Entries: Travel

Today in Beijing...PLUS poll update

Sam Unger and Ted Land report from Beijing...Watch for poll results/answer. 

A Visit To Tsinghua University

Today I checked out Tsinghua University to interview athletes and students. Toby, my guide, biked around the University with me riding on the back of his bike, which was quite the adventure. I got the chance to interview two Olympic hopefuls, including a member of the Chinese National Shooting Team. I even went to a shooting range today...but I’ll save that for my story. The University, one of the most prestigious in all of China, as Toby explained, is quite large, with numerous athletic facilities where athletes can train. Numerous classes were outside today, because the weather was so temperate. That includes the martial arts class, hopefully which you can see in the video below.

Students practice Martial Arts at Tsinghua University:

The Fixers

Here’s to the Fixers…the hard-working locals who bend over backwards to make journalism happen in foreign areas.  We had a fantastic team of people from Taizhou #1 High School showing us where to go and what to do in order to gather the necessary elements for the e-waste story.  They booked our hotel, bargained with drivers, got us access to a scrapping facility, translated, and took several hours out of their busy work-days to make all this happen.  I wasn’t sure how successful my Taizhou excursion would be, given the logistical challenges.  Our guides made this an incredibly productive experience.  Thank you to the Fixers of Taizhou, China. 

All Aboard to Beijing

We trained from Shanghai to Beijing overnight Tuesday.  We departed from the Shanghai Railway station about 7:45pm and rode all night, arriving in a rainy, moist and humid Beijing right on time at 7:15am.  The twelve of us shared three four-bunk berths on the Beijing bound train, which rocked many of us to sleep Tuesday night.  To some extent, it was like sharing three neighboring dorm rooms.

Arrival at rainy Beijing's Railway Station early Wednesday morning

Christine and Maria in one of the train berths

Zhujiajiao: Recount Through Stills

We travelled to Zhujiajiao yesterday, to find ourselves venturing to somewhat of a time capsule, where english speaking tourists clash with the muttering Mandarin of the village locals.  These are some of the 250 photographs I took which recount a local perspective, where electricity is scarce and the fragrance of fresh fish fill the afternoon air.

Below is the web-quality slideshow, however I encourage you to view the full quality version, to do so please right click the “Click to experience this media file | Right-click to download” below this entry and click “Save Target As”.

Click to experience this media file | Right-click to download