The Final Days

Hard to believe that four weeks ago I left America for a journey through China, and now it is coming to an end. The time went so quickly, but I guess that is what happens when you have a busy schedule and see all the sights. Monday we finally got to visit The Great Wall, an AMAZING place. Driving up to it was spectacular; the wall stretches over 5,000 miles. Even though we got there relatively early in the morning, the wall was covered with people, which made it hard to traverse The Wall. The steps were steep, and the slope slick, but totally worth the heat and the sweat. We hiked up for over an hour, and once we reached the optimum height, we simply looked over the beautiful countryside and soaked it all in. So much work and history put into those walls, and getting to see it made the trip for me.

After our time at The Wall we drove to visit the Emperor’s Tomb. There were 13 total tombs spread out throughout this area of land, and in the design of a dragon, symbolizing the power of the Emperor. We did not stay long, but it was another cool sight to see while in Beijing. We ended the day viewing Olympic Stadium and walking through the park where the Olympics were held in 2008. All of the buildings had great designs and architecture, and again, it is just one of those tourist attractions you must see when in China.

Wednesday morning rolled around early, but after we all gathered we took the subway only two stops to the Beijing Zoo! We definitely beat the crowd (and even some of the exhibits) but it was fun to walk around and see all of their animals and displays. This zoo is spread out much more than any other that I have been to, so it seems rather large, but perfect for the Elephants, Hippos, and all the other animals on the grounds, including the PANDA House; and don’t forget the “American Animals” section. Being from Nebraska I must say the Henry Doorly stays on top of the competition.

The afternoon was full of more historical landmarks, as we visited the Summer Palace and then the ruins of the former Summer Palace. Yet again there was a lot of significance to many of the pathways and structures we experienced, and in this case, it was especially unique to get to see the palace how it is now, and how it was hundreds of years ago. The ruins have basically turned into a garden, full of Lotus Flowers on the lake; very beautiful. The night ended with a group dinner followed by some picture swapping and goodbyes. The morning will come early, as we have to leave the hotel by 5:00am.

This entire trip has been such a wonderful experience, and I can’t wait to get back to the states to really reflect on it, and to share the journey.

The Capital City

The last couple days in Beijing have been Great, I really like the city. With over 14 million people it always seems busy, but that just means there is always someone around to ask for directions (not that I have done that...). Sunday was spent in a place called the 798 Art Zone; it took about two hours to get there by subway/bus, but mostly because of the crazy traffic around rush hour. It was a very cool area filled with block by block of local artists’ works. From contemporary to modern it had it all, and we were able to leisurely walk through the area and enjoy a nice (Italian) lunch on the patio. We didn’t get back until late afternoon, so by the time we got back to the hotel, we had to head out to Hou Hai (the place some of us guys found the night before). We took a scenic walk seeing some more history of the area, and then arrived to the fun filled lake area. The evening was spent at Quan Ju De where we had a delicious Roast Duck dinner, a delicacy and a must have when you visit China. A performance was put on during dinner of acrobats and stage performers, the entire night was fabulous.

Today we went to Tian Tan, better known as The Temple of Heaven. This was a very large courtyard type area surrounded by two brick walls, which held not only the emperors’ palace, but also a sacrificial building among other structures. There is a lot of significance to many of the things attached to the building; like the number of pillars, the roof tops, and even the pathways in which the people walked on; another cool place to see, and fun to watch all of the people enjoying the area. We continue on to Silk Street, the most crazy shopping center I have ever witnessed. This place had 9 floors, not too deep though, so a manageable size, but once you enter, it is hard to get out of the grasps of these sellers, literally. From the moment you step foot inside the doors the sellers are grabbing at your arms trying to make a sale. Some places are better, but then it is the bargaining that you have to worry about. I went to a shop to a buy a T-Shirt, and they wanted 280 RMB (about $44)! No way was I going to pay that, so I told them lower, they came down a bit, I tried again, and it went from there. By the time I actually walked away from the place, they came after me and settled on a price, 40 RMB. This is the customary procedure almost anywhere you go. Shopping there took a lot out of us, but it was a good experience yet again. The day ended at a nearby Kung Fu show! We walked in to a gorgeous backdrop, and then they began with drums, and got right into the Kung Fu. There was no speech throughout the entire one and a half hour performance, but the action was intense the whole time, and the music was fitting to each scene. The show taught the story of Kung Fu and how one of the masters reached the Stage of Enlightenment.

