Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Summing It Up...

To potential applicants:

I think this is an absolutely great program, especially if you enjoy traveling to other countries. Living and working in Beijing was an absolute blast! The group of people that came on the program made it that much more enjoyable. Besides work, there are always other things to do, whether its during the week or on the weekends. Activities range from shopping at the Pearl Market, visiting famous cultural sites, going clubbing etc... I'm not a big shopper, but even I enjoyed haggling at the clothing markets and the art shop.

If you are at all worried about the language barrier/living in a foreign city, just know that the program has a great support staff to help you both at the UMich Joint Institute in Beijing (Prof. James Lee and Julia Feng) and at the Chemistry department at PKU.

I apologize for my boring blog. For a more humorous and frequent blog, check out Spencer "the Hattrick" Leong's blog.

Feel free to contact me at xhan@macalester.edu if you have specific questions.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Last Week

The last week in Beijing was pretty relaxing. I had visited my family the previous week and came back to Beijing via the night train on Wednesday morning. Later that day we went to visit the Birds nest and the Ice Cube by the Olympic park.


In front of the Birds nest


One of only two 7 star hotels in the world! (next to the ice cube)


In front of the ice cube

On Thursday, we visited the Capital museum where we saw some amazing collection of Chinese art and historical collections. Afterwards, we strolled over to the nearly Xidan shopping district to buy some Ma Hua (delicious twisted fried dough). The same night we had our presentations...via Skype...haha...the connection was on and off but in worked ok overall. To pass time when the connection failed, we all sang along to Beijing huan ying ni....the theme song for this olympics.

On Friday, Spencer and I visited the Fragrant Hills Park where we spent 2 hours climbing the mountain.


A view of the mountain side. The view is supposed to be even better in the Fall because all the leaves turn red.

I spend Saturday packing and left early Sunday morning for the airport with the rest of the group. On Sunday morning we got up at 4 am to go the airport. The drive through the empty streets of Beijing was pleasant and quite a contrast to the norm.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Cheng De Trip

My Professor Pei Jian invited our entire lab including Kelly and I on a trip to Cheng De and the grasslands by inner Mongolia. The historic city of Cheng De once served as the primary summer vacation spot for the emperor. The "Avoiding Heat Mountain Village" (literal translation) in Cheng De was designed to be a place for the emperor to cool down and hunt. Two other sites that we visited in Cheng De is the Puning Temple and the Putuo Zongcheng Temple.


Just inside the city walls of the Avoiding Heat Mountain Village


A nice view from the mountain top.


Me at one of the temples in the Avoiding Heat Mountain Village


Putuo Zongcheng Temple as seen from the Mountain.


Puning Temple

In the grasslands we enjoyed the beautiful scenics, a fun horse ride, and a satisfying lamb feast.


On the way to the Moon Lake


Riding back to camp by the Moon lake.


Outdoor KTV after our lamb feast