08/25/2007
Useful Links
Flight Plans to Beijing - Form
RECENT UPDATES
General Information on Program
Orientation Sessions
Encountering the Chinese - summaries
Health
Health items to bring
Advil
Tylenol
Tums
Pepto-Bismol tablets
Imodium (very important)
Vitamins
Contact cleaner
Dental floss
Cipro and any other prescription drugs
Any prescriptions
Female hygiene products/Meds for yeast infections
Sunscreen
shade hat
second pair of glasses/contacts
General Travel from the State Department: Travel and Business
Baggage Info
AIR CHINA
Passengers are entitled to a free baggage allowance: Two bags at no more then 20 Kg or 44lbs total for economy class. In addition to the free baggage allowance, these articles will be carried free: a lady's handbag, an overcoat, wrap or blanket, an umbrella or walking stick, a reasonable amount of reading matter for the flight, a small camera, a pair of binoculars, a fully collapsible invalid's wheelchair and or a pair of crutches and/or braces or other prosthetic device for the passenger's use provided that the passenger is dependent upon them.
Language
Link to the CSB/SJU CHIN 111 site. This may or may not be useful.
Weather in China
General China Information
Remember to bring
CORE 390: Senior Seminar - 21st Century China in an Interconnected World: Ethical Issues
CHEM 105: (Bio)chemistry and Society
Required/Recommended Books for Orientation Sessions
Great Books About China
Coming Home Crazy by Bill Holm - Hilarious and well-written, a series of essays on life in China in 1987 by a Minnesotan English professor.
River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler-- The account of an American Peace Corps volunteer of his life in a city just downstream from Chongqing. Very interesting and insightful, and perhaps more relevant to our experience of China.
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang- A biography of three generations of women spanning the time before World War II to the current era of reform and opening. Fascinating.
Colors of the Mountain by Da Chen - A memoir of a boyhood in rural China during the Cultural Revolution. The second book -- The Sound of the River - is now out.
Fiction by Ha Jin, including Under the Red Flag and The Bridegroom (collections of short stories) and In the Pond (a short novel). Most of these stories are set in or directly after the Cultural Revolution, and give a glimpse of Chinese ways of thinking.
Films
Heart of the Dragon (12 part series on China)
The Chinese: Adapting the Past, Building the Future -
A Great Wall--A Chinese American family visits relatives in China--full of cultural misunderstandings and cultural connections
Iron and Silk (the book is better, but the movie does have lots of examples of cultural adjustment and learning)
The Mystery of Chi -part of the Healing and the Mind series with Bill Moyers--fascinating
To Live - A family's trials though more than three decades in China, from before the revolution, to the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution and beyond. A great film.
The King of Masks - A bit lighter, this movie takes place in Sichuan province in the 50's. An old man adopts (buys) a son to carry on his trade as a street performer, but gets a surprise. A good story with a happy ending, and you get to see some places we'll go.
The Emperor and the Assassin � A historical drama of the unification of China by the first Qin emperor.
Farwell my Concubine - An epic spanning a half century of modern Chinese history, and a melodrama about life backstage at the famed Peking Opera (Ebert)
