On Tuesday, October 5, we arrived in Hong Kong. As we pull into the port all we could see was big skyscrapers along the entire coast, and the harbor was filled with boats of all shapes and sizes. The tug boat attached to the port side to pull us in.
	On Wednesday about half of the Semester at Sea students got on a plane to go to Beijing for three days. There were several different trips, but my trip was a university exchange with the University of Interntional Business and Economics. The lobby of the airport was scattered with hundreds of students waiting and catching a few extra minutes of shut eye on the floor. We took up over half of the huge Boeing 747 Air China jet.
	The first stop for my group was the Summer Palace. We were fortunate enough to be in Beijing during the 50th anniversary celebration of the People's Republic of China, so there were crowds everywhere! We had tour guides from the University, but when we got to a place they would turn us loose for a few hours, so Julie, Sang, and I walked around together.
	Julie, Sang, and I had our own private tour for awhile because we found one of our tour guides walking around alone. He helped us rent a paddle boat for an hour for only 20 Yuan which is about $2.50.
	We hung out in the middle of the water and watched the sun shine on the water and looked out at the sights of the Summer Palace.
	Wednesday night we went to the University and met students. I know this picture isn't very good because it was dark, but I wanted to post a picture of the students that Sang, Julie, and I met. We all gave them SAS t-shirts and they gave us UIBE t-shirts. It was fun to make new Chinese friends. They all had English names, the girl I talked to the most was named Jodie. Jodie and Maggie gave Julie and me Chinese names. My name is ai mei which means beautiful. They also took us out Friday night to Food City and I ate a grasshopper!!
	Thursday we had a very full day. We went to Tiananmen square and the Forbidden City in the morning. Everywhere we went in Beijing we were attacked by vendors selling postcards, Mao lighters, tea sets, and some other very tacky souvenirs.
	At the Forbidden City we got audio guides to listen so we would know what we were looking at. I thought the roof line of the Forbidden City was amazing.
	All over China (and also in Japan) you see two lions garding the gates. The male lion, on the right, has his right paw on the world, and the female lion, on the left, has her left paw on a cub. We were forbidden to enter many of the buildings in the Forbidden City (pun intended), but we could look in and many rooms had fancy decorations and thrones like this one.
	That afternoon we went to the Temple of Heaven, shopped on the Silk Road, and saw a Chinese Acrobatics show at night. This boy was climbing the stairs while balancing on a ladder with two girls on his shoulders, the top girl was balancing a stick on her chin.
	The acrobatic show was absolutely amazing. I didn't know exactly how to feel about it though because there were some very young children and I knew that this is consuming their entire life right now. What will happen when they can no longer perform?
	Friday morning we went to the Great Wall. It was wonderful. I was cold, so I bought a sweatshirt that said "I climbed the Great Wall." It really is a climb. Sections of it are very steep.
	I admit that I fell into a few of the tourist traps. I couldn't resist the opportunity to shoot arrows off of the Great Wall of China. I'm collecting pictures of traditional costumes for a class project, so I got dressed up for the picture.
	We flew back to Hong Kong Saturday morning and had about 5 hours in Hong Kong before on ship time. We all went to the stern of the boat on Prom deck to watch the lights of Hong Kong slowly disappear.