Charles Hunter: China

Beijing and Shanghai

This summer, three other students and I were fortunate enough to receive a Wilson Grant to travel to China. We arrived in Beijing on Wednesday, June 18. We were picked up and driven to Beijing No. 4 High School and given a tour of the school. Once the tour had ended, my host brought me to his home, an apartment located several miles from the school. I lived in this apartment during my stay in Beijing. During the week, if nothing for the day was planned, my host would take me to school, or I would be allowed to explore the city on my own. The main method of long distance transportation in Beijing is the convenient and well planned subway system. Though cars are not an oddity, the Beijing streets surprisingly lack the heavy traffic common to comparable cities such as New York. Most people live in apartments, as housing is expensive. Near the end of our trip, we went to Shanghai, where we stayed for a few days. Compared to Beijing, Shanghai had less air pollution and seemed more modern, with its bright skyline and light shows.

Entering Beijing

Shanghai Skyline

School

Beijing No. 4 is considered one of the best high schools in China. Unlike schools in America, students stay in the same classroom throughout the day, with teachers coming to classroom. This arrangement creates a sense of pride in one’s class, and numerous intramural competitions between classes occur throughout the year. Having students stay in the same classroom allows for few elective courses, and all students take the same levels and types of courses. This lack of variety in the curriculum does not hinder education, however, because all students take the same nationwide exam at the end of the year. Sports lack the large presence seen in American schools, but Beijing No. 4 has a sizeable recreation area with two soccer fields, six basketball courts, and a track.

An Intramural Basketball Game

Food

Chinese food is completely different from anything I have seen in America. In China, meals are almost always eaten with chopsticks. Food is placed in the middle of the table, and each person grabs the food from the central plate. There are too many dishes to list completely, but some of my favorites include sweet and sour fish, fried mushrooms, hot noodles, hot wings that were so spicy most of us cried just by smelling it, and even silkworm. One of the most memorable culinary experiences did not feature Chinese food at all, but instead a burger called the Matador at a Spanish restaurant in the Nanluoguxiang Hutong. With five total people, we were barely able to finish the burger.

The Matador Burger

Tourist Sites

The Forbidden City

Of course, we spent considerable time sightseeing. We first visited Tiananmen Square and Mao Zedong’s mausoleum. While in Tiananmen Square, we were invited to a small art exhibit, where one of the artist’s students offered to write our names down on a piece of paper attached to a piece of silk in traditional Chinese script for 100 yuan, which amounted to about $16. That same day, we visited a Buddhist temple called Yong He Gong, which featured a towering statue of Buddha. The next day, we toured Tsinghua University, and then the Summer Palace, which had been the vacation home for the Chinese emperors. Two days later, we visited the Forbidden City and the National Museum, both of which were located next to Tiananmen Square. The following day, we visited the Olympic Park, including the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube. After the weekend, we took a train ride to the Great Wall. In addition to these famous tourist attractions, we also frequented the numerous Hutongs in Beijing. Hutongs are neighborhoods that were built before the founding of the Republic of China. We also took a ferry ride through Shanghai and visited the Shanghai Museum and Huangzhou.

Inside the Forbidden City

The Bird's Nest

The Summer Palace

The Great Wall

A Buddhist Temple

I would like to thank the Wilson family for their generosity in providing this opportunity to experience the Chinese language and culture firsthand. This trip has been an experience I will surely never forget, and its impact on my understanding of the language and culture is immeasurable. The Wilson family has given me a great asset in my study of Chinese, which I hope to be able to use in my future endeavors. I would encourage my fellow MBA students to take full advantage of the opportunity presented by the Wilson family, as you will surely have as memorable an experience as I.