Beijing! Beijing!

Daniel

So… after 5 hour of a plane ride, 1.5 hour of bus ride and 15 minutes of taxi ride, I finally arrived at my apartment in Beijing. This is actually my third time in Beijing, so I am quite familiar with the city, how to get around, what to eat, and what to NOT eat. Even though this is not my first time here, I am still very excited to be a student at Peking University, the best university in CHINA! The smartest of the smartest of 1.3 billion people attend this school, so I am, at the same time, excited and nervous to be around these brains.

Yesterday (Sept. 14, 09) was the first day of class. I had information economics in the morning and operation management at night—from 7-10pm. The professors here are very young. I was expecting some 50-year-old Chinese in a traditional button up shirt, but instead I got some 20-year-old looking guy in a H&M’s style jacket for my information economics class.

Many of my classmates are exchange students from all around the world, but surprisingly about 80% of them are from Europe. I was expecting more exchange students to be from the US, but there is only a handful. I also made friends with local Chinese students.

During the break in the evening’s Operation Management class, I had a conversation with a local student who sat behind me. I asked him about the typical life of a typical Peking University student. I learned that they study a lot. Some of the students can study 14 hours straight per day! To deal with this studymania, the school completely turns off the electricity in the dormitory at 11pm. But this doesn’t prevent these studious students from over studying; many of them go to the nearest McDonalds to study—most McDonalds are 24hour in China.

I used to think that I am a hard-working student, but after hearing this, I felt very lazy.

However, there is more stuff to do other than study in Beijing. I went to the Great Wall, Summer Palace, and the Temple of Heaven last week with my new German, Korean, Australian, Romanian, Italian, Spanish, and French friends. And I will be going to Tibet by train in 2 weeks!