Category: Passion

For this week’s passion blog, I want to introduce Bellefonte, which is a small town near our campus because I just went there last week and I like it very much.

Last week, since it was the Easter, UNC got a day off on Friday so my boyfriend came to visit me here. We went to the Bellefonte together. Though the weather was not delightful, we had a good time there. Because we missed a bus, so we decided to take an Uber there. The driver was really nice, who introduced us some information about Bellefonte. Actually it is only a small town with its own architecture style, so one day is enough for visiting. He dropped us off on the main street of Bellefonte. The Bellefonte downtown is mainly a T shaped block with two main crossing streets. We got off at the cross road so we could walk to the four directions. The T block is on a slope, so at first we chose to walk up. At the center of this T block, there is a grand architecture, from the driver, we know this is a court in Bellefonte. It is like a small square with several columns standing in front of the court. On the wall, there is the history of Bellefonte. When we walk up, we realized that it is the highest point of Bellefonte because when we look down, all the sceneries are under our eyes, including the mountain far away and the court under our feet. Since we both are fans of photograph, we took a lot of pictures there because the scenery is gorgeous.

Our next destination is a church far away. We could only see the top of the church in the current location. From the roof of that church, we could tell that it was a Catholic Cathedral because it is obviously the gothic architecture style. When I walked near, the red door attracted me. Unfortunately, it is still not open yet, so I just walked around and looked high to the top. When continue walking, we both found that there are many churches around, at least five with different styles. In such a peaceful town, the existence of churches makes a lot of sense because they really fit the town well.

We continue walking to a random direction, without know where we are, just like we were lost in this lovely town. Soon, a river and a park appear in front of our eyes. But we were hungry that time, we walked in a small café and had a sandwich. When we walked out of the door again, the whole scenery change: many people gathering in the park with tons of yellow balloons floating in the sky. When walking near, we saw clearly that there are many children in the park. They are enjoying the small party the town has prepared for them because of the Easter. There are colorful eggs on the grass. Near the river bank, some children were playing with ducks, some feeding the fish. How peaceful the day is. The sun is shining so the weather is not cold at all. Even not in the middle of the crowd, I could feel children’s happiness.

The park is the last stop of our visit to Bellefonte. But when we were waiting for the bus, there is an antique shop near the bus stop, so we walked in and found lots of vintage in that store. Though the store is old and the goods in that shop is aged too, but my boyfriend and I both loved them. He bought a old video tape of Tom Hanks’ “Big brother.”

As you may have know, there is a large difference between a town in China and a town in America. I like the one in America more, because each of these towns has their own feature, worth visiting.

For this week’s passion blog, I want to introduce you a city with a long history, Tianjin. As recorded, Tianjin is the only ancient city in China that has the clear built time recorded. Though it was an ancient town, Tianjin has become a large and prosperous city due to its location, which is only one-hour drive from Beijing.

I went to Tianjin twice last year not only because my boyfriend lives there, but also because I like that city’s atmosphere very much. The most impressive part is its night light along the river. There is a river that runs across the whole city. In china, there is a convention that where there is water, where there will be prosperous. I believe it’s true. Above the river, there is a Ferris Wheel named “The eye of Tianjin.” You can imagine how amazing the view is when the Ferris Wheel is above the water and high into the sky, where you can oversee the view of the whole city. I still remember what was in front of my eyes that night because the night is a great time to get onto it. It is also the only one Ferris Wheel, which is built on a bridge. Well, the scenery along the river is another beautiful view. It is not as breathtaking as in the sky, but it is really silent and peaceful when you are walking along the river. The night-lights are all dark yellow, not dazzling at all but they provide a warm feeling.

Another place of interest I want to talk about is the Ancient Cultural Street. When you see the name of this
street, you probably already have some idea about this street. Right, it is a large district where you can see all kinds shops selling the antiques and small toys. Also, you can taste different kinds of the ancient Tianjin snacks, though to be honest they are not delicious. They are all featured Tianjin snacks because it is impossible to buy them elsewhere. Though I don’t like the antiques like my dad does, I still like the small antique toys that are made of ceramics. Some of them shape like birds and some of them shape like a lovely doll. If you have a chance to visit Tianjin, I strongly recommend you to come here to feel the ancient China atmosphere and have a taste of featured old ancient Chinese snacks.
Here I want to point out a great difference between China and America, on the aspect of transportation especially the subway. Since the subways in America all have a long history so most of them seem old, but most subway stations in China are really new. Like in my hometown Harbin, the subway rout is still in construction, and there is only one line in operation, from which you can tell how new the station is. I also put one picture of the station in Tianjin, where we play the photos and selfies through the reflection of the windows.

