Day 3: Beijing

Today, we started bright and early at 8am with a lecture by David Spindler in a conference room of our hotel. We’d read a profile of David prior to the lecture, so seeing him in person was a fun and slightly strange experience. Not only was he two meters tall (6’8”), but he had an incredibly rich body of knowledge regarding the Great Wall of China. After graduating from Dartmouth University, he came to China and has since spent over twenty years here. His current project, which he’s been working on for over a decade, is his independent research on the Great Wall. In the time of his short talk, he was able to uproot some of common misconceptions about the Great Wall, including that it’s a continuous structure, that it is visible from the moon, and that it “didn’t work” in preventing invasions. He also gave us a fairly comprehensive history of the wall in addition to some geography and things to look for when we hike the wall this Saturday. It was an awesome opportunity to have a dialogue with a true expert on the subject.

After our meeting with David, we were immediately bussed to the brand new CCTV (China Central Television) building to speak with Mr. Ji Xiaojun, the Deputy Director in charge of CCTV New Site Construction and Development Program. He gave us an overview of CCTV’s functions and history and explained the new building project. This was also a great opportunity to have conversations on censorship and the role of government in Chinese media. I learned a lot about CCTV’s presence not only in China but worldwide, with correspondents in the US, Europe, and even Kenya. Mr. Ji emphasized CCTV’s slogan, which states CCTV’s aim not only to teach Chinese viewers about the world, but also to teach the world about China. Coming from the US, I’ve grown up with certain views on freedom of the press and I was especially interested to learn about how these views diverge here in China.

We then hopped back on the bus to see the NetEase headquarters in Beijing and to hear a talk from some staff in on the Finance team. The presentation covered NetEase’s history, their massive growth throughout the 2000s, and the products offered by the company. NetEase not only offers its web portal and news aggregation service, but also mobile, email, and gaming services. Online web portals are gaining more and more relevancy as consumers begin to source their news online rather than through traditional media. The atmosphere at NetEase is vibrant and dynamic, where many of the employees are only several years out of college. We had lunch with a couple of finance staff and got to hear their opinions on everything from censorship to corporations to the NBA.

Finally, we made it to the Yuan Ming Yuan, or Garden of Perfect Brightness. The garden and its ruins are still beautiful, and it is extremely relevant to Chinese thought today. The narrative of the garden’s greatness and its fall parallels many other historical Chinese narratives. We were given a tour by Mr. Liu Yang, an independent researcher and employee of the garden, who provided us with a candid depiction of the garden unheard of by most visitors. He expressed his frustration at the misinterpretation of history by the Chinese layperson, where many Chinese today believe that the garden was sieged by Eight Allied troops as opposed to just the Anglo-French armies. It was an unique experience, and we made friends with several Chinese tourists on the way.

It was a long day, but we had plenty of experiences we would have never gotten anywhere else. I’m excited for the rest of our time in Beijing and to see more new places throughout the rest of the dialogue!

- Wanyi J.

-- Wanyi J.