Beijing...

Although I never dreamt of going to Beijing, I'm glad I took advantage of the opportunity when I had it. Our trip was considered a university visit, since we visited Tsingsua University (pronounced similar to Sheng-Shwa) and stayed on the campus there in a hotel. The campus was beautiful, even though it was one of the coldest places we had been so far. During our time in Beijing, we visited the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, the Great Wall and the Beijing Zoo to see the Giant Pandas. Despite all of these amazing sites - the majority of the students loved the Pearl Market best, since they were able to buy knock-off clothing and shoes extremely cheap.




This is a picture of a particular pond on the campus - Isn't it beautiful?! Going here really reminded us that it was fall. One more interesting tidbit about the university - the quality of education is comparable to Harvard & MIT! Wow!


The bicycle is the most popular means of transit on the campus.


The Great Wall! We had about 30 minutes to explore which was perfect, I was so out of shape I could barely hike it for that long. One thing you never really hear is how steep it is!

One of the giant pandas!