The fishing village and the Vue Bar

Today it's Sunday 16 September. The day started for me just like all other days this study trip at 12 o'clock at night. It lasted till an hour of 5 and renewed around half past 7.

The first 5 hours I spent first with Freek, Robert and Maarten at an expat bar 'Brown Sugar'. It was a very nice, but expensive (according to Dutch standards) place and it didn't last long before we mixed with the rest of the company. Even though it was very nice, the place closed already at 1:10. I was just talking with some people to ask where it would be cool to go out. At the same time the others were also talking about the same topic. We all got the same answer: "The Appartment". That place had to be explored and so we found ourselves in a cab to this notorious place. Two whiskey and a snack, in the form of some barbecue sticks just outside the place, later we found us again in a cab to the SSAW hotel where Maarten and I around an hour of 5 fell asleep.

Less than three hours later I wake up after a concert of very loud ringing alarms at the other side of the room. However, it was the soft beep of my own alarm clock which shook me awake. I called Maarten that he had to wake up and I took a shower. While I was taking a shower, someone rang the door bell. People in front of the door, a loud door bell, of course Maarten would open that... Or maybe not. Calling Maarten, shaking him and Rammstein at maximum volume of my laptop speakers were not enough to get Mr. Money awake. However, shouting super loud above his head did work.

After a lovely breakfast we departed with all our baggage to get to the Shanghai City Central International Youth Hostel by subway. Arriving there we hurried to the rooms. Two floors per room looks really cool and of course you call dibs on the top floor. This is extra fun when you see that you may sleep together in a two-person bed.

After depositing our stuff in the rooms, our bus was ready to go at half past 11 to bring us to Zhouzhuang. Unfortunately, Eric and Xiaoying didn't accompany us. Eric spend his morning in the hospital, but luckily he could catch up with us near the end and the hospital tests turned out alright. The ride brought us through the countryside surrounding Shanghai including rice fields and we arrived at an oyster/pearl-nursery. We walked into the direction of the city and we were welcomed with drums and a whole show. We had to look around a bit before we found exactly what we were going to visit, but we found it.

Zhouzhuang is a tourist place where the streets are replaced by canals. some people took a boat tour and fare to the other side. It was also possible, after a small payment, to let the driver sing. My adventure started in a paper/carton restaurant with matching shop. After a lunch of french fries with ice cream at a table next to the tour of Pisa and the Eiffel tower, I spend the rest of the day by strolling in shops and bargaining on prices of trumpery.

After Zhouzhuang we went to a noodle juggling restaurant where we consumed a hot pot meal. At my table we ordered among others some pig brains. I myself didn't like the taste so much and the structure resembled something of jelly, but not exactly. Anyway, another food bingo point for most people. The real noodle juggling was done when you ordered noodles. It was an impressive show, which had something of ritmic gymnastics. The noodle started as a short fat string and it became a string of about 2 meters after it was fling about. After splitting it in halves it was put into the hot pot and after a not too long time you could eat it. The toilet is also worth noting. Besides the holding you didn't have to do anything yourself, the tap was opened and closed for you, the soap pump was pressed, the towel was handed and even the door was opened for you. Good service!

The dinner took longer than expected and therefore the Vue Bar called us to ask us whethere we would still come. The dinner was quickly concluded and with cabs we returned to the hotel. We quickly changed clothes and Xiaoying instructed the taxi drivers to the hotel so they knew where they would have to drop us off. Our cab arrived first and the elevator, which took us up, already took my breath away. A wonderful view improved every second while the lift took us upstairs in just 33 seconds. Over there we were welcomed and our terrace with jacuzzi was shown. More and more people arrived. One taxi driver dropped a group somewhere else, but after a few calls they joined us to start this wonderful evening with an assortment of three different white wines.

It didn't take long before the jacuzzi was full with EL people and there were various bystanders who just had to make a photo of our group. We were shortly accomapnied by a group of ladies who were giving a bachelor party, but even those ladies didn't drive off the hardened engineers to leave the jacuzzi.

