What's up?!
Found some time for a quick update on what's going on here in the East. I have finished up my first "block" of classes. The past two weeks I've been taking an introduction to Chinese civilization and history, and next Monday I'll be starting a 2-3 week course on Chinese literature (and hopefully film as well). The history course was pretty interesting. Once we started getting into the 20th century, I was reminded about how Mao Zedong was actually a pretty cool guy during the time the Communist Party was trying to overthrow the nationalist government AND fight Japan at the same time. Not only did he do a decent job of leading (much better than the Nationalists, anyway), he really seemed to care about the people.
Then he came into power and messed everything up. Meh, I guess that's how politics works. Do a really good job just until you're actually in charge of the country.
Last weekend I went with some friends to the Great Wall. It was AMAZING. Quite possibly the single most incredible thing I've ever seen in my life. We hiked a good 10 kilometers from one entrance to another, and spent the night in a guardhouse. It was a hard walk, but well worth it. We didn't go to the "tourist" section of the wall. We were walking on the part of the wall that hasn't been restored and is falling apart. There were a few sections where we had to be careful not to fall off because the sides had fallen apart. Honestly, I have no idea how the Chinese army expected to fight in case of an invasion by the Mongols. The part of the wall we were on had huge stairs and was extremely steep. I can't see how it's a practical design if you need to be running up and down in heavy armor and fighting enemy soldiers. Maybe I'm just missing something about how the Chinese army was mobilized. All I know is that if I was a Mongol invader, if I saw the wall I would turn around and go home. Scaling it would be pretty much impossible.
Oh, and as we were walking back to the parking lot to get a ride back to Beijing, we were walking up above a lake and a dam. We passed a guy who said for 35 yuan (about $4.50) we could take a zipline across the lake and get a boat ride to the parking lot. I and a few others immediately said, "HECK YES!" Then we saw the zipline. It was pretty much just a cord stretched across the lake with a harness attached. I was scared to death, but I figured if I could handle skydiving then this wouldn't be a big deal. So I got into this harness, with my backpack on and everything. Then the woman told me to sit down, so I did. Then she pushed.
My life flashed before my eyes. It was awesome. If I get a chance to go again I intend to take out my video camera and film the whole thing.
Random fact: the Great Wall can NOT be seen from space. I'm pretty sure that's just a myth. Even so, it's still incredible.
This past Wednesday we took a class trip to the 798 Art District. Basically, it's a bunch of old military factories left over from the days of Mao that a couple of artists and some businessmen decided to turn into an art gallery in 2002. The whole thing took off and is now one of the main contemporary art exhibitions in the whole country. There is building after building filled with some really interesting artwork. Because it's so popular, the government decided not to tear it down when it was moving old factories to other parts of the country. There are still old Communist Party slogans written on the ceiling, like "Long live Mao for ten thousand years!" It's very interesting, and more than slightly ironic, that what was once a huge Community factory is now housing pieces of art that at times are less than approving of the government. Although there are still certain things the government will censor, artists are given much more freedom than they were 20 years ago.
Tomorrow I'm going on a group trip to an old village in the countryside that's around 300 years old. It should be interesting. More updates are coming!
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