BLCU Beijing Diary

9 Tips for Newbies (and Travellers) going to China

2009-01-16T09:20:00.009-06:00

Some useful tips for students (and others) who are about to travel to Beijing for the coming semester (Feb). It will also come in handy for travellers as well!

Get a transport card - you can buy one at the subway station - it's very convenient to use it to pay the subway and the bus fares. You can refill the cards at the subway stations and won't have to line up each time you need to buy a ticket.
Girls should always carry tissues in their bags (might be a good tip for guys as well??) - public in China don't usually come with toilet paper, well, at least they didn't before the Olympics - things may have changed??
For those from countries like Australia, the cars in China drive on the left hand-side of the road, so do take care when you cross the road! Actually, everyone should extra take care when they cross the road - you'll understand when you get there!
If you have decided to buy a bike whilst in Beijing, buy 1-2 good chains to protect your bike. New bikes get stolen all the time.

Bargain, bargain, bargain! - everywhere you go, except the supermarket and food stalls. In department stores, it never hurts to ask for a discount. When bargaining (in places like Silk Street), I always start with 10-20% of the price, but always do it with a smile. Never let on that you like the product. Criticize it - saying that you really want another colour, say that's it's too expensive, you're a poor student, etc, etc. If you've reached your limit, be prepared to walk away. Most likely the vendor will call you back for more bargaining. Yes, it's a tiring process and I used to hate it - until I think of it as a game and a chance to practise my Chinese. It's very important to keep the bargaining good natured and smile - you're more likely to get your way.
Your favourite website may not be accessible in China. No worries! In this case, you can use a "proxy server" - the ones I used doesn't seem to be available at the moment. I found this one: http://www.xroxy.com/xrp/001010A. If you're in China, may be you could check it out to see if it works & let us know? Thanks!

Have an open mind & get out there and have fun! China is a whole new experience, but you'll find a lot of the Chinese generally very friendly and willing to help. The younger ones can probably speak, or at least understand a bit of English although they may be a bit shy speaking it.
I do find that I didn't have a lot of problems, especially in the city, but do still be careful have your wits about you, especially when you go to a small town, particularly near railway stations. There are a lot of touts trying to take you to places that you may not want to go, and a friend got cheated by a shoe-cleaning lady who refused to give her change from a big note. It wasn't a lot of money (for us), but does ruin your day.
Buy the Lonely Planet China before you go. It's not available in China, and I wasn't able to find another alternative there that is just as good and I really wished that I had a copy!

Well, that's it for now. If anyone out there have any tips to add, please feel free to do so via the comment section.

Immersion's Guide Mandarin Phrasebook

2009-01-08T08:34:00.007-06:00

Yes, another ad! : )

This is the Phrasebook I used when I was studying in Beijing and found it to be very useful, especially for a person who will be living in Beijing (or China) for a period of time, and this is who the book is written for.

Other than the usual pronunciation guides, grammar, and basic greeting phrases, what I found most useful about the book is that it also have very useful phrases that you're likely to need in your everyday life in China - things like searching for a home/apartment, negotiating the lease, booking a hotel room, how to make restaurant reservations and order food, applying for a job, etc.

There are also other interesting sections - eg. how to express/reject love, clubbing, emotions, body parts (which came in very useful when needing to go to the doctor's), what to do when you get a visit from the police (you never know, it could happen!).

All in all, a very useful book. I even used it a few times as a quick reference dictionary. Highly recommended!

Streetwise Guide: Beijing

2009-01-08T07:26:00.003-06:00

Ok, this is an ad, but I wouldn't recommend it unless I thought it was useful! : )

I used this guide when I was in Beijing quite extensively. I did also bring a Beijing Lonely Planet with me when I went to study in China. The Lonely Planet is very useful for a traveller, but I found it wasn't enough for someone who will be living in Beijing, or visiting for a period of time.

The book is quite comprehensive, is printed in colour, has lots of beautiful colour photos, but not too big or heavy - you'll be able to carry it around with you in your bag.

I think the best thing about it is that there is a very useful colour co-ordinated maps of the different districts of Beijing. eg. "Academic Northwest", "Historical Central", "Arty" Northeast, etc, as well as a very handy map of the subway system in Beijing. Another thing I found useful is that the book also tells you the major bus routes. There are maps with bus routes available that you can buy in Beijing - but they are in Chinese!

Different districts are covered in Area Guides. Information contained include:

"Sightseeing" - Info on important places to visit, how to get there - ie. bus routes, subway lines (and names of stations written in Chinese), entrance fees and map of the place if appropriate.
"Food and entertainment" section that has a restaurant guide and bar listing with price range.
"Shopping" and "Accommodation" guide
Suggested Itineraries for each district - very useful for exploring Beijing!
"Bus Details" - major bus stops in the districts and useful bus routes - very useful if you don't want to take taxis all the time!

There is also a great introduction. Topics include:

"Best of Beijing" - information and colour pictures on the "must see" places to visit.
"Art and Culture"
"Food and Drink" - including a picture menu with names written in Chinese, and price guide- very handy, especially if you can't speak Chinese to begin with, and even then, I found it hard to remember name of dishes.
"Sports and Entertainment" - includes info or martial arts, bars & nightclubs, cinemas, etc

Travellers' Survival Guide

Lots of information in this section including:

"Planning your trip" - Visas, Insurance, Budgetting, What to pack
"Getting Around" - Airport shuttle bus, Subway guide, buses, taxis, bicycles
"Useful Information" - Banking, Communications, Health, Toilets, Security, Shopping Tips (include info on common prices - very handy to get a rough idea so you don't get ripped off), etc, etc
Language Guide - there is a few pages on useful phrases, but if you'll be in Beijing for a while, I would recommend a separate phrase book.

So, I would highly recommend this book if you'll be going to Beijing to study, work, or even if you plan to stay in Beijing for an extended period of time. It'll make life a lot easier and more enjoyable!

Envelopes of Love – a project to help support the children survivors of Sichuan Earthquak

2008-09-17T03:29:00.004-05:00

Video Tribute to the victims, survivors and rescuers of the Sichuan Earthquake.

Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? "Envelopes of Love" is a project founded by a friend of mine. The aim of the project is to provide support to children affected by the devastating earthquake in Sichuan, China. You can help! And no, she doesn't want your money!

For me at least, the earthquake seems like a lifetime ago. Even though I was in China when it happened, and have seen many days of footage of the devastation the earthquake caused, and even wrote a little about it in this blog, life goes on and I have forgotten about it all. However, for those affected by the earthquake, life will never be the same.Many children lost their lives. Many children who survived found that they have lost everything – their parents, their homes. What makes it even more tragic is that the earthquake struck when the children were at school, and many school building collapsed. Many children did not survive.

The "Envelopes of Love" Project aims to support the children who survived, to show them that there are friends who do care for them and their happiness. All that is asked of us is to send a message of support to the children. Guidelines include:

1. The message should be uplifting, and not remind the recipients of

the pain.

2. Refrain from any religious expressions.

3. Use more drawings and colors than words because the students are

young - from 8 to 14 years old.

4. Don't include any contact details in case some people may decide to

ask for money donation.

The project committee members will send the cards to the children once a month.

For more information and contact details, please see: http://envelopesoflove.blogspot.com

Report on Channel News Asia:

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/376058/1/.html

继续学习汉语－ Continuing to learn Mandarin

2008-08-25T10:27:00.005-05:00

It's been nearly two months since I left Beijing, and it's been a nice break from studying, but my Chinese is also going downhill. I'm already starting to forget how to write Chinese. Apart from emailing or skype chatting to my BLCU friends in Chinese, and watching some Chinese DVDs that I bought, I've been too lazy!!

