Prescott Student Blog: Admission Extras

Kui’s Blog

你好 & Aloha from Beijing, China! 我叫 吴亭。 My name is Kui. I am a senior GSIS major from Oahu, Hawaii and am currently working on finishing my two minors in Middle Eastern Studies and Asian Studies. I play on the ERAU Women’s Volleyball team, and am a part of the Hawaiian Club and the unofficial Arabic Club. I am currently in China on a study abroad trip with eleven other ERAU students from the Daytona and Prescott campus. I am also working on a research project while in China.
I left Arizona on the 12th of May, and journeyed on a 12 hour flight from San Francisco to Beijing, China. The first half of the flight didn’t bother me, since it felt like I was flying home to Hawaii, but the second half of the flight I was very restless. I watched four movies, ate two meals with snacks before and after each meal, paced up and down the aisles talking to people in my study abroad program, and studied from my Chinese books. I flew on Air China Limited, which had adequate leg room, but I was unfortunately squashed in the middle.
Our Boeing 747-400 flew over Russia, which was covered in snow! You could not see the ground at all, or the rocks that would normally stick out on mountain tops… It literally looked like a dream land with the snow blending into the clouds on the horizon. A huge tip for long trips is to bring your iPod. My iPod lasted for the whole trip, with the exception of watching the movies on the airplane screen.
I tried to sleep on all of my flights, but I could not. By the time I was able to crawl into bed and fall asleep, I had been up for a total of twenty-seven and a half hours. I was exhausted, and hoped to sleep in the next day. I woke up at 530am in the morning the next day. We had a short class, then we went to the bank to take out and exchange our American money for Chinese currency (which is 原 yuan). The exchange rate was one American dollar for seven yuan. This rate is amazing! I was able to buy a huge meal for fewer than three dollars.
Before my trip started, mainland China had an earthquake near Xi’an, which is one of the cities our study abroad group was to go stay at. Our teacher in uncertain to if she is still going to take us there or not, due to the earthquake and now the rain that has made it more difficult to travel in that region. I would love to go and visit the terracotta soldier statues, but our safety is our number one concern.

So it’s been about a week since my last blog, but so much has happened since! For our class fieldtrip, we went to the Great Wall of China! Apparently, you haven’t seen China unless you’ve seen the Great Wall…It is very huge, and my study abroad group and I decided to walk up the steep side of the wall. I believe that my coach should be proud of me, because it was very steep for most of the way up. The sight was breathtaking… and the surroundings were as green as Oregon. My calves and my thighs were really sore by the time I hiked to the ending barrier and back to the entrance. My feet were very sore after that trek, but I was able to get a bunch of souvenirs from the venders on the Great Wall. We all went to Starbucks for some coffee after our hike…and yes everyone, it is the exact same prices as it is back home in the United States.

Our next trip was to the Ming Dynasty Underground Tombs, which were amazing. At the beginning, there was a map that showed where every Ming Emperor and his wives were buried. Their resting places were very scattered all over a vast amount of land. We were able to go underground and see examples of how their caskets looked like, along with their thrones and a few possessions. In the museum above, there were examples of their ‘crowns’ along with the Empress’ possessions of jade jewelry and silk. There were also a bunch of painted pictures of many of the Empresses, along with a long list of names of the Emperor’s wives and mistresses.

Next was the Beijing Zoo, and unfortunately I was only able to cover about half of the zoo. I was fortunate enough to see the guerillas, white tigers, camels, and the all important pandas I took over 400 hundred pictures of the many animals that I did see, and I have to go back to visit the penguin house along with all the reptiles. There were some random turkeys running around…it was pretty awesome. There also were some very entertaining brown bears who decided to pose and try to climb their concrete wall. Some of the visitors were trying to feed the bears soda. Apparently the bears like it and kept begging for more each time. Someone else tricked them with water, and after getting a small drop in their mouth, they moved away.

The next day, I went to visit Summer Palace. It was breathtaking, and the palace grounds are beautiful. One couldn’t help but think what it would have been like to live centuries ago in a palace that has a big lake and gorgeous greenery that surrounds it on all sides. There is a walkway between places, and on the beams above are painted pictures of Chinese history. I was able to walk around the whole lake, which took a while. 3 classmates and I also rented a boat to hangout on the lake. We each took turns peddling the boat and was able to maneuver around most of the lake, avoiding the big boats that were ferrying from the island in the middle of the lake to the palace. The view from the top of the palace will make you want to stay there forever.