The view isn't to describe in words and even the photos are a mere reproduction of how we saw it. There was a strong wind, but the air was clear and the lights of Shanghai were in abundance on. There is only one word for me to describe this evening with the amazing view, all the compliments about the organization and the whines, beers, 2 whiskeys and various snacks: Legendary.

Joris Mosheuvel

The cycle tour through Shanghai

Today is the 15th of September. This day started in No.88 Club which was covered in the last day report. At about half past twelve a few people decided that they had enough for the day. It took some time to wait for a taxi which would take the five of us for a little extra money. When we passed the police on the road, Labrinus was told to keep his head down so the police did not notice him. Once in the hotel we decided to get a good night of sleep because it would be a waste not to use the luxury rooms to their full potential. The result of this long sleep was that I was still in bed while the rest of the group was visiting the tailor market. As far as I know, no strange things happened; some bets were made and Tom used his charms to chat up some nice ladies. With two persons we made our way to the subway station where we would meet the rest of the group. Next we were studying the subway map when we suddenly heard the shouting of "soep, soep, soep" in our ears... Maarten also happened to be at the subway station and spotted us. After the subway exit we had to walk a few kilometers to the starting point of the cycle tour through Shanghai. At the starting point three tour leaders waited for our arrival. For them it was unusual to see such a large number of Dutch people in Shanghai. I did not have breakfast that day so I bought a roll of bread with a small package of powder in the wrapper. I assumed that it was powered sugar, but it turned out to be moisture absorber with the inscription "If contact made with eyes or mouth, please contact physician". The cycle tour separated us in three groups because the study tour group was too large. Our cycle tour leader was a Belgian lady with the age of 31(as we got to know through a bet) who was living in Shanghai for around six years. The instructions for cycling through Shanghai were: stay together in a group, take priority and make a lot of noise(ringing the bell alot). Especially the last thing happened to work very well to get priority. During the tour we saw a lot of Shanghai: a French styled district, being leftover from a French colony, the old city and all kinds of specialty shops with building materials like pipes and tubes. Of course during the cycle tour somebody came up with a bet: the first person who would get a Chinese person on the back of his bike would get the stake. Even Robert participated while he did not have a luggage carrier on the back of his bike. During the tour we made a stop at "New Heights", a nice restaurant situated near the river with a nice view of the Bund. Shortly after, Ingo convinced a lady to jump on the back of his bike and therefore won the bet. After a short trip back we reached the starting point again to end the impressive cycle tour through Shanghai.

The next stop was a restaurant in the neighborhood to get some of the lost energy back. In the restaurant Tom gave parting speech to summarize the events that we that we experienced in China so far. The food was very good as usual. After dinner we went to a comedy show named "Kung Fu Komedy". We did not exactly know was we had to expect from the show but it became clear that it was stand-up comedy in a nice and sociable cafe in the URBN Hotel. We managed to get hold of the first two rows. In total, three comedians had an act with Paul Ogata as final act. When the comedians notices that 20% of the audience was studying electrical engineering and was from the Netherlands they soon turned to jokes about drugs, cheese and robotvagina's. The quality of the comidy was high and we had a few good laughs. It was a fantastic day.     

