Rain in Beijing

(Cloudy skies)

Hello everyone, I'm back! Sorry there has been such a delay between posts, but I'm just so busy here, and I don't have my own computer, so I'm having to borrow one, which proves to be difficult when so many other people are in line. And please leave comments so I know people are actually reading this (thanks to those who are still leaving comments).

For the last week, it's been really crappy weather in Beijing. Apparently this is highly unusual, as it is normally very dry here, but our sight seeing was hampered last weekend and yesterday due to rain storms.



On Sunday, Lindsey and I decided to try and go to a couple of museums since it was raining so much. After a very late start, we headed to the Imperial City Exhibition, which is rated one of the top 5 museums in Beijing in my Lonely Planet book. Unfortunately, that part of the museum is undergoing renovation (as is much of Beijing), likely in preparation for the Olympics. So all we were able to see was an exhibit on ancient Greece and a photographic exhibit downstairs. While it was interesting, we were a little disappointed that the main exhibition hall wasn't opened.



After this, we wandered around for a bit before heading to Wangfujing. The subway stop deposited us at right at the next museum on our schedule, the Beijing Paleolithic museum. This is located inside the Oriental Plaza which is a big western style shopping mall, so Lindsey was pulled in the shopping direction, while I hit up the museum. It was quite small, but interesting, with several animal bones and stone tools discovered at the site where the mall was built. The original excavation was preserved in the middle of the exhibit.





After meeting up with Anna, Jen and Tanner, we east towards Purple Haze, a Thai food place that we had heard good things about. Upon exiting the subway, it was raining much harder, and we had about a 3/4 mile walk. The place was tucked down a small alley and it took us a while to find, so we were thoroughly soaked by the time we got there. But luckily it lived up to the hype and we had a great dinner.



On Monday, we started at Beijing Children's Hospital, the most well known hospital for kids in China. The place was unbelievably busy and we started of with the Respiratory department. The residents presented us with several case reports that were somewhat interesting, but unfortunately we weren't able to see many of the patients that morning.





Monday evening, we had another get together, this time with the TCM students at CMU. They had two groups that sang for us, and had 3 students perform Tai chi. Three of our students gave presentations, and Lindsey gave a great one about life in America.





On Tuesday morning, we were with the Hematology department and visited the wards. It was pretty sad to see all of the little kids on chemotherapy with no hair, but reassuring when they told us they have about the same cure rates that we do. And most of the children seemed very excited to see the foreigners.

We went to the Beijing Military Museum during lunch since it was just a couple of subway stops away from the Children's Hospital. The museum was much larger than we expected, and we were only able to see about half of it. Of what we did see, it was quite clear the level of control that the government has on the information that gets out. There was obviously nothing about the incident on 6/4/1989, because according to them, it didn't happen.







Tuesday night we went to a gokart place to the north east of the city. The karts seemed to go way faster than any I've been on back home, and we had a lot of fun. They sold beer upstairs, and let us drive afterwards, which seemed a little bit unsafe, but luckily nobody was injured.





On Wednesday we rounded in the PICU and NICU. The facilities were similar to most we have seen in Beijing...crowded and very hot. But the kids were again in good spirits and seemed very excited to see us.

Wednesday afternoon we went to Chaoyang Park and found the Hamster Balls. As you can see from the pictures, they were a lot of but very tiring. They allow you to stay in for about 10 minutes before you run out of oxygen, since they are completely sealed up.







Thursday we headed to Tongren Hospital, known mostly for its Ophthalmology and ENT departments. In the morning we were with the endocrinology department and learned about diabetes in China. Obviously the incidence of type 2 is much lower here as they is less of a problem with obesity. The afternoon we split up into two groups and I went with the ophtho department. The part of the hospital we visited was for VIP patients (those who could pay more money) and was very nice. We were able to watch a little bit of LASIK suregery, and they were just breezing through the procedure with about 20 patients lined up outside of the OR.







By the end of the day at the hospital it was raining, so we decided to head back to the dorms and postpone some of the park activities to this weekend. That evening we had reservations at Makye Ame, a Tibetan restaurant (Since we aren't able to go to the Lhasa). Lindsey, Anna and I left here around 5:30, and took a cab to the subway, with a plan to stop by the Silk Market on the way, so they could shop. Unfortunately for them, it was rush hour, and the subway was ridiculously crowded, so much so that there were subway workers standing at the doorways to the cars, literally shoving people in so enough people fit. We were crammed in like sardines, and didn't get to the area until about 10 minutes before dinner.





When we got to the place, the menu left something to be desired at first, and we thought about leaving after the other 5 people in our party showed up. But when they arrived, we decided to go along with the plans, and we were very glad we did. I got Sharpa Chili Chicken and fried vegetable rolls which I shared with Lindsey, and it was amazing, albeit very spicy. At the end of dinner a group of singers came out and sang what was presumably some traditional Tibetan music. And of course, we all had to try the yak butter tea... yummy. It tastes like melted blue cheese.







Today was our last day in the hospitals, and our last day of medical school for that matter. The Sharpa Chili Chicken caught up to me around 9:30am, so I head to head back to the dorms (luckily the hospital, YouAn Hospital, was right across the street, so that was no problem). This afernoon/evening we are having our closing ceremony and banquet, and we are heading to the train station Sunday afternoon for a 12 hour ride to Xi'an, 西安. I'm not sure what our internet situation will be there, so I might not be able to post again until the 1st.

I hope everyone is doing well back home and I miss you all. Please leave some comments so I know that someone is reading this (thanks to those who are commenting).

再见,
Adam