To start our day, we landed from a grueling 16-hour flight at the Beijing Capital International Airport, where we got breakfast and made it through TSA and baggage claim with no problems.
From there, we met our tour guide, Li Shao Jie, who took us on a bus tour to the Great Wall, where we learned about the Wall’s history and some Chinese history. We learned that the Great Wall took over two thousand years to build and resulted in the deaths of 500,000 laborers — soldiers, prisoners, and conscripted commoners — and was built to keep out Mongolian invaders and other threats to the peace of China.
After we arrived, we were greeted by massive crowds of people waiting to see the views from the top of the Wall. We took a ski lift to the Wall, and got some much-needed exercise after our flight and bus ride. Even though the crowds made it difficult to see, we still took some good pictures.
After we were finished at the Great Wall, we took another bus ride to the Temple of Heaven. Along the way, our tour guide explained the religious significance of the temple and its purpose of worship, which was for the emperors to pray for a good harvest. It challenged us to reflect on differences in religion and we learned the cultural significance of the temple in imperial Chinese history, when the emperor was considered the Son of Heaven and had a divine mandate to rule.
After we finished up our tour of the temple we went to a market where we haggled our way through prices and bought interesting souvenirs. After that we went to eat some Peking duck. This dish has been made in this region for centuries. We learned that “Peking” is an outdated Western name for the city Beijing. At this restaurant we learned how to properly eat Peking duck and got to try many new dishes that some of us had never had before.
The lazy Susan on the table showed us how modern Chinese dinner customs reflect the Quaker value of community: the turntable allows everyone to have an equal share of every dish. The food was a nice refresher after a long period of travel and was delicious.
After we finished up dinner we checked into our hotel and had a moment of reflection on the day. We learned many aspects of current Chinese culture and the past that we hope to carry with us in our future studies of Chinese.
Overall, the day was a very eventful one and we are looking forward to learning more that we can hopefully take home with us back to the States. We were deeply immersed in Chinese culture and took the time at the end of the day to reflect on how our Western perceptions of China were challenged by our learning.