So, I have decided to enroll in a local school teaching Mandarin. I went to three classes so far, and it's been interesting. The language studying environment in Beijing had made it easy to learn and become motivated in learning the language. Here, outside that environment, I have to become proactive (me, proactive??). Although the teacher here is Chinese and I think she's a fairly good teacher, the learning environment here is more relaxed - no homework. There are supposed to be six students in my class, but often only 3 or so people turn up. It's understandable, though, because people have to come three times a week after work or school, and that's not always easy. At least I'm still getting the "Chinese exposure", since we often chat to the teacher in Mandarin....but I really need to push myself a bit more.

Incidentally, we are studying from a book from BLCU, different from the textbooks I have been using in Beijing though. This one concentrates on listening and speaking, so it's also a bit of adjusting to the new learning method. Wish me luck!

Eating out in Wudaokou

2008-08-25T03:11:00.003-05:00

To put it simply….you never have to worry about food in China. OK,
you may not exactly want to have Chinese food everyday, and miss food
from home…you don't even have to worry about that – there are so
many foreigners in Wudaokou that there are lots of different
restaurants from different countries – most notably, Korean, but
there are also Pizza, Italian restaurants, Japanese food, an American
restaurant, Hot pot, etc, etc

Here are some of my favourites in Wudaokou

Pyro Pizza – in a basement of a building just opposite the railway
line next to 7eleven. Really nice pizza, thin crust, plus a great
dessert – if you do order the freshly baked chocolate cookie with ice
cream, make sure you tell the waiters to bring it out last, otherwise,
you'll be having your dessert before your pizza. Their Caesar salad
is also very nice.

Hotpot – sorry, as with a lot of Chinese and Korean restaurants, I
don't really know the name! Anyway, it's on the second floor on top
of Pyro Pizza and 7eleven. Each person cook their own "meal" in
your own hotpot. The nicest sauce is the sesame sauce. Very yummy, and
price reasonable.

Tafi Italian Restaurant – on the same block as the big Lotus
supermarket (but on the other side of the block from the entrance to
the Lotus Centre. Very nice pasta and ice cream!! I think on the
weekends they have a lunch buffet – don't remember the price now,
but it was good value.

Korean BBQ – my favourite place is on the road just on the BLCU side
of the railway line, several shops just past the Xijiao Binguan
(Hotel)'s entrance. Also, if you keep walking right to the end of the
road, and cross the main street, (may be 20mins?) there is a complex
of several Korean restaurants – there is also a really nice BBQ place
there! There is also a nice Korean restaurant in the Xijiao Binguan.

Japanese –Issin Restaurant, just opposite the railway lines on the
Wudaokou side, in an alley not too far from Tous Les Jours. There is
also a Japanese Restaurant in BLCU, but Issin is a lot better (and a
bit more expensive!), but still, due to the quality, Issin is still
good value for money.

Bakery /Cakes – I like Tous Les Jours (opp Wudaokou station) and
Paris Baguette (in the Hualian / U-centre). Paris Baguette also has
nice Japanese style cheesecake. Yum!!

Dumplings – If you walk down the West gate and cross the road into
the other university, walk a few minutes, there is a popular
restaurant that sells local food, plus very cheap and nice dumplings
（饺子）. The restaurant itself isn't very flashy, and not so
"clean" looking, but the food is good and is usually full of people.

"Beijing Pancake" – well, that's what I called it. It makes a
nice night time snack – street vendors can be found just outside the
BLCU South gate at night – only 2 RMB! You can also get them outside
Chaoshifa Supermarket and in the Hualian Supermarket.

Thai – there is a Thai restaurant just before Wudaokou station on the
BLCU side. The curries there are pretty good, and I heard that the Tom
Yum soup is quite good, although I haven't tried it. There is a
selection of Thai & Chinese food. The best Thai restaurant, though, is
in Chaoyang, called "非常泰" – "Very Thai" – fantastic
food, but also not cheap!

Grandma's Kitchen – in the Hualian / U-centre. This seems to be a
popular place for burgers, pizzas, and nice salads etc. A couple of
friends of mine are addicted to their milkshake, which is very thick,
a bit like melted ice cream. A little pricey though, but the food is
good.

A nice snack that I really like are these little fishes that you can
get from a stall just opposite the Lotus supermarket cash registers. I
think it's about 6 RMB for a bag of may be 12. They're sort of like
little fish waffles with creamy centres. Really yummy when they are
hot! I prefer these to the famed chocolate fishes that you can get
outside the Wudaokou Station at night.

What's your favourite restaurant in Wudaokou?

I miss Korean food!

2008-08-24T06:51:00.006-05:00

It's probably a bit of a strange statement, after having lived in BLCU for 5 months or so...but it's true. There are so many Koreans in Wudaokou that even the Korean classmates think it's like living in Korea, so then, there are also lots of nice Korean food there. Makes a nice change from all the Chinese food!

mmmmm.....Korean BBQ, Bibimbab, Teokbuki, Kimchi.....

If you want to find a good place, just ask your Korean classmates.

Last days

2008-08-11T05:47:00.002-05:00

Ok, it's been a while, but my last days before the course finished in
early July had been frantic. Preparing for the Yunnan trip, catching
up with friends before leaving, and…packing. It's never easy to pack,
especially having to decide what things to take and what to throw
away (or give away). I hate throwing things away!

The official last day of the course was the farewell dinner, held at
Fengwei Canting, one of the restaurants in BLCU. It was such a hot
day, and it was extremely hot in the restaurant!!! …but the food was
good. : )

The rest of the night was left for packing, and last minute catch-ups.
A couple of classmates and I were to leave for Kunming early the next
morning. One friend was so cute, she didn't have anything to give me
as a farewell present, so she decided to give me a banana and a bottle
of water – she thought since I will be leaving early in the morning,
and I was busy all day, I probably didn't have anything prepared …she
was right!

Again, I have made so many wonderful friends this time, a lot of them
Koreans, so I think I have become an honorary Hanguoren (Korean)! I
particularly felt Korean during the trip to Yunnan with the two Korean
classmates. Every time someone asked us where we came from, it got too
tiring to explain, so, Hanguoren I am!

My B8 Class

2008-06-10T08:45:00.002-05:00

Some of the 同学 and 王老师 from B8 class

Does time fly? It's been nearly five months since I've been back to
BLCU. The final exams are coming up in a couple of weeks….and I've
just realised I haven't written about my class yet in this blog.

So, I am in B8 class (regular 20hr/week) this semester. The class is
basically composed of mainly Koreans (possibly 13-14), two Japanese,
two Kazakhstanis and …I. So, it has been very interesting. I have
even thought of learning Korean, but didn't get around to it! The
positive thing is that I have to speak Chinese 99% of the time. I was
a bit concerned previously about the size of the class, but as the
semester progresses, so did the number of students who turned up to
class. Today we only had six! Don't take that as a norm though,
because I think other classes have better attendance, I would say
depending on the motivation of the students, or may be we are all
really tired by this time (either from studying, or partying!).

I find the teaching style a bit different from my last intensive
course, but nevertheless, I still enjoyed all my classes, even the
listening class was interesting.

The zonghe (comprehension class) took up most of the time (12 hours/
week). This time we had a young male teacher. The class turned out to
be a lot of fun and we often chat to and joke with the teacher both
during the class and during the break. I think this really helped to
improve our oral Chinese.

For the oral class (4 hours per week), we have an older teacher. She
is so lovely! We all love her! The only thing about the kouyu class is
that there is so much grammar in each lesson I hardly can remember it
all. Ok, I need to go back and revise.

For Listening (4 hours per week), we have a young female teacher. I
find her really good. She has a way of explaining new words and
grammar in a way that the meaning can be understood easily.

So, it's been interesting, very different from my A7 Intensive class
last year, where we only had 12 students (from 7 different countries)
in the class, and most were really studious, turning up to class
everyday. May be the difference is that if people sign up for the
intensive course, they are probably more studious to start off with.

China Sichuan Earthquake – A moving story

2008-05-19T06:52:00.003-05:00

"Dear baby, if you live, please know that I love you."

