Beijing Part1~China's Capital

We started our time in China with a visit to legendary Tiananmen Square. It was a blustery cold morning as wind filled the square. Today, it is a large paved public square that sits between several government buildings, Mao Ze Dong's Memorial Hall, a WWI and WWII monument, and the Tiananmen which was the imperial gate to the Forbidden City before the revolution in the 1940's. The emperor's private office buildings once stood where most of square is today.

Through the Tiananmen is the Forbidden City which was the palace of Chinese emperors for about six hundred years. The architecture is stunning in red and gold with hand painted ceilings and ornate golden animals to denote the importance of the building.

After some lunch, we changed into official dress for our visit to the American Embassy. Unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures of the brand new complex which is our second largest embassy in the world, only Iraq has a larger one. Inside, we met with a panel of agriculture experts and had a chance to pick their brains about the future of American and Chinese trade. They helped us get a better idea of how the incredibly complex Chinese economy works being both Communist regulated and powered by free trade. The biggest thing I got out of the meeting was the fact that China will continue to need to trade with the US in order to feed to their population since most of their limited resources are better served in manufacturing trade-wise.

Ni Hao! ILSSO 2009

January 6/7 - 55 of us (5 from Minnesota) departed from San Francisco at 11:05 AM on the sixth en route to Beijing, China. The flight on the huge 747 was over fourteen hours long and, because of the time change, it was already 2:30 PM on the seventh when we arrived in Beijing. We were met at the brand new international terminal (built specially for the Olympics) by our local guides Lin and Lulu. As our buses took us into the city for supper, the enormousness of the city became quickly apparent. There were skyscrapers as far as the eye could see in every direction. We had an authentic supper complete with chopsticks (which were definitely a struggle at first!). We quickly learned this type of meal would be very common while we were in China. Many different types of dishes including chicken, beef, pork, vegetables, fish, soup, and rice were placed on a large rotating glass disk in the center of the table along with hot tea and coke and sprite. There's no need to pass anything, you simply spin what you want to you!The food itself is very different from American Chinese food. We enjoy flavors from the Cantonese part of China at home, but we were on the other side of the country for our trip. Here, they use a lot more seaweed and hot seasoning (even though the served us mild dishes) and the texture of everything is much much different than a home. After our meal, we headed back to the hotel and fell asleep very early, only to wake up around 4AM due to the fourteen hour time difference. It may be the only time I willingly got up that early.

San Francisco

Caitlin, Justin, Pete, Cindy, and I arrived safely in San Francisco yesterday on the way to China for the International Leadership Seminar for State Officers. We will be spending 9 days in the people's republic but first we have a few days of orientation here. I was very excited since this is my second favorite city. We spent the afternoon sightseeing with an impressive up hill (and down hill) walk from Union Square to Fisherman's warf. I think the rest of our group thought I was completely lost but I swore I knew where we were... which was true, after a little bit of exploring. After the several mile hike, Justin was finally able to see the Golden Gate Bridge just as the sun set. We caught some supper at the pier before taking the bay area rapid transit back to our hotel. We spent today getting to know the other 45 participants and 5 chaperons while picking up some traveling tips and learning about China. Tomorrow will be an early morning as we say goodbye to the city by the bay and head to Beijing. The flight departs at 11 AM Tuesday and arrives at 3 PM Wednesday due to the serious time difference. Pictures and more information to come where internet is available!