Mid-Autumn Festival

I just wanted to wish everyone the best Mid-Autumn Festival ever! This is a traditional Chinese holiday that's celebrated in the middle of Autumn (duh) which is on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. It is also known as the Moon Festival and people tend to enjoy mooncake during this holiday. This is the second biggest holiday in China (the first is the Chinese Lunar New Year). There are many stories that go along with this Chinese holiday as well. If you would like more information please check out this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival

Fairwell 2008 Beijing Olympics

It was wonderful and it brings me sadness to see it all ending. This is by far the best Olympics that I've ever seen. The amazing part is that the closing ceremony was just as great as the opening ceremony. It took over 1 million volunteers to run the Beijing Olympics and it was just magnificent. The USA took home the most medals but China took home the most gold medals, both of which makes me very happy. Michael Phelps is now a 14 times Olympic Medalist, and it was a lot of fun watching him swim in all of those competitions.
I also really enjoyed watching the Jamaican runner by the name of Bolt. He is such an entertainer and it's fun to watch him have such a good time winning all of those gold medals. All in all it was a wonderful experience watching the 2008 Beijing Olympics, even though I was only watching it on t.v.

2008 Beijing Olympics

Today is the first day of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In China 8 is a lucky number so having the opening ceremony on 8/8/08 is very lucky. I am currently watching the opening ceremony and I have to say that it's amazing and I'm becoming very jealous of all of the lucky people who are there. I always enjoy watching the Olympics but this is a very special one for me because I have been to Beijing and I have always enjoyed everything about China since I was a little girl. I have always said that I may be American but I have a Chinese heart. Their history is so long and their culture is so rich and I love how they are bringing both aspects to the Olympics, they are truly making this Olympics synonymous with country pride. I hope that the USA wins some medals but I also hope that China wins some as well. I think it would bring a big damper to the Olympics if the host country ended up not winning any medals. I'm sure that China will host the most memorable Olympics yet and I cannot wait to see it all!

China Tour 2004

My photos were taken when I was on China Tour 2004 through the East Asian Studies program at my university. I have a major in East Asian Studies and focused on China. I have taken 3 years of college level Mandarin, Chinese Culture, Modern China, and East Asian History. On the tour we visited many different cities including: Beijing, Xian, Shanghai, Guilin, Juizaigou, Huangshan, and Chengdu. I also got to see many historical sites such as: The Great Wall of China, the Terracotta Soldiers, Tianamen Square, the Forbidden City, the Leshan Giant Buddha, and many pagodas. I also got the opportunity to visit a regular family in China to see how they lived, visit Peking University, see the Beijing Opera, and take a ride in a rickshaw as well. It was the best trip I have ever taken in my life and I'm hoping to visit there again sometime in the future.