On May 14th we went to an international middle school in Dalian. It seemed like a really well run school. Everything about it appeared to be better than the middle school that I went to. As an international school, the students all learned a lot about many different countries, and everyone learned english. I was very impressed with how good the kids were at speaking english. Learning another language is no easy task, especially for a middle school age kid, and especially when the way that your second language works is fundamentally different from your first language, and even more especially when that second language has no firm structure to it and is full of exceptions to rules and exceptions to the exceptions to the rules like with english. One girl spoke just as fluently as anyone who grew up in America. If I was talking to her as a random person somewhere in America I would never guess that she was a foreigner.

On our 9th day we went to see one of the man made wonders of the world; the Terracotta Warriors. By mere sight this was impressive. It is also impressive simply because of how old and big it is. There were enough warriors still standing to make a sizable fighting force. They included swordsmen, archers, cavalry, and generals.

It also reminds me of the way that the ancient Egyptians buried their Pharaohs. Their great leaders were also buried with many provisions to secure them in the afterlife. I think that it stands as a testament to how much the Chinese people care for their history that they go through such great efforts to preserve historical monuments such as this.

One of my favorite places we went was the Great Wall of China. There were lots of other tourists there, too. It was a bit physically strenuous climbing it the whole way up, or at the least the section of it we were on, anyway. So I was surprised to see a decent number of elderly folks up there near the top with us. No two steps were the same height and that made it kind of annoying. One step would be only a couple inches high and the next would be almost up to your knees, and then the next would be like a normal step size with every one changing in no particular order.

It was mind blowing to think that they built this wall for as long as it is way back in a time without any significant construction technology. But I suppose it’s like the Great Pyramids; you can accomplish a lot with a sufficient number of people who are literally spending their whole lives on it.

One of the engineering-related things we did was to go visit an American company called Rockwell Automation. They provide technology and services for the manufacturing industry. They also do a lot of software engineering, which is a rapidly growing industry in China. They had no foreign employees, just people who were actually from China, which I found to be impressive for a foreign company. It was cool to see how corporations adapt to do business in different countries and cultures. I asked about additive manufacturing but they don’t do very much work with it. I think that additive manufacturing would be a very important area for Chinese companies to invest in if they want to be more globally competitive, seeing as it really is the cutting edge right now in manufacturing technology.

On our first day in China we went to Tiananmen Square. The place was so packed with people that we had a hard time moving around. There were various monuments to the communist revolution all over, but the thing that surprised me the most was that they actually keep Mao Zedong’s taxidermied body on display in a glass case for the public, though you’re not allowed to take any pictures. I found myself totally baffled, not only by the fact that people are able to revere someone as horrible as Mao, but also by how they commemorated him. I tried to imagine what it would be like in America if we decided to honor an important leader like MLK Jr. by preserving his corpse and putting it on display in a glass box, and I just can’t fathom it. It was a powerful thing to see, because it demonstrates that not all of the habits, behaviors, and traditions that we have in America are universal.