A woman was found amongst the ruins of a building in a strange
position. She was on her hands and knees. When the rescuers found her
and took her out of the rubbles, she was already dead. Underneath her
was a baby, possibly only a few months old. The baby was sleeping.
Next to the baby the rescuers found a mobile phone with the message
the woman wrote for her baby, "Dear baby, if you live, please know
that I love you."

中国加油！China's Sichuan Earthquake

2008-05-17T09:14:00.002-05:00

By now everyone would have heard about the earthquake six days ago in Sichuan province, China. Over the last few days, students in BLCU have been setting up booths around the campus collecting money. There was a fund raising event today outside of Dorm 17. Students representing various countries were giving speeches offering condolences from various countries and urging China to fight on －加油！

The restaurant downstairs was also very kind in offering free lunches to those who donate money to the earthquake victims.

Although the earthquake is obviously devastating with so many lives lost and so many people affected, I think it also has brought the best out of the Chinese people. The Chinese Government was so quick to act this time. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was there within hours of the earthquake, and Chinese President Hu Jintao has been there for a few days. For me, really moving to see the images of Chinese leaders, soldiers and ordinary people helping in the rescue and relief effort.

Politics aside, it's also wonderful to see so many countries offering aid to China. For me, of particular note were Taiwan and North Korea. I saw an interview of a Taiwan seismologist on CCTV9 and she said that people in Taiwan are really feeling for the Chinese people. Whatever happens in the world of politics, Taiwanese are also Chinese, she said. I hope that the relations between China and Taiwan will continue to improve. It also caught my attention that France was also very quick in offering aid. I do also hope that this would help to thaw the relations between France and China after the Tibet issue!

The Conference Centre and Building 17

2008-04-25T09:54:00.006-05:00

The following is a YouTube video from Raymond comparing Conference Centre and Dorm 17

This is probably long overdue, seeing that I have received so many
questions about it. Therefore, I've compiled this little list.
Hopefully it's useful. If you have stayed here or have something to
add, please feel free to do so in the comment section.

Link to Conference Centre.

Single rooms only (yes, you get your own bathroom)
Rooms are small but quite comfortable and clean
In the typical room, there is a bed, desk, TV, Fridge, wardrobe, kettle, phone
Internet connection – yes! (NB. Not wireless, but there is a café on
the second floor that provides wireless internet connection)
Laundry on the 4th and 6th floor. (Washing machine and dryer)
Food preparation room on the 7th floor (two heating plates provided, no microwave)
Rooms are cleaned daily (ie bathroom cleaned, rubbish removed); Vacuumed once a week and sheets changed once a week.
The fuwuyans (the housekeeping ladies), at least mine are, are very nice.
CC has a Chinese Restaurant, Korean/Japanese Restaurant, Café, little shop selling snacks and various supplies, and a hairdresser. The restaurants are very handy on a rainy or cold day especially if you don't want to go out.
Can book a room about a month in advance before you come.
Not a lot of storage space.

Comparing to Building 17 – Just from what I've seen.

Building 17 – rooms are a lot bigger. Single/twin rooms available.
Kitchen (and I think Laundry) on every floor. Kitchen has cooking plates and microwaves.
Apparently the walls might be a bit thinner there.
Beds not so comfortable.
A lot of storage space, plus desk lamps and bookshelves.
Building 17 is a little further away – might take 10-15minutes to get to classroom.

Of course, there are other places/dorms as well, but since I'm not so
familiar with them, I won't write anything about it here.

Last 电针 (“electric acupuncture”) treatment – yeah!

2008-04-25T09:17:00.000-05:00

I finally had my last 电针 treatment! What's that? You may ask –
the photo above says it all. It's not for the faint hearted. The
needle is supposed to hurt if it goes into the right spot – a kind
of deep, aching pain. The electric part is supposed to relax the
muscles, I guess in a similar way to the TENS machines.

A friend introduced me to this Chinese Doctor after a couple of weeks
of not successful treatment at the school hospital. By that time,
I've already had the injury for about 4 weeks, and my knee was
getting worse. I could feel the difference straight away after the
first treatment, comprising of 电针，"cupping" and heat
treatment. It was probably 80% better already.

Anyway, I'm glad it's over! I guess the moral of the story is not
to leave things like this till later. If I did something about it
straight away, it wouldn't have taken me 2 months to recover!

Ghost in my room? The Conference Centre mystery.

2008-03-22T22:32:00.000-05:00

A couple of nights last week, the TV in my room turned on by itself.
No, I did not sleep with the remote control on my bed, so I couldn't
have accidentally turned the TV on. I did turn off the TV before bed
and left the remote next to the TV. At first I thought I imagined it
(or dreamt it) until another friend told me the same thing happened
in her room!
So I told the fuwuyuans (housekeeping ladies) about it and jokingly
asked them if there was a ghost in my room. They a little seriously
told me not to worry, there are no ghosts, and I should switch off
the TV (ie don't leave it on stand by) at night. No more problems
after that, but still a little strange!

Intensive Class or Regular Class?

2008-03-07T05:29:00.001-06:00

A few people have been asking me this question. Obviously, it all
depends on you and your circumstances, but here is my experience of
the two type of classes.

Last year (2007) I did the intensive (6 hours per day) 12 week class
at BLCU. It was challenging, but I had the best time! Having more
contact hours per day means more to revise at the end of the day.
Ideally, it would be good to preview the next day's lesson but I
found that I hardly have time to do this…but it could be because I
also had a private tutor once a week and meetings with language
partners 2-3 times a week, plus going to the gym, etc. By the end of
it all we were all really tired! Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the
course and was very happy with it. The teachers and the classmates
were wonderful.

This year I came back and decided to do the 20 weeks regular course
(4 hours/day), so did a few people I know who did the intensive
course last time. Some also came back to do the Intensive class
again. Initially I didn't know what to do with myself, but I'm
finding I'm quite enjoying the afternoon off! I go to the shops (good
chance to practice mandarin), study, go to the gym, etc. There are
also extra course that can be taken eg. Pronunciation, writing
Chinese Characters, Calligraphy, learning Chinese songs, etc, that
can be taken. I'm also having a private tutor twice a week. Some of
the other students have 2 hours of private tuition everyday.

I think having private tutors are helpful in re-enforcing what was
learnt in the lessons. With my tutor, I would prepare a topic and
write it down, then during the lesson, the tutor would check and
correct what I have written. I would then talk to her about the
topic, thereby practicing my oral/speaking skills. What you do with
the tutor would depend on your circumstances and the problem you have
with learning mandarin. Some students want to study more or have
different needs (eg studying Business Chinese) so they also go
through other text books with their tutors.

If you have been to BLCU, please tell us your thoughts/experience via
the "comment" section below.

Trips - Xi'an 07

2008-02-28T08:30:00.003-06:00

Tang Dynasty Show

Someone looked up my entry re Xi'an yesterday. So, I thought I might write a bit more about it:

It was 非常非常好! (really great!). Xi'an (previously called Chang'an) is an old capital city and so there are a lot of historical sites, the most famous being the terracotta warriors (quite amazing!). We were lucky enough to meet Mr Young, the 80 year old farmer who discovered this ancient tomb. He's quite a celebrity, but I can't help but feel sorry for him. It's his job to sign the books about the Terracotta Warriors. He's now a tourist attraction and I think sitting there all day signing books would be quite straining for him.

We also got to go to the factory making the terracotta warriors using the original method – it was really interesting & we got to take close up photos with the warriors. I couldn't take many good pictures of the "real" terracotta warriors themselves because the hall was way too dark.

Xi'an is also the only city with its ancient city walls still intact. During the trip, we can actually go up and walk on top of the wall. Great views of the old city. There's also a very nice (and expensive) souvenir shop on top of the wall near the gate. If you go up to the top floor, you can buy original calligraphies from a famous calligrapher. If he is there you can ask him to "write" something for you – it will make a great gift! We are also able to walk or rent bicycles (probably the best way) on top of the city wall.

