Last Official Day of the Program

Wow... that went by really fast. Today is our last day together and we are back in Beijing after a whirlwind tour of He'nan province. Tomorrow everyone will be going their separate ways. Jake, Nathan, and I will be sticking around Beijing for one more day because we were invited to visit one of our new Chinese friend's home, visit a local elementary school, and make dumplings! We are all really excited for this. The day after tomorrow I will be headed out on a high speed train from Beijing to Shanghai to begin the second half of my adventure; the internship at BioFarm. I'm kind of sad to be done with our rapid-fire tour of China, but I'm excited to finally get to work.

And, as promised here are some more photos!

The Forbidden City is a huge complex of beautiful buildings in the middle of Beijing, that for hundreds of years only the Emperor and his staff were allowed to enter.

These are prayers tied to a tree in a garden that once belonged to a high-ranking official. In general people pray for true love, health, and happiness.

One of the many people we saw lighting candles at Buddhist temples.

Trevor decided to pose with Chiang Kai-Shek and his wife.

We visited a Painter's Village to do interviews. The entire village had one tractor, and all of the roads were covered in piles of wheat so the grains would dry in the sun.

They did a great welcoming performance for us, complete with dancing and singing. These little kids came along with us to watch. We also got to participate in the fun. Jake and I did the Dragon Boat Dance, and everyone was a part of the large Dragon Dance.

Here is the painter of the Painter's Village; his artwork is absolutely stunning. I was even lucky enough to have a painting lesson with him (meaning I painted some messy blobs, and he managed to fix them into a beautiful picture of peonies).

We got to see the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an. There are thousands of life-sized clay soldiers, officers, officials, and horses buried with Emperor Qing Shi-huan. 

Each one is unique, and was originally painted in vivid colors. Currently only a fraction of the total soldiers have been excavated, and only a fraction of them have been pieced back together into their original form.