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31 May 2007 (1:50 PM EDT) - Everyone is hanging out
in the Detroit Metro NWA WorldClub. Justin, Brian, and Tiffany. |
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1 June 2007 (9:30 PM CST) - Everyone is nearly a candidate for
zombie-land after the flight. Justin, Tiffany, and Jim. |
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2 June 2007 - We settled in. Slept late. The students got partially
set up in their apartment at Yanbeiyuan,
and made a shopping list for the rest. Justin jokes about their
being dropped onto a strange island (like
"Lost") and that is about right ("Lost in Translation").
The three of them ventured out to see if they could hit a store,
and quickly came to the conclusion that the best advice they have
for next year's students is to pick up some Chinese language before
the trip. |
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2 June 2007 - Brian and Tiffany checking out the bathroom. You
can ask them why... |
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3 June 2007 (9:30 AM CST) - We all met up about 8:30 AM and headed
out to our first actual event: a trip to Tiananmen Square and the
Forbidden City/Imperial Palace. The three UM students (fromm l:
Tiffany, Brian & Justin) and 2 faculty members were accompanied
by our language instructor (Sophia, 2nd from right) and some of
the staff of the UM PKU Joint Institute (Guoqing, r). We also began
our language instruction today. |
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3 June 2007 (9:30 AM CST) - Brian and the first gate. |
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3 June 2007 (9:30 AM CST) - Tiffany and Justin at the first gate. |
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3 June 2007 (9:30 AM CST) - Here I am, making some damn point
or another to Sophia. |
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3 June 2007 (10:00 AM CST) - Here is the whole group at the south
end of Tiananmen Square, just across the street from the Forbidden
City. One of our drivers, who is also a staff member at the UM
PKU JI, is Wudan - she's in the center, next to Sophia. |
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3 June 2007 (10:15 AM CST) - This is the iconic portrait I take
of everyone when we visit the Forbidden City. Brian's is actually
my usual composition... but you need to take this from one of the
bridges into the city, and it was so crowded that we were told
to move along because we were holding up traffic. So I needed to
change my approach for Tiffany and Justin. |
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3 June 2007 (11:30 AM CST) - Here is the view from one of the
nine walls of the Forbidden City, looking roughly to the southeast.
This is the first time I have visited during the warm weather -
the crowds were definitely larger. |
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3 June 2007 (11:30 AM) - This one is going in the advertizing
materials for next year. |
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3 June 2007 (12:00 PM CST) - This view of one of the throne rooms
is actually much better than you get when you are there, because
the interiors of these spaces are all unlit. Thanks to the wonders
of digital cameras, however, you can see what you miss. |
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3 June 2007 - Again, the ornamentation in side these buildings
is awesome, but you cannot really get a sense of it when you are
standing there. GE or Philips or someone need to think about how
to light these interiors. |
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3 June 2007 - Another motif for Forbidden City pictures that
I started is having people stare down the dragon/gargoyles. Here,
Tiffany is posing Brian. |
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3 June 2007 - Grrrrrr... |
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3 June 2007 (noon CST) - Near the north end of the Forbidden
City, there was a museum display on loan from the British Museum
on the China/UK history. Here is Sophia in front of the big globe
at the entrance. |
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3 June 2007 (12:30 PM CST) - At the north end of the Forbidden
City is this nice garden. A perfect place for repose after trekking
through the walls and palace buildings. |
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3 June 2007 (2:00 PM CST) - After the tour, we spent about 2.5
hours having lunch at a great Szechaun restaurant. That giant
bowl of peppers is called "Mountan of Peppers" and is
dotted with chicken and peanuts. The vegetable in the foreground
is, um, green, and is sitting is a most delicious peanut/sesame
sauce. About 15 more dishes arrived before it was all over. The
entire bill, for 9 people, including drinks: $60. At about 4 PM
we headed over to buy some $20 cell phones with another $9 of chip/service
charge so we can communicate while we are here. It took about as
long to do that as it did to eat lunch. Between the 4 hours of
walking, the lunch, the heat and humidity, and the time at the
cell phone place... I am fairly certain everyone pretty much collapsed. |
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4 June 2007 (12:00 noon CST) - Two of the PKU students who will
be travelling to Ann Arbor in July came by today at the end of
our first actual language lesson and took us on a tour of the PKU
campus (which is definitely a more hospitable place in early June
than it is in late January! Here is the Bo Ya pagoda overlooking
the Nameless Lake. |
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4 June 2007 (12:00 noon CST) - Justin, Xiaowen, Yiran, Brian,
and Tiffany |
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4 June 2007 (2:30 PM CST) - Our first history and culture lesson
with UM Professor James Lee, who directs the Joint Institute. Today's
topic was Higher Education in China: Past and Present. Jim and
I went over to meet the Director of the NSF office in Beijing to
talk about the future expansion of this program. |
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4 June 2007 (8:00 PM CST) - Dinner at a Hot Pot restaurant. These
ought to really catch on in the U.S., but there are not too many
of them around. |
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5 June 2007 (noon CST) - Today was an extremely significant day.
After the morning language class, we got together the real members
of this program: the 3 UM students, their 3 mentors - whose groups
they will be joining later this month, the 4 PKU students who will
be heading to UM in early July, and the main players who made this
happen: the 2 UM faculty, the Associate Dean of Chemistry (Zi-Chen
Li), Manli Zhou, who works at the PKU International Institute,
and James Lee and the staff of the Joint Institute. |
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5 June 2007 (noon CST) - The whole lunch crowd. |
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5 June 2007 (noon CST) - PKU students Wei Wang and Xiaoxue Zhou,
Professor Zhang with Brian, Justin with Professor Liu, Tiffany
with Professor Shi |
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5 June 2007 (noon CST) - Jim Penner-Hahn shares a moment with
Wei and Xiaoxue.
After lunch, the 7 students headed over to the chemistry building
together, which (I have to admit) was an extremely cool moment. |
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6 June 2007 (2 PM CST) - After an extended language class, it
was time to experience shopping in China (scattered with a liberal
amount of learning Chinese in context). This stand (No. 100) on
the third floor of the Hongqiao Market is the official UM pearl
place. I've been there 4-5 times now. Ask for Jennifer... tell
her I sent you. |
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6 June 2007 (2 PM CST) - At the Pearl market, money changes hands. |
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6 June 2007 (4 PM CST) - At the shirt market with Helen. |
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6 June 2007 (4 PM CST) - Brian at the shirt market, making a
deal. |
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7 June 2007 (3:00 PM CST) - A really great session on the history
of modern China with Professor James Lee. We went over by about
an hour and wanted more! |
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7 June 2007 (3:00 PM CST) - Professor Lee |
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