Jelle Dijkstra

Travel to Shanghai

Today on the 14th of September we gather for the trip to Shanghai. Jelle and me are not planning to walk the same road back due to the broken wheels of my suitcase and the missing wheels of Jelle. Taking a taxi proves the solution, but we just need to find one and hope that there is no traffic jam.
20 units and some extra grey hair later we have arrived at the station. We hobbled inside really needing a breakfast which we found and looked like a French toast. Today Philips is on the program, but before it is time we need to wait a little. Playing cards!!!
This time we did not have a high speed train and the speed was `only’ 250km/h. In the train I dared to play a game of Chinese chess. In the beginning the prospect was depressing, but with some well thought convulsions the game ended dignified due to a lack of time.
At 11:30 we arrived in Shanghai. The subway is very busy every time, and it is not customary to first let the people exit before entering. So if you really need to exit the subway with your suitcase you should walk self-assertive and it is possible that along the road you will take a couple of Chinese people with you whom rather stayed inside.
Only when we arrived at the hotel we started to realize how luxurious this will be. The first two days we are at this hotel to relax a little. And our first impression was that this will be easily realized. The hotel lobby was spacious, a lot of marble, free coffee and a mac. Bart and Maarten arranged the check-in and we where able to quickly suit-up for our visit to Philips. Our rooms where in order, good matrasses, a rain shower, flat screen TV (for the Chinese talent shows of course) and a beautiful view.
We traveled to Philips via subway. For the subway we got a local public transport card from SPOCK with 20 units. Martijn and Robert did not find it necessary to bring this card with them what resulted in a slight delay. The whole group already was inside the subway and the doors started to close. Friendly as we are Jelle and me squeezed between the doors and hold them open by brute force. Bart stayed with the laggards and ran towards the subway with his two pursuers. Bart and Robert where relatively on time, Martijn however ran in full speed towards the closing door and made a graceful jump into the arms of the group when the doors closed behind him.
At Philips the CTO, Frans, talked to us in Dutch. After a brief introduction and coffee we got a tour, the first demonstration was on the research department where ideas where transformed to proof of concepts. The demonstration room looked like a hotel room to test different lighting techniques and we already found the controller and changed the room to a high-tech disco. The second demonstration was a simple presentation about the workings of a human eye, the perception of light an LED techniques which didn’t where more difficult than secondary school levels. We continued our road towards the healthcare-department where two beautiful Chinese ladies which where passing by said something what Xiaoying eagerly translated to: `handsome men’! So that is in the pocket.
A little while later we spotted the RnD lab and, curious as we are, we went inside. Our tour guide followed our example and was very enthusiastic that we found the lab awesome and let us walk through the lab. We already suspected that this was not the intention and quickly we took some photo’s and walked on with our hands in our pockets. The group went back an we, as stranglers, had a talk with a person working in the lab whom we quickly asked some questions. Quickly some employees came to us alarmed to ask who we where and to what group we belonged. We where friendly requested to leave and in the passing by we heard a Dutch employee remarking that it was absolutely not intended that people where walking unsupervised. Besides a couple of nice pictures the result was that we lost the other part of the group without having any idea where the next stop of the tour would be. We did found the other part of the group just at the end of the tour.
The hotel rooms in the SSAW hotel where awesome. De bed where heavenly and the shower cabin almost translucent. We went out for dinner and the dinner was good. We among others ordered a shawarma roll which Tom explicitly ordered as not spicy (with a lot of nonverbal violence), what the waitress unfortunately misunderstand and she gave us one of the most spicy sandwiches of the whole trip, thanks Tom ;). Thereafter Jelle and me have bought a suitcase, this because our suitcases where broken. After enjoying a free beer with a view on the skyline of Shanghai we went to bar 88 for a drink. In front of the door you think: “Huh, what?”, then you walk up a stairs and you think: “Huh, what is this?” and after the first hallway you think : “Huh, what the fuck super awesome is this!” A huge dance-café which is mainly good for the labor supply of the Shanghai people. There even are people constantly walking around and wiping the floor! Add a couple of hundred guests and you have a social busy environment. Good music, and beer (250ml) for 55 units (comparison: the record is 3 units for 600ml).
From nowhere suddenly two beautiful intelligent half naked dancers emerge together with a negro which looks like he has escaped from a low budget Bollywood austin powers rip-off. They preform a cool openings act. After this introduction the show goes downhill very fast because the negro got the microphone witch he abuses with his voice. Not only the microphone, but also the whole audio installation sighs under the screams of the low ranking singstar n00b. This all results in a battle between our eardrums and the moving surrounding air. With restrained lips and we try to ignore this and try to focus on the nice dancers. After we watched this show we went back to the hotel and we hailed a taxi. End yes, bummer, the first one doesn’t take 5 passengers. This is illegal in the Netherlands so also in China. Here it is more strange because taxis don’t have seatbelts anyway. Eventually we found a taxi which could take us to the hotel for 30 units for 5 persons. Halfway the ride we of course see the police and the drivers asks Labrinus to hide so the police officer won’t see him, when we arrived at the hotel Labrinus can unhide again. Via an astonished Mc Donalds deliverer and the 4th floor (where the bar was closed of course) we went to bed. All with our own beep in our ears…

