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.

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.

Another early morning, and another flight for our team. This time we flew from Beijing, over the Great Wall, and into Hohhot, the capital city of Inner Mongolia. When we arrived in Hohhot, we were met with a nice surprise: no humidity. It was a welcome escape from the punch-in-the-gut humidity levels we experienced at the other stops on our trip, our first sunny and cool day in China.

After getting settled in our hotel, we headed to lunch to eat with our day’s opponent and a few of the other people associated with the event. This lunch was unlike any other experience we have ever been a part of. It started off normally, with some light dishes and drinks, but took a turn when about 20 Mongolian men and women, uniformed in some sort of kimonos were led into the room by two others pushing a fully intact ram (head-to tail — it was all there) into the middle of the room.

As they chanted and sang words that none of us understood, they asked Coach Giovanine to make the first cut into the meat of the animal, go through some traditional ritual and take a ceremonial drink. After a little bit more singing and chanting, things settled down, but their mark had been put on us. No one really knew what to say or think.

And oh yeah, did I mention all of this was in the dark?

After lunch, we were able to see a few of the sights of Hohhot, including two Buddhist temples and a mosque. Dr. Moline (the esteemed professor of geography at Augustana who has been so helpful as our tour guide) informed us that we were at a juncture few people would ever get to see. Looking left, we saw Western architecture and influence; looking right, we saw Eastern architecture and influence. It was an interesting dynamic that we all could appreciate.

As we approached the sight of our night’s game, we were reminded that we would be playing the first game ever played in Hohhot’s brand new, downtown 6,000 seat arena. Outside the arena, the Olympic rings were hanging above the entry way. As we walked into the gym we saw a banner that read something to the effect of “Chinese vs. USA basketball game” and knew that this would be an important matchup.

The game went well, an 83-70 win for us, making us 3-0 on the trip. As we have the entire trip, our team really defended and rebounded well, and our depth helped us to wear down the Zhejiang Lions from nearby Shanghai.

The game ended in Augie fashion, with a steal and fast break dunk by junior Chandlor Collins. After our win, we were awarded a trophy and then a melee broke loose: people looking for photos with our guys and autographs. It was a cool environment that I don’t think many of us could ever get sick of. So, we leave Hohhot tomorrow morning 3-0, with one more game left on our schedule.

We know we aren’t finished yet.

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.

It was kind of a slow day in China for us today, one that we used mostly for travel. The beginning of the day gave us a unique opportunity however, one that few people can experience. Our entire team had the chance to be led in practice by an NBA coach with loads of experience and success.

Bob Hill, who formerly coached the New York Knicks, Indiana Pacers, San Antonio Spurs, and (most recently) the Seattle SuperSonics, was in China for the 10th annual coaching clinic of the China Basketball Association. This is the same clinic we worked out at and played in front of the day before. Because of the motivation of the Chinese to become better and better at basketball, they have begun to bring in more high-profile personalities in order to teach their coaches how to better themselves and their teams.

Coach Hill led us through a series of drills, some of which we were familiar with, and some of which were new to us as well. Much of his focus was on the defensive side of the ball, discussing things such as transition defense, rebounding, and one-on-one defense. It was very interesting to hear his philosophies and ideas about how the game should be played, especially because they sounded so familiar to us. Many of the same principles that Coach Hill were preaching were the principles that define our program. To name a few, he said that a strong defense and rebounding the ball were two of the most important parts of being successful.

It was definitely one of the more enjoyable parts of the trip and I think our guys really soaked it in. After we finished at the clinic, we went back to our hotel and checked out to end our stay in Wuhan. We started a stretch of three flights in three days and a total of five flights in seven days today, flying from Wuhan to the capital city of China, which is Beijing. It was a shorter flight than the ones we have become use to on this trip, only two hours. We were able to see some of the city on our way from the airport to the hotel, and there were some pretty cool sights along the way.

Tonight is going to be a lazy night, because we have to get up early tomorrow for our next flight. We head to Hohhot, the capital city of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (still part of China). There, we will play in a 6,000-seat arena against a Chinese professional team. Our game is part of a festival commemorating the 60th anniversary of Inner Mongolia achieving autonomous recognition, and hopefully it will be a game to remember.

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.

Today started with a 6:30 a.m. wake-up call to prepare for our last, busy day in Wuhan. After breakfast we got on the bus and drove about an hour for our game-day practice. This practice, however, was unlike any of our other game day practices, because we worked out in front of around 200 of China’s basketball coaches. Ranging from university and college level coaches up to the professional team leaders, the coaches were gathered for the 10th Annual Coaching Clinic of the CBA (China Basketball Association).

