Following breakfast this morning, we had to say goodbye to\nmany of our foreign friends and guides. Thinking back, these people were the\nones with whom I could so easily bond to and make a connection with. Talking\nscience with people from around the world is something special, and the\ncompetition and events in Beijing offered exactly that. Though, with our\nChinese guides, we were able to make a bond over more than just science. With\nthem, we could easily break the language barrier and learn more about the country\nwe were in. Asking about culture, politics, history, and their lives, I got a\nspecial insight into people and the way they live in a country on the other\nside of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After saying goodbye, we headed to the Great Wall! We\narrived there fairly early, giving us the opportunity to miss the crowds and\nnot have to show anyone our pain of walking up. The walk wasn\u2019t terrible, but\nthe view made it worthwhile. From the top, we were able to see the huge\nmountain range as well as all of the shops and people in the valley. It is\nincredible to walk on a structure that is so old and has so much history. I\u2019m\nnot sure I can even fully imagine it being built. Thousands and thousands of\nmiles of wall, made of millions, maybe billions, of stones, and built by so many\npeople\u2026crazy. Once we finished walking along it and came down, I actually got\nmy first chance to bargain. I\u2019d gotten some tips before from our guide, so I\nhad a decent mindset going in. When the vendor offered me 165 \u00a5 for a little gift, I thought\nI had done well when bargaining it down 30 \u00a5. I paid and left with a smile on\nmy face\u2026until I got to the next stand where they were selling the same gift.\nOut of curiosity, I asked him how much he was selling it for. He said 30\u2026and\nwhoosh, there went my boosted ego. I realized that I had been completed\nswindled. Oh well, I suppose I should experience it at least one time before I\nleave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The last part of our day was spent in Downtown Beijing, in the\nWangfujing District. Known as the shopping district, you\u2019re able to see all of\nthe name brand stores, Nike, Adidas, Gucci, Prada, but also experience some of\nthe authentic Beijing culture. We were able to get some lunch in the mall,\nsharing bowls of authentic ramen, a nice break from the instant kind, fried\nrice, and even Japanese curry. For dinner, we got some recommendations from the\nhotel staff and got to enjoy a family style Chinese dinner. Stuffed lotus, spiced\nbeef, spinach and cheese bread, and potato strips\u2026all necessities in a\ndelicious Chinese dinner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Following breakfast this morning, we had to say goodbye to many of our foreign friends and guides. Thinking back, these people were the ones with whom I could so easily bond to and make a connection with. Talking science with people from around the world is something special, and the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[138,139],"class_list":["post-1129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beijing-2019","tag-beijing-2019","tag-emile","column","threecol","has-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ncsciencecompetition.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ncsciencecompetition.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ncsciencecompetition.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ncsciencecompetition.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ncsciencecompetition.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.ncsciencecompetition.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1131,"href":"http:\/\/www.ncsciencecompetition.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129\/revisions\/1131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ncsciencecompetition.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ncsciencecompetition.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ncsciencecompetition.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ncsciencecompetition.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}