55 Million People and Me

Beijing

So, as you know from my last post, I'm going to China! 

The purpose of the trip I’m going on is to expose graduate students to organizations and media outlets in China. Our itinerary isn't 100 percent complete, but I know several of the adventures I will embark upon in China’s wee capital city of 21.5 million people. 

​We will be meeting with foreign correspondents based in Beijing as well as local media outlets including China Daily. One of my graduate research projects this semester specifically focuses on China and I used China Daily as a resource more than once; so I am particularly excited to meet with the Editor-in-Chief.    
 
The US embassy is also on the list, which I think is cool because Governor Branstad, excuse me, Ambassador Branstad, was governor of Iowa for basically the same number of years I've been alive. 
 
Total side note, but we'll also visit the Great Wall while we're in Beijing. Not a big deal or anything, it's not like it's a freaking Modern Wonder of the World or anything.
 
[For those who are interested, this will bring my total number of visits up to four out of the seven Modern Wonders of the World, and one out of seven of the original Ancient World Wonders. Bonus points if you can correctly guess which places I’ve been!] 

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Xi’an

​After Beijing we will take a Chinese bullet train to Xi'an, the cradle of Chinese civilization and an ancient capital of the empire. I'm totally not excited out of my wildest dreams to travel to this historic city. (Literally so excited).
 
We haven't been given any specific details on what we will be doing in this tiny city of nearly nine million people, (for the record this is more people who live in the entire state of New Jersey,) but I can tell you one thing I'm fairly certain we will be taken to see:
 
It's the burial site of the first Chinese emperor, Qin Shi Huang. You might not have heard of him, but you've probably heard of his army.
 
His freaking TERRACOTTA ARMY. 

​Ok, I'm done fan-girling over a dead guy and his amazing art collection. Moving on. 

Shanghai

From Xi'an we'll fly to Shanghai. Shanghai is even larger than Beijing with a population of over 24 million people. 
 
I've included a map of the three cities so you can see how much/little of China I'll get to see on my trip. 

Courtesy of Google Maps

​In Shanghai I'm most excited for the Propaganda Poster Museum. I have a particular interest in propaganda, and am eager to learn about China's perceptions about propaganda especially in visual media. 
 
Also scheduled is a trip to the Pearl Market... which I'm sure will be awesome and heart breaking for a broke grad student on a tight budget. 

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Home for the Holidays

I depart Shanghai on December 22 at 5 p.m. and I'll arrive back in America at 5 p.m. on December 22...? Gotta love those international time zones. From there I'll have another flight back to Omaha where I'll land bright and early at 12:15 in the lovely hours of the morning when it will be pitch black outside and every sane person is at home, in bed, preparing for the holidays. 
 
I'm sure I'll spend Christmas extremely jet-lagged, but I'm looking forward to it anyway!

Next Post: Understanding the Chinese Media Censorship

*Unless otherwise stated, all photos in this post were chosen specifically because they were listed as common domain
**Check back for my own photos of China after my trip!