Day 8 in Beijing

Sunday, Feb. 27, 2011

Last day of the conference, everyone is very busy getting ready for the final presentations. The 6 student groups are busy working on their videos and the adults are finishing up and having their projects juried so that we can find the three best.  The rest of the people are working on elevator speeches and some parts of the final presentations. 

The final presentations went great and the ending ceremonies ended on time! We had a great time and now for a final day of touring.

Vincent, Mr. Lei and Mr. Wong picked us up at the Hotel at 1pm today and took us first to the Pearl Market. Leigh had a great time bargaining for many different things including the hat on my beautiful model!

By the time the bargaining for this hat had finished we were all laughing so hard! At one point Leigh went higher and the salesgirl then went even lower! It was just too much!

After the shopping we went and got in some rickshaws for a tour of a very old hutong. The hutongs in Beijing are the original neighborhoods. Some are over 800 years old.  We saw the Bell Tower Zhōnglóu (钟楼) and the Drum Tower Gǔlóu (鼓楼) These were used to tell time for all.  One story is that the Bell was rung at 7 pm to signal the time to close the gate. And the Drum was used to signal the time to wake up at 5 am. They were both originally built in 1272 and have been rebuilt twice since due to fires. They are made of wood and stone.  The bell in the Bell Tower is over 500 years old and made of Copper. It is said that it can be heard for 12.4 miles. There is still one of the original drums left to see by tourist. The other drums are newer.