{"id":1819,"date":"2016-07-26T02:58:38","date_gmt":"2016-07-26T06:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/sla2016\/?p=1819"},"modified":"2016-07-26T02:58:38","modified_gmt":"2016-07-26T06:58:38","slug":"beijing-the-halfway-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/2016\/07\/26\/beijing-the-halfway-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Beijing – The Halfway Point"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marking our halfway point for our summer session abroad in China, the Notre Dame summer language program took a trip down to Xi\u2019an, China.\u00a0 <\/span>It was roughly an 11 hour trip by train from the Beijing station.\u00a0 <\/span>It was a very interesting experience to say the least, for not only is it not common to travel by train in the States, but it is a foreign concept to travel by train in a sleeping car with strangers.\u00a0 <\/span>While I will admit I was originally put off by the tight quarters of the \u201csoft-sleeper\u201d car, I ended up enjoying the new experience, and the chance to practice speaking with native speakers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Arriving in Xi\u2019an, the immediate distinguishing characteristic from Beijing was the air quality.\u00a0 <\/span>While China as a whole has problems with pollution, it is more serious in Beijing, and it is often days at a time between sunny days with blue skies.\u00a0 <\/span>Getting off the train in Xi\u2019an, there was not a cloud in the sky, and there was a comfortable breeze.\u00a0 <\/span>Absolutely beautiful weather. <\/span><\/p>\n

Xi\u2019an is an ancient city, and we were able to see the famous city wall, a stunning play detailing the exploits of a famous Tang dynasty emperor, and of course the army of Terra-cotta Warriors.\u00a0 <\/span>The Terra-cotta warriors were breathtaking, and the history was practically tangible walking through the massive excavation.\u00a0 <\/span>It was incredible to think they had not even found all of them yet.\u00a0 <\/span>However, the Xi\u2019an wall was my favorite stop.\u00a0 <\/span>A wall that runs a roughly 14 KM rectangle around the city, it is ancient, and traverses past many famous Xi\u2019an sites.\u00a0 <\/span>Riding a rented bike around the wall twice, I was able to take in the scenery and have a little fun racing my classmates.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is remarkable to me that I have already surpassed the halfway point of my experience here.\u00a0 <\/span>The weeks have flown by, yet somehow I feel I have been here for years.\u00a0 <\/span>Interactions that were once challenging are now routine and second-hand.\u00a0 <\/span>I am proud of the progress I have made, and excited that I am fortunate enough to have some weeks left in this country to continue to learn and grow as a student.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marking our halfway point for our summer session abroad in China, the Notre Dame summer language program took a trip down to Xi\u2019an, China.\u00a0 It was roughly an 11 hour trip by train from the Beijing station.\u00a0 It was a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2171,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[117885],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-do-not-use"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1820,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1819\/revisions\/1820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}