The trip to China with the MUN team was an eye opening and mind broadening experience. It is an interesting thing when all of one’s life doesn’t prepare one for the grandeur of an ancient culture and the equally great difference in the way that culture lives today. Between the pollution, that seemed to be perfectly acceptable to everyone, and the indifference everyone seemed to have to strangers around them, the experience in china is a totally different one than the experience here. First of all there are people everywhere, literally, in every direction you look, even foot traffic on the highways, secondly the way they practice capitalism makes ours look like Venetian mercantile fleets of old. On every corner, ‘you buy, you buy, you buy!’ mind you not a question but a distinct directive, as if their only use for noticing the people around them were to sell some cheap knick knacks they have available. I am however sure these experiences are more localized to the areas with tourist foot traffic. Our trip was a whirlwind tour of Beijing one that usually takes three days we did in 2 so as a result we went nonstop all day both days. The temples were all beautiful and exciting to visit, my favorites were the Cloud Temple and the Spirit path. The most amazing thing we saw as far as ancient culture was the Terra Cotta Warriors, the complex was sprawling and full of activity repairing and displaying the figures. They informed us that several more complexes had been discovered recently that wouldn’t be ready for viewing for several more years, which is a shame as it was a place of beauty and offered an opportunity to reflect on ancient times that can never be recaptured like they it is at that site. Finally our trip wrapped up with a two day visit to our sister Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xian and was overall my favorite part of the trip. The students there are fantastic well educated and sharp as tacks. They are kind and more than willing to bend over backward to accommodate us and our questions. I was told that they only had two days to put together the things they did for our visit and it was a big production, not only did we have the standard campus tour but we also had a full on talent show consisting of some traditional dance from one of the male students complete with back flips and a sword, a great acoustic rendition of some American pop songs, even, and this surprised me the most, a hip-hop dance routine that had been meticulously practiced and was outstanding. Over all the trip was an outstand opportunity to learn and one of the top events of my life so far, Dr Wright should be commended for his efforts putting it together.
