Hello, friends! I’m here with a recap of my fall break, Sunday through Wednesday. This would be a monster post if I included pictures and travels from the whole week, so it’s coming in two parts. Enjoy!
Sunday
For once, I did something interesting on a Sunday! To kick off my fall break, I visited Tiananmen Square with one of my professors. She invited me somewhat randomly, and I am not used to spending unstructured time with my teachers, which meant I was so nervous about oversleeping that I barely slept the night before. However, I’m happy to report that we had a great time, and there was no reason for me to be worried.
While waiting to go through the security check and enter Tiananmen Square, I was essentially stuck in one place for about an hour. That place happened to be alongside three kids who thought it was hilarious to yell “hello” at me, which the adults around also found funny. It reminded me just how intrigued by foreigners the kids here are.
After I finally got through security, my teacher, her son (whom students call “little brother”), and I walked around for a while, took some photos, and then went to lunch. We ate Guangdong cuisine, and it was delicious (especially one rice dish with floral spices – amazing). I played zombies with my professor’s son for all of lunch, which really filled my cup. I love kids and spend so little time with them here. It was nice to feel like I was part of a family for a day.
After my teacher and her son left (little brother was tired), I walked around for a while and ended up going back to the bookstore from a couple weeks ago to buy the “I don’t care” hat. No regrets. I also bought a couple of Chinese books that I’m excited to read. I took the subway home, napped for an hour, met up with a friend to discuss plans for Monday, and then went back out into the city to walk around.
Also, I randomly had three separate people ask me if I was Russian. I must look Russian!
Monday
Monday was hiking day! My program has given me a booklet full of destinations that they recommend I visit throughout the course of the semester, but I don’t have much free time while school is in session, so I decided to visit as many places in my “Middlebury in Beijing Passport” as possible during fall break. Sadly, Monday was not a good start. One of the spots in the booklet is a hike and chair lift on Fragrant Hills Mountain, about an hour away from my university. My friend Katie and I planned to hike to the top of the mountain, easy-peasy, then take the chairlift back to the bottom. Have you seen the meme that goes, “When you thought it was going to be easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy, but it’s actually difficult-difficult, lemon-difficult”?
Well, that just about sums up the hike. When I tell you I was wheezing for all three hours of this hike, I am not exaggerating. It is about 4 miles of staircases snaking up a very, very steep hill – the only gratifying part was that everyone else was as drenched in sweat and near death as I was. When Katie and I made it to the top, we just sort of looked at each other and nodded in pain. No doubt, we felt accomplished; it just took about ten minutes for us to regain the ability to speak.
Our original plan of taking the chairlift down to the bottom was foiled by the weather. It was very foggy out, as you can tell by the pictures, and that’s our best guess as to why the chair lift was closed. As a result, we had to hike back down those million staircases, but the descent was much more doable than the ascent, and we ended up taking a slightly different path with tons of flowers planted everywhere. It felt like a totally different hike, and I loved it.
Once we made it to the bottom, we took the subway back to our dorm (note: we Ubered to Fragrant Hills, and our driver asked us if we eat hamburgers every day in China or just when we’re in America). I rested for a few hours after getting back from Fragrant Hills and then felt like walking around again, so I grabbed a quick dinner before heading out into the city. I took the subway to the art district, then walked for a couple more hours. I wanted to get a picture with the National Art Museum for my Middlebury Passport, but for some reason that was the only building without outside lights, so my picture was just me and dark background. Double-fail on the Middlebury Passport today. On the bright side, I felt at peace walking without purpose and observing Beijing’s nightlife – this is definitely a lively city, but I don’t feel unsafe walking by myself, even at night.
Tuesday
The first thing I did on Tuesday morning was hop on a tour bus at 7:15 am to go to an event I knew almost nothing about. Let me explain: One of my professors automatically signed up the two students who stayed on campus for fall break, so I didn’t research the event beforehand, since I didn’t have to decide whether to go or not. All I knew was that clothes were required, but when some students weren’t allowed to board the bus because their footwear was too informal, it should have clued me in that was getting into more than I originally bargained for.