Beijing has been a blast, and tomorrow we finally get to see The Great Wall! Later in the trip we will be visiting Olympic Stadium and the Watercube, and also traveling to the Beijing Zoo. A lot of great things left, and hard to believe the trip is coming to an end.

From Yiwu To Beijing

Friday was our last day in Yiwu, a sort of bittersweet moment for us all. We spent the morning learning and writing calligraphy, a very tough skill that I definitely do not have mastered. Produced a couple of authentic phrases, and finally got the signature down, so that’s a plus. Later in the day we went to the Small Commodities Market Expo, where thousands of people gathered to check the latest goods; we could tell the event was going to be big when our hotel starting sprucing up the place early in the week. We ended the day back at the YWICC where they held our ending ceremony. It was so much fun getting to spend that last bit of time with all of the people we had met over the course of the 3 weeks. We sang songs (us in Chinese, them in English) and exchanged gifts, and we even got diplomas that really made the trip official. Our time in Yiwu will not be forgotten, and who knows if some of us will have the chance to reunite again in the future.

We were then on our way to Beijing, and after a 3 hour plus delay due to recent flooding in the area, we landed at approximately 12:15am today, and after waiting for luggage and getting transportation, arrived to our rooms around 2:30am. Our original plans were to leave again for the day at 6:00am, but we switched things up and started the day at 8:00 instead. The first couple places we went were two parks, Bei Hai and Jingshang, and the weather was perfect for a stroll. There were tons of people out and about, and especially of the older generation, because they have free passes to the area on any given day, and they were all doing activities from dancing to meditating. In the second park we climbed to the top of a hill that overlooks the Forbidden City, a very cool cite that gives a different perspective of the area.

After a short break, we quickly walked around Tian An Men Square in order to make it into the Forbidden City in time. The crowds were massive, but the journey was completely worth it. We got to see some major hinges in history, and learned a lot about the value of the palace and explanations about its layout. It took about 2-3 hours to simply walk through this ‘city’, but after finding a couple members of our group that lost the herd, we were on our way yet again. Our final destination for the evening was to Wang Fa Jing, a food/snack street with all sorts of exotic eateries; some members of our group tried scorpion while others had the stinky beetle. After doing some shopping in the area, we were on our own as students to figure out the subway system, but luckily some of us have been in the cities back home enough to understand the complex network. Finally, a few of us guys walked around the Xicheng District in which we are staying, and ran across a beautiful area, which surrounded a small lake with many shops and restaurants. We sat down in a Jazz center and just chilled for a while, a perfect ending to the start of our adventures in Beijing!

Class and Internship

We are winding down here in China, as this is our last week of classes and our internship before heading to Beijing. These past few days have been very intensive in the classroom, as we wrapped up all the loose ends on the information regarding the culture and the city of Yiwu. Almost every night (for the past 2 1/2 weeks) we have had a short essay to write, and recently, a group presentation was added to that, the topics including: comparing Christmas to the Chinese Spring Festival, and comparing Confucianism and Daoism. I’ve learned a lot throughout the process, and as our reward, we were taught how to play Mahjong, which is very similar to dominos.

The internship at Lang Sha has been rather interesting, and great to get inside view at the World’s leading Hosiery manufacturer, obviously a very large company. Our first task when we arrived on the job was to edit their main Marketing/Promotional brochure that they give out to all of their guests, and to all potential business partners around the world. This booklet is written in Chinese and English, but the English portion was translated literally, meaning that the grammar and syntax was not written well by any means. We had our Chinese ‘partners’ with us, students from the Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College (YWICC), and many times we had to ask them to read the Chinese text so we could figure out what the English was supposed to be saying. Not too hard of a task, but it was cool that we could use what we knew to help out such a large corporation. Lang Sha has over 2,500 machines used to sew and create their products! Oh, and they also have over 10,000 workers who average a 12 hour day; they say the machines only shut down when they are broken... pretty intense. Their primary business goes to Canada and the United States, but they conduct business worldwide, making products for Adidas, Puma, Nike, and Wal-Mart, just to name a few.

