Samuel Grant Robinson: Day 3

[Jan. 3, 2011-BEIJING]]Day 3 is now one for the record books. After breakfast, we drove an hour and a half north of Beijing to see the Great Wall. It seemingly comes out of nowhere because the area around the city is so flat, then all of a sudden you find yourself in the mountains. We all had a great time climbing up the wall, although some made it higher than others. The greatest surprise to me, and the hardest challenge, is the fact that the steps up the wall are very irregular. No two are the same height. Makes for very challenging climbing.

After lunch, we visited both a jade and freshwater pearl market, then had an opportunity to explore another shopping district. Many of the students were excited to be able to buy some of the same instruments that they heard the Chinese Youth Orchestra play last night. There's even some talk of starting a traditional Chinese orchestra when we return to campus.

After dinner, we had the opportunity to experience traditional Peking Opera, which was quite interesting. This ancient art form combines elaborate costumes, acrobatics, martial arts, and traditional music to tell some of the most important stories in Chinese culture. It can be challenging to follow, as much of the toon is symbolic, and only a small portion of it is translated, but is still very beautiful to watch. 

I am happy to be back in the hotel a bit early tonight as we need to have our luggage down to the lobby at 5:45 a.m. for an early flight to Xi'an. I'm sorry to be leaving Beijing, as I feel as though we have only scratched the surface of all this wonderful city has to offer, but am excited to go to one of the oldest cities in China, and one of the cradles of civilization.