dispence

On the evening of the last day of January, 2008, something peculiar happened: a student in the SU Abroad group heard a strange noise. The location in question is the right elevator in the Pacific Hotel in Shanghai.

At approximately 5:30pm local time, the student entered the elevator on the fifth floor and proceeded to ride down to the lobby on the second floor. Upon entering the elevator alone, the student reported hearing a strange sound coming from somewhere inside the elevator. Latter accounts suggest the sound originated to the right of the student while facing toward the door.

“I felt really scared,” the student said.

The noise is described as a soft swishing sound in a deep, angry, masculine tone with volume like a faraway whisper. The student reports hearing this sound immediately prior to and immediately after elevator movement.

After hearing the sound the first time, the student stayed quiet to insure it was not a result of hallucinating.

The student could not account for why the sound sounded angry but was able to identify the anger was not directed at her. Both times the sound lasted for approximately three to four seconds, the student said.

Upon further review of the situation, the student is confident that there was no abnormal visual occurrences during the elevator ride. This suggests the origin of the sound in question is probably not in the elevator, or not visible to the naked eye.

Further studies must be done about the elevator in question. In the mean time, the student will find other ways to get around the hotel.

“I’m going to take the stairs from now on,” the student said.

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We took an overnight train from Beijing to Shanghai yesterday. We took up almost three whole sleeper cars of the 19-car train and were four people to a compartment. It was probably one of the greatest things I’ve ever done. Let’s just leave it at that. (photos)

Seriously, the Great Wall is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. Growing up I’ve always learned how intense this wall is, how hard it was to build, how long it is, how you can see it from space, how old it is, how long it took to build… basically how great it is. You can’t get a good appreciation for this wall without stepping foot on it yourself. It is just incredible.

First of all, the wall is on top of mountains, several mountains, a whole range of mountains! Second, it’s huge. It’s about 25 feet wide and 30 or 40 feet tall and all made out of stone. You can’t appreciate that until you actually look at all the stone brinks, then look miles down a canyon to where they probably came from, then realize there are, what, a billion of these bricks along the wall?

We walked along the wall for a while and hiked up to the highest point in our area. The whole wall is steps, basically, and we climbed up a lot of them.

Imagine being a Mongol invader, or some roaming nomadic tribe. You’re cruising around the mountains and then all of a sudden you see this lookout on top of a high peak. Cool, you’ll say, some other people who can build nice, high lookouts. Then you keep hiking and see another lookout, then realize it’s connected to the first one, then realize there are more lookouts on the peak of every highest mountain for as far as your eye can see! You would then think, “Oh man! These people must be nuts! They must be so advanced and powerful if they can build a wall like this! Forget invading, I’m outta here!”

So with this, and an appreciation for the wall’s construction I have a new respect for the ancient Chinese people. They were smart. They probably scared off a lot of people just by the sight of the thing. I’ve spent a lot of time outdoors and in the mountains and to have this much solid development is nothing like anything I’ve ever seen. (photos)

This is probably my favorite place in Beijing so far. The Temple of Heaven is where emperors would go to pray. Nowadays, it’s where thousands of Beijing residents turn out in the early morning to practice Tai Chi. The whole group of 80 of us tried it too. We got there at around 8 in the morning and the place was already packed. There were people everywhere practicing their moves.

Half way through, I happened upon a large group of people singing. I had my recorder in my pocket so I whipped it out and captured some great sound.

On our way out we passed probably a thousand or so people just hanging out and playing games, cards or just sitting around. There were several random performances probably geared toward tourists. Ladies singing, ribbon dancing and peddlers selling feather hacky sack things.

The Forbidden City lies in the center of Beijing and was the home city for several dynasties. It’s built about an axis, running north south. Everything lines up with it. To the south, Tienanmen square, Mao ZeDong’s mausoleum and the Temple of Heaven and to the north is the Drum Tower and past that, the Olympic site and the famous “Bird nest.”

There is a lot of gold to represent the royal family. (More photos than what are below)

We came upon some nice music back in Xi’an. I’ve always liked soundslides so here’s my first attempt at one.