Orientation starts tomorrow at 8am. A light week overall except for 2.5 hours of placement exams on Tuesday.

I rode my bike today to the Olympic stadium, or at least I would have if it hadn't broken on me 3/4 of the way there. With the rear wheel wobbling about an inch off center I parked it and walked the rest of the way.

Nothing you haven't already seen on TV. It was cool in person though. I couldn't get too close since the security checks were obviously all closed, but perhaps I'll try again when the Paralympics are on. The whole area around the stadium is just these huge (and, today, empty) boulevards with newly planted trees up and down. Very attractive.

Check out the blue sky! It was absolutely beautiful today. Not sure why it was so nice, but it was like being back in Kalamazoo.

Here's a comparison shot from my dorm room (see below). Notice how you can actually see the mountains north of the city when the haze is gone.

Anyway, this wraps up my pure leisure time, at least until our first break in October. Oh, and to finish the story, I took the bike back to the guy I bought it from and he fixed it up better than when he first sold it to me for free. The bikes are so few in Beijing that the nice wide bike lanes most roads have are pretty empty except at rush times, but it's still a great way to get around. Just keep in mind that, if you legally can go, you go no matter what and everyone just avoids each other. Stopping and waiting for somebody, whether car, bike or pedestrian, confuses things - just steer to go around them so neither of you lose speed. 

My sweet bike, with lock in the front basket.

So that's all for now. I took some time to walk around the old Qing Dynasty gardens here on campus which was very beautiful, but I think I need to look into a Flickr account or something so that this blog doesn't become one giant online photo album. I'll keep picking some here and there though to post on this site. Here's a decent one:

Still water at the edge of the gardens.

P.S. A tear for the not wholly unexpected Michigan loss, but a toast to many more TDs from Mr. McGuffie.

A couple anecdotes and then something more serious. Also, if you have your own website or blog I'd be happy to link to it from here. Just let me know.

I'm standing in the Tianjin Natural History Museum, looking at a display about whales. Just like in the US, they have some nice illustrations along with placards (in Chinese, of course) describing the animals, where they live etc. As I stand and read as much as I can on one of these placards, a man who I think must have worked at the museum runs up to me.

*Him, in Chinese*  "Whoa, you know how to read characters?"

*Me, in Chinese* "Well, yeah I can read but not too well."

*Him* "Whoa! You know how to speak Chinese?!"

Second, I've gotten to see Ben Homnick and his girlfriend Jia Shan twice here which has been really great. We've eaten Indian food, gone bowling and ice skating, and played cards a couple time. We taught she and her friend Yalin how to play euchre, which to their credit went more smoothly even with our translation issues than it usually does with freshmen at summer orientation. I also rapidly learned the names for each of the suits and the verbs "to play (a card)," "to pick up (a card)" and "to deal," which is about as much as I remember from any given week's lesson of Chinese class. Awesome. I also described "super" something-or-other as "supermarket" something-or-other, ensuring that I will never mistake "chaoshi" for "chaoji" again. 

Finally, in the political realm, I thought Thomas Friedman's article this week was really worth reading. What he says is, in my limited experience (210 mph train ticket for $8) true. You can draw your own domestic political conclusions - and I'd be interested to hear them! I happen to agree with his.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/opinion/27friedman.html?em

Another batch of pictures, this time from the Qinghua University campus. Classes start next week (Sept. 1st) after which I imagine my time to take pictures and write about them will decrease - if there's anything you want to know more about or see pictures of let me know!  Thanks again to everyone for your posts on this blog.

Brief historical note - Qinghua was founded in 1911 with American support using money that China had been forced to pay to the United States as damages for attacks on Westerners during the Boxer Rebellion. The campus is partly built on the site of the old Imperial summer palace and gardens which were destroyed in the 1800's by the British and French, lending both scenic beauty and some historical baggage to the surroundings. It's about fifteen minutes by cab without heavy traffic to the center of Beijing at Tiananmen Square. Qinghua's tradition since the People's Republic was established in 1949 has been as a premiere science and technology university, but today it is comprehensive with schools of management, law, humanities etc. The enrollment is around 31,000 - compare to about 39,000 at Michigan. Hu Jintao, the current President of the PRC, is himself a Qinghua graduate.

With all that said, on to the pictures!

My dorm is small but comfortable, with air conditioning, a private bathroom and a very small kitchen space with sink and microwave. I'll be adding a fridge this week.

The view from my window, northeast across the elevated rail tracks and some as yet undeveloped real estate towards another district of tall buildings in the distance.

My dorm from outside. No worse aesthetically than South Quad I suppose.

The basketball courts right outside our buildings. These are packed with Chinese in the evenings, though I haven't yet played any thunder and lightning with them.

Heading from my dorm area, which is in the far northeast corner of campus, towards dorms for Chinese students and the center of campus.

A pretty typical tree-lined road through Qinghua.

One of the beautiful canals that runs through the old part of campus. 

A fountain in front of the library with the Grand Auditorium (modeled after that of the University of Illinois) in the background.

Another canal shot after the sun had come out.

Proving that American universities have no monopoly on strange modernist sculpture (though nothing will ever compare to the UMMA mushroom.)

The Grand Auditorium from across the original quad at the center of campus. Noone walks across the quads here at Qinghua, so it's not much like the Diag.

Qinghua hosted some of the Olympic training and event facilities. These blue-shirted volunteers are still here well after the Games are over - presumably until the Paralympics are over as well.

A bit of a "back alley." Just to balance the fountains and canals. It's a real place.

Cyclists heading south on the main boulevard into campus.  The blue line is the Olympic marathon line followed by runners this year.

