Beijing

So far Beiing seems like a pretty nice city - much more cosmopolitan
than Xi'an. It's a big place, with lots of people, of course, as I'm
sure you already new, but most interesting is the contrast of new and
old mixed with a huge quantity of construction. They're trying to get
ready for the Olympics I suppose, but it's sad to see such great old
parts of the city being destroyed and replaced, I think, with a new
"old" buldings that look more like the pictures of China you have in
your mind.

I still haven't been to the Great Wall, so that's my plan for
tomorrow. Now I'm going to go see if I can find tickets for Beijing
Opera or some crazy Chinese acrobatic show.

May Day

As usual, it's been a while since I updated you all on what's going on, mostly because there hasn't been anything interesting to say.  Classes are still going well, much smoother than last semester, and from what I gather, the students are enjoying them more too.  My Chinese is still coming along slowly, but I have started studying some characters, so maybe by the summer I'll be able to read at least a menu or something similarly simple.

 

Next week is the May 1st holiday here in China, Labor Day I think they call it, so we have the week off of school.  I was unsure as to whether or not traveling would be a good idea because the whole country will be on holiday, but staying here probably wouldn't be very interesting, so tonight I'm taking an overnight train to Beijing.  I'll stay there until it gets boring and then either come back to Xi'an or head over to Qingdao, a nice city on the beach.  I'll write again from Beijing in the next few days to let you know how it's going.

 

Now, though, I need to go buy a backpack (my last one broke - yay made in China) and finish packing.