MEHS Librarian travels to China

On Tuesday, November 6th, librarian Beth Geatrakas left on a nine-day tour of eastern China with the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce. Following the thirteen and one half hour flight, the group of one hundred fifty landed in Beijing.  There they visited such well-known sites as the Ming Tombs, the Forbidden Palace, the Temple of Heaven, and of course , the Great Wall.  The experience of climbing the Great Wall was incredibly exciting.  After several days in Beijing, the tour moved on to Suhzou, where they visited Lingering Garden, Tiger Hill, a Buddhist pagoda, and a national silk factory and the National Embroidery Institute. From Suhzou they traveled to Hangzhou, where they sampled Dragon Well tea, the national tea of China, at a Chinese tea village.  They visited Linying Temple, a working Buddhist temple, and the resort town of West Lake.  Finally, they made their way to Shanghai, a modern city of 18 million!  There they enjoyed a traditional boat tour of the Grand Canal, visiting a local market as a part of that tour.  On November 14th, exhausted but greatly enriched, they returned to Beijing to begin their journey home.  It truly was the trip of a lifetime!