This day report officially starts at 00:00. At this time we are at the Roots reggae bar by the water in Beijing ordering the 20th round of drinks. Some of us started playing along with the live band on stage. I leave the rest of the night to your imagination.
Surprisingly, some of us had a rough time waking up. After checking out of the hotel around 12:00 we left for Beihang university. Beihang university is one of many universities in Beijing. It excels in aerospace, mechanical and electrical engineering. An excellent presentation by the representative explained facts and figures of the university. Beihang university is already cooperating with two Dutch universities: Vrije Universiteit van Amsterdam and Delft University of technology. The representative indicated that he would be pleased to add University of Twente to that list. After some refreshments for the whole group, we got a tour through the optical fiber laboratory. Some interesting projects and researches were explained by the PhD students. It should be noted that the university has a very modern and impressive campus. The only thing that the “new main building” lacks is an inspiring name. It is a giant and modern building well worth a “google search”.
After this well-organized and much appreciated trip the group had to catch a night train to Xi’an. After some metro trips in the always cool Beijing metro we arrived at the Beijing west train station. Here we waited for a while until we could board the train. We were not the only ones waiting. Some students started playing a round of “meeuwbal” which was unfortunately not appreciated by security personnel. Around 21:00 we boarded the night train. The professors were given a private train compartment. Those of us lucky enough to be under 2 meters tall had enough space to fit in the beds. It was clear that last night’s centurion had it’s impact on everyone. After one or two cards games, everyone started sleeping.
