We walked around campus in the sun all morning, and took a picture by this gate. Our tour guides were local industrial engineering students, and they said that this gate is pretty famous. This is about half our group plus the local kids in front of the gate.
But whomever took the picture for us accidentally cut off the top of the gate, so here is what the gate looks like.
Tsinghua is one of China's older universities, along with Peking University, but Tsinghua is known more for its engineering. Many of the buildings on campus have the traditional style of architecture that is universally recognized as being Chinese... like the pagodas with a curved red roof. We stopped to take some photos during the tour by this building.
And of course I had to get a picture with the lion :)
There are many beautiful waterways surrounded by lush green foliage on campus from the old emperor's gardens, but up close the water is gross looking.
I thought the water in Singapore was disgusting, but this is absolutely putrid, its probably just a malaria breeding ground. This water is not even moving with a current, its just standing there...
Everyone bikes here, even the police! It is scary because people bike alongside cars and are not afraid to go through red light intersections. Here is a policeman on a bike.
We went by the Industrial Engineering building! It is really nice, its on the 5th floor of the Business and Economics building. There are a lot of bikes parked outside. I've noticed that here in China, pedestrians defer to people on bikes which is a little different from the United States (where pedestrians always have the right of way).
Check out their logo for IE in between Christine and Annie... so creative!
There is a little lake covered in lily pads randomly somewhere in the middle of campus, our tour guide explained it but unfortunately its been 3 days since I took this photo so I've forgotten why they were there.
There are a TON of lily pads, and a small pagoda in the back -- which is apparently a popular romantic spot to go to with your significant other.
Then we went by another pond with a famous gate (I have trouble remembering Chinese names as much as I do remembering English names).
Here is the view of the water, our tour guide mentioned that many women come here to take wedding photos.
And I guess some people fish in this pond, with their umbrellas? Though its not raining, women in China use umbrellas to block the sun and prevent from tanning. In the Chinese culture, being tan is not considered attractive because it is a sign that the women is from a lower-class family and had to work in the fields. Therefore, Chinese women traditionally want their skin to be as fair and as pale as possible. But I don't know if some of the younger generation has adopted the Western mindset towards being tan.
But I don't quite understand what that family was fishing for because I didn't see any fish in this pond...
This is one of our tour guides, Martin. I took a photo of his shirt because its hilarious... IE doesn't stand for Internet Explorer!
We walked to one of the many (around 20) dining halls on campus for lunch and passed this statue. I can't read the inscription on the slab but it looks fairly intellectual.
We also passed these two women with a little boy... and everyone in our group was very surprised to see that the little boy had a slit in the seat of his pants! I suppose thats how they potty train their kids over here? His pants didn't quite look appropriate to be in public haha.
And finally, here is a picture of our study abroad group as we were walking to Yuan Ming Yuan (the old summer palace).
I'll post another update tomorrow about our trip to Yuan Ming Yuan, I'm all blogged out for the day!
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