Being a Buddhist, I would say my favourite place was the "Forest of Stone Steles Museum". This is where translations (engraved in stones) of Buddhist texts and various historical records, important writings, and poetry, are kept. It's quite awesome being amongst these stone steles, especially seeing that there were some that were engraved (if I remember correctly, in the year AD480 (something like that!). It was also fun to see how many characters (not many!) I could recognise on those stone steles! To enhance the experience, ask the guide to translate one of the poems.

I thought the food in Xi'an was quite good too (compared to Inner Mongolia!). The dumpling banquet was fantastic, and the Tang Dynasty Show (optional – have to pay extra) was fantastic.

All in all, I had a great time and made some new friends. The trip was well organised and the tour guide in Xi'an was great. He was quite knowledgeable and during the trip he spoke both English and Chinese.

Tips - Getting the most out of your time in China (learning mandarin-wise)

2008-02-24T00:13:00.003-06:00

Being in China is the best opportunity we have to learn or improve our Mandarin skills. We are surrounded by Chinese language and culture, however, I've found, especially at BLCU where there are so many foreigners and English speaking people (which are some of the attractions I have for this uni), it's easy to fall back and just speak mostly English. Of course, it's a lot of fun, but our mandarin won't improve a whole lot.

Here are some tips – not in any particular order, just what comes to mind first.

Practice, practice, practice – Try to speak as much as possible. Some people even have language pledges and will only speak mandarin during their time in China. This will be very hard for beginners, but try to speak as much as possible. Make some Chinese friends, get language partners, or get a tutor (they are not expensive – usually around RMB 30 per hour). Chat to vendors, fuwuyuans in restaurants and pubs, or even those annoying post card sellers at tourist sites – they love to chat to foreigners. Don't just hang around people who can speak your own language – the temptation is too high! You can also make Korean, Japanese, or people from any other country who doesn't speak your language. Last year I had an Italian friend who doesn't speak English, so I am forced to speak only Mandarin with her – my Chinese improved a lot. Just keep in mind though they are also learning and may not necessarily be saying things correctly themselves, and their tones, etc may also be wrong.

Ask Chinese people for help – I've found the Chinese really friendly (even if they sometimes initially look grumpy) and happy to help if you ask them how to call this thing or how to say something. They are sometimes not willing to correct you, so tell them to tell you if you say something incorrectly.

Master the basics – pinyin and tones! – Yes, I know it's very boring and difficult – our class spent a week or so on it when we first started - but it's really important to get the tones right. Even Chinese children learn pinyin at school. Once you master pinyin and tones, you'll be able to pronounce words (even the ones you don't know) correctly and people will know what you're talking about! Furthermore, you can SMS your Chinese friends in pinyin and they are likely to understand.

Listen a lot – My listening teacher told me that it's important to listen to Chinese as much as possible, and not to worry if you don't understand. She gave an example of young infants – they listen first then they learn to speak. I think by listening a lot you can also pick up sentence structures (if you hear it often enough, it will sink in!) and the tones, making it easier for you to pronounce words correctly. Good excuse to watch lots of movies…and, don't skip the listening classes! : )

What was that word again? – Always carry a notebook with you and write down new words or phrases. I always think I can remember them when I repeat the words a couple of times, but I never do. If it's written down, at least we can refer to them later.

Bring your student cards when you visit tourist sites – you'll be able to get a discount – usually half price.

Get a phrasebook- It'll help when you need to get around or do something and you don't know how to say it in Chinese.

You get out what you put in – yes, unfortunately, the only way to get the most out of your time is to make the effort.

Keep at it and don't give up – It gets frustrating when you spend a long time studying certain characters only to forget them the next day. Keep going – it gets easier as you go along.

All this sounds quite serious, but the good thing is, you can do all this while having fun! In fact, I think "Having fun" is the most important point of all!

Placement test, again.

2008-02-21T05:13:00.001-06:00

The first thing, after enrollment, etc to put us in the right class
for our Chinese lessons is to have a placement test. This year's test
format is slightly different from last time. This might be because
I'm now doing the "normal" classes rather than the intensive class.

The placement test this time involves the teacher giving out a page
of Chinese words and we have to write pinyin for them - which made me
glad that I actually revised a bit yesterday before the test, and
also made me realise how much I have forgotten! We then have a chat
with the teacher who asks (in Chinese) how long we have been studying
mandarin, etc.

It's not the end of the world though, we can still change classes if
we find it too hard or easy.

Tomorrow is the Gong Fu Performance - no, I'm not performing! It's a
school excursion. I actually have been last year, but it's a good
chance to meet new people so will go again.

Cold weather in China

2008-02-11T23:54:00.000-06:00

With all the reports of wild, unseasonal snowstorms causing chaos in the south of China got me worried. What about Beijing? According to the BBC weather forecast, temperatures in Beijing this week ranges from around -8 degrees to 5 degrees - Brrr! still very cold, a bit cooler than when I left in December last year.

The buildings in Beijing are pretty much well heated, and as long as we don't have to spend too much time outdoors, it should be OK!

我想开一个银行账户。 I want to open a bank account in Beijing

2008-01-30T01:53:00.000-06:00

Last time I decided against opening a bank account in China as I was there for only 3 months and got by by withdrawing money using my Aussie atm card. However, I found that I had to pay AUD $5 per transaction plus various exchange fees. This wouldn't be too bad for a few transactions, but if we have do withdraw several times, the costs would certainly add up. Since this time I will be there for five months, I thought it would be convenient and cheaper to open a bank account there.

By the way, there is a bank inside BLCU, and a few ATM machines on campus. RMB 2000-2500 can be withdrawn each time depending on the machine. RMB 10000 can be withdrawn per day.

I had a few friends who had a Chinese bank account while in China. Apparently it's quite straight forward to open, requiring only the passport. There are several advantages to opening a bank account:

1. Reducing bank fees back home. Obviously this depends on the bank. I've heard that some banks don't charge transaction fees if the atm card is used overseas, so it might be a good idea to shop around before coming if this is you prefer to use your home country's atm card.

2. You can carry the Chinese's bank atm card around with you instead of your home country's atm card. This may not seem like a big deal, but if your wallet was stolen, it would be a big hassle to cancel all your cards back home, not to mention about worrying about having no money for the next couple of days.

3. I didn't need to do this myself since I lived on campus, but I was told you can pay for your utilities, phone and mobile phone and various bills using the atm. This way you don't have to run around going to each payment centre and queuing up, which apparently can take a while.

The only problem is how to open an account if your mandarin is still not so good. Luckily I found the lesson on Chinese Pod.

Some useful vocab:

账户 zhang4hu4 account
申请表 shen1qing3biao3 application form
活期存款 huo2qi1cun2kuan3 current deposit
自动取款机 zi4dong4qu3kuan3ji1 atm

I shall try it out when I get to Beijing, and will report back, so watch this space!

By the way, if you readers out there have had some experience opening an account or dealing with the bank, please tell us your experience / tips in the Comments section below. Thank you! : )

Chinese Pod

2008-01-17T02:52:00.000-06:00

Image by Free-Stockphotos.com

So I've decided to do some self-studying before I go back to Beijing in February. It's not easy! It's not that I don't have time, but I'm just....lazy! I'm forcing myself to look through my text books that I brought with me (not much luck here), but then I revisited this fantastic website, Chinese Pod. It's giving me a daily dose of pretty useful mandarin. The dialogue topics are fantastic and very useful eg. going to the hairdresser, ordering food, lost mobile phone, etc. The hosts are pretty cool to and give really good explanations. Topics are divided up into newbies, elementary, intermediate and advanced. The podcasts are free but you have to pay for transcripts and notes.

What are you waiting for, check it out! Even if you're going to China anyway, it's worth knowing a bit before you come.

