An Introduction to China

So, the first week has already gone by, and here I am writing my first post. We've already crammed a lot into our time here as you will see. So, to begin at the beginning...

The plane flight over was one of the worst I've had in a long time, sitting in the middle middle seat between two big guys. There was no chance to get comfortable enough to fall asleep, although I was able to doze off a bit here and there. When we arrived the airport was muggy, a taste of the heat and humidity that was to come when we hit the air outside. On the ride to our hotel, we passed the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube specifically created for the Olympics. They look as neat as they do in the photos! When we arrived Renmin University had a huge sign welcoming us and UNC students to their campus hotel (check out my photo page to see). We had dinner in one of the campus canteens, made easier by the fact that I had a translator to help me get my food without soy sauce! We obviously hit the beds early because we were dead tired.

On Thursday we dealt with organizational issues - cell phones, Olympic volunteer clothing, meeting venue directors etc. The Olympic Volunteer clothing isn't too bad, will have a photo to share with you later! My venue director for tennis photo volunteers wasn't there, and we don't know our training schedule yet, so I'm a little nervous! Later that day we had our first lecture by a Renmin University professor on the current state of the Chinese media. What he didn't say was almost more revealing than what he did, if you catch my drift... My opinion about the subject has already been influenced by my work on two articles about the same topic for the current issue of Global Journalist. The stories aren't up yet but you can see the photo spread on Tibetan protests around the world. Later that night we got stamps with our names in ancient Chinese and English which are quite nice - they were gifts from the dean of Renmin's journalism school.

On Friday we visited two media outlets - the People's Daily and Beijing Youth Daily. At the People's Daily we got a tour of the newsroom for their website, including one that they just recently opened that reports China's Communist Party news which I thought was interesting. They also have their website translated into several minority languages, including Mongolian and Tibetan, the later of which I found interesting because of the recent issues there with the government. I was left unclear with exactly how the government does contribute to the People's Daily's funding due to a vague response from a journalist there about that question. Over at the Beijing Youth Daily, we were recruited to do some reporting for them because they were interested in what we thought of the Olympics as volunteers. They said to call them if we thought an interesting story came up. I didn't fully understand because I am wondering what do their own reporters do if not find stories? 

I will continue with weekend activities, including our trip to the Forbidden City, Tianamen Square, and our lovely rickshaw ride through the hutongs...so stay tuned.