Tour, Day 1: SURREAL

It's Saturday morning--I've only got a few minutes to post before we head off to the Great Wall, so I will post pictures later. AND when we woke up this morning there was a BLUE SKY outside our window! It's glorious! Anyways, on to the tour.

Well the morning began with a state-of-the-art tour of a sewage treatment plant. We were outside, it was hot and sticky, and most of the tour took place outside. Clearly the Chinese are very proud of this, and it WAS impressive. They built it in the last fwe years and it supplies water for all the Olympic venues. There were the ubiquitious jokes about "this place is the shit," "all my pictures look like shit," etc. But it was pretty interesting to see.

Also, there are 8 buses on the tour--it's all the colleges and universities working for ONS, so it's a bit crazy to be travelling with so many others.

After the sewage treatment plant, they took us to lunch. Surprisingly, I had an appetite. The food was delicious, as usual. We had fish, veggies, lots of other dishes. For dessert we had fresh fruit--dessert is not a big deal in China. And after the huge meals we've been having, you really don't need it!

After lunch we had a POLICE ESCORT to a 'typical rural Chinese' village. This was the most surreal part of the day...it was like we were right in the middle of the Chinese propaganda machine. We weren't sure if we were on the set of the Stepford Wives: China, or Epcot at Disney World, but it just did not feel authentic. The village was beautiful, and the people were so nice and thrilled to see us, but I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

On the tour we saw a temple, a senior citizens' home, a golf course resort, a tai chi demonstration, a typical home, and some amazing calligraphy.

After the tour we piled on the bus for the 2 hour ride back to the city for the Beijing specialty, Peking Duck. We ate at a world-famous restaurant where Henry Kissinger actually came in the early 70s to broker the Open-Door policy...in the same room too! The duck was delicious, the way they eat it is almost like assembling fajitas at Chilis. I took a picture tutorial of my friend Helen making her little duck fajita so those will be fun to see!

And after a marathon day when we left at 8 and did not return til after 10:30 we returned to campus fried and exhausted. Today we are going to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. I promise to post ALL the pics tonight when we get back!