For our final oral project we were given the opportunity to explore a place in Beijing with a teacher. At first I thought I might want to go to a Hutong, but then I heard that a lot of other people had the same idea, so I decided to figure out somewhere a little more unusual. I was reading a copy of the magazine That's Beijing when I stumbled across an article about the Beijing Botanical Gardens. It was a eureka moment. At Yale I do research on plant phylogeny, so this would be a great opportunity to explore Beijing plant culture.
Friday I went to the Beijing Botanical Gardens and despite the 2 hour commute each way it was a lot of fun. I left with Wang laoshi (I was worried we wouldn't have anything to talk about, but we had plenty to discuss and the silences weren't awkward) at 9 am. After taking the subway and then a bus we arrived at the gardens at 11pm. They are really nice, there is so much to see you could spend a whole day there and only explore a small niche. We first walked to the Wofu Temple which has a giant reclining Buddah. It was really pretty and Wang laoshi explained some of Buddhism's history in China. We then walked around a small medicine garden, that had medicinal plants as well as a ton of pretty flowers, so in total I took about 40 pictures, although I'll probably only have about 3 good shots. Then we wandered around until we stumbled upon a large lake. Part of the assignment of the trip was to speak with Chinese people and interview them. I was a little nervous at first, but Wang laoshi helped me and I ended up interviewing a mom and child, students, and a park maintenance worker. We then had a 2 hour commute back, but I think it was worth it. I had a wonderful time, I got to know Wang laoshi a lot better, and I got to practice my Chinese.
The garden included a lake My teacher Wang laoshi!
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