Sunday the 19th

The Zoo on Sunday (12th) was like must zoos kind of boring, there was a lot of animals that looked like they didn't want to be there and aside from the main attraction of Pandas I don’t think it done anything different to most zoos. The next two days were quite quiet as many people spent a lot of the time gathering souvenirs, studying or visiting the fake markets on Tuesday we had another field trip, this time to the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation who have help millions of poverty stricken people both inside and outside of China, their projects focus on microfinance and the health of Mothers and Infants along with disaster relief. To learn more about organisations helping to improve those living within their countries and culture we visited the Intel offices in China and learnt about their contributions and history with the project.

Unfortunately at this stage of the program I became ill and was unable to leave my bed for much of the next 2 days, thankfully it had cleared up by the Friday closing ceremony and I was able to attend and perform the play our class had been preparing as well as viewing the other classes performances. This was a lot of fun twinged with a bit of sadness as it was the last day we would all be together. We got together for some final photos with our teachers and to watch an amazing video made by David then left to pack and sort out some final things. This night was spent in the campus bar Lakers which we had been using over the weeks to meet up and pre drink before visiting the night clubs, people left gradually throughout the night as many people had different ways home this was a great opportunity to say goodbye to some amazing friends I’d made over the 3 weeks. I was getting the last bus to the airport and along with around 12 of us were the last ones left, I’m taking a day to rest and finish the blog in Zurich before heading back home to Uni and coursework, The 3 weeks have been an amazing experience and I would recommend it to anyone who had even a passing thought of visiting China, it’s hard to say how much Chinese I’ve learnt and I constantly surprised myself when people would say ‘how do you say menu in Chinese’ for example and without thinking able to respond or how in the airport on the final day going to order a meal and being able to rhyme off “gong bao ji ding he yi wan mi fan” (kung pao chicken with rice) without realising I’d said it in Chinese. I fully intend to continue to learn Chinese and have an absolutely amazing building block to work from.

Sunday the 12th

Sunday at Tiananmen was a great day out after spending time in the Square we then went into the Forbidden City and spent a couple of hours walking around finding out about the history from the many signs, at some points it felt like we were the main attractions with various tourists coming up and asking for photos, we had been told about this before leaving but it’s always a bit strange to be taking pictures of a historical site only to then pose with some rural Chinese because they find you more interesting. After the time in Tiananmen I showed our group to the Hutong market I had visited the day before with Maggie and after some souvenir shopping we went to the Quanjude Roast Duck restaurant, one of the most famous in Beijing, though the meal was very pricey by Chinese standards the food was excellent, the hoisin sauce along with spring onions and crispy duck wrapped in a thin pancake is incomparable in Chinese cuisine and a must try when in Beijing. We spent that night exploring the Wudaokou nightclub area where we discovered the Study China favourite Wu nightclub.

After the night out in Wu Club my Monday morning began the way my Sundays usually do, with a strong hangover. Some berocca and too much water later I decided to join my room-mate on the way to the summer palace, a beautiful area of Beijing which many had planned a day out to, 3 of us went and without realising went to the old summer palace which was a great park on its own but not the right one so after a few conversations with taxis drivers and messing around with a translation app we made it to the more recent Summer Palace which was just as beautiful and expansive as we’d been told, it was another clear which allowed for some amazing panoramic shots of the skyline and the surrounding area, there is a small canal area at the end of the summer palace where we walked around and relaxed for the end of the day, really an amazing spot.

Much of Tuesday evening was spent preparing for the social development presentation on migrant workers the next day, our group decided to focus on the migrant children as we thought as a group they were most disadvantaged by the government’s policies and attitudes towards migrant workers. We gave the presentation on Wednesday and sat through 9 other presentations which surprised me at just how diverse and well researched their topics were considering we had all been given the same information. After the classes we attended the acrobatics show which was impressive from start to finish, with the tightrope walker and acrobatic being a stand out for me, I was surprised how well put together and high budget the show was especially in regards to the music and special effects. Wednesday night was spent continuing the group’s love affair with the Wu night club, free drinks are hard to resist.

On the Thursday and Friday of this week we spent more time seeing some sights with Thursday night given over to the night market of Beijing full of cheap and terrible souvenirs and strange things to eat including but not limited to a range of scorpions, various spiders and some parts of a pig I’d rather not talk about. The night market was a lot of fun, again bargaining for gifts was a highlight and the busy, crowded atmosphere gave a sense of what you would expect in a city of over 20million. Friday was spent in the back lake region of Houhai which is home to many bars, higher quality and varied souvenir shops and to my great enjoyment a lot of live music. I get the feeling that if I lived in Beijing I would spend a lot of time going bar to bar finding out which had the best acts and it’s definitely one of my favourite places in the city.

