I earned myself this trip to Beijing through my dissertation, with Lin Runze's help. To someone who has already graduated, it was such a surprise that I even don't have time to prepare my suit. Despite the fact that I was working almost the same as a free apprentice, I saw and learned a lot.

Buildings just inside the 4th ring

To clarify, this is my first time in Beijing. No doubt Beijing has its own culture. Its accent sounds comfortable and the mass dresses mostly simple. I was living inside the 4th ring. Neighborhood there still shares some early 21th century's features. Buildings are not tall - so are the rest of Beijing I reckon - may have something to do with the city's policy. My hotel is not far from where BARC is held - China National Convention Center. The CNCC locates adjacent to both the Nest and Cube. Time and dust has laid its hands on the Nest and Cube, though it's just a decade since they were built. It feels strange and luxurious that such great architectural works stand just there, far away from each other. Having been accustomed to the compact layout of crowded southern cities, the spacious feeling is really enjoyable, especially when standing on the great plaza among the buildings. I think the layout was meant that in order to give a magnificent feeling. Well, being a capital has its own burden. It's comprehensive that buildings here have to show the city's distinctive role in the whole China. It's both great honor and sacrifice.

People

Locals here left me great impression. As fore-mentioned, the mass dressed mostly really simple. Maybe it's due to the fact that most people here are workers from other part of the country. Though, they show great self-discipline as any metropolis would. Shared bicycles stand in neat row. People spontaneously queue up wherever they can. People stand on the right part of the elevator when it's not crowded.

Food

North China has its favor over food made of flour. As a southerner I have no preference for that though I have to admit that they are really good at it. In Beijing, I was fortunate to have a taste over the authentic 全聚德 roasted duck. I am not a gourmet and my vocabulary is really limited - it was delicious - lol. What actually sparks my interest was the procedure to have every part of the duck in a complex sequence. It even made the feast a ceremony. Nowhere in any place have I ever experience this when dealing with roasted duck. It's whole new experience. By the way, food provided at CNCC was really good.

BARC 2018

The Bamboo and Rattan Congress 2018. That's the main purpose I went to Beijing. I got everything wrong until I see the CNCC building. A pure academic symposium would definitely have no need for such kind of space and consume. Later I learned and experienced things like IMBAR, Ministerial Summit, real-time translation, fast scribbling, entrepreneur, volunteers. But none of that matters. I was here to attend the symposium. There are a lot of parallel sessions around but of course one can only join one at a time. For me, the choice is simple. Opening ceremony on the first day, academic (engineer) symposium on the second and commercial (architectural) symposium on the third. Due to my lack of knowledge in particular field and language barrier against non-standard English, I had difficulty dealing with the academic symposium. I had a feeling that none was presenting anything valuable. Yeah, they were showing their lab, their experiment, their results, their conclusions. But none was actually valuable. Maybe the problem lies on myself but the point is, I almost learned nothing. Things got better on the third day. It can be seen that presentation was much better prepared - may due to the fact that all speakers have architectural background. I had a chance to see how bamboo buildings were built around the world and how they were able to be built from the perspective of an architect. In some sessions we discuss the sustainable development and government policy. I may be too dull to feel anything important in those politic expressions. After all the work would be done by entrepreneurs and all others just make it available for them.

My part of work

I made a foldout to call for papers even before I was allowed this trip. You can see it in my portfolio. Simple work though. I was in charge of all of the electrical devices in room 301AB where symposiums were held. I solve problems regarding presentations and help organize the meetings. All of us a team shall deal with any trivial concerning representatives especially from my own school. In most time Lin Runze and I work together. He was in charge of the photography. We even went to the airport at midnight to 'welcome' some Italian guy, but that's another story.

Thanks

Thanks Lin Runze, Zhang Jingyuan, Li Tao, Prof. Xiao Yan, Prof. Li Zhi and every other group member. All together we made the symposium possible. To be continued in Zhejiang Trip.