Although I have already spent a couple months in Beijing, I know there was still much more to see and explore, so I spent the National Day break trying see as many new places in the city as I could. National Day is celebrated on October 1 every year, and it is a celebration of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Us students had the whole first week of October off, but I was told traveling during that time would be a nightmare. Everyone I asked told me that so many people return home during National day that train and plane tickets are impossible to get, and people are squeezed in like sardines. Because of this I decided to take this time to see parts of Beijing that I wouldn’t otherwise have the chance to.
I started off the week by visiting Chaoyang Park on the east side of Beijing with Jen and my roommate David. It was a beautiful and spacious park, and Beijing has very many of these that I also visited throughout the week. The real highlight came after, when I finally saw the CCTV building for the first time. Beijing is known for being a historical ancient city, but the CCTV building stands out as an iconic statue to Beijing’s modern status. It is a massive 51-foot geometrical skyscraper that juts out and around and then comes back into the ground, almost like a massive off-center arch. It is hard to describe, and the pictures don’t do it justice. It makes the Beijing skyline super unique and is a building incomparable to anything in the west.
The next day I went to Beijing 798 Art Zone. I accidently stumbled into this place when I was looking for cool vintage stores, but it turned out to be one of the coolest places I’ve been to in Beijing. It is a large complex in the northeast of Beijing home to many art museums and small artistic shops. It was once a military factory that has now been turned into an art zone, so there are many large smokestacks, industrial buildings, and tunnels, which contrast the artistic shops very nicely. So much of what I have seen in Beijing has been very historic and ancient temples and palaces, so it was super interesting to see an area transformed for art and full of so many young people.
Later Jen and I visited the National Botanical Garden. I’ve been wanting to visit a botanical garden, and Beijing’s surprised me by how massive and wandering it was. We took the Xijiao subway line just past the Summer Palace exit and explored the garden. There was tons of forests, ponds and areas full of flowers, despite it being October. It was so nice to just walk around in nature after spending so much time in the city. We took a short walk and visited the Wofo temple in the north side of the garden, which had massive Buddha statues and red and gold temples, similar to those we saw out in western China. The highlight came when we accidently found ourselves on a hiking trail on the north end of the complex. We just kept walking up until we saw a sign that pointed us to the outlook about a mile ahead, and at this point we couldn’t just turn back. We continued up to the outlook. The unexpected hike was totally worth it because from the top of this mountain we could look over the entire park, get a great view of the mountains around us, and even got to see Beijing sprawling in the background. I went to the botanical garden just hoping to see some cool flowers, but ended up with a full day of sights and adventures that I didn’t expect.
During the back end of the week, I visited the Panjiayuan Antique Market in the southeast of the city. The Panjiayuan antique market is a famous destination for all types of unique old artifacts, and I was amazed at everything you could buy there. They had whole tunnel sections dedicated to old magazines, cards, books, and posters. Massive, roofed sections of the market had every type of vase and collectable you could imagine, and too many jewelry stands to count. There was one stand that just had a table of red boxes piled on top, and people were crowded around digging through the boxes searching for the specific piece of jewelry they wanted.
At the end of the week, I went to the Olympic Forest Park. It is close to our campus, so I just biked over and was shocked by how large it was. I had already seen the Olympic Park with the bird’s nest and other stadiums, but the forest park was entirely wooded. It was a massive forest in the middle of the city with amazing lakes and small trails throughout. In the background you could always see the Beijing Olympic Tower, which has massive LED screens on its sides, so bright animations of pandas and messages about China would play on the side of the tower. I am excited to travel and visit other cities in China, but spending a whole week seeing new spots in Beijing did not disappoint and left me wanting to explore even more.
Art often bridges the past and present, connecting us to centuries-old traditions while sparking deeply personal creativity. My recent experience in a Chinese Arts and Culture class beautifully encapsulated this idea.
Recently, I had the opportunity to participate in a volunteering activity that left a deep impression on me. It was a day dedicated to cultural exchange, creativity, and a wonderful reminder of the vibrancy of tradition — both Chinese and beyond.
The past few weekends have been some of the most exciting of the entire semester, full of trips to the zoo, mountain hikes, ancient parks, and more! Our first trip out of many was a visit to the Beijing Zoo. I had mentioned earlier in the semester that I wanted to see some pandas, since I was in China after all, and our TBC friend Andy made it happen.
Last year, The Beijing Center (TBC) celebrated its 25th anniversary with a dinner that was not just about marking a milestone but about embodying the Jesuit tradition of service and community impact.