{"id":132,"date":"2019-06-21T13:48:24","date_gmt":"2019-06-21T18:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/china-summer-2019\/?p=132"},"modified":"2019-06-21T13:48:26","modified_gmt":"2019-06-21T18:48:26","slug":"beijing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/china-summer-2019\/2019\/06\/21\/beijing\/","title":{"rendered":"Beijing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After saying our\ngoodbyes to the students in Nanjing it was time for us to head to Beijing for\nthe final leg of our journey. We took the bullet train from Nanjing and let me\njust say it was probably on one of the most impressive modes of transportation I\nhave ever taken. The distance from Nanjing to Beijing is 630 miles and a normal\ntrain would take 9 hours to get there. The bullet train got us there in three\nhours almost a third of the time it would take for a regular train to get there,\nwhich was absolutely incredible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waking up on the\nfirst morning, the weather was sunny and ninety five degrees. The itinerary\nincluded a trip to Tiananmen Square and the forbidden city. When we first\narrived at Tiananmen Square I was in awe at the sheer size of it and its\nlocation within the city of Beijing. There are currently six rings that encompass\nthe city and each ring connects all of the different parts of Beijing.\nTiananmen Square is locate exactly in the center of these six rings, which puts\nit at the heart of the city. While walking through the square you see Chairman\nMaos Mausoleum and the lines of people that are about to go in to pay their\nrespects to the man that changed the country of China. There is also a pillar\nin front of the Mausoleum, and the Great Hall of the People where legislation\noccurs. All political members across the country meet in that building. Across\nfrom Tiananmen Square is the entrance to the Forbidden City, which also plays\nan important role in the country\u2019s history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Great Hall of the People<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The forbidden City\nwas the living place for the countries emperors, and it is called the forbidden\ncity because common people were not allowed to enter. If they did enter they\nwere immediately killed. Walking around and seeing all the architecture, the\ncolors, and the size of the city just goes to show you the history and the architecture\nthe Chinese have. There are different sections of the palace, which include rooms\nwhere the emperor met with officials, rooms where parties and gatherings occurred,\nand the living quarters, and the garden which was located at the very end of\nthe city. Looking back at it if I was the emperor I would be so sick of walking,\nbecause it\u2019s so big. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Panorama Of the Forbidden City <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After the Forbidden\nCity we got lunch and headed to a counterfeit market. In China there are many\nof these places that sell counterfeit goods. Many of the products look\nidentical to the real thing, however they are not. The whole point is to\nnegotiate prices with them, for example a shirt that I bought had a starting price\nof 800 Yuan, roughly 114 dollars. The final price we agreed on was 200 Yuan, which\nis about 28 dollars. I purchased all of my gifts from this market and ended up\npaying a lot less than going to a souvenir store. This was a good experience\nbecause I like to negotiate and I had a lot of fun doing it. At night six of us\ndecided to get lost in Beijing, so we took the subway to a street with a lot of\nshops and found a restaurant that had superb food. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next day was a\nday that I had been waiting for since the trip started, going to the Great Wall\nof China. At first glance you don\u2019t really see much, however once you start climbing\nit and getting higher up in the mountains you really get to see how immaculate\nand amazing the Great Wall really is. You see it in pictures and movies, but\nyou never get to really appreciate the construction, beauty, and the mystery\nthe Great Wall possesses. We only had two hours to get as far as we could, so Evan\nDanny, Mike, Liam, and I just booked it. The climb consisted of steep drops,\nsteep inclines, and a lot of steps. We ended up going three miles and when we\nfinally sat down to rest it finally hit us that we were on The Great Wall of\nChina, one of the wonders of the world. The trek back however was not as easy.\nSince we went downhill for about a mile we had to go back uphill, which was probably\none of the most grueling things I have ever done. The climb was almost vertical,\nand after we got off the wall my legs were shaking due to the intensity of the\ntrek, but it was all worth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Steps on The Great Wall <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Danny, Me, Liam, Mike, Evan on The Great Wall <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After looking back\nat this whole trip and realizing the situation that I put myself in, traveling\nto a new country, surrounding myself with people who I was unfamiliar with  <\/em>I\ncan honestly say it was all worth it. This trip was probably one of the best experiences\nof my life and I am forever grateful that I took this opportunity to study\nabroad in China. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After saying our goodbyes to the students in Nanjing it was time for us to head to Beijing for the final leg of our journey. We took the bullet train from Nanjing and let me just say it was probably … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":830,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/china-summer-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/china-summer-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/china-summer-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/china-summer-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/830"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/china-summer-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/china-summer-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/china-summer-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions\/137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/china-summer-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/china-summer-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/china-summer-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}