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.