Monday, May 1, 2006 Welcome to the Dartmouth Summer 2006 Beijing FSP web site! There are currently some very useful links to FSP and China-related resources, including a downloadable .pdf of the Student Handbook that you'll find above, along with links to maps and related sites. You can expect to see plenty of journal updates, pictures and even some video clips in the coming months--it's easy to follow our students' China experience, right here!~George [Program Director's Assistant]


Tuesday, May 9, 2006 FSPers--Please remember to attend the mandatory safety & study abroad meeting tomorrow night (5/10) from 7 to 8:30 pm in Filene Auditorium (Moore). Important materials will be distributed, including your International SOS membership card. See everyone tomorrow night!~George [Program Director's Assistant]


Friday, May 26 FSPers--It is extremely important that everyone attend Tuesday's emergency meeting as the professors have something very urgent to discuss. The meeting is on Tuesday May 30 from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in Rockefeller 002. ~George [Program Director's Assistant]


Friday, June 2 We are all saddened and disappointed by the news of Professor Rudelson's visa application denial. As a result, Professor Hua-Yuan Mowry will be leading the summer FSP in addition to the fall FSP. Professor Mowry is the FSP's most experienced director, having designed the program herself. Please stay tuned for further updates concerning these and other changes! ~George [Program Director's Assistant]


Friday, June 16 Ni hao from Beijing! Professor Mowry and I have both arrived in Beijing and are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the students. It seems like Beijing skies are clearer than before, thanks to concerted government efforts to reduce pollution. It has been great seeing the familiar faces here at the dormitory. All the rooms are ready, skies are blue, food is great--all that's missing are the students, whom I will see at the airport tomorrow and Sunday for pick-up! ~George [Program Director's Assistant]


Thursday, June 22 Hello parents and friends--We have some new pictures up from this week's activities! Please take a look at them and leave comments on the message board! Students have started classes, so go ahead and give them your support. This weekend we head for the Great Wall at Simatai. Stay tuned for some more great pictures! ~George [Program Director's Assistant]


Tuesday, June 27 Back from the Great Wall and well into Week 2 of classes. Our trip to the Simatai section of the Great Wall was excellent, with good weather on our side. We shared the wall with students from Yale, Harvard and Princeton that day, all by coincidence. Though the Simatai section is a more challenging climb than the tourist-ridden Badaling stretch, it is a more rewarding experience due to the low numbers of visitors and minimal restoration, which preserves a more authentic look and feel to the Wall.

The next day one of our students, Cathy, had her birthday, so we all celebrated with a little cake and music in the TA's room--a great way to end the weekend!

Stay tuned for more! ~George [Program Director's Assistant]


Sunday, July 2 Pictures from the Summer Palaces are now up, as well as photos from our social with BNU students! The students made a lot of Chinese friends that night and many arranged to hang out and show our students around.

Storm clouds brought a mixed blessing on Saturday as we toured the New and Old Summer Palaces, keeping us cool but occasionally putting a damper on the fun. Nevertheless, we all had a great time seeing these great sights together, even if we got a little soggy. ~George [Program Director's Assistant]


Monday, July 10 We're heading into Week 4 of the program, and the students have adjusted to Beijing with enthusiasm. They spend time with the Chinese friends they have met, chat with locals as they explore the city, haggle with the vendors, and order their favorite Beijing dishes in their favorite restaurants. If they want to try something new, Beijing never fails to offer countless other options.

Tonight, the students are devoting their evenings to studying for tomorrow's midterm test in Professor Mowry's class. Wish them all luck!

Some of the recent updates include a few new picture galleries including one of our latest outing, the Sheng Zhuang Modern Folk Music Concert. Earlier Saturday the students attended a special press release at the Great Hall of the People. Here's a post describing the students' experience at the Great Hall of the People on Saturday, written by one of our FSPers!

