China Summer 2009

Written by Alise Zirilli 

Today was our last day in Chengdu. For the first time since we arrived in China we were able to get a little extra sleep and meet for breakfast at 9:00 am instead of our normal 7:15 am.  After breakfast we headed to Wuhou Temple, which was located right next to Chengdu Sports University. It is a temple commemorating Zhuge Laing and Liu Bei, along with many important generals and statesman of the time.  In the temple we saw amazing calligraphy and HUGE replicas of Zhuge Laing and Liu Bei and many important generals and statesmen.  This temple is one of the main attractions of Chengdu and honors many respected men from Chinese history.  It reveals the rich history of the Three Kingdome era and the great men who lived during this time.

After visiting the Wuhou Temple we were a little behind schedule (girls like to take a lot of photos).  We had to rush back to campus eat lunch, which was our last meal at the university canteen. Immediately after lunch we grabbed what we need for our next adventure and jumped on a bus to Mount QingCheng.  The bus ride up to the mountain was about a hour and a half.  This gave use all time to relax, especially the Dean who was heard snoring on the bus.  When we finally reached Mount QingCheng, it had begun to rain.  Luckily John, our amazing coordinator and translator, got us all rain jackets.  Many of us looked very similar smurf in our blue rain jackets, but it did help us stay dry. Before starting our hike we saw a three wheeled car.  Kelly and I ended up chasing this three wheeled car to get a picture of it. Now even though there was some rain we all were looking forward to the hike, but as we started walking up the hundreds of steps we weren’t so sure about the hike.  Now we all know Ithaca is full of stairs, but this hike was put the stairs at Ithaca to shame.  After our long hike up and a slipper hike down we headed back to the university around 4:30. 

We arrived at the university at 6:00 pm and had to be ready for dinner by 6:30pm, so quickly changed for our hot pot dinner with the president of Chengdu Sports University, President Chen.  Hot pot is when many different meats, vegetables and other Chinese food is cooked in boiling broth in front of you.  There was the bei or white hot pot which was not spicy and then the spicy hot pot.  During hot pot President Chen played rock, paper, scissors with all of us students and many toasts were made through out the night.  After dinner many of the girls put on a mini Kungfu show for our Kungfu/Taiqi teacher, Mr. Yang; this made for some very funny pictures. 

After dinner we invited some of the Chinese students over to hang out with us.  They ended up teaching us a Chinese card game, which many of us already knew.  It was a really fun night just hanging out with everything in Chengdu for the last time.  After the Chinese students left we all still needed to pack for the next day.  Everyone got about four hours of sleep that night, but it was worth it.  We all already miss Chengdu and all the amazing friends we meet there!