两条平行线也可能会有交会的一天；
握在手里的风筝也会突然断了线。
The taxi driver did not have any clue as to where Beijing Institute of Education was. Was not sure of what kind of building to expect. Turns out the institution is right next door to a few huge wholesale markets! Yay more shopping! Even though it was my first time in Beijing, as soon as I stepped out of the airport, I had already grown a liking to this city. Beijing, the capital of China, I’m finally here! Looked at the city on the map and indeed, the city looks like it is enclosed by gate within gate, quite interesting. The institution is situated towards the left of the city centre.
The dormitories aren’t that bad. Although they aren’t as big or nicely furnished as the Hangzhou ones, they are still good enough. Only thing is, the bathroom constantly smells due to bad sewerage (I think), and our bed sheets are only changed once a week.
The people in Beijing are generally quite polite and friendly. I also think the Beijing accent sounds nice haha. The temperature is much warmer than I expected! It feels like Beijing is warmer than Nanjing! Just wearing a thick woolen jumper and feather down jacket is warm enough. The weather is meant to be around -10 to -5, so this is the coldest temperature I’ve ever lived in. It doesn’t feel that cold though. The sky is actually blue and sometimes sunny. I quite like this weather (: I reckon I could live in Beijing long term. Really want to to go Harbin and visit the ice sculptures. However plane tickets during this time of the year are extraordinarily high. Don’t think I’ll be able to go this time round. Maybe next time.
Was already given a report to write on the first day of speaking class! My two friends and I were to read a 15 page article and write a report on it. We were only give 2 days to write this so ended up staying up until 1am that morning finishing it. Had to present the report in class later.
Twisted my right foot on Friday morning! Can’t believe this, it’s the worst I’ve ever hurt my foot! Could not walk for the whole day. Today is Saturday, my foot’s a lot better, after various treatments: cold pack, heat pack, red flower oil and chinese sticky plaster. But still hurts so stayed in the dorm the whole day. Can’t make it to the Great Wall and Olympic Stadiums tomorrow, planning to continue resting. I really want to go to the Great Wall and Olympic Stadiums though! It’s so sad, the first time I come to Beijing and I miss this ): Reminds me of the annual Adventure World excursion in Physics Year 12; it’s something that everyone looked forward to. I had never been to Adventure World before so was quite excited. However on the day of the excursion, I fell sick! So ended up staying home that day. I had already paid the fee too, but luckily received a refund. Things like these always seem to happen to me!
Two of my friends came with me to my hometown (Nanjing) for the week break. They both stayed at my house. We went siteseeing at 中山陵 and 莫愁湖. I haven’t been to these two places in a very long time so it was good to visit again. Also visited夫子庙 a few times to shop around. These three are the main tourist attractions in Nanjing. We also shopped and ate in the city centre a few times too. On Christmas day we went to the biggest church in Nanjing, and on New Year’s Eve we stayed home to watch a New Year’s Eve chinese concert on television. A few of my favourite singers were performing that night so it was quite exciting.
There isn’t actually that many places to visit in Nanjing. Everytime I come back is mainly to visit family and friends, and ofcourse to shop. I spent the first day of the new year visiting relatvies from my mother’s side. Some of them live in the outskirts of Nanjing so we drove there and hand lunch together. After lunch two of my great aunts took me to buy a much needed hand carry luggage. I didn’t bring a hang carry to China because I was just planning to buy one here. And since I already bought so many things in Hangzhou and Nanjing, I would not be able to make it to Beijing without a hand carry. On top of that, I had to leave behind quite a few pieces of clothing in my Nanjing house because they just could not fit in my luggage. My dad travels to and from China and Australia quite often so he is able to bring some stuff back for me if needed.
On the way to Nanjing airport, the taxi I was in broke down on the airport freeway! My two friends took another taxi. Seriously thank God that when my taxi broke down, my friends’ taxi was just in front of us. When we left home my relatives told the two taxi drivers to follow each other. So their taxi reversed to where I was and took me and my luggage on. We could barely fit. If they weren’t there, I would’ve missed my flight because we were on the airport freeway and there would be no empty taxis going to the freeway. Phew!
Expecting Beijing to be a lot colder than Hangzhou and Nanjing. So my friends and I all bought 羽绒服 (feather down jacket). Also expecting Beijing to have more classes everyday and harder classes too. I’ve never been to Beijing before so this is quite exciting. The flight from Nanjing to Beijing only took 2 hours. I’ve also heard from past students that the Beijing dormitories are not as nice as the Hangzhou ones. So expecting the worst. But it shouldn’t be that bad, I’ve lived in much worse conditions before – spent 3 days on a small dingy boat, 4 people in 1 super small dorm, with a tiny smelly bathroom and toilet with a broken flush.
