Channeling My Inner Mulan

With another week down, I only have 6 more weeks left in Beijing…WHICH IS CRAZY. I can’t believe time is flying by so fast! 

This week’s classes were normal — fun, but uneventful. I think by now all of us have more or less settled into a routine. 

Well, a routine that will soon be broken. We’re nearing the middle of the program, which means that soon (and by soon I mean this Friday) we leave Beijing (again — I’ll elaborate further down). This is what differentiates HBA from other programs, because for the 5th week, everyone takes a week off from attending classes and does a “Social Study Project” in 5 different areas of China. You can choose from going to Shanghai, Huizhou, the Shaolin Temple, Xi’an, or staying in Beijing. 

Some of you who know me well from Yale already know my decision on this, but for the others it might come as a surprise as to what I chose, so I’ll provide some backstory: freshman year at Yale I joined the Wushu (Chinese martial arts) team, which by far was the best decision I made. I learned so many cool moves, and had the greatest and most memorable experiences at Yale with people from my team — I can even comfortably say that some of my closest friends are because of wushu. Even apart from college, I had always been intrigued by kung fu as a child -- mainly from its philosophy. So, when I heard that HBA offered a chance to go learn kung fu at the Shaolin Temple as part of its program, I just knew that I had to go. As a bonus, you also get the chance to study Buddhism, and that basically sealed the deal for me. 

But of course, when it came to the time when I had to actually decide and sign my name, I fell into the pit of indecision because all five places just seemed so cool. Why choose Shaolin when I could climb the beautiful Yellow Mountains in Huizhou or experience the buzzing city life of Shanghai?! But in the end, I stuck to my gut feeling and confidently wrote my name down to learn some kung fu. 

I leave in 5 days. 

I’M EXCITED. And nervous. And scared. 

The whiner in me is throwing a small tantrum: I had just gotten used to being comfortable in Beijing, and now for the an entire week, I’ll be in a new location with *relatively* new friends, and will have to readjust again. The adventurer in me definitely shuts the other part up though, because I know that this experience will push me out of my comfort zone (which is what I need) and I know that I'll have lots of fun. I also definitely know that I’ll be pushing my body like never before (we’re looking at running for 2 hours at 5:30 am pretty much everyday) then eating breakfast then training some more….I’m not sure if I have the strength and endurance for this, but I’m definitely going to put my all into it. 

I’ll be creating a video documenting my experience (in lieu of writing a 2500 character essay hehe) so I’ll find a way to share that on this blog so you guys can be a part of my struggle experience. 

Now, on to my recent travels this week: where do you guys think I went? (No scrolling down and peeking!) The title for this blog should give you a pretty good hint — just think about the opening scene of the movie Mulan…

That’s right: The Great Wall of China! (or as it’s known here, 长城). I think the Wall has usurped the Summer Palace as my favorite spot in China thus far, because it’s just breathtaking. (Literally. I had to catch my breath for like five minutes once I reached the top…) All jokes aside, standing there just taking in the hazy mountains and the never-ending stretch of The Great Wall was definitely an experience everyone should have in their lives. Exploring the wall was also made better by everyone singing (or rather humming — no English allowed!) “I'll Make a Man Out of You” from Mulan. It’s a shame we didn’t learn the Chinese version by Jackie Chan beforehand. 

We visited the section of the Wall named "Jinshanling 金山岭." It wasn't flooded with tourists, so that was really nice. 

LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS. TO DEFEAT. THE HUNS. 

After that adventure, we all passed out on the one hour bus trip to Chengde 承德, a getaway summer resort for the Emperor that’s also home to around 200 Buddhist temples. 

The view of the city from the hotel window

We deposited our luggage at the hotel, ate dinner, and attended a show called “The Kangxi Ceremony: 鼎盛王朝”. It was a really cool show, and good Chinese comprehension practice (aka the English translations didn't really make much sense, so I had to rely on reading/hearing the Chinese to get the gist of the story. Conclusion: I...kinda understood what was happening, but let's be honest, it was more of "Oooh, there's fireworks now. Oooh there are horses galloping on stage. Oooh that was pretty"). The show was about the history of the Kangxi Emperor that included his relationship with Buddhism, the Chinese dictionary, and banquets (I know that sounds weird, so bear with me, but I don’t know how else to explain it). 

The next morning we ate breakfast at....McDonalds. Don't judge - it was good! They put mayonnaise and ketchup on my McMuffin but it somehow worked so I'm not complaining. 

Of course you guys should know I took a picture of the menu. On the left are the more normal breakfast items, but on the right are more traditional Chinese breakfast items, like Soy Milk 豆浆 and Fried Dough Sticks 油条.

After breakfast, we explored the Emperor’s summer getaway in Chengde. It's basically like a very toned-down version of the Forbidden City in Beijing. 

The emperor's summer palace in Chengde 

The buildings are all constructed out of a very fragrant tree  (I forgot the name of it..), so it smelled very pleasant.

There's a garden in the palace -- a recurring theme I've noticed with Chinese palaces, there always has to be a garden -- and here's a shot of the lotus pads. These are Mongolian lotuses, so they bloom later (in Autumn) but apparently they stay in bloom longer. 

Fun fact: this little river was kind of known as the "fountain of youth" / "lucky river." People would come to dip their mahjong pieces in the water here before a game for good luck, and the emperor's wife would come here everyday to cleanse because apparently the water made her look 2 years younger. (And yes, I touched the water because some good luck/youth?? is always needed!) 

Afterwards, we visited the small Potala Palace. It's basically an imitation of the one in Tibet, but still very cool. I definitely felt relaxed being surrounded by Buddhism artifacts. 

Ancient scriptures at the (small) Potala Palace.

We came back to Beijing Saturday evening and I enjoyed some authentic hot pot with some friends in Wudaokou. 

There were about 4/5 plates of meat, 2 plates of vegetables, 2 plates of noodles, and 2 plates of fishballs. The total came to about $10 per person. 

Needless to say, this weekend was LOTS OF FUN, but also incredibly exhausting. After dinner Saturday I opted to stay in instead of going out dancing and am so glad i did because for the first time since I’ve been here, last night was the night where I’ve been able to get more than 5 hours of sleep. Yaaaay! 

Now with all that excitement behind me, I need to get back to studying…  

See you guys in a week!