Ni Hao Everybody! Again, it's been a couple of days, but I have been busy having a wonderful time. It's getting late again, and we will have to get up at 5AM, to go visit the Great Wall, so forgive me for going through this quickly :)
We got here on Wednesday afternoon, and instantly went to see the Olympic Park, where the 2008 Olympics took place. There we met Na, who lives here in Beijing, but also studies with Linzhen at Northeastern. It is great we get to meet so many friends in a place so far away! The 'Bird's Nest' stadium must be one of the most beautiful and visually challenging structures I have ever seen. It is so surreal, I just love it. Close to the stadium was the so-called Water Cube, where all the swimming events took place. This is another example of amazingly original architecture. So we were there during the day, but we also made another drive by later that night, just so we could see the structures lit up as well. Here are some pictures:
We got here on Wednesday afternoon, and instantly went to see the Olympic Park, where the 2008 Olympics took place. There we met Na, who lives here in Beijing, but also studies with Linzhen at Northeastern. It is great we get to meet so many friends in a place so far away! The 'Bird's Nest' stadium must be one of the most beautiful and visually challenging structures I have ever seen. It is so surreal, I just love it. Close to the stadium was the so-called Water Cube, where all the swimming events took place. This is another example of amazingly original architecture. So we were there during the day, but we also made another drive by later that night, just so we could see the structures lit up as well. Here are some pictures:
The 'Bird's Nest' Stadium: home of the 2008 Beijing Olympics
Water Cube by day, and the very interesting looking "dragon tower" in the background, which is occupied by IBM
The Water Cube by night
After the Olympic part, we went to visit one of the older parts of Beijing. There we walked through a narrow shopping street with lots of small shops. At the end of that section, we got to a small lake in the middle of city, where a lot of popular bars and restaurants are located. We got to try another local specialty: Beijing Hot Pot. For those of you who do not know what Hot Pot is: you get a range of dishes with vegetables and thinly sliced meats, which you get to cook by yourself at your own table. In the Netherlands we call it Fondue (although I'm pretty sure we stole that name from the French). Other local food specialties we have tried so far include: Peking Duck, which is delicious, Duck tongue, never again, and Duck Bone Soup, which was actually pretty good. They also served us "Duck Hand", which (I guess) is the tiny bit of meat that is wrapped around the duck's foot. But after already trying (and really disliking) the tongue, I did not feel adventurous enough to give that a try as well.
Apart from many interesting foods, we also got to see a lot more sights. We went for drinks that first night in a bar. We all planned to take it pretty easy since it had been a short night and a long day, but once we discovered we could get two mixed drinks (Whiskey Coke's for me) for a mere $1.50, there was no taking it easy! It was quite fun. We got home at 2AM, which isn't too late, but I still had to finish a conference paper which was due at Midnight in the US. Thankfully, the time difference allowed to work on it until noon here, the next day, which is exactly the amount of time I ended up needing.
The next day we went to one of the most popular shopping centers, where you can literally find anything FAKE you could want. The only problem was that the things were so fake I didn't want them after all. I bought a couple of things that day, including a T-shirt for myself and some presents for other people. I'm gonna have a lot of luggage coming back to the Netherlands this summer! We had a delicious PIZZA dinner at the little shopping street again, with some of the other students from America. You can see a couple of them in the picture below:
Apart from many interesting foods, we also got to see a lot more sights. We went for drinks that first night in a bar. We all planned to take it pretty easy since it had been a short night and a long day, but once we discovered we could get two mixed drinks (Whiskey Coke's for me) for a mere $1.50, there was no taking it easy! It was quite fun. We got home at 2AM, which isn't too late, but I still had to finish a conference paper which was due at Midnight in the US. Thankfully, the time difference allowed to work on it until noon here, the next day, which is exactly the amount of time I ended up needing.
The next day we went to one of the most popular shopping centers, where you can literally find anything FAKE you could want. The only problem was that the things were so fake I didn't want them after all. I bought a couple of things that day, including a T-shirt for myself and some presents for other people. I'm gonna have a lot of luggage coming back to the Netherlands this summer! We had a delicious PIZZA dinner at the little shopping street again, with some of the other students from America. You can see a couple of them in the picture below:
Our companions for the dinner. From left to right: Li, Connor, John, Xi, Dave, Mickael, Shannon and me
I just had to show you all this traffic sign we found. No car explosions allowed?
You're not allowed to start a fire on the roof of your car? On which streets CAN you do this?
You're not allowed to start a fire on the roof of your car? On which streets CAN you do this?
Later that night we also got to meet with Bo. Yet another friend from Northeastern who is from China, and came to Beijing for the next couple of days to help show us around. After catching up with him we decided to call it a semi-early night.
Today (Friday), we had to wake up quite early again, because we were going to visit a couple of universities here, where my advisor, Prof. Lin and Bo studied. So, we got to meet our professor too. It seems like everyone from our lab is in Beijing right now :) At the universities we got a tour of their research labs (JEALOUS!!) and Dave and I both held presentations about our own work at Northeastern. After another long day, we were invited by a friend of Linzhen's family to have dinner in one of the coolest, fanciest places in Beijing: the rotating restaurant in the city's Television tower, which is also that tallest building. This was a buffet place, but the food was absolutely fabulous. Just to give an indication of how great is was: on my first plate, I assembled: Boston Melon Salad (Yay Boston), Blueberry Grilled Pork, John Rambo Cheese Grilled Pineapple (Had to try it because of the ridiculous name, but it was just as delicious too), and Hawaiian Chicken Salad. We also had steak.. AND there was a Chocolate fountain with tons of fruit! And did I mention the place was rotating? :) We were up at a hight of 238 meters (781 ft), and beautiful views of the the city slowly passed by as the night fell. Again, here are some pictures of the night.
Today (Friday), we had to wake up quite early again, because we were going to visit a couple of universities here, where my advisor, Prof. Lin and Bo studied. So, we got to meet our professor too. It seems like everyone from our lab is in Beijing right now :) At the universities we got a tour of their research labs (JEALOUS!!) and Dave and I both held presentations about our own work at Northeastern. After another long day, we were invited by a friend of Linzhen's family to have dinner in one of the coolest, fanciest places in Beijing: the rotating restaurant in the city's Television tower, which is also that tallest building. This was a buffet place, but the food was absolutely fabulous. Just to give an indication of how great is was: on my first plate, I assembled: Boston Melon Salad (Yay Boston), Blueberry Grilled Pork, John Rambo Cheese Grilled Pineapple (Had to try it because of the ridiculous name, but it was just as delicious too), and Hawaiian Chicken Salad. We also had steak.. AND there was a Chocolate fountain with tons of fruit! And did I mention the place was rotating? :) We were up at a hight of 238 meters (781 ft), and beautiful views of the the city slowly passed by as the night fell. Again, here are some pictures of the night.
I guess Dave doesn't like Clowns...
(The best part is that he didn't know I was taking this picture)
(The best part is that he didn't know I was taking this picture)
I wish night-time pictures would look better on my iPhone camera, but trust me, it was a beautiful view!
At night the tower is lit up and projected with different images. Just imagine that that red ring is 238 meters (781 ft) up!
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