Boy, were we wrong about things slowing down here! In fact, they have picked up more than before. We have been quite busy either preparing for the end of the semester finals or helping students in need. The constant activity has been very consuming, but in a good way.We have been very fortunate to work with some outstanding students. For example, Pazi is working right now with a young lady that is determined to spend this summer in the U.S. Initially, she was looking at transferring from her current McDonald's job here in Beijing to one in Pennsylvania. However, Pazi has mentored and coached this promising student to have more confidence in her abilities. This student took the advice to heart and now it appears that she has qualified to intern at a very ritzy Wyndham Hotel in Orlando, Florida!
At the same time, Adán is working with his own set of students outside of the classroom. He is informally teaching resume/CV building classes. There is a decent percentage of students at BISU wishing to attend graduate programs internationally. Currently, he is working with students applying to schools in America, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy, and Turkey. These students have amazing backgrounds. The goal is helping them unlock their stories and experiences so that others can see how rich and promising they truly are.
Xiang Shan Gong Yuan
This past week two of Adán's student from his freshman Oral English class invited us go to a park. The two students are Steven and Yuan (like the money) and they are boyfriend and girlfriend. We happily agreed. We do our best to never turn down an offer to explore the city with native Chinese. They told us that they would decide on the formalities of our outing and send us an e-mail. After figuring out the game plan, it was decided that we would meet Yuan at the south gate of our school and take the subway to the park. Steven would meet us at the appropriate subway stop. He was ahead of us because he was visiting relatives on the other side of Beijing. Unfortunately for us, our subway ride to Bajiao Station was twenty stops away! Now, we have learned the ropes here about the subway and it all about being aggressive. So we made it a priority to get seats on the subway. This is not always an easy task when you have people cutting in lines, pushing, and shoving you out of the way. However, we got our seats and settled in for the long ride.
It took us over one hour to arrive at our destination. Once we got off, Steven was right there waiting for us. He told us next up was a bus ride it would be another 30 minutes before we would arrive at the Xiang Shan Gongyuan, or also known by the name Fragrant Hills Park. Both Steven and Yuan told us it was a very beautiful and relaxing park. Little did we know what we were about to get into.Taking the bus in China is terrible. It you are ever in China, avoid them at all costs. The ride is so herky-jerky that you sometimes wish you had brought a helmet and tight grip gloves. To make matters worse, the strip of road to the park was completely torn up because it was being widened by construction crews. The ride got so bad in fact that poor Yuan actually threw up. She was such a trooper and handled the situation with little embarrassment. We think her philosophy was, "If the bus wasn't so darn bumpy, I would never have had the accident to begin with."
After exiting the bus, we made our way up to the park entrance. We waited momentarily in line to pay the 10 yuan (less than $1.50) fee for each person and then were off. This location was originally a 12th century imperial hunting retreat. Then during Emperor Qianlong's reign, pavilions, lakes, tea houses, and other beautifully landscapes where built. The park is roughly 400 acres in size! Once again, Chinese parks are incredible. It was opened to the public in 1956 and has been a very popular Chinese attraction according to our students.
Not telling us, Steven took us in and through the south route of the park. We learned after doing some research that this side of Xiang Shan is considered to be for "advanced" hikers. We would soon find out why. Nevertheless, the scenery was magnificent. We saw beautiful lakes, gardens, temples, etc. One of the highlights from this route was viewing historical residence of Mao Zedong, and the early headquarters site for the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. It was even complete with a bomb shelter (see photo)!Then things became much more difficult. We realized quickly that Steven and Yuan had plans to take us to the top of Xiang Lu. Referred to as Incense Burner Peak,the top was over 1,800 feet up! The the climbing here was not easy. For starters, no two steps were the same size and there were very few areas for resting. This made for a challenging trek up the mountain. Eventually after about one hour we reached the summit. We must at admit the view was gorgeous.
We ended up having lunch at the top of the peak with Steven and Yuan. We talked about their hometowns and their experiences traveling. They shared trips to places like Guangdong province and the Hainan Islands, both in China. It was a great opportunity to rest as well for it wouldn't be long before we had to descend. We took a few last pictures from up above and journeyed back down.Since we started up the south route, our ending point was the north route entrance. Continuing our loop, we ran into some incredibly steep steps and declines. So steep that we at times felt our legs shaking! By now, it was obvious that everyone in our group was exhausted, but no one said a word about it. We continued on until we reached the Azure Clouds Temple. Steven asked us if we wanted to visit, but when we found out that it was rather large and would take about an hour to tour, we decided it was time to head back home.
Unlike the U.S. where we would just hop in a car and drive back, we then set out to catch a new bus for a one hour ride to a different subway station. From there we rode for about thirty minutes until finally we arrived back at campus. We thanked Steven and Yuan for all their generosity and parted ways. As we walked back to our apartment, we said to each other, "Next time, when they say it's just a park and it'll be relaxing, we better bring our hiking gear."