"OPENING IN A THEATER NEAR YOU

The Dartmouth College FSP was honored today with invitations to attend a press conference in the Macao Room (Ao4men2 Ting1) of the Great Hall of the People (Ren2min2 Da4 Hui4tang2). Many high ranking officials, including the president of Beijing Normal University, were in attendance. Dan, David, and I got to sit behind the three American ex-pats who run the website "ChinesePod.com" (which I had explored a few times) and who were invited up from Shanghai to attend.

The conference announced the launch of the website Linese.com, an online multimedia tool for Chinese instruction, and it bid a "Bon Voyage!" to the team that will put together the educational travelogue "Happy Journey Across China." Fortunately, a real-time translation service was provided for us, so that we could follow along.

Last week, CCTV4 came to BNU to film our Chinese 11 class, and they used some of that footage today for a short video presentation about Chinese language instruction. Some of the highlights included a head-shot of Ai4 Xiang2min3 (Jonathan), a slow pan across our classroom, and a convincingly acted scene in the computer room. While the students were all secretly playing computer games. Particularly Minesweeper.

We were rewarded with goodie bags that, among other items, included a t-shirt, an alarm-clock/radio, and numerous materials about the event (all in Chinese, unfortunately for us students). My favorite**, though, was obviously the sample AP Chinese exam materials. I hope I get a 5!

Respectfully submitted,
Mark

**Just kidding. I think."

Stay tuned for the accompanying pictures! ~George [Program Director's Assistant]


Tuesday, July 18 The students are back from their weekend excursion to Datong, in neighboring Shanxi Province. For many, the only impressions of China they had up until recently came from living in Beijing. Datong showed students a dramatically different side to China: ancient relics, striking mountain landscape, hallowed temples--the Indiana Jones-side of China that ends up on the covers of history books. Because of illness I was unable to accompany the professors and students, but I hope to have many pictures of our students in these exciting places up soon!

Before Datong, the students attended "The Legend of Kung Fu", a modern theatrical performance featuring Shaolin kung fu-inspired martial arts. Students were awed by the physical prowess of the performers, especially their ability to break wood, stone and metal using parts of their bodies. The performance even included children as young as six demonstrating martial arts. After the show, we got a chance to meet the performers and examine all the broken rubbage from the stage, trying to figure out just how they did that stuff... ~George [Program Director's Assistant]


Friday, July 28 A note on the Datong pictures: Sorry for the delay, I will try to get pictures from the Datong trip up as soon as I can (since I was not able to attend the trip, I personally do not have any pictures and must wait until the students get me theirs!).

As you may have noticed, pictures from Longqing Gorges are up. Check out the beautiful scenery as well as our students venturing out on rowboats to get a closer look at the towering gorges. I'd say it was a Saturday well spent.

Tuesday night was Jess's birthday, and we celebrated with cake in my room in typical FSP fashion.

On Wednesday we enjoyed a spectacular performance of Peking Opera at the Liyuan Theatre. Three pieces were performed, including a final martial piece with plenty of acrobatic stunts and stylized martial arts. I am personally a fan of Peking Opera and hope that the great performance won over some of our students. Note that in lieu of pictures, I've compiled video footage that should soon be available on the site, as well as some retrieved footage of our trip to the Great Wall oh so many weeks ago. Stay tuned! UPDATE: The videos are up! Great Wall, Peking Opera.

Finally, the students are looking forward to the many events scheduled for Saturday, including visits to the Temple of Heaven and the National Museum during the day (as well as Sophia's birthday!) and a dinner with China's Dartmouth alumni in the evening. Coming up especially for the event are three incoming Dartmouth freshmen native Chinese, who will get an opportunity to meet our FSPers and make some upperclassmen acquaintances! ~George [Program Director's Assistant]


Sunday, August 6 I've finally managed to get some nice pictures from Datong up, so please enjoy!

The students are heading into Week 8 of classes, and are especially busy working on their final presentations for Professor Mowry's class. Still, it seems to me that the students are enjoying their time in Beijing even more as they try to spend more time exploring and experiencing the city and enjoying each other's company before the term ends.

You can look forward to some footage of the Laoshe Teahouse, coming soon! ~George [Program Director's Assistant]