter. His wife’s mother also lived in the house. When you walked into the house there was a huge living room. You walked up half a flight of stairs to get to the kitchen and dining room area. There were then 3 more floors. One set of stairs led the way up to these living spaces. There was an open area when first arriving at each floor and then there were 2 bedrooms and a bathroom on each level. It was really cool to see how functional a house could be. The whole extended family is able to live in one space and still have their own separate spaces when they want to.

Tonight we will be celebrating Alejandro’s birthday. Tomorrow we will be attending a wedding and then leaving for Shanghai.

Cheers to my first blog post from China!

再见

Location: Huangshan, China

Not Quite Beijing

We almost made it out of the United States!

We made it?

We have finally arrived..in Texas. We didn’t quite make it to China. Me and four other students missed our connection to China due to delayed flights. Weather and mechanical issues caused us to miss the flight by just minutes. As devastating as it was, we got to bond a little more and will now even get to stop in Canada on our way to Beijing!

The airline gave us free hotel rooms so we are going to get some rest and wake up bright and early to hopefully actually make it to Beijing this time around.

Our lovely home for the night.

Wish us luck!

Location: Irving, TX 75063

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