Looking straight ahead out of the Qinghua south gate and into the concrete canyons of Beijing.

Photos from Tianjin

Finally, some action. And by action, I of course mean pictures. Sorry for the delay - Blogspot formatting is pretty terrible. Click for high-res versions. These were all taken while I was in Tianjin, just south of Beijing. As of today I'm back to Qinghua University and hopefully I'll be able to share pictures of my home campus more quickly than you saw these.

The bridge in Tianjin that leads into Italian district. The river is called the Hai He or Hai River, and runs approximately from the northwest to the southeast with plenty of curves. Mandi's apartment is about a ten minute bike ride south of here.

Me standing on the bridge. Looking at the background, I think riverfront construction might be a big deal these days. Since I walked along the Hai He in 2006 this part of the city has changed completely - from old buildings in various states of decay and demolition with lots of open rubble piles to either new construction or the various new riverwalks. Sweeping away the past, but I'm sure it's hard to argue with a wide, attractively landscaped future.

The old and the new. At one point riding back into Beijing, I realized that every single skyscraper that I could see, covering my entire field of view through the window, was grey and green like this one - an entire skyline under construction.

The famous bicycles of China are becoming less common, though there are still plenty. Mandi and I have become reasonably competent at riding two to a bike on hers over the last couple days.

A statue of Beethoven (bei duo fen) headlines this small, music-themed sculpture garden at the south entrance to the Italian district.

Mandi’s self-photography skills have not lessened in Asia.

Mandi’s sweet bike on the promenade.

We biked through the Italian district, which is to say that Mandi lugged my chubby self for about 10 blocks. Didn’t really stop for picture time, but here is one with both some typical Western-style residences and the ubiquitous “no dropping things with your chopsticks while eating” sign.

The requisite pedestrian retail street. Not quite Shanghai but good for a stroll.

The world’s most intensely fat baby. Sorry she’s a bit blurry - Mandi was pretending to take my picture. The noodles were good but the chicken had a bit too much bone for us newly-arrived Westerners.

Pictures soon, I swear.  

Broad generalizations from my limited experience. Cities. Real cities...not suburbs or exurbs or large towns. American cities at night tend toward the majestic. The Chicago lakefront, Manhattan, even someplace like Cincinnati from across the Ohio River. Tall buildings, regular windows, simply present - masses rising up in the darkness, streets cutting through them carrying the flows of cars. On the other hand, European cities at night seem to me enchanting. The low buildings and winding streets, lights illuminating a centuries-old fountain or church. Even a couple lanes of curving traffic can't dull the Plaza Mayor or the aroma of a Parisian restaurant.

Chinese cities, having been subject to the physical colonization of Europe and the cultural colonization of the United States, have elements of both. Tianjin's Italian district, or the gleaming towers of the Pudong New Area in Shanghai, for instance. But above all, Chinese cities at night are exuberant. They're filled with flashing, shifting lights - entire walls of buildings lit up like the Vegas Strip. The organized chaos of traffic adds to the effect, sparks coming together in swarms and just as quickly splitting apart. Think of the iconic Bird's Nest Olympic stadium, aglow in red - straining outward and showing off.

And lots more too, of course, from the rusting industrial to walls and gates built five hundred years ago. But it seems to me that, with good reason, exuberance is where they're headed.

From the Beijing cabby file:

"So what do Americans eat besides steak, bread and milk?"

"Um, lots of things..." *Chapter 14 of first year Chinese flashes before my eyes*

"What, like McDonald's and KFC?"

I made my way down to Tianjin yesterday to see Mandi, who has a (really nice!) apartment in the dead center of town near the Hai River. I get in the cab in Beijing thinking, "Hey, I took this train before, I know what I'm doing...'To Beijing Station, sir!'" But lo and behold, they have a new train between Tianjin and Beijing that runs at 340 km/h and gets you there in 30 minutes of ride time for an eight dollar ticket. The same cab driver who was confused about American eating habits helpfully informed me that I actually wanted to go to the *new* train station, which was built since I was here in 2006. This runs to the still under construction new station in Tianjin, of course. I can't say I envy the young female employees assigned to attempt to herd the Chinese into lines, though. 

This morning Mandi and I hit the local grocery store. Blueberry potato chips. Delicious. 

Thanks for all of your comments so far!

Hello all.  I safely arrived in China last night and spent today moving into the foreign student dorm at Qinghua.  It's a decent enough facility and I'm glad to be on campus.  Unfortunately, I get the feeling that I'm living in the North Campus (UM) of Qinghua - unattractive modern architecture, far away and lots of foreign students.  That's ok though.  Parts of this university are really beautiful, with a canal cutting through it that allows for some lovely bridges, overhanging trees etc. I'll post some pictures when I get a chance to get my camera out. 

I did buy a cell phone today, so if you absolutely must reach me you can do so at (86) (151)  0160-5044.  The commercial area just outside of Qinghua (basically Wudaokou) has a nice mix of stuff.  I had lunch at a bakery...some sort of bruschetta sandwich that has yet to be invented in the US I think.  Delicious after the airplane food.  

We drove through the Olympic park on my way to the university with everything lit up. Even more stunning than on TV - I look forward to getting over there as well.  Beijing has been very un-Beijing like so far with pouring rain, fewer cars (though still plenty) and cleanish air, though I'm no atmospheric scientist.    

I'm waiting next to the elevator in my hotel this morning with this Chinese guy and his son who looks about 12, pondering the fact that I have no idea how to say "check out," what to do to get a cab on this back alley or where I'm going on the Qinghua campus.  "You study English - ask him something," says the Dad.  "I'm not prepared," responds his son.  Yeah kid, me either.