Day 1 / 2 Tiananmen 天安门 / Niujie Mosque 清真寺

All arrived safely in Beijing throughout the day Sunday.  Among our group we have 14 CIEE participants from America and 6 local Chinese students who will be with us the entire duration of our program.   We then all checked into our hotel rooms to situate ourselves before gathering as a full group for the first time, making acquaintences, and taking a stroll to the Carrefour down the street to give everyone an opportunity to pick up any urgent necessities. The hotel rooms are spacious and comfortable, each fully equipped with a refrigerator, TV (with local cable), wi-fi, a private bathroom and, quite thankfully, air conditioning. The dining room where we congregate every morning to fuel up before setting out for the day, located right in our hotel building, features an abundant Chinese-style breakfast buffet, laiden with baozi 包子 (stuffed buns), youtiao 油条 (fried dough sticks), fresh fruit and much more, as well as some western staples like muffins, coffee and toast.

Monday, the first full day in Beijing was a long one. After orientation activities on Minzu University 民族大学 campus, we boarded a bus to the famous Tiananmen 天安门 Square and Forbidden City 故宫 at the city's center for a 3-km walk over of the most storied ground in Chinese history. The extreme temperatures and humidity of Beijing summers made the journey trying at times, but spirits somehow remained high throughout the day, which culminated in a delicious dinner at a nearby Peking duck 北京烤鸭 restaurant that certainly left no one hungry.

Today began similarly with survival-Chinese classes first thing in the morning, after which we departed for a midday excursion via the Beijing subway system to the local Niujie 牛街 Mosque, the oldest mosque in all of China and one of great beauty. Afterwards, we stopped for ice cream and other treats at a local bakery, then made our way back to Minzu University for short classes on service work and environmental issues in China, more survival Chinese, and cross-cultural communication. In the evening we went to an enormous shopping mall in Haidian 海淀and split into small groups for dinner. At this point it's hard to believe we're still only on Day 2 of the program!

Starting tomorrow, every night will feature a blog post from a different participant in the group, sharing their thoughts and experiences on the program. Stay tuned!

Austin