ANDREA HOVERSLAND

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I have been in Montana for a week now, but I have some great pictures from some traveling I did after my final exams were over in Hong Kong. Tom (New Zealand), Mary (Ireland), Angela (England), Jamie (Canada) and I traveled together to Beijing to see the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and the Summer Palace and to Xi’an to check out the terra cotta warriors. Here is a picture of the crew (minus Angela and I) outside of the summer palace in Beijing.

Jamie was our “tour guide� as he has taken many years of Mandarin and he was sooooo helpful! The first night we were in Beijing, after enjoying some amazing Peking duck, we went to Tiananmen Square at night. Here is the entrance to the Forbidden city.

During the day, everything looks quite different. One thing we noticed is that the sky is never clear and that after a day or two in Beijing, most of us came down with a scratchy “Beijing throat� from the heavy pollution. Here is the view of Tiananmen Square as you come out of the Forbidden City. Only royalty were allowed into the city until the later half of the 20th century. The square, of course, is famous for a variety of reasons.

The Summer Palace complex was HUGE, complete with a man-made “pond� around the entire thing which was actually a huge lake, complete with huge bridges and everything. This view is toward the main complex.

We took taxis around everywhere as it was much quicker than finding our way on the train, and it was surprisingly cheap.

We were planning on seeing the Great Wall in Xi’an, but then we got there and found out that it was too far away. Well, I must mention we traveled to Xi’an on an amazingly luxurious 9 hr train ride in first class (amazing, and for only $50) . . . . so after eating some yummy noodles and other food they are famous for in Xi’an Mary, Tom and I backtracked to Beijing again and spend the last day of our travels in Beijing.

This was when we realized how much help Jamie had been. I only could say a few phrases, which helped, but every time anyone said anything back to me I couldn’t understand (yeah, just a small problem) but we kept patient and got to see the Great Wall without too many issues. The day was gorgeous, and we viewed the wall at the very popular Badaling area a few hours outside of Beijing. The Great Wall was the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life. I loved it. Here you go. . . .

On our way back, our bus got caught in a traffic jam and took quite a few hours to get back to the city center. We took a local bus, so it was very cheap (yeah!). People drive on the right side of the road, but there are few lane dividers and the art of signaling has been lost. That, combined with the bikes trying to ride between buses and cars leads to a dangerous situation.

The next day we flew back to Hong Kong, and my roommates brought me to enjoy some Shanghainese food as a going away present. Then, I got on the plane the next morning for a 12 hour flight to San Francisco, followed by a 2 and 1 hr flight to Billings, Montana. I arrived only 4 hours after I had left so I gained a day.

Now, I am substitute teaching for a few weeks in the elementary school and on June 4th my internship starts in Minneapolis so I�ll be going over a few days early. The one thing I do appreciate about being home is the clean air, my mom’s good cooking, and so many people speaking English again. Well, it also makes me want to continue on w/ my Chinese studies so I can one day understand the language.

Happy summer!