Day 10: Beijing

Matt Love, Radcliff, KY

August 12, 2008

Today we went to Tienamen Square and Forbidden City. Surprisingly today was one of the only days we could really see the governmental controls at work. We are so used to our freedoms and you can tell when things are done that they don't like. Most days seem like any other in the U.S. once you get around the traffic and kids without pants on but today was different.

We tried to take a group picture with our trip flag but the police shut it down in about 5 seconds and said we did not have permission. I'm glad this happened if only for the experience. It gave us an indication of what it might be like when the Olympics is gone.

We viewed Chairman Maeo's body and the the Forbidden City. I went my own way and viewed artifacts on display. I liked the one that I will forever call the Buddist Superman.

Robby Woodke, Tampa FL

Today we started the day off with some presentations. After those, we took off for Tinnamin square and the forbidden city. We spent about 4 hours at the both of these. Tinnamin square wasnt that interesting to me, just a building in the middle of a block and a Mauzay Dung.

Forbidden city was a little cooler. It was built in the 14th century where the Ming dynasty lived. After we finished this we headed back to the hotel for some lunch and a much needed break.

Next was the archery event, that was a little slow for me, but still cool. Pretty cool how they hit that target every time, mostly in the first two circles. A few of us got free tickets to some field hockey and finally got to see the US play, and saw them draw with the favorite Japan. Later we went to the birds nest and the cube and got to see them both lit up, which was awesome and well worth the wait.