"each person's perspective is the view from only one of the beacon towers at the Great Wall"

Exploring a Hutong

Everyone keeps taking pictures of me and other people in the program 

so I decided to fight back...

We had a fierce argument over the lunch menu prices with these guys (they tried to charge us more than locals). They ended up giving us the local price and seemed to respect us more than when we arrived.

 Outside The Forbidden City

Tiennamen Square

Mao's Mausoleum

One World, One Dream: The Paralympic Games

Beida piaoliang de hen

I am studying at Beijing (Peking) University which is known here as Beijing Daxue or Beida. Below is the logo for the college, which some say is supposed to symbolize three people rowing in sync. Others say it depicts two students resting on the shoulders of a professor. Nonetheless it is the artistic depiction of the characters "Bei jing" and "Da."

Here are some pictures taken on a beautiful day (blue skies because the Olympics aren't quite over yet!) on campus. I looks like a dreamland, but I swear this is what it really looks like:

My dorm! Shao Yuan (the international dorm)

Orienting to the Orient

The whole group in front of our dorm Shao Yuan (the international dorm)

Xi Men, The west gate--The calligraphy above the entrance was done by Chairman Mao himself. Mao was once a librarian at Beijing University.

One of the many beautiful lakes on campus. Above is one of the stone boats that "float" on the lake.

One of the many couples sitting together on the benches around the lake.

Our typical breakfast at Zhongguanyuan (our temporary dorm): pickled raddish, sauteed veggies, steamed bun, fruit and a sweet pastry.