Alan Hwang
May 7 – 11: Beijing
It’s the first week of the trip — the entire group is still quite jet lagged. I started off the first few days in Beijing with just a few hours of sleep each night. With the guidance of Mike, we visited our first few attractions — Tiananmen Square, the National Center for Performing Arts, the Great Wall, and Olympic Park.
As I traveled through Tiananmen Square, I noticed that the local people were for the most part, amiable and welcoming. I was able speak Chinese to many of them and understand conversations held around me. Tiananmen Square was massive, although it was also super crowded. I briefly saw a mini water fountain show and got to see the giant picture of Mao Zedong at the entrance of the Forbidden City.
On the third day in Beijing, we went to the Great Wall — the Badaling section. Despite seeing dozens of pictures of the Great Wall throughout my life, seeing it in person was quite remarkable. The wall could be extremely steep at certain points. Scaling the wall was quite tiring — the steps were extremely uneven. Some steps would be an inch or two high while some steps were almost a foot and a half tall. The picture below shows the view from the highest point we were allowed to go to.
Afterwards, we traveled to Olympic Park — it was awesome to see how open the entire place was. I loved seeing the Bird’s Nest in person — it was amazing to see how the complex design came to life. There is a picture from the inside of the Bird’s Nest below.
May 12-13: Dalian
We boarded an overnight sleeper train to Dalian — the ride was about twelve hours long. Each cabin had four beds and a small table. We arrived in Dalian about 8 o’clock in the morning.
After checking in and cleaning up at the hotel, we visited the Rockwell Automation Facility and participated in a cultural activity where we explored the differences in American and Chinese culture along with our unifying ties.We toured the facility and learned a lot about how servers work and about Rockwell’s software development team.
I got to eat lunch with one of the technology managers, Kelvin Cui, and had a great time talking and learning about Chinese culture.
Our second day, we visited the Dalian No. 7 Middle School. I was matched up with a 13-year old boy, Tom. Tom taught me a lot about how his school functions. We also saw the United States room, where we got to see what Chinese schools think of the United States. In addition, we got to see a few cultural performances and dances. I got Tom’s WeChat and we took a few pictures.
May 14-19: Yichang Cruise
After Xi’an, we took a 13-hour hard sleeper train to our five-star cruise on the Yangtze River. On the first day, I got to see the Three Gorges Dam. After seeing dozens of pictures throughout my life, it was crazy to finally see the actual thing — the pictures I’ve seen really couldn’t show how impressive this feat of engineering was.
We also went to the Fengdu Ghost City — a cool “hidden” tourist attraction. Our tour guide taught us about how Chinese architecture embodies some religious meaning. While we were visiting, there were a ton of Taiwanese tourists, and I got to speak with a few of them. Overall, I had a great time exploring the cruise ship and sightseeing.
May 23-27: Huangshan
We took a bus tour to Huangshan and got to see Xinli’s hometown briefly as we drove by. There were a lot less people here — going to a suburban place with much less people was quite nice. The second day, we visited the Huangshan Mystery Cave — exploring two of them. I learned that there are 36 man-made caves — however, no one knows the true reason behind why the caves were made — that’s why they are called the Mystery Caves.
I got to see Xinli’s hometown, which was a super peaceful and authentic place. I explored the town and talked to a few people playing Mahjong. Also, I met this lady who had just earned her masters degree in economics and came back to live with her grandmother temporarily. It was great to talk about our cultural similarities, despite our differing backgrounds.
May 28 – June 1: Shanghai
After passing over the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, we arrived at Shanghai. As soon as I got there, I could tell that Shanghai has a much different atmosphere than the previous cities — there were a lot more foreigners there with us and many more english-speaking people. We visited the eco-city island, Chongming Island, and also went to a bargain market.
A few days later, we went to the Shanghai Disneyland Resort — it was cool to see how similar amusement parks were in Disney. Back near our hotel, I ate a ton of juicy dumplings and red bean milk tea. At night, I went to the Bund with a few friends and experienced the amazing view.