HIT Happenings

Hello Everyone,

     These past two weeks have been interesting and fulfilling. Aside from my normal Chinese language classes, I also took the initiative to try out HIT Economics classes (in Chinese with fellow Chinese classmates!). I tried out Economics Law, Macroeconomics, and International Trade. While taking these classes, I remember being greatly encouraged at how far my Chinese has come since I could understand the overall lecture as well as some specific examples from here and there. One thing that really struck me about this academic environment is how much more of a cohesive classroom environment there was. For instance, if you look at how the desks and chairs are set up, you can see there is no separation. Back at Yale, I remember having individual seats placed in classrooms or lecture halls and in contrast here at HIT, the desks are connected. I actually really prefer this environment more because you can sit closer to your friends and you can all learn together and share notes with each other more easily. Also, there is more interaction here in the classroom setting between the professor and students than a huge lecture hall setting back in an American college.

ECONOMICS CLASSES

The tables (and even the seats!) are connected

     For this next part, my classmates and I took a field trip to a local fruit and veggies market to practice our Chinese to purchase produce and haggle prices. 

PURCHASING PRODUCE

One part I particularly enjoyed over the past couple of weeks was visiting HIT's 2nd campus. The majority of freshmen are all present here as well as a select group of majors.

HIT SECOND CAMPUS

While visiting the second campus, I had the good fortunate to listen to a speech by HIT President 王树国 (Wángshùguó). He gave a brilliant speech. Below are some of his points:

1. He mentioned how in high school he had a classmate who, although was very smart, was also careless and lazy. As such, when it was time to take the Nationwide College Entrance Examination (高考), the classmate did not study and treated the test as just a regular test he would take in school. As you would imagine, he didn't get into the top schools that he could have if he had indeed put in the effort, and to this day, this classmate regrets not overcoming his laziness and carelessness. President Wang gave this story as a warning and a reminder for us to never neglect the effort aspect required for success. He remarked, "being smart has nothing to do with achievement, but rather being smart only helps with the rate of your understanding." Reflecting upon his remarks, while I would argue that a certain base level of raw talent/intelligence is required for sublime achievement, I believe President Wang and I share our common belief that raw talent/intelligence is not enough, but rather we must cultivate our raw talent/intelligence through effort and constant practice to achieve success.  

2. "The most outstanding and smart person will take the good points/aspects of others and then make them his own."孔子说：三人行必有我师。Confucius said that "where three are gathered, my teacher is among them." In effect, what this means is that because every person that I meet has his or her good areas/strengths,  I can absorb his or her strong points and improve myself that much more. One thing I pride myself in is even if I am talking with someone that I do not like, I still respect what he or she has to say and I pay careful attention to other good facets of his or her personality. You may not like Mr. ABC but man, is he really great at making jokes. Maybe Ms. ZYX is full of arrogance, but you really have never met someone who is as good as she is in making and promoting music. In any case, the point is the same: Humble yourself and learn from everyone. Your best friend and your archenemy can still both be your teachers.  

SPEECH BY HIT PRESIDENT

我的朋友们：李昊和张扬
With my friends Chris/Samuel (middle guy, he has two names lol)
and Zhang Yang (on the right). Because they were in charge of
filming the event, I had the honor of having front row seats for the speech!

President Wang: (王树国)Wángshùguó

Such a great idea isn't it?!  How I wish we could have
water bottle holders like this back in the US! Hahaha

Lastly, my friend brought me to HIT's radio station. It was really cool to see my friend

contact someone from a different part of China to discuss weather conditions and any recent

news from their respective area.

 HIT RADIO STATION

We were having problems at one point,
so my friend busted out the MORSE CODE!

Military Radio

Hello Harbin!

Hi Friends,

I'm in Harbin, China now! It's definitely a little bit cooler than Beijing's weather (think of Autumn weather). I just finished my first week of classes and am about to commence my second week. Please check out some of my pics below that highlight some of the unique/interesting findings I've come across:

HARBIN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (HIT) CAMPUS:
哈尔滨工业大学校园

HIT students' dorm (not foreign students)

HIT foreign students' dorm

You can tell from the pictures above the inequality between our dorms. In contrast with HIT students who have to share an 8 person room and a floor bathroom, foreign students live in 2 person rooms that have private bathrooms (suite bathrooms, 2 rooms in a suite).  Moreover, foreign students even get 24/7 access to electricity! 

