Nick Caponigro, May 9

May 9, 2011

Nick Caponigro

Since coming to China we have accomplished much more than I thought we were going to in the first 3 days. Since arrival we have gone to the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City. I will try to make this as short as possible about each because I could write for days.

First was the Great Wall of China. This was easily the best experience of my life. The Great Wall is built along a mountain range and goes on for miles; it was built to keep out invaders from the North. My roommate and I started climbing at a fast pace and ended up getting a few miles up the Wall to a very high peak. When this was reached we were both speechless.

The scenery around was so magnificent that all we did was take pictures and video and just gaze out over the land. On the way down the professors and Nick and myself took a toboggan ride down the side of the mountain, which was probably one of the coolest things to do.

The next day the group ventured to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, which ended up only being a half-hour walk from our apartment building. On the way though we stopped and watched a traditional Chinese wedding commence. Working at a banquet hall I have seen the reception of a Chinese wedding but never have seen the actual procession into the church. The confetti filled launchers were very cool and unexpected when they were pulled when the bride arrived at the Church.

When we arrived at Tiananmen Square I didn’t expect it to be as big as it was. People were everywhere. One of the best parts was that there were people from all over China, not just Beijing, and they have never seen Americans before. We were treated like movie stars—they all wanted to get pictures with us.

After the square we went to the Forbidden City, which was right across the street. The Forbidden City was amazing from the history to the architecture the palace was mind-boggling. We ended up viewing all of the parts of the city, which was huge. To think that only the emperor and family lived there is unbelievable. Also there were so many people, we even met other Phillies fans who were from Philadelphia and we ended up talking with them for quite some time.

So far this trip has been amazing with the history, the friends, the sights, and even the food, coming from a person that never ate Chinese food before in the States the food is phenomenal. I could write and write on these 3 places but I may miss my deadline for this update so enjoy.