Hello patient possums!
It's been four months since I was in China on a professional development trip, so I've owed you a post about it for about 3 months and 3 weeks (giving myself a little jet-lag recovery). What I'm saying is, this is very late in coming, and my apologies.
I visited Beijing and Xi'an with two of my lovely colleagues from work to get a better understanding of the Chinese student experience. We spent most of the trip touring university campuses and talking to colleagues there. The campuses were lovely, and many included a water element.
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| Beautiful pagoda |
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| Series of bridges |
I snapped a picture of the library at Beijing Jiatong University, but sadly our schedule didn't allow for a visit.
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| University library that I didn't go into |
Our schedule was pretty packed, but we did manage to visit some incredible sights.
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| Yup, that's me on the Great Wall of China. You better believe I rocked that fanny pack the WHOLE trip! |
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| The Forbidden City |
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| Breathtaking Buddha in the Lama Temple |
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| Having a sit at the Summer Palace |
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| Either the drum temple or the flower temple in Xi'an |
But what, I hear you ask, about the libraries? I'm slightly ashamed to admit that, even though our hotel in Beijing was quite close to the
National Library of China, I didn't make it inside. This omission was partly because we did have a very busy schedule, but I also found the entrance requirements to the library a little intimidating. Our lovely tour guide Jack (Tao) told me that I would need to bring my passport and exchange it for a temporary card before I could enter the building. I was a little concerned about navigating that process in a non-tourist destination where, in all likelihood, my lack of Chinese language skills would be a problem. So the closest I got was this shot of me in front of the building.
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| Fun fact, that umbrella was pretty flimsy, but made for very lovely pops of colour in photographs |
I don't feel too badly, though, because it turns out that I found little libraries everywhere! In the lobby of our first hotel in Beijing, I found this.
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| Mystery library? |
To be clear, I don't know what the sign says, so maybe this isn't a library at all, but I suspect it's a "need a book, take a book, leave a book" kind of arrangement for travelers. Because I wasn't sure I didn't take anything, although there were a few English books that were tempting.
We popped into a convenience store/bubble tea emporium close to our hotel, and bam! Another library.
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| Surprise library |
People were working, parents reading with their kids, it was great! No English titles that I could find though, so I just soaked up the atmosphere.
Another library snuck up on me when we were getting some coffee and tea for the bullet train ride back to Beijing (and yes, the bullet train was very cool).
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| A few customers were reading while they sipped their coffee |
We also visited an INCREDIBLE bookstore in Xi'an.
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| So many books! |
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| Look at all the books! |
They had a small section of English books, mostly classics, so I picked up a copy of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence as a souvenir.
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| That's some good reading right there |
The bookstore featured, obviously, lots of books for purchase, but also had some library qualities, such as the children's area where staff members were reading books to the assembled little ones. (There was also, inexplicably, a substantial bulk popcorn area.)
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| Children being read to, not popcorn |
And so I managed to find libraries throughout my travels, and got to spend some time among my beloved books.
Also, the food was pretty spectacular.
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| Everything in this meal was NOM NOM NOM!!! |