The event turned out to be the 2024 China-Europe Talent Forum, featuring a selection of distinguished guests and speakers including the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Swiss Ambassador to China, and the President of Peking University, among others. It was moderated by the mayor of Beijing and was conducted in both English and Chinese, with in-ear translation devices for each guest. I found that this formal event was actually easier for me to understand than the Mandarin I encounter in everyday life, despite the content being more advanced, because everyone spoke slowly and clearly. I also enjoyed listening to the Chinese translations of the European speeches – with the speakers’ heavily accented English, the Chinese translation was actually easier for me to understand. Even though I am neither Chinese nor European, I felt a sense of belonging in this bilingual space.
I confess that I am still not 100% sure what the goal of the is forum was, but I’ll summarize my limited understanding: various cities in China and throughout Europe have developed collaborative centers that encourage studying abroad (for students), cross-national employment (for companies), and a personal focus on global citizenship. These centers aim to collect thinkers, entrepreneurs, and experts of every discipline to strengthen Chinese-European cultural exchange and economic development. The forum I attended is their annual meeting to reinvigorate collaborators, establish new goals, and update the community (I think). It featured formal singing of documents, photographed handshakes, a video call from the former Prime Minister of France, a keynote speech about physics by a Nobel Laureate, various lectures, and panel discussions.
A few interesting observations:
- Guests were arranged in two sections, with speakers and VIPs in the front and everybody else in the back. I was in the second row of the back section with a clear view of the VIPs, who were a mix of Chinese and Europeans. In that front section, every European I could see was wearing their translation earpiece, while only a few of the Chinese guests were, meaning that
- The gender dynamics were weird! In that front section, there was only one woman (out of about 25-30 total). She was a featured speaker in one of the panels, and after every answer she gave, the moderator commented that she should have said more or answered differently. Also, it could have been my imagination, but I swear the audience kept talking amongst themselves while she answered questions but listened politely to other panelists.
- As an intermission between speeches, guests were invited to a “tea time” outdoors. I wish I had taken pictures of all the snacks the offered, because it was quite the spread. I ate about 10 different hors d’oeuvres, all plopped onto my plate by an older man who was very enthusiastic about speaking Chinese with “the international youth of Beijing”, and I have to say that his recommendations did not disappoint. Also, during tea time, a film crew asked to interview me and my friend Katie. They asked use what we thought of the conference, how long we had been studying Chinese, and if we wanted to stay in China after finishing our language study. We’re usually the ones interviewing Beijing residents, so this was quite the role reversal.
My favorite part of the forum was a discussion on AI that started with the Adecco Group presenting a report on the impact of AI on Chinese and European workers and continued with a panel discussion later. The presenter cited research that showed greater optimism about AI from Chinese workers than European workers, especially in the potential for developing greater specialization and accumulating new skills. In simple terms, the overarching opinion of AI in China seems to be that its continued development will benefit their economy and their workers, while Europeans are split and more fearful. I was still mulling this over when a panelist independent of the Adecco talk mentioned his theory of AI in business, which is that AI could have the result of a) creating and eliminating jobs in approximately equal measure, with an ultimate net zero gain but a sure detriment to lower-income and less specialized workers, or b) elevating jobs in a way such that benefit can be distributed across social classes and specialization levels. He asserted that societies structured like China’s are more likely to be able to implement the second outcome and achieve collective gain than decisively capitalist societies which prioritize individual gain (I’d like to hear him argue China a non-capitalist country, but I digress). He proposes one explanation for why the prospects of AI vary regionally.
The overall discussion of AI was much more positive here than discussions I participated in at Yale, which I found interesting but not necessarily reassuring. Although, I will add that I felt reassured when the topic of AI and students came up, because the speakers echoed fears I heard often in my last year of college – ones about students becoming lazy because knowledge and achievement are increasingly accessible. Panelists and speakers noted that in the age of AI, the most important traits to embody are curiosity and courage, and the future’s most in-demand skills will be soft skills that cannot be taught or learned by AI. You may or may not know that I often lament my lack of hard skills (and worry about being unemployable as a result) but consider myself abundantly capable in soft skills, so I identified strongly with this point.