Our evenings our mostly spent exploring Yiwu, and we have found some pretty neat areas that have night markets to wander through. I am amazed every time to see so many individuals and small families ‘setting up shop’ on the side of the road, but that it how they live their life, and it must be pretty successful seeing all of the foot-traffic that goes through the market. Last night some of us guys had the privilege to go with one of our bosses from our internship to his factory, where they have their own basketball court. He said that they have over 20 guys who play regularly, but only a handful showed up so we could play them in some 4 on 4. It was a lot of fun I must say, even though their team dominated us, but fun none the less. I blame the fact that it was about 100 degrees for the loss, but I suppose it could be because I don’t play basketball...

Just another weekend IN CHINA

So you step outside and look out, think to yourself, “Is it going to rain?,” and then you decide to move on in your daily life and ignore mother nature. Bad Idea! As a general rule, when you are in Yiwu, China in June, IT IS GOING TO RAIN, so take an umbrella and have some waterproof shoes, because at some point the sky will open up. Just a warning for those of you thinking about traveling to China.

This past weekend we went on an “excursion” to different parts of Yiwu. We started by visiting the Dongyang Woodcarving City, a building located near the Yiwu International Market. There were some very intricate pieces created by very talented artists. Along with the wood there were many pieces made from an old style of art, which uses bamboo. These sculptures and pictures are made with hair-like strands of the plant, and its woven together to make a solid, beautiful piece. This art form is fading out however, due to the diminishing number of artists with knowledge of the style.

Next on the trip was the Zhejiang Hengdian World Studios, where they film many movies and shoot thousands of scenes, such as Jet Li’s ‘Hero’ motion picture. The landscape was amazing, and the buildings very intricate, a very cool place to visit while in the area. This is a sort of tourist attraction, so on one portion of the land there was an entertainment sector which we visited. Our hosts were insistent on us viewing some of the live acts they hold, and we weren’t about to pass up the opportunity. We started with a skit on the history of China, and with colorful suits and loud bangs with confetti, it really reminded me a lot of the Power Rangers! Next, we watched an amazing acrobat show, consisting of jugglers, dancers, gymnasts, and a finale I will not soon forget. Finally, we watched an old tradition of a lady on a balcony who would throw a ball out to the crowd, and whoever was to catch it would wed her. Oddly enough Peter from our group, a very tall guy who was treated with paparazzi wherever he went due to his build and ethnicity, caught the ball, and was summoned to the balcony to speak and sing, hilarious I must add.

This week I will be an intern at Lang Sha, the world’s largest hosiery manufacturer. I do not know yet what tasks I will be up to, but it will be quite the experience to work for such a large, successful business.

Utilizing E-Commerce

This week has been a bit different than last as we have been learning in class about E-Commerce and the importance on online trading here in Yiwu. Not only have we been learning the history and development of this process, but also we have been very interactive with it, as part of our task/assignment has been to order a product and have it delivered to the school in which we are studying. This all starts by us getting online and searching a wholesale website (alibaba.com) for a product that we are interested in buying. From there, we had to see if the seller was online so that we could ‘chat’ with them, just like we can do on MSN or AOL instant messengers. After asking many questions and making sure that they are close enough to be able to deliver the good, we have to bargain with them so we are not stuck with 10,000 bracelets or something like that. The usual strategy for people like us is to ask for a sample of the product, which of course will cost more than a bulk order, but it is still much less in many cases than we could find back in the United States. My order consisted of earphones, something small and simple that I can easily bring back, and wouldn’t break the bank. Originally this style would be at least $20 in the U.S., but here, I was able to get a pair for $5.00! (had I ordered 100 I could have gotten a price of less than $2.00 a pair) Now all I have to do is call the owner later on, and confirm the order so they can make the delivery this afternoon.

Weekend Excursion: Hangzhou

This weekend we traveled north to Hangzhou, about a 2 hour bus ride from Yiwu (but at 6:20am this seems much longer). This city is the capital of the Zhejiang Province in which we are spending the majority of our time. This is also the site of Central College’s ‘home’ campus in China, and we got to experience the campus life while we were there.

We started the day walking the ‘Broken Bridge,’ which would take us to a Daoist Temple that lay at the top of a giant hill. Once we reached the summit we explored the temple and learned some history of the Dao teachings. Later that afternoon we switched subjects and went to a Buddhist Temple which was beautifully landscaped with ponds and waterfalls. So many statues and so much history; one room held a display of the 500 faces of Buddha! In both temples there were individuals and families worshipping the statues that were present, and I was very surprised by this, because in China, we were told (and it is known) that you keep to your self when it comes to religion and beliefs...interesting.

