First Day of Sight Seeing

Greetings,

Well we finished up our first week at Tiantan Hospital and it was quite an experience. On day two, we visited some of the internal medicine wards as well as the ICU. While things seemed somewhat rundown and crowded compared to the US, I was quite impressed that the actual practice of medicine seemed to be very similar. However, when we were discussing things, we realized that this hospital is the John's Hopkins of China, which kind of puts things into perspective.






Thursday night, we went to the International School of Capital Medical University and gave an impromptu presentation to a large group of 1st year medical students (most of them from India and Pakistan). They were all very interested in getting into a residency program in America, but seemingly more-so, they were interested in all of the American girls in our group.



Following this event, several of us decided to go out to a small bar near our dorms, the Easy Dream Bar. While we were just about the only people in this place besides the bartender, we had a great time, and I believe that we almost drank all of the beer that they had. Though at 15 Yuan (~$2) per beer (somewhat expensive here), I'm sure they were very pleased.



We were given time off from the hospital today due to 清明節 or Qing Ming Jié (Tomb Sweeping Day), a day for worshipping ancestors. We took advantage of this free time, and decided to finally get out and see the sights. Our first stop took us to the Liao Jin City Wall Museum, built on the ruins of a water gate in Zhongdu. The main museum was full of ancient artifacts, but the most impressive part was the excavation below ground.



After that, we headed to the Temple of Heaven. Although the centerpiece for this outing, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, was destroyed in 1889 by fire, it was rebuilt the following year, and was still quite impressive. The rest of the site remains intact from ~1420.



Following a brief lunch, we went back to Chóngwén District to visit Hongqiao, or the Pearl Market. This was an experience that I was not prepared for in the least. I was told that this is a place to bargain for prices, but I did not expect the bombardment that we received from the merchants as soon as we walked in the door. They have what must be knock offs of every brand of shoes, clothing, jewelry, purses, belts, electronics, etc that you could possibly think of. Within 30 seconds of walking in the door, I was literally being pulled in different directions by Chinese women trying to get me to buy shoes. After extricating myself from this (while my friends took pictures of me struggling), I was able to purchase an 'authentic' North Face jacket for 200 yuan (~$30). Even if it's not the real thing, it looks authentic and it feels good.



This evening, we decided to meet up with some of the medical students from Buffalo in 后海 or Houhai, an area with restaurants and bars surrounding two lakes. Since there were over 20 of us, we decided to split up for dinner and then meet up again to go out for drinks. After a trip around one of the lakes, we decided on eating at, ironically enough, a place called Buffalo. This turned out to be excellent luck, as it was the first place we had found that did not cook with peanut oil so Laura was able to eat real food in China! After a delicious dinner, we were all extremely tired and decided to call it a night and head home.





Tomorrow, we are planning on possibly going to Tiananmen Square, maybe the Forbidden City, and some other small markets. I hope to update the blog again soon.

And on a little side note, I would love some comments or feedback on what I've posted so far. While I appreciate what I've heard back so far, it seems like nobody is reading this, so if you are, spread the word to anyone you think might be interested.

再见,
Adam