Yesterday was Great wall day, something nearly everyone was looking forward to, the sight of it doesn't disappoint it’s almost unbelievable when you get to a high point and just see it winding away into the distance knowing it’s only a fraction of the length. The walk up was tiring to say the least and the steepness took everyone by surprise, it wasn't a walk as much as it was a punishing climb but again definitely worth the view even if was quite smoggy.
After the great wall we celebrated a friend Dalias birthday at a nearby restaurant and then got ready for another night out this time to propaganda, it was one of the best nights out to date with the majority of the program meeting up at the same place and pretty much taking over the club. A small group at the end of the night decided it would be a great idea to go to the Tiananmen flag raising after leaving the club at half 5, on a freezing morning whilst still intoxicated so of course I had to go along and being both an idiot and a great friend decided to lend my coat to a friend Eamon before getting in the taxi. Unsure of what I expected to see at a flag raising I was completely underwhelmed by the raising of the flag whilst some nationalistic music played in the background, thankfully I found the person who had my coat and had it returned quite reluctantly before managing to get into a taxi with no problem (a first from my experience in Beijing).

Now having written yesterday’s portion of this after a mere 4 hours sleep the only thing to do is to visit the Zoo, last update next week then back home.

Sunday the 5th

I’m going to try to keep these up weekly as most days there is simply too much to do and much of my spare time is given over to revising my lessons and preparing for my written dictation classes which involve writing Chinese characters from memory, a monumental challenge as far as I'm concerned.

On the Wednesday of this week we got to experience Tai Chi, which after 3 hours of practice I can say with confidence that I will never be good at, jokes aside our teachers were very patient with our large group of beginners and after a few attempts the routine became quite relaxing and could be something I look to take up in the future if only to deal with stress.

That night we visited the Beijing opera which while certainly not to everyone’s taste, as someone who regularly attends gigs and concerts back home looking for something new to hear I was entranced with the often thunderous percussion used to highlight energetic performances and the very lyrical strings accompanying the vocal parts of the story, I certainly felt that I enjoyed it more than most. I have to mention the fantastic use of costumes, make-up and pseudo martial arts/acrobatics on display during the performance which was a highlight for many.

Thursday was the big day out to the silk market, and by big day out I mean taking an hour to get there by tube only to have a single hour bargaining for the fake goods on offer and making sure you not to get completely ripped off. Many students have expressed their wish to return and practically refill their suitcases with the designer brands on offer for the price of a taxi back home, the thrill is certainly in the bargaining and the tricks that you can pick-up to get the lowest price you can, starting low and walking out of the store are commonly employed to drop prices from around 600RMB down to 110RMB or lower. A small group of us decided to explore the nearby area which I believe to be one of Beijing’s several financial districts, full of top line brand stores at the bottom of massive skyscrapers labelled with ICBC or HSBC, we then embarked on an expedition to get a taxi back to Lan Hui which in Beijing appears to be a skill on its own, after about an hour wandering the streets we finally managed to flag 2 down.

This Friday was the field trip to the Migrant Worker Museum which while very interesting unfortunately had very little signs or information in English; fortunately we had a very informative guide who told us a lot about the hardships of migrant workers and the problems that affect not only the workers themselves but their families, especially younger children. The people who ran the Museum also run a school for migrant children and classes for older migrants to help them understand contract law and what they’re entitled to, it really is incredible work and is constantly under threat of closure from the government due to its unofficial status. The group was started by some migrant musicians who performed concerts for the workers before realising that they would need to do more in order to help the conditions the millions of migrant workers are going through and so established the school and training classes. I’m not that big into souvenirs but I was happy to pick up a CD and t-shirt in order to help their organisation as were the majority of students.

Yesterday we had the family visit we were split up into pairs and were introduced to our host families, I along with my partner Johnny were matched with Maggie and her family who were beyond generous in the time we were with them. Maggie was the primary English speaker and so all of our conversations went through her, she is a 15 year old student studying at a Beijing Normal University associated high school where she studies English, physics and music amongst others. We were taken Jingshan Park which overlooks the Forbidden City and has an amazing view of Beijing though it was a bit smoggy at the time the sights were still incredible and would recommend anyone to visit. After that we went to a Hutong market area called Nanluogu Xiang which had all sorts of traditional Chinese food, after asking Maggie about her favourites she recommended a traditional style of Ice cream and some caramelized strawberries which is some of the nicest desserts styled food I’ve had. After the market we returned to Maggies house to meet the rest of her family including her Grandfather, Grandmother, Mother and Auntie where they had prepared us dumpling mixture and batter and allowed us with limited success to make our own dumplings. I can say with confidence that home cooked Chinese food completely outclasses what you would get in a restaurant at home or in China, thinking about the dumplings is torture and after the Szechuan styled noodles I’m not sure I’ll be able to eat noodles again happily.