HIT Library 

Rainbow = Good luck? If you look really closely you can see a hint of a double rainbow 

Here are some guys working out using the outdoor equipment:

ROOMMATES:

我跟董知见
With my Chinese roommate Dong Zhijian

EXPLORING THE CITY:

Saint Sophia Cathedral

These birds kept on encircling the cathedral

在中央大街, Central Street (Shopping street)

No Chinese adventure is complete without the GREAT MAO!

This guy was straight up swimming in the polluted water...LOL

Over 1,000元 ($163 USD) for this shoe...worth buying? NOPE!

 Concluding Thoughts:

     I think I'm hitting that point of mental isolation ("I want to go home to USA"). 

I love Harbin and I love China but sometimes it's hard and I miss home and I miss riding my bicycle, breathing clean air, and eating a variety of American cuisines. I think the surface adjustment was my time in Beijing and I can only hope that as time goes on that I will enter the Integration/Acceptance stage here in Harbin. 

    

    The academic stresses here are much more intense than those of the Beijing program and it creates a lot of pressure on my end. However, I view this challenge here in Harbin as a good growth opportunity for me. Now is the time for me combine the elements of Luck, effort, and ability to surmount the high academic stresses and environmental stresses and I am looking forward to overcoming this challenge successfully. Greater things are yet to come, and my time in Harbin is a training of sorts to further develop my patience and perseverance. 

An'Yang

Dear Faithful Friends and Followers,

Apologies for my hiatus, but now I'm back! Just to give you a heads-up, I'll be finished with my summer program in Beijing next Saturday, August 10th. Then I'll have a two week vacation to explore Beijing and engage in independent study before I head off to Harbin in late August for my next program. What this means is that between August 10th-24th feel free to contact me if you wanna Skype/catch up! I would love to re-connect with you in the future when I will have some time off!

Okay, so this post will be about An'Yang 安阳.

I got to hike Wang Xiangyan (see below for a quick description)

Wang Xiangyan --> Average altitude: 800m - 1739m. This is the place where the Shang prince Wu Ding lived in his young age. He met and played with his slave Fu Yue and admired his talents. When Wu Ding got into power, he appointed Fu Yue as Premier despite Fu Yue's slave status and other objections from officials. 

Always wanted to cross one of these rope bridges. That's one thing crossed off of my bucket list!

Two things to note:
1. No, that is not me waving in the pink raincoat! lol
2. Yes, we did in fact ascend this spiral staircase all the way to the top!

On another part of our trip, we visited a museum that explained all about the Shang Dynasty. In a nutshell, the Shang Dynasty is known for advancing bronze working and for its oracle bones which display the early Chinese writing system. 

Below are some pics of my favorite Ancient Chinese Characters:

GUESS WHAT IT MEANS!



Answer: 鱼, (Yú), Fish

GUESS WHAT IT MEANS!



Answer: 门, (Mén), Door

                          ALL RIGHT GUYS: TIME FOR A QUICK CHINESE LESSON:

If this means...

女, (Nǚ), Woman/Female

And this means...

子, (Zi), Child

Thus, if a child is with woman/female (aka in this context presumably his mother) what would this mean then?
...
...
...
MEANING: 好, (Hǎo), GOOD
Do you see how it all comes together? Indeed a child with his mommy is a GOOD thing!

Meaning: 大, (Dà), Big
Do you see the person with his arms spread out?
I hope you guys use this next time you play charades! hahaha

休, (Xiū), Rest
The person is resting against the tree (aka wood: 木)

水, (Shuǐ), Water

雨, (Yǔ), Rain

火, (Huǒ), Fire

Thus concludes the writing system pics. I hope you enjoyed the above pics and can understand a little

bit how Chinese characters came to be!

Moving on, the Shang believed in sacrifices, so here is a poor soul who was sacrificed in a burial pit:

FYI: These are REAL remains!
Here's a brief description: "The chariots discovered at Yinxu present us with the earliest animal-drawn carts in Chinese history. Though the wooden components of the chariots decayed into the Earth, their structure can be well traced."
 

FU HAO's TOMB:

This is a picture of Fu Hao's tomb. Fu Hao was the earliest woman general in China.

Here is a statue of Fu Hao!

THE FAMOUS ORACLE BONES:

PERFORMANCES:

BUDDHA:

Can you spot the difference among the three Buddhas?
HINT: Look at Hands...

NIGHT OUT:

Excellent Night Market!

...And I thought I needed a haircut...or...body cut?? Whattt???

Thus concludes the highlights of my An'Yang adventure. I hope you enjoyed reading this post

and I ask for your patience as I steadily give more updates of what else I was up to these past several weeks. Thank you, and see you next time! 

Best,

-Samuel Kim

金钟明