I’m glad my professor signed me up for this mystery event for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the free swag I accumulated. Every guest got to dip-paint a handheld fan before entering the venue, and upon entering would receive a bag of goodies including two stuffed toys (a blue “T” for “talent” and the Chinese character for people, “人”), matching “T” and “人” figurines, a fancy program booklet, a few bilingual magazines, and a 100-page report on the outlook of global talent acquisition and retention, all in a fun blue tote bag. And on the way out of the event, we all got free KFC. Suffice to say, Tuesday surpassed my expectations.
Wednesday
On to Wednesday, my most ambitious day of fall break. For anyone who is unaware, I’ll swear up and down that I’m not competitive, but I do have this ~thing~ with challenges that somehow causes them to consume my entire life. Side story: when I read the Hunger Games for the first time in middle school, I did almost nothing besides read. I didn’t eat, I didn’t sleep, I didn’t use the bathroom; my bodily functions ceased to exist for about three days until I had finished the series. I stared at those books for so long that for a week, anything more than two feet in front of me was blurry. Sometimes, in the event that I am truly gripped by something, I gain so much momentum in that activity that I don’t know how to stop myself. This was my experience with Wednesday, when I visited 14 Beijing landmarks without stopping or eating, and walked a total of about 30,000 steps. I’m not proud of it, and some of the locations were a bit of a blur, so I’ll just share the highlights here. But hey, I made major progress on my Middlebury Passport, the object of my momentum.
Beijing Mosque
My first stop of the morning was a mosque that ended up being under construction, so I couldn’t visit. However, the mosque is located on a street packed with food shops – it’s literally called “Beef Street”. I had a nice time meandering through the stalls and eyeing what everyone was purchasing.
Xidan Town of Joy
Another stop I made was an outdoor mall called “Town of Joy”. The number of shops was overwhelming, so I had the most fun just finding quiet side roads to stroll and looking for public artwork.
Qianmen
Qianmen is a street near Tiananmen Square that I’ve visited before, but never during the day time. I loved seeing this street packed with kids, families, and tour groups and had fun perusing all of the expensive shops.
Confucian Temple and Imperial College
My favorite stop of the day was the Confucian Temple, hands down. As soon as I stepped inside the gates, I felt restful. It might have been because I visited during work hours, but I was shocked to see how empty the park was. I could have lived there forever!
Panjia Flea Market
Probably the most famous shopping spot in Beijing is the Panjia Flea Market, which is open every day of the week and is full of vendors selling every product imaginable. I originally thought I would just pop by, but I was so fascinated by it all that I ended up buying a bracelet and making plans to return with friends on Friday night.
Guomao and CCTV Tower
Fun fact: There are two buildings in Beijing with the exact same name, “北京电视塔” (Beijing TV tower). My Middlebury Passport required me to visit one, and when I arrived, I looked everywhere but just could not find it. Turns out, I was at the first tower instead of the second. Lesson learned! When I finally got to the second one, I explored the surrounding area – called “Guomao” – because it was a part of Beijing I had never seen. By this time, night was falling, and I got to see the whole sky lit up by glittering buildings.
On Wednesday night, I also had the opportunity to visit the American Embassy for the first time. I attended a lecture about US-China collaboration on climate change/sustainable futures, which was fun to learn about. Before the event started, the man sitting next to me said he worked for a coal-based energy company and wanted to hear about “who would be taking [his] job in the next few years”, so I definitely left the talk feeling more optimistic than he did. Photos aren’t permitted inside the embassy, but for some reason, we were allowed to take pictures in the room in which the event was held, so here I am with new friends:
The embassy talk was one of the highlights of my week, partly because it was fun to see the area of Beijing in which most international governments conduct business. It’s silly, but I also felt like the embassy was a little slice of home. I got to talk to a Yale alumni who is now doing diplomatic work in China, so he made me feel welcome as well. Overall, I’d count Wednesday as a wild success.
Fall Break Recap: Part One
Highlight: The Confucian Temple. I could have spent the entire day there. Honorable mention to the U.S. Embassy talk!
Lowlight: Walking around the wrong area for an hour looking for the wrong TV tower, because there are two structures with the exact same name in Beijing.
That’s all for now. Recap for the second half of fall break coming soon. 🙂
很想你们，
婉婷
