By Jordan Delp

Jordan Delp is a men’s basketball player at Augustana. He is blogging about the team’s trip to China. For more posts about the Vikings’ journey, click here.

Not to sound like a broken record, but today again started with an early morning and an early flight. We woke up today at 5:30 a.m. for our flight back to Beijing after our win in Hohhot, ending a stretch of three flights in three days. It was definitely a grind, but luckily today was an off day for us. With no basketball on our schedule, we were able to see some of the greatest sights Beijing has to offer.

First, we started at Tiananmen Square, the largest public city square in the world. The square has been known to hold up to 1,000,000 people in the past. As we walked through the square, many street vendors approached us, attempting to sell us a variety of goods, such as kites, fans, shirts, hats, etc. What’s more interesting is the way you can barter with the people. They’ll tell you a price first, and then you come back with a lower price. They may say no first, but if you start to walk away they will chase you down and offer a lower price. Once you reach a price you can agree on, and if you really want it, you get it. It’s cool how it allows you to get some pretty cool stuff at a cheap price.

After walking to the end of the square, we entered The Forbidden City, which took one million workers 14 years to build. The Forbidden City is so named because it was off limits for 500 years; it is the largest and best-preserved clusters of ancient buildings in China, which was home to both the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Forbidden City is (was) a collection of public and private buildings that served both political and social means. As you go deeper and deeper into the city, the buildings become more and more important. It was interesting to learn that the number of animal statues on the buildings signified its significance. For instance, nine statues were regarded as the most important number, and can be seen on the emperor’s most important buildings. There are a lot of ongoing renovations at this site, as the Chinese prepare for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Every one of the buildings and walls are being repainted for the events, so not all of the buildings were not open for us to see.

Because of the renovations, we were not able to see Mao Zedong’s Mausoleum. Zedong was the leader of the revolution that took place in 1911, and was the first leader of the People’s Republic of China. His body is preserved in a coffin that everyone can see, but at this time the tomb was closed. Our last stop of the day was at the Summer Palace, a huge collection of gardens, temples, lakes and corridors that was initially constructed as one emperor’s gift to his mother. One of the more interesting facts about the Summer Palace was that one corridor contained 14,000 paintings, with no two paintings being the same. It was definitely an eye-opening day into the ancient culture of China.

Tonight we are laying low in the hotel, preparing for our final game on the trip tomorrow. We play Qinghua University, one of the finest Universities in China, both from an academic perspective and on the basketball court. Should be a good test for our team, and a great way to end our basketball tour.