The past four weeks in Beijing have been absolutely amazing! I’ve enjoyed pretty much every part of it: sightseeing, eating, classes, shopping. I’ve never been to Beijing before and was very excited to come to the ‘Captial’. Indeed Beijing met my expectations, although one thing I regret is not eating at nicer restaurants more.
If I have to say what was not so good, there were two main things. One: the dormitory bathroom; Our drain kept clogging up and one time it flooded half our room. We had to soak the water up with toilet paper and mop the floor multiple times. It was pretty gross. Two: sickness; normally people would get colds or flus during winter, but I twisted my foot instead. I think the reason why I didn’t get the cold is because I’d already caught it in Hangzhou, so my body was a bit more immune to it. I’m normally very vunerable to colds and flus. I also got mild food poisoning during the trip and that wasn’t too great.
However, even though these mishaps happened, I’m still thankful that they did happen because I managed to rest up and get a lot of time to myself. Otherwise we would be going out everyday, and not having time to chill and just relax. Read quite a bit during the week I was unable to walk. It was really good just having quality time to myself, after one and a half months.
I find Beijing people more friendly than Hangzhou people. Especially taxi drivers. In Hangzhou you had to ask the taxi driver to come down and help you with luggage. The Beijing drivers did it very willingly and without being asked! On the day we left Beijing, we were looking for a taxi to go to the airport (obviously), the place we stay is not on the main road so it is a bit hard to get taxis there. Nevertheless we waited because our luggage was too heavy for us to walk far. After several taxis driving past but already with passengers, I was starting to get a bit worried, so I prayed. Straight away, an empty taxi comes along, the driver winds down the window and says, ‘I’m only going to the airport’. Woah thank God! The driver even let all three of us on, including our luggages. He was super friendly too (: What a blessing (:
I’ll definitely come back to Beijing again. Either for work or holiday. There are many more places I want to visit in Beijing. When I told my mum I didn’t go to the Great Wall due to twisting my foot, she said, “it’s ok, next time we’ll go together”, because she’s never been to Beijing before. I was quite touched when she said that. The sky in Beijing is surprisingly very blue, compared with the amount of cars and pollution in the city. If I live in China in the future, I’ll definitely take public transport everywhere. Think I’ll kill myself if I drive.
The food in Beijing has been very good so far, despite mild food poisoning last week. Went to a famous roast duck place called Quan Je De in Wang Fu Jin last week. It was quite pricey and we didn’t think it was worth the money we paid. We managed to eat one whole duck amongst the three of us! We ate so much duck that we did not want to see roast duck ever again. The food wasn’t as good as I expected, and will probably not go there again. I’m sure there are other roast duck restaurants that have just as good food for a fraction of the price.
One thing that really struke me was the amount of fast food places around the city. They are literally everywhere.. McDonalds, KFC, Yoshinoya, 真功夫, food courts, and many other small eaterys that offer set fast food meals that come with rice, meat dish and soup. I guess this is because of the fast pace living style of Beijing people. Everything needs to be quick, including food. I’ve eaten so much fast food in the past 6 weeks it’s not funny. I’ve never eaten this much fast food in my life! There’s not much choice around the institution, most resturants are fast food ones. But I have to admit, china KFC tastes really good haha. The chicken’s not as oily as Australia.
I don’t have a favourite restraurant yet but I do like the soup hor fan dish at the small eatery around the corner from the institution. I find Beijing food not as salty as Hangzhou food. Feel like eating 麻辣烫 and 冰糖葫芦 sometime. The worst dish I’ve eaten so far has to be ‘spaghetti bolognaise with sausages’ at a nice looking cafe. The noodles they used was definitely not spaghetti and the sauce was something like soy sauce.. The dish was quite horrible and I reminded myself not to eat italian food in china again. Really want some good western food right now.
A large difference between Hangzhou and Beijing food is the size of the dishes. Beijing dishes are generally a lot bigger than Hangzhou dishes. And the price around the same. It still irritates me when people smoke in restaurants. Even if there is a no smoking sign, people still smoke. Some people can even smoke and eat at the same time!
I’m glad this field study is during winter, because in winter, people generally have a better appetite, including myself. So that means I can eat and enjoy more food (: I love eating. I eat practically anything, apart from dog, donkey, turtle etc. I’m also not a very picky person, so I enjoy good food even more. China has never given me the impression of having very tasty food, maybe because I eat chinese food everyday. But I’ve always loved the roadside stuff, and thngs on sticks, especially fish balls. It seems like Beijing doesn’t really sell fish balls on sticks, unlike the southern parts of China. Hoping to eat more authentic Beijing food before I leave!
Studying in Beijing has been pretty good so far. I’m in the E class, just one class below native level. Our class has seven people and our chinese levels differ a bit. I’m finding the course quite easy but enjoyable at the same time. We have two teachers; 于老师teaches writing and reading and 刘老师teaches speaking and listening. We read articles and summarise paragraphs in writing, which I find very interesting. We also learn to convert 口语into 书面语. In listening and speaking we watch short clips and summarise them. I wanted to learn how to write essays but unfortunately it wasn't part of the course. But that’s ok because I’ve learnt how to write many characters. I’ve always been troubled that I can’t write half the words I can read. Actually I think I can write even less than half.
The teaching style in Beijing is a lot more laid back than Hangzhou. We don’t have as much homework and because of the smaller number of students in class, we all get more opportunities to speak and answer questions. The things we learn in Beijing are more hands on and applicable to daily life. The teachers adjust the teaching material as the lesson progresses and to suit our needs. Our teachers are very helpful and present the lessons in a fun way so that we not only learn chinese, but also enjoy ourselves. I know our teachers try very hard to accommodate everyone in class because of the difference in our chinese levels. They are both wonderful and enthusiastic teachers and I’m very glad to be in their class.
One unfortunate thing about Beijing is that there aren’t many nice places to eat at around the institution. Whereas in Hangzhou there are a few nice restuarants and cafes just down the road. And because of the super cold weather in Beijing, we don’t like to walk far for dinner. So normally we just end up eating at the small eatery around the corner. But the good thing about Beijing is, the metro is very near and very convenient. It can take you anywhere in Beijing and only costs 2 yuan no matter how far and how many interchanges you make. It is also very fast and efficient compared to travelling by bus or car because the traffic in Beijing is horrible as there are constant jams around the city due to too many vehicles.
So far the experience in Beijing has been very good, despite the twisted foot and mild food poisoning. Hoping to travel more around the city in the next few weeks, and do a bit more shopping and eating. Beijing is so big and there are so many places to see! Went to art district 798, Forbidden City, Tian An Men Square and Wang Fu Jin this week. Planning to do some shopping at Xi Dan Da Yue Cheng and visit the zoo sometime next week.