From zero degrees to 30 to 18

2007-12-29T04:22:00.000-06:00

Hmmm...I can't believe it's already been three weeks since I left Beijing...and I have been in three different countries since then. I've found myself in Genting, Malaysia...via Chiangmai and Singapore....and in the meantime, have been eating, eating, and eating (amongst catching up with family and some friends)...munching my way through Nasi Lamaks and Laksas and Chicken rice.

Beijing was so cold when I left (it's even colder now), Singapore was warm and humid, around 30 degrees, and Malaysia, I guess would be around the same, except for the monsoon rain in the afternoon which kept us cool. Genting is on top of a mountain about an hour or so from KL, so I do appreciate the cooler temperature. Genting, I guess, could be described as playground for Malaysians and people of neighbouring countries - may be even a mini Las Vegas - not that I've ever been there. It's a huge complex of hotels and casinos, as well as amusement parks, shops, etc, etc, and boasts to have the world's biggest hotel with over 6000 something rooms. It's kind of strange though to have this "thing" on top of such a beautiful mountain. Imagine mountaintops crowned by clouds and mist and this huge rainbow coloured building on top! Yes, the "First World Hotel" - the world's biggest hotel looks like a rainbow!...I guess the people do like it though - no vacancies around this period unless you book quite sometime ahead....and I must say the amusement park was a lot of fun!

It's an interesting experience though. Genting is one big money making machine - from its casinos and amusement parks, through its rental spaces and food outlets, conference centres, etc etc, and brings busloads of tourists from Singapore daily. It was all started by one man, Mr Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong, and when he first proposed the idea, people thought he was crazy and so he couldn't find any business partners. It took him 2 years to build the road up the mountain and another 4 to build the first hotel...and what a great success it is now. It's a fantastic story of one man who was virtually penniless and faced many obstacles, but nevertheless, followed his dreams and never gave up. On the way back down to KL we drove past the site with was meant to be the founder's mausoleum - a new tourist attraction- so the man is still making money - even in his death!

I've attached the photo of the "First World Hotel" - the hotel with the most number of rooms in the world.

This will be my last entry in this "Beijing blog" - I will now go back to my other "Alice-out-of-town" blog at http://alice-out-of-town.blogspot.com and will return to the "Beijing blog" when I go back to Beijing in February.

北京，明年见！

2007-12-06T08:04:00.000-06:00

These last few days have been days of goodbyes - I said goodbye to
the teachers, the classmates, chinese friends, other friends, the
fruit shop lady and the DVD man. Some people I will see again, and
others, perhaps not. One of the things I have learnt during this time
in Beijing is how precious each moment is and how important it is to
appreciate everything and everyone- the time we have here is so short
and every opportunity that presents itself may never come again. No
point saying will do this thing next time, or talk to this person
next time, or that next time I will do this better...because we will
simply run out of time! ....and I still haven't found those famous
Chocolate fish in Wudaokou yet! Luckily I will come back in February
for a semester next year - the chocolate fish will just have to wait!

考试考完了！

2007-11-30T01:25:00.000-06:00

Hmm I hope I wrote the title up correctly - tell me if I didn't! I've
learnt so much over the last 11 weeks I think everything is all mixed
up in my brain!

...So, you might have guessed that I have just had exams, so have
been pretty busy preparing for that. The 综合考试(Comprehension
class) turned out to be pretty easy. the 听力考试(listening) was
quite challenging - mainly because it was a multiple choice exam, all
written in Chinese! We not only have to listen, but quickly read the
answer choices in Chinese as well....a lot of it I can read (or
guess), but I am so slow at reading- not fast enough to comprehend
the meaning of the different choices and then listen to the next
question. 口试 (oral exam) was OK - we had several topics to
prepare, as well as answering the teacher's questions and read a
portion of a passage (with pinyin - pretty painless).

Anyway, 11 weeks have flown by very quickly. I only have 3 days of
lessons left. What will I do on my last week here? I have a lot of
friends to catch up with, may be need go shopping and buy stuff and
decide what to pack and what to leave in Beijing. I will be back in
February and don't really want to bring things back and forth.

I think one of the best thing about coming to Beijing is of course,
that my Chinese has improved a lot (from next to nothing) and I feel
more confident speaking it. I really enjoyed the course and the
teachers are really great. 谢谢老师们！ The other really
wonderful thing is that I am able to meet and make a lot of new
friends from all around the world. 认识你们我很高兴！The only
thing is that with a 12 week course is that by this time you're just
getting to know friends or form closer relationships then you
already have to say goodbye...but hopefully we will be able to meet
again at some point in the future!

By the way, "Vanto" left a comment on my blog - thanks for that! : )
I was going to leave a comment on "Vanto"'s blog but I couldn't
because blogspot is blocked in China. I could only view blogs through
a proxy server...anyway, looking forward to reading more of your
blog, Vanto.

加油！

2007-11-17T11:45:00.000-06:00

Zhu 老师 just made a comment on Facebook to encourage me: "加油！"add oil" - a Chinese way of saying "Keep fighting, keep going, etc". 谢谢 Zhu 老师！

Actually, reading back on my previous entries, it seems like I'm feeling a bit negative about it all, it's only because I feel tired. I am actually really enjoying the course and the challenge - this is part of what I am here for and challenges can only make us grow. I really feel very happy and fortunate to be in Beijing. It has always been my dream to study and live in another country. I have made so many wonderful friends and I think we are all creating wonderful memories for ourselves. I don't want to go home, and get back into the real world just yet! : )

Today has been quite relaxing for me. Thanks to the class "汉字比赛" - chinese words writing competition yesterday (which was a lot of fun, by the way), we only have one homework. I studied in the morning, and had lunch and spent the afternoon and evening with friends - couldn't ask for a better way to have a good time!

Getting sporty

2007-11-16T11:15:00.000-06:00

It's 11.59pm Friday night and I don't feel like sleeping yet...but
I'm feeling so tired I probably should go to bed....so may be this
entry won't make much sense. I've been sleeping this late (and later)
this week studying, etc, but I won't go on about it again! he he! I
did also join the gym for my last month here. I have been
procrastinating for the last 2 months, telling myself that I can
exercise myself - may be by walking around the school or the football
field - well, got turned off that idea when I was hit by a stray
soccer ball, or since the heaters were not turned on till 1st
November, I had actually been exercising in my room - doing crunches,
squats, etc, trying to keep myself warm...well, that worked to a
certain extent until 1st November - I have no longer a reason to do
all those crunches! ...So no more excuses! Off to the gym I went with
Abby. Now that I have paid, I must get my money's worth! We've been
going pretty much every couple of days, mostly to the various classes
from latin to belly dancing to X-combat. I'm really enjoying X-combat
- a combination of moves from various boxing styles and funky music.
As for latin and other dances, I really enjoy those too, but am
feeling very un-co...ah well, it's good fun anyway.

Only 2 and a bit weeks to go!

2007-11-12T08:32:00.000-06:00

Does time fly! Final exams are coming up end of next week and the
classes officially finish with a party on 5th December! At the moment
I'm torn between studying and trying to go out as much as I can on
the weekends - not that I go out that much, but it seems like there
are so many places I still want to go in Beijing, and there are so
little time left. The other thing is to try to catch up with as many
friends as possible - as I might not see some of them again!

In the end, I ended up balancing everything (of course!)- not that I
don't need to study more. 6 hours a day of classes (if I haven't
mentioned earlier), is hard work - usually after doing homework,
there is little time left to prepare for the next lesson, let alone
revise the previous lessons....so as a result, i find myself doing
remembering today's words, but forgetting previous days...so a lot of
revision to do!!!

At this point, I decided to come back to BLCU again next year for the
Spring semester. I was tossing up between coming back or to go to a
different city, but I thought Beijing is probably the best place to
study Mandarin and I really like BLCU's program, even if there are a
lot of English speakers, making it tempting to just speak English all
the time. I thought I might as well continue to study rather than
just leaving it here, otherwise I'll probably just forget everything.