Today we are visiting Tiananmen Square and the surrounding area it rained last night and so we have an amazingly clear sky today and even though it’s a Sunday today we have tomorrow off and there seems to be plans to once again brave the Beijing night clubs, I’ll report back next week on the success.

The Introduction and 1st language classes (Leaving my accent behind).

The day after arriving we spent a lot of time getting to know the surrounding area and meeting the new arrivals before attending our welcome meal, filled with a lot of the stereotypical Chinese dishes including sweet and sour dishes, various types of beef, noodles and of course “mĭfàn” (rice), as usual in Chinese cuisine there were some dishes which required a second look including a full fish, head and all and for many the prawns were a new strange dish which just happened to be the nicest at the table.

After various team building games which included my room-mate performing my favourite version of Barbie girl to date we were told we had the rest of the day free. At this point we split off into various groups and each made our own plans, after much thought I decided to join the group looking to experience the nightlife of Beijing and thus after a few of the 青岛啤酒 (Tsingtao beers) we decided to try our luck with some nightclubs, I'm not sure I'll ever know if the plan was to go to the nightclub called Mix or the one called Vics, but the similarity of the name along with the proximity of the clubs effectively split the group into 2 only to thankfully meet up after an hour or so of confusing phone calls. This was a great lesson in prior planning and having written addresses that would see us organise every day out from then on which much greater success than the stressful first night.

The following morning with many students nursing minor hangovers we attended our Opening ceremony where we heard from representatives from BNU, the British Council and the organisers for Study China including our lifeline on the trip Lucy. Once the opening ceremony had finished and the slightly rainy group photos were taken we split into our Language classes and began our first lesson.

In our first lesson we were introduced to our teachers who were friendly if a bit eccentric and given our Chinese names to use throughout the 3 weeks, in my opinion 罗佳宁 (luó jiā níng) was certainly one of the more difficult to pronounce and will require some mastering. The most difficult task when entering these classes for me was to get away from my Northern Irish accent, while not as broad as some is still limiting when attempting to pronounce “nĭ hăo” and instead saying “knee how”. After a couple of hours of sounding out the basic syllables and learning about the various accents which can be the difference between referring to your mother or to a horse I was feeling confident about the next few weeks of learning.

After my language lesson I separated from many of my classmates attending the Teaching module and joined my room-mate

to attend the Social Development and Public Policy class. Before arriving I was unsure of how this interesting class would be and how enjoyable but was instantly hooked learning about the colossal changes and challenges China has gone through in the last 100 years, from the cultural revolutions to the drastic change in economic policies to the modern day globalisation of Chinese culture I was completely fascinated.

The first day of classes has left me looking forward to all that’s coming and all that I can learn.

Departure and Arrival

I've always thought the worst part about travelling is the getting there, the hours of boredom interspersed with intense bursts of worry and rush that come with multiple flights and stopovers are without competition my least favourite parts of travelling. The relief that comes with arriving in Beijing knowing my baggage has arrived and that I've managed not to lose anything this time is almost overwhelming until I remember the 3 hour wait until the pick-up time and wonder why I chose such an early flight.
After about an hour wandering around the airport I spot a large group of similar aged students and awkwardly approach them in the hope that they are fellow study China students, with luck they are and I sit down and begin to get to to know the people I will be spending the next 3 weeks studying and exploring Beijing with. Everyone is very enthusiastic and full of energy to get stuck into their studies despite the long travel times and waiting around, already people are beginning to try out badly pronounced words and phrases in the hope of getting a head start on the language program.
The rest of the day continues with us signing to the Beijing Normal University (BNU )Lan Hui accommodation and exploring the campus. The BNU campus is unlike any campus based in the UK and almost has an American feel to It with gated entrances and a village like atmosphere it is a very pleasant place to stay and makes me wish for a similar set up back home, we find the canteen and supermarket which in my mind as well as many others are easily the 2 most important buildings on campus and settle down to our first on campus meal.
At this point I have to mention the variety and quality of food available in the campus canteens and restaurant which staggered me at first, the 4 story main canteen where full meals cost as little as 35p and at most £1.50 along with the specialty vendors along the streets and the western styled restaurants which became many a students comfort area if they'd had enough of rice. It was impossible to complain about the food no matter how much of a picky eater you were and the fun in sometimes not knowing what you were ordering made every meal a bit more interesting.
After only the first day the Study China I had a feeling that the course would surpass the expectations I'd had before leaving for China.