Beijing, China - Day 2

Today, Thursday, was a very warm, sunny day in Beijing with temps reaching in the mid-90's. Beijing is an incredibly large city with a circumference of over 160 miles and a population of over 21 million residents. The streets are crowded with many means of transport: cars, busses, subway, bicycles, electric motor bikes, bike caddies, motor scooters. The city skyline is a blend of the old and new with traditional Chinese temple architecture blended with high rise buildings and skyscrapers. At many corners you will see 500 or more bicycles parked outside buildings having been parked there by workers who will return at day's end for their commute home.


CCHS and other school reps spent the day visiting with top officials of New Oriental Schools and touring one of their 42 schools and 409 learning centers in China. New Oriental has over 2 million Chinese students in their English language learning programs, many of whom aspire to attend high school or college in the US. New Oriental is sponsoring the high school fairs that CCHS will be part of. This is a first venture for New Oriental in partnering with private day high schools in the Boston area.

After meetings in which CCHS made a presentation along with other schools, we toured Tiennamen Square, the Forbidden City and Chairman Mao's Tomb and Memorial. Dinner today included shark stomach soup, donkey meat, Peking duck, rice and a myriad of vegetables and much more. I sampled most everything with mixed results!

CCHS accepted its first international student from China, Ruochen Cheng, a bright, motivated 15 year old girl. More interested students will meet with CCHS on Saturday to begin to learn what CCHS has to offer as they begin to explore US high schools with their parents.