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VCU China 2007 - Introduction
So, you're looking into VCU Summer Study Abroad? Or maybe you're just looking for anything to satisfy a major requirement, or maybe you just want something to do next summer.

Well, I'm here to give you an account (with pictures) of VCU's Summer Study Abroad in China. Maybe I can even convince you to consider going. But I'd like to put in the basics first, so you know exactly what you're getting into when going to China.

Basic Statistics

1.China has more than a billion people, with huge crushes of them in the cities. Be prepared to go to areas filled with Chinese, most of them staring at you (if you're any ethnicity other than Asian).

2.There are 11 major ethnic groups, and more smaller ones. They all have their own resturaunts/villages. Most of them are spicy food.

3.The Government is still communist, but the economy is not. This is why everywhere you go, you will have people trying to sell you something (including pay bathrooms), while you can't sing the Star-Spangled Banner in the middle of Tianamen Square on the Fourth of July. Keep that in mind.

4.There are Christian churches in the cities, including churches for ex-pats and visiting foreigners in Beijing and Shanghai.

5.The Great Fire-Wall of China is still in effect. As far as we could find, some Wikipedia pages, all Livejournal pages, and the BBC webpage were blocked. All essential sites (banks, other news sites, AOL/Yahoo/Google/Hotmail, and even VCU's webpage) all work.

I'm going to continue on in this blog with posts about all the major places we went to Summer 2007, as well as pictures and some comments. I hope this will help give you a sense of how China is, but be aware, a lot was under construction because of the Beijing 2008 Olympics. It could be totally different when you get there. But then again, that is China. :)