Xi'an

2007-11-02T10:47:00.002-05:00

Not sure why the rest of my entry didn't come up in the last entry, but anyway, here it is:

By the way, as I mentioned earlier, I went to Xi'an for the weekend. It was a bit of a whirlwind trip - leaving right after class at 4.30pm on Friday afternoon and arriving back in Beijing on Monday morning at 7.15am, just in time for the 8am start. I find Xi'an a really special city - so much history! I think, if I remember correctly, Xi'an is considered to be amongst the 4(?) ancient civilisations of the world. There, we visited the Banpo museum where the remains of a 6000 year old village was found. Unlike Beijing, a lot of the old historical buildings and the city wall has been preserved in Xi'an. We also visited a factory to learn how the Terracotta Warriors were made (using the traditional method, of course!) and have the opportunity to buy good quality but quite expensive reproductions of the Terracotta Warriors. Later we also visited the actual Terracotta Warriors. They were actually found in the tomb of the Emperor Qin, and were there to protect the Emperor in the afterlife - the tomb is very extensive and the Terracotta Warriors even have a their own command centre - really!

The other highlight for me was visiting the Xi'an Beilin Museum. As paper records are easily destroyed, a lot of China's historical records, Confucius teachings, Buddhist translations, important Poetry, etc, are carved on stone tablets. This museum contains a fantastic collection of these stone tablets. It's quite awesome (for me anyway), to look at a stone tablet (and even recognising some characters!) that was produced in the year 640AD. I would love to come back one day when my Chinese is a LOT better and be able to read and understand what is written on these tablets.

Other places we visited included the city wall, a dumpling restaurant - Xi'an is apparently famous for it's dumplings and we experienced a dumpling banquite - 16 different types in total - delicious! Afterwards, we also enjoyed a Tang Music and Dance Performance.

From Beijing to Xi'an

2007-11-01T12:44:00.000-05:00

> 暖气开了！我很高兴！ I'm really happy that the central
> heating in my hotel has been turned on!! Yeah!! I went away to
> Xi'an for the weekend, and when I came back, I found that the
> weather has suddenly gone colder. Apparently it was around 1 degree
> around 8am in the morning! It's really cold in the room at night
> and I have been keeping myself warm by doing sit ups and exercising
> in my room and drinking warm water, and was really missing my
> electric blanket! Winter is just around the corner though,
> officially starting end of this month....and all I can say is that
> I'm glad I won't be here for winter- my course finishes on the 5th
> December. By the way, most buildings turn on their central heating
> around mid November, so I've been told, so I've been quite lucky to
> have heating today.
>
> Things have been quite busy (actually, really busy) for me. As the
> temperature drops in Beijing, my study load has increased. I only
> have around 4 weeks left of my course and the teachers are quite
> keen to get through as much as possible - which is a good thing,
> but means lotsand lots of newer and harder words to remember each
> day - 我记不住！- I can't remember!- I think my brain is full
> of new words, so is refusing to take any more in...he he! OK, it's
> not THAT bad, but can feel that way sometimes...Chinese is very
> interesting - a lot of words are made up of a combination of
> characters, so I find if I already know the characters, remembering
> the word is not very hard, but if it's a new word and totally new
> characters, then I have a lot of trouble. I have to be patient, I
> think, and just stick at it. One of the teachers told me that
> Chinese is quite hard when we first start to learn it, but as you
> get over the beginner's stage, things will get a lot easier...I
> think she is right. I'm really enjoying it all though.
>

Language Corner

2007-10-18T11:10:00.000-05:00

A Japanese friend invited me to a language corner in the university.
Here you can have language exchange with Chinese Students. It turned
out I was the only English speaker there tonight (there were lots of
Japanese-Chinese speaking students) so I became quite popular with a
small group of Chinese students studying English. Chinese students
actually study English since high school, so I would say most if not
all can speak English. I also think that their English is usually
quite good, they just need to practise speaking more. We were
conversing in a mixture of mandarin and English, well, initially
mandarin until my mandarin runs out and then we spoke mostly
English...Then, I heard one of them commented (in mandarin), "her
pronunciation is good!"...huh? Did they mean my mandarin
pronunciation? It turned out that they meant that my English
pronunciation is quite good....hmmm....I sure hope so!! ha ha! Just
as an aside - they said that because last year they had an Australian
teacher and they couldn't understand a word he said! I find it really
funny when people say that my English is very good!!!

One of the girls wants us to become language partners, which is fine
with me. This means that we help each other - I help her with her
English and she helps me with my mandarin. She is really enthusiastic
though, and wants to meet for two hours every day!! I told her I
think we will start with meeting twice a week. I think I will share
her with another friend. Another girl wants to give my number to
another friend studying at Tsinghua University - she wants a language
partner on the weekends. I think I will be quite busy from now on!

It's actually a really good thing to have Chinese friends because
this will help my mandarin a lot. I'm also interested in their lives
- eg. what they do, how they live, etc. I've already had a glimpse -
one of the girls was curious about my dorm - how many people do I
share my room with, etc. I actually have my own room. Chinese
students have to share their rooms with 4-6 people, and often have to
share a common bathroom with everyone in the building. So I'll have
to count myself very lucky with my room (although quite expensive for
Chinese standards), but then I visited another foreign student's
dorm, which I find quite OK - clean but old...I'd would have to say
my little room is quite luxurious, even if the bathroom floods during
showers & no heating until November 15th!

Beijing Street Food

2007-10-12T06:58:00.000-05:00

Apparently you haven't been to Beijing if you haven't tried the
street food, so my friends told me...so being the one who likes to
try new things (just in case it might be nice!) I gladly went along.
So this is it, a little stall in front of the No3 Dining Hall at
BLCU, behind Dormitory 17. There were no tables or chairs - what you
see is what you get - variety of meatballs, fish balls, tofu, vegies,
etc on skewers being boiled in curry like soup. You can also get
grilled mantous (chinese bread), squid, chicken skin, beef, lamb,
etc, etc. They provide green plates wrapped in plastic bags - I guess
because the plates won't get dirty and they won't have to wash them??
Each "boiled" skewer is 0.5 yuan, and grilled ones range from 1
yuan-5 yuan....and the food was...fantastic!! Very tasty and fairly
"healthy" compared to most of the Chinese food restaurants which I
find too oily for me.

Immersion in Chinese Culture

2007-10-07T08:20:00.000-05:00

Part of learning about the Chinese Culture is catching public

transport. Today, another really beautiful day, one my friends and I
set off to Wangfujing, a nice shopping area in the city. We took the
train from Wudaokou (very close to BLCU). This was the first time I
caught the train (actually, subway) in Beijing and I was quite
excited to see what it would be like! Just the night before, I saw on
the news that a new train line has opened in Beijing and the
government decided to reduce the price of the train fare from 3 yuan
to 2 yuan per single trip (very cheap!!) to encourage more people to
use the train. I thought it was a good idea as it will reduce the
horrendous traffic jams in the city. However, one of the passengers
interviewed said he was concerned that more people will use the
train. Can't be THAT bad, I thought!

It started off well enough. I bought a public transport card for 20
yuan and added 30 yuan. The train on this line is actually quite new,
similar to Singapore's MRT. On the way back though, there were SO
many people! I'm not sure if it's normal to have so many people
catching the train, or if it's because it's the last day of the week-
long national holidays, but the station and trains were packed like
sardines in cans! From Wangfujing we had to change trains 3 times and
at some stations we had to wait for the next train as we couldn't
squeeze in! On top of that, these interchange stations & trains on
these lines are quite old - no aircond. It was actually quite a cold
day, but it was quite warm in the station and the train, especially
in our autumn gear (a bit like Sydney's winter at the moment)- I
can't imagine what summer would be like!

As I said before, may be there were a lot of people because it's the
last day of the holidays, and hopefully my next train travel
experience will be more comfortable! I'll try to avoid peak hours
though!

