Green goes Global: June 4: Last Full Day In and Around Beijing

Greetings once again. Today was our last full day of activities in and around Beijing.

Via bus, we started the day heading north out of the city. We went to the Great Wall. Neither words nor pictures can describe the views there. We took cable cars up the side of a mountain to a landing. From there, we walked the Wall.

While walking, I could not help but think of the number of people to have walked there before me. As a sociologist studying development, I realized the importance of this long-term history in understanding contemporary events in this "Middle Kingdom."

After a few hours at the Great Wall, we had lunch at a local restaurant in an open air setting. Like everything else we have eaten, it was wonderful and very different from the type of foods we consider to be Chinese in the U.S.

On the way back into town we stopped by an artisan studio where a special kind of copper vases are made. We learned how they are made, and then toured the show room.

Before heading back to the hotel, several of us stopped at a Pearl Market as well. It had a large variety of vendors selling salt water and fresh water pearls.

After a short break, we then went to Beihai Park, a beautiful Beijing garden and ate an artistically presented meal at the Shanglinyuan Restaurant. The menus were specially made with a historic picture and the American Sociological Association logo.

Tomorrow morning we will go to the airport and fly to Xian. It is going to be a pretty major change in temperature there, around 95 degrees F.

I have been having problems with my sinuses, given the air pollution here. With Beijing's location (surrounded by mountains on nearly three sides), large population (16 million), rapid development and the immense number of cars and trucks (Wendy says an average of 1,000 new license plates per day), the air quality is poor. Environmental health is clearly an important issue to be grappled with as the country pursues even more intense development. But, this is not unique to China. Maybe we should all be directing attention in this direction.

Pictures from the day...