This is the last week in Hangzhou; not very sad to leave actually. Looking forward to a week of no classes and relaxing. The past four weeks have been very blessed and eventful. Really need to thank God for all His protection and providence! Personally I’m not someone who gets attached to anything easily, so I don’t find it hard to leave a place, whether it be my home or anywhere else. My dream is to travel the world while I’m still young; to go to new places, meet new people, experience God’s amazing creations. The places I want to visit the most is Europe. Normally when I go on holiday, it would be back to China. So to me, China is nothing new, nor exciting. But this time it’s different, because I’m here with friends. The thing that struck me the most is Hangzhou is a considerably clean and very tourist friendly city.
I’ve learnt to write quite a lot of characters in the last 4 weeks. On average we learn and memorise 100 new characters each week and also have weekly dictation tests. There is homework every single day pretty much, so I’m kinda sick of chinese for now. I’ve never had this many proper chinese lessons in my life!
One of the highlights of the four weeks was our day trip to Shanghai. The train ride only takes 45 minutes. We walked down Nanjing Street, shopped around, went to Wai Tan and visited the underground tunnel that stretches across the river. Exited on the other side of the riverbank (where Dong Fang Ming Zhu is situated). However we didn’t go up the tower. Thus just went back through the tunnel; there were three exibitions inside the tunnel: polar, ancient tomb and aquarium. Bought some souveniers. Rested at Costa coffee for a bit. Then headed back to the train. Nearly missed the train because we stopped for a snack on the way! It was very stressful! But thank God we made it just in time!
I think in these four weeks I’ve become a lot more independent. We have to do everything ourselves; like going to the bank, post office, buy train tickets etc. Usually when I’m in China, other people would do all that kind of stuff for me. So it’s been a good experience just travelling around without family/relatives and conversing in chinese about everyday things. I’ve grown to understand more about the ways of life in China and how to get around on trains.
The closing ceremony was very formal and grand. I was greatly surprised when my name was called out for the scholarship award. I don’t know what I did to deserve that award but I’m very thankful nevertheless. All the class performances were very well prepared, especially the advance class. My class didn't present anything because there were only 4 of us. It was really encouraging to see that every person on the tour was serious about learning chinese. We are all here for the same purpose.
So far we’ve eaten quite a few different cuisines; namely: Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Western. Surprisingly I’ve eaten quite a lot of western fast food (Mcdonalds, KFC, Pizza) recently, more than I’ve eaten the whole year! Normally I don’t eat fast food if given a choice – many of my friends call me a health freak – but because everything in China is asian, I get random fast food cravings. Back in Perth I stay away from fast food up to the point that when I go to Mcdonalds (if ever), I would order a meal with salad. On top of that, I haven’t eaten KFC in years; well that is, until now.
The Chinese food in China is obviously very different to the Chinese food found in Perth. In Perth, the Chinese restaurants modify their dishes to make them suit western taste buds. I rarely eat Chinese food outside unless it’s with parents. The food in Hangzhou is very salty and oily, I think they put a lot of msg in the dishes. So eating out 3 meals a day is definitely not good for my health. Can’t wait for some good home made food when I go back to Nanjing next week! Surprisingly the food in hangzhou isn’t very spicy. Maybe I’m surprised because the last time I spent 1 month in China I was in Chongqing – famous for it’s spicy food and hotpot.
The best meal I’ve had in Hangzhou has to be the lunch at Angelo’s. We found it by complete chance actually. Since I read about the restaurant in the city guide we were given at the start of the study tour, we decided to try it out. We ordered Spaghetti Bolognaise, Spaghetti Carbonara and Peking Duck Pizza. It was a really nice restaurant (quite pricey though), excellent service, and the Pecking Duck Pizza tasted exactly like Peking Duck! It was very very tasty (: Really looking forward to trying the Peking Duck in Beijing!
I’m a big fan of anything flour. For example, Xiao Long Bao, Guo Tie (fried dumplings), dumplings, buns, wontons, all sorts of noodles. I could eat floury foods 3 meals a day, for many consecutive days. So one thing I really like about Hangzhou and China in general are the number of Xiao Chi Dian (small eateries) that can be found all around the city! And not only do they have quite a lot of variety of foods, the prices are also super cheap! It seems like Niu Rou (beef) dishes are very popular in China. Many beef dishes are offered, inlcuding: Niu Rou Fen Si Tang (beef vermicelli soup), Hong Shao Niu Rou Mian (roast beef noodles), Niu Rou Guo Tie (fried beef dumplings). On the other hand, pork dishes don’t seem to be as popular.