Still, it was another interesting experience. The train (subway) is
really convenient and for 2 yuan, I can't really complain! ...but
hopefully the government will increase the number of trains (which is
already quite frequent) and the number of carriages.

Tips for taking Beijing Subway:
- The public transport card is very convenient and can also be used
on buses. The best thing is we don't have to queue up each time to
get a train ticket.
- Take care of valuables & watch out for pickpockets!
- Avoid peak hours if possible - I haven't tried it (and not game
to!) but I think it will be pretty crowded!
-and like what one of my friends told me before coming to China - be
patient and have an open mind! I say - have a good sense of humour
and go with the flow. Remember , when in Rome... I think this works
out pretty well since like the locals, we have to push (sometimes
"fight") our way into and out of the train! : )

Just a little note on the word "train" - when I use the word train
here, people look at me funny. I only use the word "train" because
this is what we call them in Australia. "Train" in China actually
means country trains. I should really call it "subway", or "ditie"
which literally translates to "ground iron", although it's not always
underground - sometimes (like at Wudaokou), it's above ground...may
be then it should be called "tiantie" or "sky iron" ...but then no
one will know what I'm talking about...hmm...

This is getting silly - I'd better go back to studying!

The grassland on horseback

2007-10-05T22:33:00.000-05:00

Blue sky and vast grassland

2007-10-05T10:05:00.000-05:00

I just came back this morning (5am!!) from a trip with the school to Inner Mongolia. The word Mongolia, to me, is shrouded in mystery - mainly because I didn't know anything about it!

It was a nice trip, though not terribly well organised. It would have been a lot more meaningful if the tour guide could explain more about the history of the area, as well as the cuture of the Inner Mongolia people and how they lived...the tour guide spoke quite good English, but then I guess it would be difficult to actually explain things deeply in a foreign language.

May be my expectation was too high, and may be this is China, where you have to be a little bit more independent eg. doing a bit of your own research. In the end though, it was an enjoyable trip and I met some really nice people. The landscape of Inner Mongolia is beautiful - the grassland and the desert were so vast, and the blue sky stretched as far as the horizon.

We left Beijing Sunday night, taking the hard-sleeper train, which turned out to be better than expected, and the toilets were actually OK!

On Monday we visited the Xilamuren Grassland, rode horses and visited a local family for traditional snacks, which were quite interesting. I would have liked to see how the family lived, what they do each day, etc - but then their "job" is most probably to entertain tourists like us. Horse riding was fantastic though. Here you can experience and appreciate the wonderful landscape of the grassland.

On the second day we went to the edge of the Kubuqi Desert and visited the Yinkenxiang Sand-Bay, which is a bit like an amusement park in the desert - you can do lots of activities like camel riding, 4-wheel driving, toboggan down the sand dunes, horse riding, etc. The camel riding was a lot of fun.

Day 3 we went to the Inner Mongolia Museum. The museum was a sparkling brand new structure. It was completed only 2-3 weeks ago. A very nice museum (and nice toilets too!) - quite interesting as well, and would be more so if I could read Chinese!

Day 4 we went to the Five Towers Lamasery. The Lamasary was fasinating and is one of the 5 Indian style temples in China. Then took a really long bus ride (I think 5 hours in total, including lunch!) to Datong and visited Yun'gang Caves. It was a bit of a miserable rainy day and we were all grumpy by yet another long bus ride (I guess China is so big it takes half a day to get to one location each day!). The caves were spectacular though. There were huge buddha images carved into the walls of the caves. Unfortunately I don't know much about it since the tour guide didn't say anything about it at all. I would have liked to know a bit about the history of the area - guess will have to google it!

Later we went to Datong city, arriving just after dark. The tour guide plonked us down at the "Nine-dragons wall" - again, no explanation while she disappeared (to get our train tickets, as she explained later). It was cold, dark, wet, and we were all hungry! : ( ....luckily we were in good company....and then I managed to step into a puddle, and so with one wet shoe and foot, I wasn't too happy! ...but I suppose I was lucky in that it was an old pair of shoes!

The Mongolian Hotpot dinner turned out to be quite good, even if the driver got us lost for quite a while and the tour guide had to get a taxi to show us the way! May be it was his first day on the job? Anyway, after dinner all is well again and we were all happy, especially the table that drank a little too much!

The train left Datong at 11pm, arriving in Beijing at 5am the next morning....and some of us were ready to go out for pizza tonight, having eaten only Chinese food over the past week.

Great Wall

2007-09-29T08:07:00.000-05:00

It was the most beautiful Beiing day! Actually, the weather has been so nice over the last week, but yesterday it was perfect! ...and no smog! The sky was so blue...

We were on a school excursion! Haven't been on one of those in a while! We went to the Mutianyu section, which turned out to be fantastic! Mutianyu is not as popular a destination as Bedaling, being a bit further away. I think, though, that Mutianyu is much better, especially because there are a lot less people here and the wall is not as steep as at Bedaling. The scenery around the Mutianyu Great Wall was amazing, as I heard a French man exclaimed, "C'est manifique!" (hopefully I spelt that right!).

Although there was the option of taking the cable car, we decided to brave it and walk up. Some of us were already tired by the time we got to the entrance! It was pretty hard walking up all those stairs, but the views were more than worth it! ...and we tobogganed down the Great Wall - what a touristy thing to do - but a lot of fun!

The course begins (or rather, began)!

2007-09-24T03:40:00.000-05:00

We are coming into the second week of our class. It's getting quite tiring, particularly in the afternoons! (I'm doing the intensive course - 6 hours per day.) Oh, by the way, after the placement test, I got into the A7 class, which I think, suit me quite well. The next class up is a lot more difficult, B6, I think, and the next class down is mainly for complete beginners, so they are going a lot slower.

In the first few days, we had pinyin review - practising different sounds and tones- very tiring and repetitive, but I think, very important. In the Chinese language, a different sound or tone can mean a different word. For example, the word for goldfish and whale (we were told), sounds very similar - jin and jing, so you could easily be asking for a whale if you mean to get a pet goldfish! Another example is, someone's name, Zhang (eg the actress Zhang Ziyi) and the word for "dirty" - "zang". If you mispronounce (I actually have a lot of trouble with the sounds z- and zh-), you, or rather, I, could be calling someone "Mr or Ms Dirty"!! Hmmm...I'd better keep practising!

We have three teachers - listening, speaking, and a comprehension teacher who teaches a combination of listening, speaking and writing. I find all the teachers quite good. The listening teacher is quite young, and a lot of fun, making the class interesting. The comprehension teacher is our "main teacher" looking after us - she is very nice and gives us her mobile number and tells us to call her if we have any problems. The speaking teacher is very professional and experienced, and doesn't take non-sense from some of the people in the class! Overall quite a good combination, I think.

As for the students in my class, there are 14 people from all around the world - from Hong Kong, England, Korea, Japan, Australia, Mauritius , Canada, South Africa, Thailand and the States - a mini-UN.

The couse also includes several excursions, or "field trips", as they call it. Last Friday we went to a nice Chinese Restaurant to eat (of course!) and learn how to order food. This coming Friday we are going to the Great Wall.

We have classes next weekend though, because of the one week National Holiday - called "golden week".

Friendship Store and Sino-Japan relationship

2007-09-16T08:12:00.000-05:00

OK, the title is a bit misleading. About the only thing the above have in common is the word "friendship"! Anyway, this is about my weekend...

I’ve found my way to the famed “Friendship Store” on campus. I’ve heard about it several times, and one of the girls in my class was raving on about it. I had to find this place! It’s definitely very cool – almost a “godsend” to students living on campus. You can find almost everything here – it’s a little supermarket with lots of things a student living on campus would need - snacks to keep us going, instant noodles, cereals, water, wine, as well as little electrical things like plastic lamps, fans… There are also buckets, cleaning materials, stationery, computer supplies… There are of course other shops “near by”, off campus, at least they look close on the map, but in reality quite a long walk. There is also a very nice little fruit shop next door. How very convenient!

