This weekend me and my friend, Victoria, decided to hit up a couple spots in Beijing on our to-do list! We first visited the Lama Temple where we saw beautiful architecture and so much culture. Although we’ve visited many temples now, this one stood out because we saw many Chinese people praying and lighting incense which is something we hadn’t really seen at any other temples. This was a place people didn’t just come to visit and see, they came here to also practice what they believe. The entire place was filled with vibrant colors and many Buddha statues. After the temple, we decided to take a leap of faith and venture out to the Baitasi Hutong for Beijing Design Week! Beijing Design Week is an event spread out around the city where exhibitons on all types of art and design are showcased. They have everything from Architecture, to Graphic Design, to Photography. However, at first we had no idea what to expect. We didn’t find very much information on what it was all about or even where exactly it was all taking place. We just took the train to a specific area we knew was holding some exhibitions, and walked around hoping to find something exciting. We both love photography, so we ran around taking pictures while also looking for these exhibitions. We couldn’t find anything, when we came upon some very colorful flags. Victoria yelled for me and asked for a picture with the colorful flags, after a few shots we took a couple seconds to look at the writing on the flags and realized they said Beijing Design Week! We were finally here! We walked through the hutongs, wandering in and out of galleries and exhibits. We saw so much amazing work done by people from all over the world!
By Yesenia Zetino, Loyola University Chicago, Fall 2016 Student
Over this past weekend, some of our students enrolled at Minzu University of China took their annual Spring Outing – this year, to Gubei Water Town. Situated about a 2-hour drive northeast of Beijing, the April weather made it absolutely perfect to explore for a spring outing. It surrounds various canals and offshoots of Yuanyang lake.
If you ever want to get a taste of Old Beijing, by far one of the best ways is to visit the hutongs. They’ve conceptually been around all the way since the 1200s, and in their most modern forms exist as protected alleyways and streets surrounded by old traditional houses and neighborhoods in the heart of Beijing and are recognized in China to be an important part of cultural heritage in the city.