I heard that the Chinese have built a high-speed rail network that extends to the end of the world and decided to see where it takes me. After a short (50min) metro train and bus ride I arrived at the gates of Paris, France. It all looks so French with clean streets and beautiful…. things.

I’ve been to Paris before but this time the city was easier to navigate than before, thanks to bilingual signage in French and English:

A nice stroll on the Champs Elysees. Wasn’t as crowded as last time but the people were much more polite and friendly than before! However the economic crisis in the EU has resulted in many of the shops remaining closed.

Overall the city was extremely beautiful and I must recommend that everyone should visit Paris!

Now I’m back in Hangzhou.

-t

Today is pizza day at Vineyard so I’m going there for dinner. Also, the midterm exams are happening on Thu/Fri/Sat covering everything between chapters 1 through 19. I still do not remember all characters. I’m getting better at reading though.

Found a study tip online:

Now I’m off for some pizza.

-t

I wanted to see the Great Wall so I went on a weekend trip to Beijing. I got to fly with China Eastern Airlines (MU) and that was a great experience. Red carpet at the airport for checkin, red carpet at the lounge entrance, etc… I even got slippers to take home! The Chinese are holding the APEC meeting in Beijing and thus had closed all nearby factories and cut traffic in half. As a result the air was clear and breathable!

In Beijing I took this organised bus tour to the wall. It was a typical tourist trap tour with visits to interesting museums (shops) like the jade museum (shop) and the silk museum (shop). I did not buy any ridiculously expensive jade and especially not any silk as we all well know that Hangzhou, not Beijing, is the silk capital of China…

The Great Wall was great. The tourist bit was well maintained but I walked to the off-limits section that isn’t maintained and saw what a thousand years does to stone walls.

There was no need to walk up to the wall:

The well maintained section:

The real wall:

Jade shop:

The next day I went for a stroll around Tiananmen(天安门) square. The east is red:

Flew back with Air China. No red carpet.

-t