Title: Arrival in Wuhan - July 15, 2005

Ni Hao! (Hello!)

From Salt Lake to Los Angeles to Shanghai to Beijing (with a few side trips to cultural highlights around the city) to Wuhan, I've finally arrived at the university where I'll be teaching for the next four weeks. Here's a brief overview of my first few days.

I left Salt Lake at 9am on July 11 and arrived at the Taiwan Hotel in Beijing at 2am on July 13, a total of 30 hours in transit. From LA onward, I travelled with 4 other instructors who are part of the Wuhan University Summer Intensive English Program (WUSIEP) this year. We kept each other in good spirits during the long trip and eventually joined up with the whole group in the morning for our first excursion in Beijing.

Our first stop was the jade factory on the way to the Great Wall. This is apparently the first destination for all tour groups. It was a gorgeous display of fine jewelry and statuary, but we were happy to move along.

The Great Wall, known as the Long Wall in China, is less than an hour outside the Beijing city limits. We quickly found ourselves hiking along one of the only man-made objects viewable from space. It was a surreal experience for me, and one I never thought I'd have. The wall is built along the top ridge of the mountains, which makes for a great view, although it was quite hazy the day we were there. I was surprised by the steep steps as we hiked along the length of the wall. Somehow, I'd imagined a gently rolling boardwalk. We were joined by thousands of Chinese visitors from all across the country, many of whom were fascinated by the 'white' tourists. Several even came up to ask if they could have their photo taken with us! After the Great Wall, we visited the Ming Tombs, the burial grounds of the emperors from the Ming Dynasty, which were excavated and opened to the public in the past 50 years or so.

On our second day in Beijing, we visited Tianenmen Square, the Forbidden City (home of the Emperor), and the emperor's Summer Palace. Each was more impressive than the next. The image of Chairman Mao the outside wall of the Forbidden City, facing the Square, is such an iconic image, and here I was standing in front of it. Amazing! The sweltering heat and humidity caused us to rush through the 200 or so acres of the Forbidden City and its layers of concentric buildings. Royal red and gold were everywhere, as was about 10% of the country's population, it seemed. I was quite taken by the details of the architecture, in particular the roofs with their mythical animal figurines on each corner. The Summer Palace is a series of residences on the shores of an expansive, pastoral lake and mountain covering 700 acres! The man-made lake covers 2/3 of the park--imagine, a hand-dug lake covering 200 acres, the dirt from which created the mountain--and right in the heart of the city. Amazing!

Our travels were interspersed by group meals at a variety of Chinese restaurants. I'm happy to report that the food I've had in American Chinese restaurants is very similar. I'll talk more about food and restaurants in a later blog.

We left Beijing on a night train to Wuhan on Thursday night and rode "soft seat," which is the Chinese equivalent to first class. Eleven hours in a sleeping berth was a welcome change to the long hours in a coach seat on a trans-pacific flight. We arrived at 7am this morning, but unfortunately, our luggage will arrive around 10:30 tonight since there was not a luggage car attached to the train.

That's all for now. I'd love to hear your comments.

Zai Jian. (See you later.)

Greg