Stephanie Kendall, a senior public relations major from Singapore, is taking part in the Baylor in China program this summer. In the second in a series of blog posts, Stephanie describes her first day in Beijing at Tsinghua University, which she says is “known as the No. 1 school in China.”

——————-

For our first day at Tsinghua University we met downstairs for breakfast with the group, exchanged numbers and discussed our itinerary for the week before exploring the campus and heading to our first day of class.

As we walked through campus, we soon figured out that walking everywhere would become second nature.

After our first class we met up with a group of Tsinghua students learning English and talked to them about their course work, and about life as a student at Tsinghua. We all exchanged emails and numbers so we could meet up another day and explore the outskirts of Tsinghua with locals. We said goodbye to the students and headed to our first traditional Chinese lunch as a group.

The food was lavishly displayed and full of exotic spices — each bite was a burst of flavor. We had spicy pickles, sweet and sour pork, noodles, egg drop soup, beef vegetables in a delicious brown sauce and so much more.

With our stomachs full we headed to the bank to exchange money before getting our subway cards, which we would later find out are a necessity when traveling through Beijing.

Later we walked back through campus to find the bookstore, which was about a mile-long walk. At the bookstore we got our Chinese textbooks, dictionaries and any other materials we needed before having another delicious feast full of Taiwanese cuisine. With the lack of energy we had left we all decided to head to bed early and prepare for our first real sightseeing trip the next morning.

In part three of Stephanie’s adventures in China, she’ll talk about the visit she made to one of Beijing’s most impressive sights — the Summer Palace.