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Nineteen 51�Թ��� students on an extended study trip are busy exploring the ancient city of Beijing.

They have done a lot in their first few days.

They’ve seen a performance of the Beijing Opera, walked through one of the city’s older neighborhoods and learned about hutongs  distinctive alleyways that are being destroyed to make way for new development, visited Tiananmen Square and noticed an increase in security as the anniversary nears of the June 4, 1989, crackdown on student protesters, and climbed (or tried to, anyway) the Great Wall.

They are far from done. They will keep sending periodic updates as they tour the city and work on their individual research projects. Make sure to see the photos they have sent and the video clips of their visit.

 Here are their online journal entries:

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Thursday, May 27
Teresa Doucet ’07

By general consensus, it seemed that today’s visit to the Great Wall of China was by far the best day trip we’ve had thus far. Though it was not our first visit to the Great Wall (we spent the better part of the day there just this Monday), it was nonetheless new and exciting.

The long wait in the lobby for our tardy tour bus gave us the chance to fuel up with coffee and Egg McMuffins. 51�Թ��� an hour later, all 19 of us crammed onto what looked like a run-down version of a hippie bus, and we honked our way through the busy streets of Beijing.

The targeted location was a far-off trout farm, where we would stop for lunch, and then climb up to a less visited area of the Great Wall. As it turns out, the bus driver must have decided to take a couple “short-cuts;” we arrived slightly behind schedule, after stopping several times to ask for directions.

 But the trip was well worth it.

We were kindly greeted, and directed toward the trout pond where we fished for our own lunch. We caught eight trout in all, which were then brought to the kitchen to be cooked in various ways. Dan and Shannon were happy to entertain the class with locally purchased fireworks as we waited for our meal.

51�Թ��� students pose at the Great Wall. They are (back row, from left) Dom Ruggerio, Juan Amaya, Amy Demarco, Kevin McAvey, Shannon Rovtar, Teresa Doucet, Natalie Dean, and Claire Bretzke. In front are Professor John Crespi, Diana Zeledon, Nanyarid Gonzalez, and Kay Traester.

After lunch, we headed toward the Great Wall. Many of us decided to ride horses up to the wall as an alternative to walking up the rocky trail. Once again, the group was quickly separated into numerous small units once we got there: The wanderers walked the farthest along the Great Wall. The naturalists stopped every few minutes to snap a half a roll of film. The adventurers wandered into less traveled areas where the wall was bereft of any solid structure or proper walking paths. This group was led by Professor Crespi himself.

With his help, we uncovered ancient pottery remains, and even managed to find a few small rocks that had fallen from the Great Wall itself.

When our legs could take no more climbing and our mouths could not get any drier, we hopped back on our horses and headed back toward the bus.

The return trip seemed to pass much more quickly than the arriving trip. After briefly discussing how nice it was to have spent a day away from haggling vendors and tourist-oriented areas, most of us sank back into our seats to catch a few zzzs before dinner.

Wednesday, May 26
Diana Zeledon ’05

Today, Professor Crespi arranged a group visit to a local junior high school. My project concentrates on childhood, growing up in China, and how everything has changed as a result of changes in political policy. So I was very excited to get first-hand information from students growing up under the new system.

We took our cameras and equipment and each one of us interviewed a group of students for a short period of time.

Their schedules are unbelievable!

Natalie Dean of 51�Թ��� gets some help from students at a Beijing junior high school. (Photo by Diana Zeledon ’05)

They go to school on the weekends and have so much homework they don’t have time to do anything else. They all complained that they are tired and fall asleep during class because they don’t have enough time to sleep at night.

They have a lot of pressure from their parents to get good grades and get into good universities. This pressure also affects the teachers, who receive calls and visits from parents to make sure their kids are being challenged and are well- prepared.

The students also asked us questions about ourselves and were surprised by the fact that we are able to choose the classes we want to take and that we wear sandals to class.

After the interviews we joined them for their hour of fun and playing sports. We all had a good time playing table tennis, flag football and basketball with the kids.

Monday, May 24
Dave Policano ’06

I was one of the few from our group that braved the high altitude, burning sun, and precipitous steps of the Great Wall of China. Armed with water bottles and cameras, we trudged up the steep steps, marking off each tower as we hoofed up and down the roller coaster hills.

It started off as an innocuous stroll; the group clambered off the bus and moved toward the entrance of the wall. From there, unity dissipated, and members of our group dropped like flies. Only six of us reached a third of the way up the wall. Glistening with exertion, we continued our journey.

The Great Wall stretches approximately 4,163 miles. (Photo by Dave Policano ’06)

Around us, elderly women made their way up and down the cliffs, and little children were bounding from step to step. These apparent veterans taught us new techniques for handling the ways of the wall. The array of footwear on those making the climb ranged from stilettos to sandals.

After much ado, we finally made it down to the exit turnstiles and the “bear pit.” Back at the tour bus, we wedged ourselves into our respective seats and enjoyed the soft caress of the air conditioning, gloating to ourselves about our triumph.

The rest of the day included the Chinese Medicine Academy, the Ming Tombs, and a well-known tea house. The Ming Tombs, which I thought would be more glamorous and ostentatious, were a disappointment. It seems that most of the splendor is hidden underground, and our tour guide neglected to do anything other than point out some mounds where the graves were located tens of meters under the ground.

By the time we got to the tea house, at least half of us were delirious with exhaustion and felt incredibly icky. This made for a laughable tea ceremony, at which our wisecracking didn’t endear us to the woman in charge. Once the tour was over, we all crashed in the hotel and considered the great achievements of those who had successfully climbed the Great Wall. We dubbed ourselves the “Suicide Six.”