First, my story about the painting class I attended is now available for all. It's easily my proudest work I've done here.
I spent Friday afternoon trying to figure out what to do with my vacation week. I chatted with George, an employee of China.org.cn who spent the spring in Chapel Hill, and who used to be a travel agent. He listed a bunch of historical cities that would be great to visit--that is, if I had more time. Given that I only have five days to travel, I really don't want to spend my days walking through monuments and museums. Please don't misunderstand, I would love to visit these sights and take in the centuries of history that China has to share. But with five days, I really need to go big, I think.
So after a long chat, I narrowed my options down to two: A Yangtze River cruise or a trip to see Mount Everest! Both of them sounded amazing, but I was leaning toward Everest because if you asked me a year ago, before it was ever likely that I'd have the chance, I would choose Everest in a heartbeat. It's always been something I've wanted to do, and I might never get the chance again.
This morning, the lead story on China.org.cn was about the upcoming flood season for the Yangtze River. Needless to say, I should have just gone with my gut. But then this afternoon, Celine pointed out something I'd forgotten. Foreigners aren't allowed to just go in and out of Tibet whenever they please. Instead we have no choice but to book a tour through a travel agency and apply for a permit to enter the region. This means paying probably four times what I would pay if I could just catch a train there and go on my own. So now I'm not sure that my dream trip is going to happen, and I'm feeling pretty sad about it. Tomorrow Celine will try to help me find a travel agent, and I guess we'll see what happens.
Moving on. Saturday, the three UNC interns headed out bright and early to the Forbidden City, a historical landmark directly in the center of Beijing and right across the street from Tiananmen Square. The Forbidden City was the site of the Imperial Palace from around 1420 to the 1920s. I say landmark, but in fact it's actually quite large.
It took us about three hours to make down through the middle and back. We didn't spend a lot of time branching off to the sides, partly because, to be frank, all the buildings looked the same, and partly because I was scheduled to do some overtime work. I took lots of photos, but I've left my camera at the apartment tonight, so I'll upload photos tomorrow.
Overall, the Forbidden City was very beautiful, and it was cool to be walking around in a place with so much history. But It was a sunny Saturday, so despite how enormous the place is, it was very crowded, and because many Chinese women work very hard to not get tanned, I was getting hit with umbrellas left and right. Whenever there was anything worth seeing, there were masses of people surrounding it, and I would be pushed and elbowed if I attempted to go over and see the throne room or other interesting artifacts. In the end, I decided to view most things from afar, which made every building pretty much look alike.
I wanted to say that I was upset--I'm not sure that's the right emotion--by how much some of the palace has deteriorated, but I guess 600 years can do a lot of damage. There were clearly renovations and restorations going on all around, so I don't feel that it's not being taken care of. Time is just a very peculiar thing, for me at least.
Well, it's 10:30 now, so I'm going to stop for the night. I'll pick up where I left off tomorrow, and I'll be sure to bring photos to share as well.
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