This past weekend my program took us on an overnight fieldtrip to Cuan Di Xia, a small village 2-3 hours from Beijing. It is on the side of a mountain, and is special because every house in the village is a traditional courtyard house (the different rooms of the house are built around a central courtyard that serves as a private yard for the house. Here is a web site about Cuan Di Xia:
http://baike.baidu.com/view/509635.htm?fr=Aladdin
I really enjoyed the trip. The weather was very hot (it has been in the 100's here!) but it was nice to get out of the city. We hiked up a lot of small mountains and visited the temples in te village. The courtyard hotel we stayed in didn't have separate beds, but HUGE beds called Kang (炕) that are made out of brick with thin mattresses on top of them. In the winter they can light a fire under the kang to heat up the brick and make the bed toasty-warm. The kangs we slept on had sleeping spaces for 3-6 people, so it was kind of like a sleepover. My classmates and I stayed up late that night, talking and playing different games (including some language games can teach you guys in class).
I'm back in Beijing now. Tomorrow starts our last week of classes. Tomorrow I have to give a 5 minute speech about teaching Chinese (I picked project based learning as my topic) and have to memorize my talk. I have it pretty much memorized, but it is difficult to speak at a natural pace and still manage to get all of the tones right! Hopefully I will make it through this week. The last week of the program they are taking us to Pingyao, which I am very excited about!
http://www.chinatourguide.com/pingyao/pingyao_ancient_city.html
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/812
http://baike.baidu.com/view/509635.htm?fr=Aladdin
I really enjoyed the trip. The weather was very hot (it has been in the 100's here!) but it was nice to get out of the city. We hiked up a lot of small mountains and visited the temples in te village. The courtyard hotel we stayed in didn't have separate beds, but HUGE beds called Kang (炕) that are made out of brick with thin mattresses on top of them. In the winter they can light a fire under the kang to heat up the brick and make the bed toasty-warm. The kangs we slept on had sleeping spaces for 3-6 people, so it was kind of like a sleepover. My classmates and I stayed up late that night, talking and playing different games (including some language games can teach you guys in class).
I'm back in Beijing now. Tomorrow starts our last week of classes. Tomorrow I have to give a 5 minute speech about teaching Chinese (I picked project based learning as my topic) and have to memorize my talk. I have it pretty much memorized, but it is difficult to speak at a natural pace and still manage to get all of the tones right! Hopefully I will make it through this week. The last week of the program they are taking us to Pingyao, which I am very excited about!
http://www.chinatourguide.com/pingyao/pingyao_ancient_city.html
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/812