Ingo Stijntjes

South East University

13 september 2012, Nanjing

It’s 6:30 in the morning, an alarm clock is ringing. My bed doesn’t feel as comfortable as it did a few hours ago. I get out quickly to get some breakfast at a street corner. As usual the planning is tight for this day. The program starts with a visit to Southeast University (SEU).

At half past eight, the bus from SEU arrives. During the ride, Prof. Wang informs us about the specs of his university. In whole China, it is well known for its research in RF IC design. While we drive through Nanjing, he tells us that this city was once the capital of China, and that its railway station is the biggest in whole Asia.

The bus drives into the new campus. The campus has just been finished and the moving is almost ready. The old campus did not have enough room anymore, so they created a ten times bigger one. The area is indeed huge and the first thing that I noticed is that everything is grey and all buildings look alike. The smog enhances the gloomy impression. Our campus in Twente looks a lot better with the green grass, the white Carré and the red Nanolab. We walk through a building where some bachelor students are doing experiments. Professor Wang jokes that the students are making 'Lián Xì'(connections).

A half hour later we leave the new campus and we drive to Wireless Valley, an area of 1km2 where companies and the university work together in wireless communication research. A large 'experience center' has been created, full with posters, prototypes and a gigantic model of the campus. Unfortunately all posters contained only Chinese characters and on the pictures there were only Chinese. This raised the question inside of me, whether the research here already achieved the international level.

The tour continues through the rest of the buildings of Wireless Valley. The door of one of the connecting bridges is locked by an electronic lock and thus a guard is called. The guard enters the code in open view. A wave of hilarity flows through the group, but professional as we are we suppress our emotions. This is not the first time that I notice that the security in China is not that thorough.

After the next bus trip we finally arrive at the old campus, where the chair of professor Wang is still located. We walk along the lab where we are told that it is the most advanced of its kind of all the universities in China. Then we get a presentation about the research done in the group. The most interesting is the research done in the area of myoelectric neurostimulation. With this they can connect two nerve systems. In the end they aim to cure paralyzed limbs, but they also want to make a connection between two bodies.

Time for lunch. Together with prof. Wang and dr. Wang we enjoy a lovely meal in the student restaurant. With our stomachs full we take a bus to our next destination: Linggu Park. A gigantic forest on top of a big mountain. Nanjing has grown around the hill. Among other things, we visit the crypt of dr. Sun and the Linggu Temple: a pagoda with a height of 60 meter. After a long walk, we take the bus back to the hostel to have a quick shower and find a restaurant. Every day it is a pleasure to taste the Chinese cuisine.

Right now I’m sitting in the hostel garden and the temperature is very pleasant. When I’ll wake up tomorrow, it will be already one week ago that we left Enschede. Tempus Fugit, time to write down my impressions….

Hugo Westerveld

Nanjing

Today is the 12th of September. The committee decided to visit the mausoleum of chairman Mao. This meant that we had to get out of bed at 6 o'clock in the morning. It was a surprise to see a blue sky in Beijing when we opened the curtains. We had the rice from yesterday as our breakfast.

After breakfast we went to Tian'anmen square to see the mausoleum of chairman Mao. However, the queue was 2 hours long. Eventually we found a new queue with a waiting time of only 20 minutes. After passing the security check I bought a flower for chairman Mao. The flower was left at the statue of chairman Mao. After the statue, in which chairman Mao sits on a chair just like president Lincoln in Washington, we passed his last resting place.

After we visited chairman Mao, it was time to get into the bus and head for the Nokia campus. The visit at Nokia wasn't that interesting. We saw the fitness room, some soccer tables, the roof and outdated phones. Then we got the chance to visit the factory. But this was also a disappointment since we only had a chance to see the hallway instead of the real working floor...

