**UPDATES** Saturday August 13, 2005 It's time for another update! Professor Williams' class has already ended and Professor Mowry has just arrived in town. Let's start with Shanghai: The Shanghai trip was on the weekend from 7/29 to 8/1. The students left from Beijing Train Station and rode for fourteen hours on hard sleepers, much as they did for the Datong trip. We ate breakfast on the train and were ready to explore the city by the time we pulled into the station. The first stop was the Shanghai Museum, where some of the country's finest cultural relics are housed and displayed. Everything from precious jades and paintings to Shang dynasty bronzes and traditional furniture could be found throughout the museum's four floors. An audio guide system was given to each student that gave detailed explanations in English, helping students get the most out of the experience. For lunch, the group was treated to a meal at a Dai minority restaurant. The Dai minority originally came from southwest China and have a distinct culture and their own language. As we tasted Dai dishes, dancers performed traditional Dai dances on the stage. The finale involved many of the diners and of course some of our students could not resist the opportunity, making for a very entertaining lunch! We then made our way to the Jade Buddha Temple, which houses two famous jade Buddha statues. The temple was extremely busy with plenty of visitors and worshippers. The statuary was exquisite, topped off by the two jade Buddha statues. Visitors left the temple covered in red ribbons as they made their wishes to Buddha. We checked into our hotel and intended only to rest for an hour, but unfortunately a sudden heavy rain kept us from heading out. We decided just to have dinner together inside the hotel and wait out the storm. After dinner, the students all broke off into groups to explore the city by night, hitting up such places as the waterfront, an arcade and a dance club. We enjoyed a breakfast buffet inside the hotel before departing from the hotel the next day. Our first stop was the Jinmao Building, which is the tallest building in China consisting of eighty-eight floors. The two high-speed elevators took us up to the eighty-eighth floor observation deck in just forty-five seconds! The observation deck catered to the many tourists with coffee shops and souvenir shops. Chinese basketball star Yao Ming's shoe was on display, and the view thirty-four floors down to the hotel atrium was astounding. But of course, we were there first and foremost for the panoramic view of Shanghai that the observation deck afforded. It seemed as if every single inch of the city was super-developed and modern. Some of the larger buildings' unusual designs and the wild knots of twisting highway certainly created a sublime landscape. We then braved unbelievable heat and humidity to visit the Bund--Shanghai's waterfront on the Huangpu River noted for its many Western-style buildings. The Bund has come to be symbolic of Shanghai as one of China's most modernized and westernized cities--the students certainly hadn't seen anything like it in Beijing. We had lunch by the waterfront before continuing our tour. Our next stop was Yu Garden, an extremely scenic and popular spot in the middle of Shanghai. Considered one of China's top four most beautiful gardens, the garden is four hundred years old and is located in the center of Shanghai's Old City. As a archetypical Chinese garden, Yu Garden is a marriage ponds, trees, rocks and traditional architecture, resulting in a pleasing and harmonious layout. Ironically, the traditional garden setting seemed to stand out against the rest of the modern city. This was the biggest and most elaborate Chinese garden the students had ever visited and we were all impressed with the garden's collection of centuries' old trees and unique rock formations. We left the garden after a few hours and crossed over to the opposite side of the Bund on our way to Nanjing Road, home to many of Shanghai's best and ritziest shops, boutiques and hotels. The students broke up into groups and explored the street. Some enjoyed coffee or snacks indoors to escape the heat, others took advantage of the situation to get some shopping done. Needless to say, the street was extremely busy with pedestrians walking in and out of every store and street performers entertaining crowds. At our final dinner on Sunday after Nanjing Road, the group celebrated Ryan U.'s twenty-seventh birthday at the restaurant with chocolate, mango and green tea cakes--possibly our tastiest birthday yet! We rode back to Beijing that night, but this time we got to sleep in soft sleeper compartments instead of the usual hard sleepers. Soft sleeper compartments have four beds instead of six and have a locking door. Mattresses were thicker, beds were less cramped, and the students very much enjoyed the new experience. During the ride they struck a deal with Professor Williams: If they could fit all twenty-seven of themselves into one compartment meant for four, then classes would be canceled the next day. The students gave it the old college try and succeeded in winning a day off! Friday, August 5, was devoted to strolling the New Summer Palace's beautiful surrounds with Professor Williams and the BNU professors. The Summer Palace served as an imperial playground for emperors during the summer months. As such, the park had plenty of shady willows and a huge man-made lake. The group toured the entire park on boat before having a farewell dinner for Professor Williams inside the Summer Palace (a separate final dinner with all the students and professors has also been planned for Friday, August 19th). The restaurant served dishes cooked according to 'authentic imperial recipes'. Most of the dishes were seafood, a contrast to the usual Beijing fare. Standout dishes included stir-fried scallops, roast squab and venison soup! The students then surprised Professor Williams with gifts and a Powerpoint presentation on computer of the entire FSP. The day was a great success! We woke up early on Saturday, August 6 and take a two hour bus ride out of Beijing to Longqing Gorges, sort of like a miniature version of China's famous Three Gorges area on the Yangzi River. The natural beauty of the gorges, especially when viewed from boat along the river, was one of the most visually impressive natural sites of the trip. The mountains on either side towered above our boat; foilage rolled down and over the valleys and peaks. The faces of the cliffs were inscribed with red calligraphy, carved and painted hundreds of years ago. After our boat ride, we got into groups of three and rented out row boats so that we could explore some of the gorges at a slower more intimate pace. The weather was excellent and the gorges turned out to be one of Beijing's most rewarding daytrips. There's only one week left of classes! The students will have their last final and then will either be going home or embarking on the end of term Silk Road Trip! For the trip's itinerary, click here.

~George [Program Director's Assistant]

Update Archives

**Picture Galleries**
6/3 Final pre-FSP Meeting!
6/20 Opening Ceremonies!
6/22 Meeting BNU English Language Majors!
6/24 Chinese Table!
6/24 Dinner with Dartmouth Alumni!
6/25 Temple of Heaven!
6/27 Meeting BNU Chinese Language and Literature Majors!
6/28 Red Detachment of Women!
7/2 The Great Wall at Simatai!
7/5 Meeting More BNU English Language Majors!
7/8-7/11 Datong Weekend Trip!
7/13 Chinese Acrobatics!
7/14 Peter's Birthday!
7/16 Tian'anmen/Forbidden City!
7/19 Peking Opera!
7/20 World Chinese Conference at the Great Hall of the People!
7/22 Ryan L.'s birthday!
7/29-8/1 Shanghai Weekend Trip!
8/5 New Summer Palace Pt.1!
8/5 New Summer Palace Pt.2!
8/6 Longqing Gorges Pt.1!
8/6 Longqing Gorges Pt.2!

If you have any concerns or comments please e-mail either Professor Mowry, this year's Program Director, or George Leung, this year's Assistant Teacher. Either of us will be happy to answer any questions!

Last Modified: by George Leung