I spent this weekend with my parents. We attended a small get together of SGI members. Meetings are not allowed in China. However, every now and then, some SGI members get together for afternoon tea. It was great for me since I was able to make some new friends (and mum feels better since there are lots of very nice people to look after me!!). There is also a Singaporean girl starting a course at a nearby university not too far from where I am.

Mum, dad and I were also invited to a recital of Pres Ikeda’s poems at Beijing University next Saturday night. Apparently this year marks an important anniversary of Sino-Japan relationship (possibly 35th anniversary??). This recital is organised by the students of Beijing University, not by SGI.

I was quite surprised how much Pres Ikeda is respected in China. We watched a DVD of a documentary recently aired on TV in China about the friendship between Japan and China. The producers of the program initially interviewed someone from a non-profit organisation (not SGI) dedicated to the friendship between China and Japan. From there, they traced this relationship back to the Min-On Association, a cultural/arts exchange organisation originally set up by Pres Ikeda…and from there, the producers traced the China-Japan relationship back to Pres Ikeda’s meeting with Premier Zhou Enlai. I have heard about this meeting before, but had not realised the impact it had on the two countries’ relationship.

..So it was all very interesting, and all in mandarin. No, my mandarin is not that good yet! Perhaps I caught a few words! Fortunately, I had a very good translator. Hopefully I will get as good has her one day!

Ni Hao from Beijing

2007-09-13T08:05:00.000-05:00

Beijing is a BIG city. I arrived on the 10th with my parents (aka my translators – how fortunate for me!). We stayed at a nice hotel in the city and I officially moved to the Conference Centre Hotel in BLCU yesterday.

In the mean time, I managed to get myself registered, paid for tuition, and got my student card. Fortunately it wasn’t too tricky. Everything was quite organised in a chaotic way! The queues were long though.

So far, the atmosphere has been great – so much energy about! There are so many people from different countries here – a lot of students from Korea and Japan, as well as Indonesia and Thailand. There are also lots of Americans, and it seems, Australians and other countries. Incidentally I have even met someone who came from Hurstville! (in case you don’t know, it’s very close to my home in Sydney) – imagine being half way around the world and meeting someone from the next suburb!

My room at the Conference Centre (CC) is small, but nice and clean. I’m happy with it. There’s even a window that I can open to let fresh air in. The bathroom, though, gets flooded during a shower, as there’s no shower recess, only a shower curtain…I was wondering what the carpet stain in front of the shower was, then I realised that after a longer shower (eg. After hair washing), some of the water overflowed out of the bathroom!...may be this is a strategy to reduce water usage…ie we can’t shower for too long? The only other thing is the hard bed (feels like sleeping on a wooden block), but I was reassured by one of the girls I met that the beds here at CC are the best in uni. The other nicer place is Dorm 17, which is apparently quite nice, but the beds there are even harder, she told me! OK, to be fair, even the beds at the nice 4 star Capital Hotel in the city were quite hard as well (but not as hard!!!).

Otherwise, CC is a great place – very convenient - only 2 minutes from the classrooms, and there are a couple of nice and cheap restaurants downstairs (Chinese and Japanese) and even a little convenient store. There’s also a laundry with dryer costing 3 yuan per wash and 6 yuan each time we use the dryer.

I had my placement test this morning too. It was a bit of a disaster! : ) The test itself was fairly simple and may be even painless, actually – a teacher comes to you and have a chat to gauge your level of mandarin. Well, this is when I realised how different it is to study phrases – how to go shopping, whatever, and to actually speak to an actual person! In reality, people don’t actually follow the scripts in textbooks! So I guess this is the value for me in being in China right now – I have to practise as much as possible in real situations, not just in the classroom. I find out which class I will go into tomorrow morning, and have till the 17th to change class if needed.

Roadtest

2007-09-06T03:02:00.000-05:00

With a bit of time I have left, I've been perusing some discussions relating to living in China and learning mandarin forums. Quite a good forum is Chinese-forums. There's plenty of information there and people can ask questions and get lots of tips on a variety of topics. eg. people's experiences at various language schools, how to find accommodation, discussion on the actual mandarin language itself, etc.

It is on this forum that I found links to various online Chinese Study Tools, which I find very useful. In particular I have roadtested a couple of very cool Chinese-English dictionaries where you can also hear how the word should be pronounced, as well as how to write words. With this there is also a function to translate English names to Chinese names, and even put the names on a chinese painting and print it out - a lot of fun!

There is also a Pinyin Practice site which is very useful for beginners.

Definitely check out the above sites if you are interested in learning mandarin.

Vaccination

2007-09-01T03:40:00.000-05:00

Ok, 10 days to go! I left it a bit late - should have done it a couple of weeks ago...actually, I should have done it before leaving Australia! Anyway, I decided to go get my vaccination for Hepatitis A. The doctor also suggested Typhoid vaccine...so I had that as well. 2 needles! Ouch! ...actually it wasn't too bad. The nurse was very skillful and didn't hurt at all...until now...the left arm is aching from the typhoid vaccine. : ( ...so I'm now covered...almost...my uncle, who is a doctor in Singapore, also suggested the Japanese Encephalitis vaccine. After reading more into it though, I've left it a bit late as 3 injections are required. I think the risk is a lot higher in rural areas. Japanese Encaphalitis is transmitted via mosquitos from infected pigs and wild birds. I guess the risk would be higher here in Chiang Mai than Beijing. Still, I'd better be careful with mosquitoes since they also transmit malaria and dengue fever (quite prevalent in Thailand).

Travel health information are available here if anyone is interested.
http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/destinationChina.aspx
http://www.mdtravelhealth.com/destinations/asia/china.html
They are quite detailed. I think it's worth being prepared than to have problems later.

Since I am a pharmacist, I can't help but prepare my "medicine kit"! I know I can probably get most things, especially basic stuff, in China...but I think when you are sick, the last thing you want to do is run around looking for a pharmacy and explaining to the pharmacist what you want, particularly if your language skill isn't that good!

..so this is what I'm taking (so far!):
Paracetamol
Stomach stuff - antacids
Insect repellent
Antihistamines - in case of allergy
Actifed - for colds
An antibiotic
Vitamin C
Imodium
Multivitamin

Should be enough! : )

Beijing, here I come!

2007-08-30T08:17:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! I've started this blog to document my upcoming experience in Beijing. I'll be going there to study mandarin for 12 weeks from September-December 07. I chose to go to Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) basically because it seems like a good place to start. Lots of foreign students and it's also a college teaching would-be Chinese Language teachers. Most of the universities (apparently) use BLCU text books.

Originally, I was planning to start off with the 12 weeks intensive course, and see how I go, possibly changing to a different university later on. Also not too keen to be in Beijing for winter! After my visit earlier this year, I'm not sure if I would want to stay in Beijing after this 12 week stint - basically because of all the smog! Not sure if I can handle all the pollution! Anyway, I will see how I go...probably will get better as the Olympic approaches.

As for preparation, I have been studying BLCU's book, "A Study Tour for Learners of Chinese" by Dr Andrew Lynn. A very useful book. I've leant to say, amongst other things, "Yao liang ping pijiu" - "I want two bottles of beers", "Wo yao xilanhua" -"I want broccoli"...he he! I can see myself eating a lot of broccoli in China! The book also teaches lots of useful expressions for various situations eg. how to bargain, "Da zhe ma?" - "Can I have a discount", and "Tai gui le!"- "Too expensive!", also when catching a taxi, "Qing ni bu yao tai kuai, wo haipa." - "Please don't go too fast, I'm scared" - if you've been to Beijing (or may be China in general?) you'll understand why this is such an important expression!

So, Beijing, here I come! It should be a great experience, and please feel free to leave any comments and questions in the comment section...and hopefully this blog will work when I'm in China since apparently blogger is blocked there!!!! I think I will be able to update it but might have difficulty viewing it from China. Anyway, see how I go!