After Nokia, we went back to the hostel to change clothes and checkout. It was time to leave Beijing and take the Bullet Train to Naning. Once again we did manage to get trough the metro with all our suitcases in Beijing. The train station for the Bullet Train is just like an airport and we had to get trough a security check once again.

Once in the Bullet Train there was beer and we could enjoy the view of the country. At the moment I am writing this, we travel at a speed of 311km/h. At quarter to seven we arrived at the Nanjing train station. After a trip with the metro and a walk of about 2 km we arrived at our hostel and went to our room to drop off our suitcases. Around 9 o'clock we were finally ready to get some diner, which we found in a shopping mall. We drunk one more beer when we got back at the hostel and went to bed after it.

Gerwin Hoogsteen

Why you don't go to the hairdresser at 11 p.m.

It's Tuesday morning 11 september, the alarm sounds again way too early. There are two interesting companies on the programme today, so everyone has to fix their breakfast fast and has to be ready at 8 a.m. in the lobby. Of course we have to suit up again. Together with Wouter I hit the road for a nice breakfast. At one of the restaurants near the hotel we are lured in by the owner. We can't resist because of our sleepy heads. After some pointing and broken Chinese we get tea and dim sum for just 24 yuan (also known as 'money' or 'pingels'). Quite nice, but my stomach thinks differently. A long visit to the toilet that morning is the result. Just to be sure I get some coke to kill everything which could make me ill. The rest of the day I'm OK.
Today we visit the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also known as CASIA. At Casia we get a short introcution and a tour of the different departments. The institute is focused on robotics and video processing and therefore the results of the research is very cool to see. The first stop is a presentation about an automatic video surveillance system. With this system it is possible to determine the number of cars on a road, detect if someone is climbing over a fence, or when someone is leaving a suspicious packages somewhere. The concept of a tracking system with multiple cameras is also proven. With this system you could for example determine from which gate an asylum arrived on Schiphol. Unfortunately, after some more questioning, the system is not very robust, e.g. if you change clothes the system does not recognise you anymore and sees you as a new individual. But anyways, it looks cool in the presentation. The second stop is the iris recognition system. They created here a system where they can do iris recognitions on the medium long distance. This means you don't have to stand in front of a machine and look through a lens. Iris recognitions are very usefull, because they are very characteristic for individuals and difficult to falsify. The problem is that this technique requires full cooperation of the user. This is not a problem for an access control point, but for anti terrorisme surveillance it is. The system we are seeing here could be a solution for this. Our hostess guides us fast to the next stop: the robotics department. It is quite a messy lab, but there are two setups which are ready to be demonstrated. The first one is a ping pong robot. It's quite a construction which can move a ping pong bat in three directions. It looks quite impressive and the idea is of course super cool, but what you don't see is the amount of computational power and thinking power required. Around the table there are three cameras positioned which determine the position and the path of the ball. This data is processed super fast to determine the position of the robot bat, such that the ball can be played back. We are very impressed, when the researcher gives a demonstration of the project. However, when I try it myself I immediately see the limiation of the device: because the bat can't rotate, it is impossible for the device to play the balls back which are near the edges of the table. At the other side of the small lab, a container with water is situated where a robot fish is launched forth. The fish swims like a real fish by wriggling his body: there are no propellors or blades. On some movies we see a similar model which has given a fish skin and swims between other real fishes. At first I have some trouble to determine the robot fish between all the other fishes. This is especially because of the moving focus of the camera. For fun I ask whether I can take a picture of the fish in a cliche pose. The tour is finished and now we have about an hour the time to talk with some Chinese students about cultural differences. The level of English differs a lot and therefore it turns more into an interview. My questions and the answers I get don't seem to match with each other. That's quite unfortunate, while the original setup was quite nice. The lunch was so good, that everyone forgets this and everyone is happy and good to go when we head to Lenovo.
When we arrive at Lenovo, it seems that the bus dropped us at the wrong reception. We are even at the wrong building! The people at the reception immediately arrange that we can go with a shuttle bus to the right building so that we don't get a delay in our programme. Once arrived  at the right building we are welcomed by two enthusiastic employees who speak English very well. You can clearly hear that they are schooled in America, not only because of their thick accent, but also of their way of doing. The tour they give is through a specially build museum where we get to hear the whole history of the company. They are very proud that they are the biggest Chinese sponsor of the Olympic Games of 2008 in Beijing. Even THE olympic torch is located in the museum. Although, that's what they say. Just to be sure, everyone gets on the picture with torch. After we played with their newest gadgets we also get to see heavy duty equipment, which is used by the military when they go to the desert. The host and hostess get a little bit nervous when some people threaten to throw with it or do a spill test with a bottle of water, even though they claim the devices can withstand those tests. The tour is closed with a talk about the company, which takes way too long and is only moderately interesting. It looks like a play with as theme an anti-advertising against Apple and Blackberry. When we give a big applause when the host is quiet for a moment, he gets the hint and the talk is over. On to the hotel.
This evening we want to eat Peking Duck. We got an address of a restaurant from our hotel where 'the best duck of Beijing' is. We want to see and taste that of course. Once we arrive we are guided to the top floor and at the end of the hallway we get a room where normally only 18 people would fit in. After some effort all 25 participants get in. A bit cozy and noone can get to the centre of the enormous round table. Tom and Maurits study the menu and contemplate about how much we want from everything. I help them communicate our wish list to the waiter. With amazement about the amounts we want she nods friendly. Just a moment later we know why: once we all had enough, the table is still full with plates of food and new portions are still coming. The check is less damage than expected (1800 yuan which is about 225 euros for 25 persons) and a big part of the food gets packed in doggy bags to be used for the next morning as a breakfast.
Together with Wouter, Jelle and Rowan we decide to explore the street where we ate. It gets darker and dilapidated, but we don't feel us unsafe. Therefore we just walk further. At this place we learn that we have payed too much for our beer all week long. The street price for 0,6 liter is about 4 yuan (0,50 euro). On our way back we walk along multiple souvenir shops, where I buy the Red Book of Mau Zedong. We also find an original copy of a real fake-iPhone for 780 pingels, but leave that one behind in the shop. Instead we visit the nice looking Helen's Bar: a rendezvous for backpackers. After a beer, Jelle decides to get a haircut that evening. Wouter, Rowan and I stay behind and enjoy the many strange stories scribbled by previous guests on the walls and ceiling. Among others we find a greeting from a study trip of Amsterdam dated on 2009. When we meet Jelle again, he has a short head and also a good story to tell. The hairdresser turned out to offer also 'other services' besides trimming and washing. Jelle decided not to make use of these services, so we return cheerful to our hotel, because tomorrow we have to get up again very early.

