Today we went and visited Peking (Beijing) University--a university known for its beautiful campus.
Spot the bee!
Three of us also visited the Bird's nest, Water Cube and the CCTV building in the night time, while the rest decided to take a long nap.
Good evening (Wǎnshàng hǎo) for us and good morning (Zǎo ān) for you!
Today we went to Peking University (also called Beijing University); just like Tsinghua University, is one of the top Universities in China. It is one of the nine schools in the C9 League (similar to the Ivy League in the states). While waiting for our contact to meet us, we were greeted instead by this banner that read "Warm Congratulations on the Pennsylvania State University Academic Exchange Day at Peking University"
No, that banner wasn't for us
Research
After a little bit of waiting, we were finally greeted by Prof. Tao Wang, the executive director of the Center for Energy-efficient Computing and Applications (CECA) in Peking University. He gave a presentation on energy-efficient disk arrays. In which he explained different solutions on optimizing and reducing power consumption in power-hogging processors that his team is currently working on.
Bob, a local student toured us around their beautiful campus. It is not as big as Tsinghua, but its beauty surpasses other counterparts because of its traditional Chinese architecture. It's memorial statutes, art, gardens, museums, man-made lakes made it both an educational and a wonderful experience.
Adam, our coordinator, sitting near by a man-made lake in Peking/Beijing University
Since Peking University is famous for its beautiful campus, it is not surprising that people would come and visit. During one of our walks, there was a group of Chinese senior citizens visiting from a far away province. Bob said that these senior citizens might be visiting their grand sons and grand daughters or merely just visiting the school. It also may be that they haven't seen Westerners in their life, and so that's why our group was bombarded by them. It started out with a request to take a photo with one of the students, then ultimately a picture with the group.
The group became instant international celebrities to these Chinese senior citizens
Sight-seeing
While most of the students decided to sleep in early that night, the three of us: Ryan, Karla and Ysa realized that a $5k trip is not worth it if we only stayed in the hotel. So Ryan's friend came and toured us around the city to some of the most interesting modern structures in Beijing. We went to see the Olympic stadiums: Bird's Nest and the Water Cube.
The three in front of the main gate entrance to the Bird's Nest Stadium
The Water Cube in Beijing, CN
Ryan, being a curious civil engineering student, thought we should go and see more awesome modern structures in Beijing, so we also went and saw the CCTV building.
CCTV at night
Stay tuned for the next blog, and feel free to send the link to the rest of the family and friends.
再见 (Zàijiàn)! Good bye!
-@
More Photos
Our fun pose
Phototakers' photo
Prof. Sobelman and the Laishui man
Candid shot of the guys by the lake
Celebrities
Inside the Water Cube