There are a lot of places worth visiting. There are also two top twenty universities set in this city, which is one of the reasons why I like Tianjin very much. Nowadays, some cities develop so fast that they forgot about the education. And you cannot feel the culture and arts in those cities. I like Tianjin also because it follows the old tradition of riding the bicycles and reading the newspaper. I feel great when you see people riding the bicycle appearing from the sunlight.

For this week’s passion blog, I want to talk about my travel to another school—the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. My story with UNC starts from my boyfriend, who studies at UNC as a freshman now. When the spring semester of 2015 just began, which was this January, I went to visit UNC. Since UNC term begins one week earlier than ours, I was lucky to spend a whole week there experiencing its semester-beginning atmosphere, where everyone was preparing for their class textbooks and some necessities.

UNC was established early in 18^th century. You can easily tell its long history by exploring its architecture styles. Per lectures of Arts and Architecture class I scheduled this semester, I learned many of its main buildings apply the Greek and Roman architectural structures such as pediments and columns and so on. UNC also has some featured old dorm buildings, the walls of which, you can easily tell, are made of red bricks. Some dorms are too old that you cannot even open the windows, aerating only with air conditioners.

 

 

Each school has its own architecture landmark. You can tell which university it is by only looking into the pictures of this main building. The one in Penn State is, without doubt, the Old Main. And the one in UNC is the Bell Tower. There is a large clock on the top of the Bell Tower, much similar to the function of the clock on the Old Main. There is another landmark in Chapel Hill, which is the Old Well and it is also the most recognizable symbol on campus. When you enter the” UNC” in google, the first image you will see is a wooden shelter, featuring wooden pillar with marble bases and a copper dome. The Old Well is beautiful especially when spring comes when it is surrounded by dozens of pink flowers. The leading path will be emerged into the flower sea. But unfortunately my traveling there is in January, when the campus is still grey and dark yellow.

 

 

But no matter what the color is on campus, the color of the sky in Chapel Hill is always blue, which is the so-called “Carolina Blue.” One of the facts about UNC that attract me much is the “Carolina Blue.” I can feel that the whole school is associated with blue. Blue has been more than the color of the school! I have never seen such blue sky and great weather for the whole week, not to mention the temperature there. Even the lowest temperature is not lower than -10 Celsius degrees. I looked up my friends’ pictures in UNC in Instagram these days. What they already had is the large green grassland and the blooming flowers everywhere. Though I am not a person obsessed with spring and flowers, I am still jealous especially when every time I look outside the windows, seeing snow falling in Penn State.

Hope to visit UNC again!

Wuzhen ancient town is a small town near Shanghai. I haven’t talked about Shanghai yet in my passion blog because everyone knows Shanghai, which is a large and really prosperous city even around the world. Even though you haven’t been there, you must have heard of it. My trip to Wuzhen is an additional two-day trip after Shanghai because it takes only two hours by bus.

When you speak about Wuzhen with Chinese, I bet their first impression is its waterways. Wuzhen is famous for its traffic on water because of its geographic feature. People in the town usually travel on water. It is not exaggerated that when people walk out of the door, they walk onto the boat. It is not hard to imagine people stand and sing while rowing the boats with straw hats on. You can also see some girls wearing a straw basket, carrying vegetables and fruits on their backs. All things seem to be natural in the town.

The architecture styles in the town are impressive too. Because of the waterways, house should be made of materials that are, in some extent, waterproof. All the roads are made of stones. The house are mostly made of stones and concrete as well, so the general color tone is grey, which is dark. But the dark colors in Wuzhen will not bring you bad mood because there are many sunny days. However, I especially like rainy days in Wuzhen because I really enjoy the time when you sit on the boats with boat eave so you don’t get wet but you do listen to the sound of rain dropping on the roof.

Another my favorite part in Wuzhen is the food there. I don’t mean the dishes in the restaurant but the snacks that you can buy from the retailers along the road. The one impressed me much is a kind of Chinese style bread that is steamed on the steamer tray. There is no wrapper outside. When I was handed with the hot bread just fetched from the steamer, I was happy from the bottom of the heart. The bread is really soft and good tasted. Another snack that impressed me is the turnip cake. It is not as delicious as people say but the reason whyit impressed me is the line behind it, many people waiting fro it. It is a fried snack so if you like something light, you will not like it. Since those are Wuzhen featured food that you cannot buy them elsewhere, it is still a great experience to have a taste.

If you are not in a hurry, I strongly recommend you to stay in Wuzhen for a night, because you get a live in the “hotels” which are like the host family. You will live in the local people’s house. There is a “movie theater” in Wuzhen, where you watch movies at night outside. But unfortunately the night I stayed there is a rainy night, so I didn’t get a chance to watch movie in such an environment. Anyway, I was still luck to experience a rainy Wuzhen at night, which is really beautiful. I can still remember I was running in the rain with my boyfriend, both of us wet when arrived home.

My memory in Wuzhen is so great that I even want to go there someday again soon!