Clara in China... Summer 2010

I am taking a brief, two-week hiatus from Durban in Beijing, where I am participating in a Model UN conference and training camp. At Chicago, I staff our college's high school Model UN conference (MUNUC), where over 2000 high school students come to Chicago to debate for four days. Here in China, I am participating in "WEMUNC EXPO," which brings together staffers from several Model UN conferences (Chicago, UPenn, Berkeley, Harvard, Georgetown) to put on its own conference. MUNUC has five of its committees represented; I am running the committee that I chaired this past year, United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs. Before the conference starts next Thursday, some of us are helping to run a training camp, where we will be helping first-time Chinese delegates to learn the basics of ModelUN: speech and debate, paper writing, reading and research, lobbying and negotiation. This training camp lasts five days. I will be teaching Public Speaking and Debate every day to two different groups. I will also be leading two workshops, on on Women's Rights and the other on the World Cup. The students arrived today and seemed very excited and eager to learn.

The training camp and the Model UN conference are taking place in a large convention center about an hour away from Beijing proper, Grand Epoch City. The venue is gigantic: it was intended to be a full-scale replica of the Forbidden City. We arrived at the convention center late Wednesday night, after a long ride on a bus that we were all convinced would break down at any moment. Before coming to Grand Epoch City, we spent two full days in Beijing. We stayed at an apartment-style hotel and our days were filled with tourism activities. On Tuesday, the itinerary included the Summer Palace and the Great Wall. For me, the day didn't go exactly as planned. Due to a combination of the extreme heat in China, my lack of water, a poor decision to eat street food on my second night in the city and very little sleep the night before, I felt extremely sick form the moment I woke up. I made it to Summer Palace, but after getting sick a few times on the way and a momentary loss of consciousness, I was taken to the hospital instead of continuing with the group to the Great Wall. Needless to say, I was extremely disappointed that I didn't get to go to the Great Wall, but I wouldn't say that my day was completely wasted. Joyce, the director of the training camp and conference, took me to a Chinese hospital, and I got to see first-hand the efficiency of the inner-city Chinese health care program. I was seen by a doctor in under ten minutes, was immediately given a blood test, my results were in within five minutes, and was given prescriptions and an IV directly thereafter. The entire medical adventure cost under $30.

After the hospital, there was still a good amount of time left in the day and I was feeling much, much better. Joyce took me to a restaurant, where I ate a simple meal of rice and steamed vegetables (doctor's orders) and then we explored the famous Silk Street Market. I would never, ever do something like buy many DVDs, each at a whopping $.90, or a full series set of the West Wing, so I definitely did NOT do that... Mom. After coming back to the hotel and taking a nice nap, Joyce and I rejoined the group for dinner where, my favorite, Peking Duck was served. Hearing the stories from the Great Wall made me very jealous, but also made me realize that I definitely would not have been able to handle the heat and exhaustion that came with the excursion. The other UChicago students brought me a souvenir from the Great Wall, a small stuffed panda, which was extremely nice of them. One of the WEMUN staff members also brought me a small replica of the great wall.

That night, I went to meet Gideon, a good friend of mine from UChicago, who has been spending his summer in an intensive language program in Beijing and will also be spending his fall quarter in China. We went to Hao Hai (pronounced: H-oh Hi, an area with lots of restaurants and bars surrounding a lake, and sat at a bar on a second-floor balcony overlooking the lake. It was a fun, relaxed evening and it was really great to catch up, since I won't be seeing him until March of 2011!

Feeling almost completely better, I was ready for our activities on Wednesday: Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. It was another unbearably hot day in Beijing, but I was hydrated and had plenty of water with me. Both locations, directly next to each other, were extremely impressive. Our tour guide, Amy, told us that, every day, tens of thousands of Chinese citizens line up in front of Chairman Mao's memorial, just to catch a glimpse of his decaying body which is set up on display for four hours a day. Some have rumored that the body is actually made of wax. One of the UPenn students here, Anne, who has been working all summer in Beijing with WEMUN, told me that she lined up to see the body and it was one of the weirdest events she had ever experienced .

The Forbidden Palace - the old residence of the Emperor, his family, concubines and servants - is immense and awe-inspiring. Complete with 99,999.5 rooms, getting from one end to the other took us over two hours. It was extremely crowded - it is currently the summer holiday season in China, and Beijing is a tourist location for tens of thousands of Chinese every summer. The buildings were remarkably well preserved, most of the paint and detail did not look as old as the building (built between 1406 and 1420). We didn't go into many of the rooms, but we did get a look at the emperor's study, the quarters for the concubines and the very impressive garden.

The group (and Mao) at the entrance of the Forbidden Palace.

Forbidden Palace Gardens


Anne (UPenn) and I

We were all relieved to get back on the bus; we were drenched with sweat. After a decent lunch, we were taken to a "traditional" Chinese tea room and experienced a Chinese tea ceremony. We tried five different teas, all of which were delicious. There was the opportunity to buy the tea after the ceremony, but after consulting with the Chinese natives that were with us, I realized I could buy the same teas for much cheaper elsewhere. Then we were taken to Hao Hai, where we went on a short rickshaw ride around the neighborhood and were then given some free time. For dinner, the UChicago crew went to what is apparently the oldest barbecue restaurant in Beijing. The most delicious course of the meal was the barbecued venison. After dinner, we went back to our hotel. After lots of waiting around, we got on the bus to take us to Grand Epoch City.

Our first day at GEC mostly consisted of getting ready for the training camp and getting acquainted with the huge convention center. I bonded with the UPenn students, most of whom are my age (I am the only non-graduate from UChicago); two of them came to the WEMUN conference last year, so know most of the ins and outs of the convention center. Today, we were able to sleep in, and in the afternoon we greeted the Chinese students with an opening ceremony that included a dance we had learned the day before to a Chinese pop song, "Green Light." Dinner tonight was very tasty - there was more duck! - and afterward I conked out for a few hours. Now, it's back to sleep so that I can have a productive first day of teaching.

One of the teas.

Some delicacies for sale at Hao Hai.