The cuisine we’ve eaten the most (other than chinese) has to be Korean. There are a few Korean restaurants just outside the campus so it’s very convenient. We eat Korean nearly every other day, I swear the people there recognise us already. Wai Po Jia is the best Chinese restaurant we’ve eaten at. Overall the foods here have been pretty good, considering the amount of money we pay.
The second week passed faster than the first. This is probably due to getting used to the hang of things. An average week day looks like this: simple breakfast, morning class, rest, lunch, hang around uni/do homework, dinner, rest, watch tv, sleep. Weekends are usually filled with shopping in the city centre. Found a mall with many small nice shops along Yan An Road so have been going there most of the time. The clothes, accessories and shoes there are all so cheap! (Well after bargaining ofcourse). Managed to find the Wu Shan night market on Friday night. It was completely packed with people. There were many little stalls with accessories, clothes, shoes, makeup. It was really hard to browse the stalls because there were just too many people! We were literally shoving our way through the crowd. It was a good experience though, I bought a few accessories and 2 pairs of nerd glasses (big glasses with no lens), and ate takoyaki (japanese octopus balls).
The one thing that I’m still in awe of are the drivers on the road! They are crazy, and crazily good! I could never drive in China! While in the taxi on the way to the night market on friday night, I literally thought I was going to die (multiple times). The driver had his window wound down all the way, so wind was blowing in my face. He was speeding and making sharp turns and breaks /: It was very very scary. But thank God we are all alive. And crossing the road is another very scary thing. The chinese people just cross as if there are no cars. I’m surprised there are very few accidents considering the amount of people, cars and bicycles on the road. All I can say is, chinese drivers have very fast reaction, and are good at cutting in.
I bought clip-on hair extensions last week hoping that I’d be able to go to a hairdresser, get them trimmed and fitted nicely onto my hair. However went to the hairdresser on Friday afternoon and the end result just didn’t turn out right /: The extensions were much thinner than my real hair volume so they looked very fake ): In the end got my hair and the extensions permed instead. The perm actually turned out very nice; hair extensions still look very fake, even after being curled so I think I’ll give up wearing them. Maybe can wear them after my hair grows longer.
Overall it’s been another very good week. My cold has nearly fully recovered, thank God for that (: The weather seems to be getting colder so I think I need to get some thicker clothes. Went to Walmart on Thursday and found a very nice stationary/accessories shop in the same shopping mall. We spent an hour in there and bought many many things. Everything was so cute and cheap! Ahhh that’s the good thing about coming to China :D but the only problem is, how to bring everything back?!
The first week has passed quite slowly. This usually happens when I do a lot of things every day, especially on holidays. Most of the week was filled with chinese classes (obviously) and sorting out sim cards, bank cards, internet – general settling down/admin things. Been eating out every meal and right now I’m craving some homemade food! We’ve mainly been eating Hangzhou xiao chi – noodles, buns, dumplings; and Korean food, since there are quite a few Korean restaurants outside the campus, not to mention the really cheap prices! Walked past a couple of Japanese restuarants that had conveyor belts, so hoping to try them out soon. One night me and my friends were just so sick of asian food, we went especially to McDonalds to grab some burgers! It felt good, however the burgers were also ‘asianized’.
The biggest surprise so far was being put into a chinese class with the long term students. On this trip I expected to meet many students from Australia but since me and two friends were put into the long term students’ class, instead we’ve met students from all over the world: Korea, Japan, England, Italy to name a few. It’s been a good experience and I believe I will learn a lot on this trip. I was also surprised that chinese class had 4 text books. There are different books for writing, reading, grammar and speaking. The chinese we learn is a good level and I’m hoping to learn to write many characters and improve on essay writing.
I have 4 8am starts a week; so it’s been a struggle to get out of bed every morning but I think I will get used to it very soon. Most students are late to class since starting times are so early. Time actually passes very fast in class and before you know it, it’s lunch time already. Therefore I must say I do like the lesson structures at the international college. The teaching is very different to Australia because I haven’t learnt chinese characters and grammar since primary school. It’s good to focus on the foundations once again and build upon them, not the other way around.
Clothes in Hangzhou are so cheap compared with elsewhere in China! Today I found out this was because Hangzhou is one of the commodity manufacturing cities in China. I knew Yi Wu was in Zhejiang but cheap clothes and Hangzhou didn’t click. So far I’ve been shopping 2 times. Bought quite a lot of things already and still plan to shop every weekend (: Not sure how I’m going to fit everything in my luggage haha.
Took a walk across West Lake on Thursday afternoon. There’s a courseway that connects the south end of the lake to the north end. It took more than an hour to walk across but was worth it because the scenery was very beautiful, especially the autumn leaves on the trees that expand the entire walk. We didn’t visit any tourist attractions because they all required tickets.