Monday afternoon, our class met with the English class of BUAA and we were paired up with a Chinese student for the rest of the day. My partners name is ‘Betty’ and she is originally from Mongolia. She helped me with my Chinese assignment, and I helped her with her English. She is a very fun person to be with, and I learn a lot from her. After our meeting, of few of my classmates and I took a subway to downtown Beijing with a few of the Chinese students. This was my first time on a subway, and it cost 2 Yuan. It was much cheaper than a taxi! The Chinese students took us out for dinner, and the food was amazing. It was a mix of Arabic food and Chinese food. We had so much food, that none of us could eat it all!

Tuesday, we had a fieldtrip to a Medicine Shop in downtown Beijing. There were three floors of just Chinese medicine, and I was able to buy tiger balm. As a group, our class decided to walk down a few back allies to try and find a place to eat. We decided to go to a place where the duck was apparently the best in China…and yes, the duck we ate was amazing!!! The skin was very greasy, but the meat was to die for. I have never had cooked duck taste so good. It was also a very nice and expensive restaurant. The bathrooms have someone handing you the paper towels and turning on the faucet to wash your hands. I thought that was awesome.

So China is rocking my socks…but now I have to go to sleep. More updates to come soon from Beijing, Xi’an, and Qinhuangdao! 在建!

Og Blog #3: So what else is there in Beijing to do???

Well, the second half of my week was just as busy as the first week and a half of my trip. On Wednesday and Thursday, I met with students of Beihang University after my classes. My students were Mac and Betty, and they showed me all the school’s cafeterias, their 5-story library, and a bunch of shopping malls. The shopping mall we went to was about a 20-30 minute walk from the school. There were six levels, and all the shops were very expensive. I didn’t buy anything there but a Mickey Mouse shirt that was on sale. Apparently, Mickey Mouse is very popular in China among the high school and college students.

Friday was a fieldtrip to the Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City. This place is huge and very crowded with a bunch of tour groups lurking all over these two places. In the middle of Tiananmen Square is where Mao Zedong’s body is located, where it is exposed for the public to look at. It is really gross because the body is decomposing inside of a glass case where it is a very ugly yellow color. To get into the Forbidden City, you had to go through a few gates and security checks. We bought our tickets, and entered under another gate/pagoda. In the few hours that you’re there, all you see are pagodas and the different halls that were built during the different dynasties. Honestly, this goes on forever and ever and ever. This palace is huge, and my feet got really tired from walking all over it. After today’s fieldtrip, I got sick of seeing pagodas every where we went because they started to all look the same.

Saturday was just as crazy again for me. Some of our study abroad group and I went back to the Beijing Zoo to look at the animals that we did not get to see. Lucky us, we also found a small ‘amusement’ park hidden on the left side of the zoo. Yes, we all played bumper cars in the Beijing Zoo in China! It was awesome, and empty…so while a few of us were trying to be ‘no-so-good’ drivers, others were taking pictures of how much fun we were having bumping the other cars. We then moved on to see the rest of the animals, and found another treat for us to try. A few of the students decided to go boating on the river in the middle of the zoo. The boat driver swerved back and forth with my friends inside, creating a series of waves and causing the boat to rock heavily back and forth. After that, everyone has to see the most famous animal in the Beijing Zoo: the Panda.

Well, our day didn’t end there. We bought tickets to see the acrobatic show that evening. We all dressed up in formal attire, and caught a taxi to downtown Beijing. These acrobats are amazing! The acrobats are between ages 7 to 15 years, and are very strong, flexible, and extremely talented. At one point, they stacked about 5 boys on top of each other; the bottom acrobat was standing up with the next person sitting on his shoulders. The 5th boy at the top was standing up. When it was time for them to come down, it was really scary. You could see the whole line lean like the Tower of Pisa. They broke off from each other as soon as they were near to the ground and they all just rolled over and got up like it was nothing.
After the acrobatic show, we all decided to head to Outback Steak House, to see if their food taste like it would in America. Since we’ve been eating everywhere with chopsticks, we asked if we could use chopsticks for dinner, and the waitress shook her head and laughed at us. Their steak was really good, along with the rest of the food. We head back to the hotel to change our clothes and to discover the night life. We went to a club about 15 minutes away, and discovered a bunch of Purdue students who were also in Beijing studying for a few weeks. I guess this was a popular place for international students.
Sunday, I slept in, finished my homework, and packed up for my first train ride on Monday. 12 hour train ride…here I come!