Plans

This is my last full day in Beijing, and I am catching up on this blog at nice little cafe called "Bookworm". It is in a sort of trendy (my guess) part of town near one of the clusters of Embassies. It is located between the Second and Third Ring Roads. Beijing is ringed by and increasing number of Beltways called Ring roads. There is no First Ring Road but it might be around the Forbidden City and surrounding parks (it does lie in the center of the city). The Second Ring Road surrounds what is left of the old city. It runs basically where the old city walls used to be. Only a very small length of it is left and three or so gates. Beijing is trying to remake itself as fast as it can, with a rough goal of next years Olympics as its coming party.

I know that lots of people are planning on being in Beijing for the Olympics, I'm sure it will be some party. I for one am planning on not being in town. I am excited to be in China during the Olympics, everyone in the whole country will be tunned in I'm sure. But I know that it will be far too crowded, hot (it will be in August), and expensive (it is hard enough to find cheap housing now). So go if you want to but it sounds awful to me.

Tomorrow I will be heading out on an 8 hr train ride to Zhengzhou the capital and transport hub of Henan Province. Then it is an hour by bus or (probably for me) cab to Kaifeng. As I mentioned before (I think) there is a group of students from Beloit who will be doing their study abroad in China this semester. There are 5 in total, two will be studying in Kaifeng (with me) and the others will be in Jinan in Shandong (one province to the east). But until the semester starts they are in Kaifeng with the two Beloit profs for a two week intro seminar. I was invited by Daniel to tag along for it. They are finishing up their first week in Kaifeng and I will meet up with them for a week or so excursion around Henan to local sights of interest. Henan being the cradle of Chinese civilization they should be interesting sights indeed. Daniel didn't know where we will be going yet when I had dinner a few days back. I'll let you all know though where we go.

Beijing is a nice city, lots of places to explore and sights to see, but I am getting restless. I am very eager to start my studies and start getting to know Kaifeng. It is much smaller 400,000 compared to Beijing's 13 million or so. Also it is much less developed, which in Chinese eyes is a bad thing, but for the westerner it means charming old buildings and a glimpse of a fast disappearing world.