Then we were off to Beijing.
Two guys an airplane, and shops full of "brand name" products just two hours away. We were especially looking forward to witnessing the city's Rolex award-worthy enterprise and trade.
Five plane flights down, seven to go!
The Great Hall of the People has been the scene of many important gatherings in recent Chinese history. Judging from the trees out front they may be bidding to host the next major Palmetto Pride event.
One broadly applicable lesson from the American space program is that there should be redundancy in all critical systems.
Here we were in what looked like the Texaco Star Theatre, but I couldn't find Milton Berle anywhere.
Red, green, and white. This walkway color scheme is more proof of China's secret homage to the Italian government and the Italian flag.
Everywhere we went in China we picked up small knick-knacks that will be used to decorate the new history department office suite in Furman Hall.
Right across from our hotel in Beijing was the site of the famous May 4th student movement. And no, that is not Col. Sanders being depicted as the movement's leader.
Kimberley, Lixin, and Claire quickly became the chief tourist attraction in Tiananmin Square.
The Chinese national flag.
In the old days before computers they used send Furman freshmen to a large auditorium for mass registration.
The mosh pit has been a common dance form since the early 1980s.
We'll just sit here!
The main reason for all the crowds we saw in the imperial palace.
Three wise guides: Mr. Lin, Dr. Kiely, and Mr. Xu.
Hutong hoop dreams and the Year of the Yao.
In the Beijing hutong neighborhoods there are many gracious people who open their doors to even the strangest of strangers.
Woo Hoo! At last we found another Internet bar!
When visiting the Great Wall it is crucial to bring water or you will dehydrate before you finish the long trail of souvenir shops.
In days of old the Great Wall had people garrisoned every few meters to ensure that no foreigner came into the country unchallenged.
Just one question. Skateboarding, anyone?
Clark and Spencer were the first to top the wall.
Claire, Stew, and Bob Marley were not far behind.
Caroline and Matt were just warming up for their assault on Huangshan.
Deb rolls in with the Tide.
Brittany was camera ready when she finished the climb.
Lixin smiles at having so adeptly dodged the tourist shops at the bottom of the wall.
Benmei made the climb while performing a variety of astounding card and fan tricks.
Travis wanted to know if he could ride the cable car down and make the hike again.
Whitney talked him out of it so that they could stay to hear the Australian band perform at the top.
Katie is either expressing her desire for peace, or ordering two post-wall beverages, we're not sure.
Samantha, achieving the first of several transcendent states of post-climb spiritual bliss.
Mr. Xu was really glad he didn't have to carry a small child and an umbrella up the wall.
Lauren gets a special award for making the trip with a broken foot. You rule!
Carol, just before taking out the woman who blocked her way to the top.
Though the shadow has moved not,
A thousand miles I've passed --
Ageless as the mountains but forgetting not the past.
-- Poet Warlord Cao Cao (2d century C.E.)
Some episodes included in this collection are historical reenactments rather than depictions of actual events.
Dr. Benson went to the Sackler Museum at Beijing University and all I got was this rusty iron pot.
A
nacreous concretion formed within the shell of various bivalve molluscs
around some foreign body (e.g. a grain of sand), composed of filmy layers of
carbonate of lime interstratified with animal membrane; it is of hard smooth
texture, of globular, pear-shaped, oval, or irregular form, and of various
colours, usually white or bluish-grey; often having a beautiful lustre,
and hence highly prized as a gem; formerly also used in medicine.
The chief source is the Pearl-oyster,
Meleagrina Pinctada margaritifera, of the
Indian Seas, but pearls are yielded by many other marine, as well as by
some freshwater shells, the pearl-mussels, Unionidæ.
I 'm a pepper, he's a pepper, she's a pepper, we're a pepper; wouldn't you like to be a pepper too?
Summer palace blues.
Water Garden.
All I want, and all my fellow mythical creatures want, is a hand up, not a handout.
Lauren was very glad that this was Beijing's Summer Palace, not Furman Lake on her birthday.
Her mind empties as she begins the journey again. Everything is as it will always be for the poet bus driver who spills her dreams on a schoolday route.
