A change of Seasons… Feb. 27th in Beijing

The morning started in the Huijia School’s Canteen where we munched on a boiled egg, some noodles, and a steamed roll. With the change in weather and a trip to the Summer Palace you would never know it was winter here. The temperature must have hit the 50’s and the much ballyhooed Beijing pollution gave way, at least for today, to brilliant blue skies.

Our days at Huijia School have been planned entirely by our host students and today’s plan included the Summer Palace and Beijing University. The Summer Palace was built in the 1700’s by Emperor Qinalong as an escape from the oppressive heat of the capital. It is an exceptionally beautiful park surrounding a huge manmade lake, reportedly expanded by 100,000 workers. The park also boasts a painted corridor reputed to be the longest of its kind in the world. Each painting in the corridor is unique and there are literally thousands of them. At the center of the corridor, on the lake’s northern shore, is the Hall for Dispelling Clouds. Maybe that explains the weather. Rising above that, and I do mean above, is the Buddhist Fragrance Pavilion. While we strolled along leisurely the kids were much quicker. Each was accompanied by their Chinese host and maybe it was the promise of Suzhou Shopping Street that made them hustle.

The trip to the Palace was followed by lunch at a hotpot restaurant and then on to the University. Beijing University is generally considered to be the #1 University in China, although Xinhua University also makes that claim from time to time. Sounds a bit like Harvard and Yale. We were greeted at the gate by a former Huijia, and current Beijing physics student. He walked us through the campus, pointing out the sites, including the largest academic library in Asia and a small park that used to be a royal park during the Ting Dynasty-- the last imperial dynasty to rule China. One of the highlights was a quick trip to the sports complex, complete with a turf soccer field and an immense outdoor climbing wall. Our guide told us that he plays on the physics department soccer team, the second best team in the University. Out of politeness we didn’t ask who was first. After the University it was back to school for dinner and after dinner a presentation of martial arts is planned. Judging by the talk on the bus I think all will be asleep as soon as they can. The days are long, full, and tiring, but the kids are taking it all in stride. As we keep reminding them, they may only do this once in their lives and it will be over before they know it.