It was an awesome experience for all of us, and an opportunity that we realize not many players will probably have. For about an hour we went hard through a series of our drills, ranging from defensive slides, to rebounding and individual shooting drills.

After we were done going through our work, Coach Giovanine opened up the clinic for questions, and for around a half hour we walked through some of our offensive and defensive philosophies for the Chinese coaches. You could definitely see the type of motivation and determination that these men and women had for their profession. All of the coaches were very attentive, and it seemed like they were really trying to soak in all of what Coach G was attempting to teach them.

It is said that the coaching is not necessarily the best in China but, much like in many other industries, you can easily tell that they will get up to speed and begin to excel in this area as they excel in others because of their strong work ethic.

Once we were done with the clinic, we came back to the hotel to get cleaned up, eat lunch, and prepare for our game. Game time was 3:00 p.m. so there wasn’t a lot of time to relax in between practice and the game. After our warm-ups were finished, there was a long set of speeches by some of the more prominent people at the clinic, and we then exchanged gifts with our opponents. It is a traditional Chinese custom to exchange gifts with people you interact with, and it was cool to give them a more Western gift (a lanyard) and receive a Chinese craft in return.

The game went well for us, and we ended up beating the Hubbi Province All-Stars by a score of 68-45. We continue to really defend and rebound well, with seniors Oliver Rorer and Dan Rukavina really going after loose-ball rebounds. Juniors Alex Washington and Jeff Becker also played extremely well tonight, and helped lead us on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.

After the game, we experienced an interesting atmosphere. Many of the people in attendance asked to take photographs with some of the guys, they had us all sign a bunch of basketballs for them, and they even asked me to do an interview, through an interpreter, for the nightly sports news. It was pretty cool for all of us, but we know that in the end only one thing really matters: we left the Zhongnan University of Economics and Law gymnasium 2-0.

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.

Today started with a good breakfast buffet at the Holiday Inn Riverside hotel that we are staying. Kind of nice getting a little bit of home mixed in with the Chinese culture. The food was good, with a nice mixture of Chinese food and American food. Again, it was good to have some Frosted Flakes and get a little taste of home.

After breakfast we returned to Central China Normal University for practice. Today, instead of practicing in the basement facility we used yesterday, we got to work out in their 5000-seat, air-conditioned arena. It was a cool atmosphere that none of us had ever really practiced in, and some of the students and more influential people at the University were there to watch us practice. After we were done with our practice, some of the guys had the opportunity to scrimmage against the University’s players.

Afterwards, we had lunch at the University hotel and restaurant with their players and some faculty. It was interesting to learn that one of their professors, Ms. Fu, was getting ready to head to Rock Island to teach advanced Chinese this school year at Augustana. The relationship between our college and the University has helped make our stay in Wuhan as accommodating as we could imagine. It was cool being able to talk with their guys, and learn how their college life compares and contrasts with ours. One of their guys told us that Kobe Bryant was his favorite player, and that Michael Jordan was the best player ever. We can definitely relate to that sentiment. A lot of their guys were P.E. majors, and a couple of them even admitted to skipping class every once and awhile. They said that we were all much more experienced at basketball, but that they would dominate us playing ping pong.

Lunch was another buffet style, made up of many different Chinese dishes. A couple of them really stood out, the first being a cup of half-dried noodles. These noodles are especially famous here in Wuhan, where they were first made- it was kind of like a peanut-butter tasting spaghetti. Another dish that we tried was Chinese pizza, which tasted nothing like the kind of pizza we have in the States. Basically, it tasted like an egg-and-rice omelet. It wasn’t exactly what we were expecting when we heard we were having pizza, but it was good nonetheless.

Our last stop today was at an agricultural village in rural Wuhan. On this stop we got to see rice and cotton fields, tea-leaf fields, and a specialty village where they manufactured cranes. We were able to meet the governor of the village and he gave us a tour of his village, ripe with insight into the daily grind of the agricultural workers. The process that these workers go through on a day-to-day basis sounds unbelievably difficult and taxing. One of the more interesting tidbits they were able to give us was that China is able to feed its population (20% of the total world population) on only 7% of the world’s land.

Tomorrow we play our second game on the trip, and we are looking forward to putting our team to the test against some of the better competition in China. Right now though, we’re going to try to go find a KFC or Pizza Hut and get more tastes of home.