Our travels on Thursday and Friday took us to a scenic region of Miyun County, north of Beijing city, where we stayed at a small vacation resort amid rivers, cliffs, and canyons. More hiking meant sore legs for most of the B.U. contingent, but we were rewarded with beautiful views and countless waterfalls. Friday morning, […]
Posts by: cgschina
The Great Wall
July 23, 2013 at 8:40 am
On Wednesday we traveled about 2 hours north of the city of Beijing to visit the Great Wall. We hiked a spectacular section of the Wall, called Jinshanling, on a beautiful, sunny day. In all directions we enjoyed views of mountains, walls, and watchtowers as far as the eye could see. Several sections of the […]
The Temple of Heaven
July 23, 2013 at 7:07 am
If there is a more photogenic group of buildings than those at the Temple of Heaven, I haven’t seen them. Built in the same period as the Forbidden City, The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests serves as a symbol of Beijing, rather in the way that the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of […]
The Forbidden City
July 21, 2013 at 1:56 am
In 1406, the Yongle Emperor ordered the construction of the vast array of buildings that would come to be known as the Forbidden City. Between 1420 and 1911, it served as the imperial palace complex for 14 emperors of the Ming Dynasty, and 10 emperors of the Qing Dynasty. Partly due to the intervention of […]
Houhai Lake
July 15, 2013 at 2:01 pm
Our first stop in Beijing, after checking into our hotel, was to the tourist area around Houhai Lake. We had the misfortune to arrive on a rainy day in Beijing, but our tour was enjoyable nonetheless. We walked toured around the lake, and saw some of the cafes, shops, restaurants, and bars that surround the […]
Shanghai to Beijing in 4 Hours 40 Minutes
July 15, 2013 at 1:19 pm
The students and staff of the B.U. Shanghai Summer Programs arrived in Beijing today for our week away. We’ll visit major historical sites in the capital, then venture off to the Great Wall and the mountains north of the city. We came via the high-speed train between Shanghai and Beijing; we made a journey equivalent […]
Shanghai Musical History Tour
July 13, 2013 at 3:20 am
Last night students and staff were treated to a music tour of Shanghai, conducted by the director of the B.U. Shanghai Program, Dr. Andrew Field. Our first stop was the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where we learned a wide range of interesting facts about the development of western music in the first half of the […]
The Birthplace of Chinese Communism, amid Consumerism
July 9, 2013 at 10:27 am
The students and I visited the Xintiandi section of Shanghai today. This neighborhood is home to the museum that commemorates the site of the first congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921. Here, firebrand iconoclasts like Chen Duxiu and Marxist philosophers like Li Dazhao built the party that would come to dominate China some […]
The People’s Park Marriage Market
July 7, 2013 at 8:55 am
One of the interesting things you can find in public city parks in China is a “marriage market.” For a relatively small fee, parents of unwed adult children can post descriptions of their offspring, hoping to attract a possible mate (or, more likely, parent of a mate, who will pass along the information). In some […]