Sunday we spent most of the day at Guo’s Villa, a garden surrounding a central lake in the area. The weather was perfect for this, and we were simply able to stroll around and enjoy the scenery. There were many people out and about, and even a wedding that seemed to be taking place in the garden. On our way out, behold, a Starbucks! You can’t go anywhere these days without finding one of those around. We ended the afternoon by strolling up and down ‘Traditional Street,’ a road full of shops and vendors looking to sell their goods. This area, as it is called, is where Hangzhou originated, and this area was preserved to keep the traditional look of the town.

Next Stop-The Market

Next Stop, The Market

These past couple of days have been quite interesting, as we have delved in even deeper into the heart of the reason we are here in China. The study-material at the Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College (YWICC) has been fascinating, as we have learned about the history of the Yiwu Market, and we have gotten to know why Yiwu is the perfect place for such a structure. Along with this we have learned some basics about the area and the Zhejiang province which we are in, and let me tell you, the 1 million people in this city never seem to stop moving.

Driving in Yiwu is definitely not something you will EVER find me doing, as it is more like a maze of a bumper car track driven by kids at a birthday party; it’s insane! Sure there may be a couple lanes on each side of the road with a bike lane here and there, but it really doesn’t matter what the color of the light is, you just GO. Sitting here typing this I could hardly count to three before another horn blasted from a car, and that is why we used a bus to get around to our destinations. This was a tricky task as well, because for one we could not read the signs to know where the bus was going, and for two, when the bus is overflowing with people enough that they can not even close the doors, I think that is a sign that you should wait for the next bus. One benefit to this mode of transportation is that it is very cheap, only 1.5 RMB per trip, or about 24 cents, so it is definitely worth the wait.

Yi-what

Today we woke up in Yiwu, China after a short night. We traveled by train south from Shanghai. Yiwu is where we will be spending the majority of our time while we are here, as it is the location of our host school, the Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College, and the Yiwu Market, where our internship experiences will be taking place. We started the day by meeting some students and professors at the school, and then had our first official day of classes where we learned some basic information about the city. We concluded the lesson by learning a few key phrases in Chinese, and let me tell you, this will be a very slow process. The language seems nothing like English, but I guess thats what I get for being a foreigner.

We visited the Yiwu Market in the afternoon, the World's Largest Wholesale Market! I had no idea what to expect, but after hearing that it would take nearly a year and a half to visit all the vendors if you spent 3 minutes at each, I realized this was no Mall of America. This place had everything you could ever imagine, and I only saw about 2 hours of the place... tomorrow is when our internship begins, so I will be getting a more in depth look as to how the market is operated.

We ended the night by celebrating the 'Dragon Boat Festival.' "The Dragon Boat Festival is believed to have originated in ancient China. A number of theories exist about its origins as a number of folk traditions and explanatory myths are connected to its observance. Today the best known of these relates to the suicide in 278 BCE of Qu Yuan, poet and statesman of the Chu Kingdom during the Warring States period." -(Wikipedia) None of us really knew anything about this festivity, but for us the night was full of food and fun, and then more food. I do not understand how the people of this culture stay so fit after eating so much so often, but maybe after seeing how much walking we do, it makes more sense. The food is quite good I must say, much more natural than in the states; lots of rice and noodle dishes, and then many forms of meat/fish. I must say when they brought out the duck head I was a bit skeptical, and in my opinion it did not quite match up to mom's home cooking.

-Zaijian

The First Step

After 450+ miles of driving, and over 7,000miles in the air, I made it to China! The process wasn't

the most fun, but besides a 2 hour layover in Tokyo it all went rather smoothly. Now, the most confusing

thing about this whole process wasn't the language like you might think, but the time zones. China is

13 hours (I think) ahead of the United States, so talk about jet lag. It was about 19 hours of flight time,

but we made it none-the-less.

There are 9 of us students on this trip from all over the United States. So far we have done a lot of walking around Shanghai,

seeing some sights and viewing the city. We visited the YuYuan Garden, which had some beautiful architecture and

interesting buildings. After that we did some wandering around in a HUGE mall. This was a labyrinth that never ended,

but luckily we had a timeframe which limited the amount of shopping that some people on the trip could do.

We just got back from walking some of the streets in the city with all the shopping and entertainment. The lights of the buildings

were shockingly bright, and all I could think about was Broadway in New York City and how similar cities are. It's funny how

even though we are all still going through some culture shock, the world really isn't as different as one might think.