Freek van Capelle

Tsingua University

Today is the 10th of September. Yesterday’s party ended just a little too late for most people, so no one minded the fact that the morning tai-chi was canceled. For some people, the tai-chi would have been a welcome event, since the climbing of the Great Wall resulted in a lot of sour legs.

Today will feature the first company visits of this study tour, so at 11 (!) o’clock, everyone arrived in the lobby fully dressed-up. We first headed towards the area where all the embassies are located, in order to pick up Chang and have lunch with someone from the Dutch Consulate. The bus driver had quite some difficulty finding the location, but eventually we took our seat in a local restaurant, together with David Pho, who is in charge of the department for cooperations in science and education, and Anny, a trainee in the same department. David first gave a presentation of the work he’s doing, after which it was time for lunch. The restaurant served food from the Yunan kitchen, which has a great variety of different dishes, all equally tasty. Unfortunately the room we sat in was too small, so the group had to be divided. I was seated with David, Tom and some others, and mainly discussed education in China and the Netherlands.  I heard from the other group that Anny gave them some useful tips.
As soon as lunch was over, we had to say goodbye and continue our trip to the Tsinghua university, allegedly the best university of China. Upon arrival we saw two students with a welcome sign for Bram Nauta. After entering the building of the faculty of micro- and nanotechnology, we also noticed that posters had been hung everywhere, so it was a pity that Bram was not present.

