Beginning to Explore Beijing!

Heading into this trip, I was familiar with China’s history – I taught a great deal about it in both my World History and AP World History courses…but I still wanted to learn more about the 20^th and 21^st century history in China and had a feeling I actually knew very little about today’s contemporary China.  I tried to enter this program with as few expectations and preconceived notions as possible and it is turning out to be a wonderful thing.  Each day I have been soaking it all in and making as many observations as possible…I am still trying to wrap my brain around this incredibly complex and intriguing country! 

2011 China is really not remotely what many people have stereotypically envisioned in their heads – although if you were to ask me to define what it actually is on the spot I could not do that yet… I am currently striving to construct a working description for you…but I think I will spend the entire month working to really describe it all.  But what I can tell you is that the China of the Great Leap Forward that evokes stories only comparable to Stalin’s collectivization campaigns and the China of the oppressive Cultural Revolution, are not even remotely the China that exists today.  It is certainly a country that defines itself as being communist…but in reality is a socialist system with a market-based economy that does not have freedom of speech or freedom to access all the information they may choose.  However…it is a country that has a Louis Vitton exhibit in their National Museum, streets of Gucci, the Gap, and Starbucks all rolled into a shopping strip, but one that has an internet firewall so restrictive I am going to great lengths to attempt to post this message.  It is incredibly complex. 

The album below is from our flight in and our first full day here in Beijing – I hope it is the first of many to follow, although it will all be several days behind do to the restrictive nature of posting photographs and blog entries. 

Our first full day we visited the Forbidden City, National Museum, and Tiananmen Square!  It was an incredibly iconic and amazing day – and the National Museum is brand-spanking-new, as it has been closed for years undergoing renovations and just opened to the public in the past few months.  It was amazing to be some of the first in the museum to view such a unique space.  It was amazing to visit the Forbidden City only two weeks after I walked the grounds of Topkapi and the Dolhambahce Palace – both of which existed at parallel times – my historian’s brain was on a compare and contrast overload!  And it was surreal to walk Tiananmen Square and think of all the many things that have occurred there…(more on that later).

I will do my best to keep my facts straight and to be as accurate as possible.  For those back home if you have questions, please let me know and I will do my best to answer them!

All the best from Beijing,

~Mrs. Hals

Day 5 - Forbidden City and Tiananmen JPGS
Click on the image above to view the images!

https://picasaweb.google.com/115051500693139274056/Day5ForbiddenCityAndTiananmenJPGS?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCL-Vkr7h1t3QPg&feat=embedwebsite" style="color:#4D4D4D;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:none;">Day 5 - Forbidden City and Tiananmen JPGS

Headed to China!

Well...after two full days of pre-trip meetings and activities I am headed to China in the morning and will not be back until August! I am very excited at this point - I really like my colleagues, the itinerary, our directors, it truly has all the makings of an AMAZING trip!

Please email me or comment on posts if you have questions - I will do my best the find the answers for you!

We headed into NYC today and did our workshop at the China Institute itself

Posing with my zodiac animal - the rat!...the rat is clever and intelligent though, so I'll take it!

2011 China Institute Summer Fellows

Istanbul, (Not Constantinople!) :)

From 19 June 2011...

A little history...

Originally within the Persian Empire, Istanbul began as a bustling crossroads trading town named Byzantion, and later became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire and was renamed Constantinople after the newly Christianized Constantine. As the Roman Empire faded away and the last (western) Roman emperor was deposed from a Germanic leader, the Eastern Roman Empire continued to gain prominence and Constantinople became the heart of the rising Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines steadily expanded, establishing a notable empire and Constantinople was truly the heart of trade, eclectically connecting the Mediterranean, Arab trade routes, Viking trade routes, the Black Sea, and the Royal and Silk Roads and ultimately the European, African, and Asian continents. Christianity evolved here, to the point that it could no longer reconcile increasing differences and a great schism occurred in 1054. The Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Church parted ways and Constantinople became the heart of the Orthodox Church. During the Crusades, despite aligning with the Catholics in attempt to mend differences, Constantinople was sacked by the Venetians in the early 1200s during the fourth Crusades as a result in a shift in Venetian priorities (it was a power move). The Venetians prowess grew and the Byzantine Empire began to weaken until it ultimately capitulated to the Muslim Ottoman Turks who had steadily broken apart the empire – Constantinople was the final piece of the puzzle and fell in 1453. Constantinople was renamed Istanbul in 1453 and became the heart of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans were one of the Muslim “gunpowder nations” who expanded out to the edge of Vienna, nearly won the Mediterranean (if not for Philip II’s win at the Battle of Lepanto in 1572), and continually pushed the edges of the Safavid Empire. The empire gradually embraced industrialization and modernized to keep pace with the rest of the world in the 1800s but weakened as nationalism undermined its ability to dominate its outlaying territories. In the end, internal nationalism pushed for the creation of the nation of Turkey after World War I.

It is a country rich with history…and sooooo many more layers than I just wrote about and the AP World History teacher I am is loving all of the nuanced layers and dreaming up lessons for the future! We have been having a great time exploring the city and have done so many major sites in the past two days it is unreal! I have some albums I hope to finish labeling and post sometime very soon!

SO excited to be in the amazing, AWESOME, unreal, Hagia Sophia!!!  :)

View of the Hagia Sophia from the upper balcony!!

Outside the Hagia Sophia (to take this picture we are actually facing the blue mosque)

The Blue Mosque - exquisite!

Daniel inside the Blue Mosque

The gate to enter Topkapi Palace (the main palace of the Ottoman Empire!)

Inside Topkapi

The Council's meeting room - Sulieman and the other sultans sat on the red couch in the upper right corner of the picture

MCC's Next Spring Break Destination - April 2011!

Pompeii, Italy

Better late than never right? 

Here is an album of our day trip to Pompeii, Italy with some captions to explain some of the pictures - enjoy!

Remember, click on the image to view the entire album! 

Day 8 - Pompeii

Rome

Today was our longest and craziest day of the trip!  From the Colosseum to the Roman Forum to the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica, to a delicious dinner across from the Colosseum and a tour of Rome at night...we were all amazed, awed, and exhausted! 

I'll add captions soon, but for now - enjoy the pictures!  :-)

Please click on the image below to view the album:

Day 7 - Rome

Mystical and Inspiring Assisi

Assisi was a truly magical, inspiring, and mystical place.  The town was beautiful and quaint, full of winding alleys, with flower boxes brightening each nook and cranny.  Our tour of St. Francis's Basilica was led by a friar from Philadelphia and was truly inspiring for each of us in its own way.  The lower church, which was designed to be a humble, contemplative sanctuary was just that - if not so much more and we all breathlessly stood at the altar where St. Francis's bones rest fifteen feet beneath us and admired the dark, mysterious, but spiritual paintings of the Romanesque vaulted church.  The upper church, whose altar also aligned with St. Francis's resting place was true to Gothic architecture - more open, bright, and full of hope and optimism.  We learned more about St. Francis's life as Michael, our friar, explained the meanings behind the early Renaissance frescoes that were just beginning to incorporate elements of dimension and perspective.  And then there was the view - which was astounding as we left the Basilica refreshed and inspired in our own ways to suddenly look out over green pastures and sleepy blue mountains, each personally vowing to be better to each other and to take better care of all of God's creatures. 

Click on the image below to view the full album: 

Day 6 - Assisi

We ended our day with our arrival in Rome - we ate at a yummy restaurant, settled into our hotel, and checked out the neighboring town before all heading to bed before our crazy, crazy Rome day!