The students of Tsinghua first show us some corridors with posters of the faculty’s organization and accomplishments, after which we seated ourselves in a college room, where Wouter gave his first presentation of the study tour. The Chinese students that were present were pleasantly surprised by the fact that the sheets were bilingual. Earlier, David Pho had also mentioned that we were apparently well prepared and had good knowledge of Chinese manners and habits.

Following Wouter’s presentation, five PhD students gave a presentation of the work they did at this university. The presentations respectively discussed the introduction of flexible loudspeakers, inductive power coupling for biomedical applications, software-defined radio, germanium MOSFET’s and lastly the resistance of a metal-graphene connection. I found the talks interesting, although I sometimes had difficulty understanding the Chinese English of the presenters.

After the presentations, there was some room for discussion with the students of Tsinghua, and we were shown the local cleanroom, which was not so that clean. It was then time to return to the hotel to change clothes and go for dinner. We went to the Bell Tower quarter, which features those typical Chinese streets full of small restaurants and food stands, as well as a lot of LED-lighting and lots of activity. Pretty soon it turned out that no restaurant could house all 25 of us, so we split up. The food was great everywhere, albeit for different prices. Furthermore, the term hot on a menu really means that the dish is very spicy, so that was one more lesson learned.
Soon after dinner, we went back to our hotel at around 10pm. Several people went for a drink, but most people decided to go to bed early. Like several others, I went to the hotel bar to make use of their wifi-network and to write this story, after which I finally went to find my bed.

Freddy Gunneweg

The great wall

Today is the 9th of september. With thanks to Wouter and Joris we are going to the Chinese wall and the Summer Palace. Because of the time, we first go to the Summer Palace, which closes early. Our tourguide Jerry leads us to all the interesting places and tells us a lot of background information. Just like yesterday, we Dutch are an interesting attraction for the Chinese. Bart can tell you everything about it. At a singing event, first about 200 Chinese sing a song about Mao and Chinese heroes, after which we sing 'Zie ginds komt de stoomboot'. Both of us are very happy with each others performance. We take a group picture with a group of Chinese people and take the boat back to the bus which takes us to the wall.
After the luxurious summer palace we go to a restaurant for lunch. It has nice decoration and even a four stars toilet. After this nice lunch we arrive at the Chinese wall. Here we take the lift up and can walk around for two hours. It is very special to walk over this ancient building. Back down there are a lot of souvenir shops and a lot of us look for souvenirs. The starting prices are high, but after some haggling and walking away, we get the prices down. From the bus on the way back you can see a total different surrounding and culture than in Beijing itself. Back in Beijing we go to the Temple of Heaven. Unfortunately the temples are closed, but the view of the temples in the dark is special. For dinner we go back to the district around the hostel, where we eat Hot pot. In a Hot pot you can cook the meat and vegetables by yourself. After the dinner most of the people go to the restaurant next to the hostel where we ate yesterday, to drink beer or cola. It becomes a great evening, and night... The weekend is over and tomorrow it is time for another great day in Beijing.

Fieke Hillerström

The flight and arrival

Today it is saturday the 8th of september, we are still in the airplane above Russia on our way to China while it is the birthday of both Roelof and Robert. The sky turned dark quickly while everybody tried to catch some sleep. This proved to be very difficult and only a few managed to get some good shuteye. After a few hours, the sunlight appeared through the windows of the airplane and we got served with some breakfast. After the landing some people decided to sing a birthday song.

Before we travelled to China we were warned that very tall western people are really popular attraction in China and a lot of people want to get a picture of them. When we traveled to the hostel from the airport the first SPOCK particaipants were already subject to Chinese people who want to get a picture with them. This is the first time but certainly not the last time that we are subjected to this kind of attention.

We arrive at our final station after a few transfers. The station is situated near the Tianmen Square, also known as the Square of the Heavenly Peace. Our hostel is just a few blocks away and has a view on the square.

Once arrived at the hostel, it turns out that we cannot check in since it is still before twelve o' clock. Luckily our group 'Awesome' was awesome enough to provide their room to stash all our luggage.

Then the group gathered in the lobby to find a good place to brunch. We arrived in a street with all sorts of small shops. A part of the group went into a small side street with many flashing advertising lights. From here out a lot of restaurants were visited, where for many their first "authenthic" Chinese meal was eaten. The dishes were chosen by pointing to pictures, because the menu card did not have an English translation. Just a few moments later, another group, which took a detour, arrived at a restaurant at the opposite side of the street. We decided to take a look at the square of Heavenly Peace and to make a photo for the university.

And so, 24 students and one supervisors equipped with a Ufonds flag were heading towards the square to make a photo in front of the Forbidden City. Chairman Mao would be watching contently and the trip would become a success. While we were making some nice photos and doing "de Woutel", we were photographed by a lot of Chinese people. Also we had to take some more pictures with them. This continued for a while, until a man in panic came to us with the police, because we were forbidden to make pictures of our flag together with Mao on the background.

After this hectic circus we went to the Forbidden City where we absorbed more must see culture. Again a lot of the participants had to take a picture with some Chinese people, during our stay in the Forbidden City. Especially Bart was very popular among the Chinese, because of his height of 2.04 meters.

After a long stroll we could see a temple on top of a hill behind the Forbidden City. The most of us had seen enough of the Forbidden City after three to four hours and would like to attemp the climb. Once arrived it turned out that a huge Buddha statue of eight meters was in the temple. It also gave a fantastic view over the entire city and to our surprise we were situated exactly in the center of Beijing. After a short rest we went back to the hostel.

We checked in, divided the rooms, took a quick look in the rooms and ate some diner at the restaurant next to our hostel. We ordered all sorts of dishes and the Peking duck was in particular very tasty. This one could be checked of our food bingo list.

Because the diner took quite some time, we had to hurry to the Olympic Park. Unfortunately, everyone would only have about 15 minutes to enjoy the Olympic Stadium, the Olympic Swimming Pool and the many people with stands and kites. Mickey Mouse also made a lasting impression when he was totally stressed out when photos were made from him when some Spock people did "de Woutel" look in front of him.

During our trip back to the hostel we lost one of our participants. We lost Freek in the Olympic Park and after looking, waiting and calling for a while, everyone went back to the sub. Eventually everyone, including Freek even though a few moments later, arrived safe and sound in their bed.

Eric Portema

The travel to China

It is Friday 7 September. It is the day before the study tour Lián Xì is travelling to the distant country China. Most of us start the day long before 7 o'clock in the morning. Some of us and I get in the train at 6:57 in Enschede station and some of the other participants get on the train in Hengelo at 7:06. However, not all of the participants take this train to Schiphol. A group of five people, also known as 'Awesome', went earlier to China. Even though it was early in the morning everyone gets on the  train, but not everyone will arrive on the same train.

Just before we arrived at Apeldoorn station, our tickets were checked and it seems that some participants who bought a paper ticket at a reduced rate were not valid before 9:00. This means that it was necessary to take a short sprint to the nearest ticket machine at Apeldoorn. Finally, everyone gets their ticket, but not everyone gets back on the train.

Once we arrived on Schiphol, we still had to wait on Denick. Also a few parents came to Schiphol to say goodbye. This resulted in some trouble, when we checked in and one of the parents made a picture and the incheck lady wasn't a lady anymore, but an old hag. The first flight was from Amsterdam to Helsinki, where we would take a transfer to Beijing. The first flight departed at 11:55 and in about 2 hours we arrived safe and sound in Helsinki. In Helsinki we had to wait several hours for our flight to Beijing which took off at 18:05. At the departure the Chinese time were set and the entertainment system were tested. Just a few more hours and it is Saturday.

Eric Portema