Study China photos

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Day 21 in China - the last day

This was my last day in Beijing, and we were the first group to leave. 

In the morning we had our final exam. “You now have 17 minutes to complete the reading/writing section” though it only took me about 30 seconds.

Then we had the closing speech. it was nice to have everybody from BNU who made the trip possible in one place - all of the teachers, lecturers and behind-the-scenes people. Fran gave a speech, and she captured it marvellously. 

“When we all get home to our families and our friends we know they’ll all be asking the dreaded question “so tell me all about it”. Now where on earth are you even meant to start answering this question?! So far the best response I have thought of is that there simply aren’t words – however I don’t think anyone will be satisfied with that.”

Day 20 in China

Last classes today! HSK level one test, mad panic trying to print our 20 page report for education, education presentations (which I managed to get out of!) and then home. Packing and lakers (just for one, not really feeling it!) and bed!

Yep, we totally didn't set fire to a 1p note

Day 18 in China

We had an early finish today to work on our group project for education, so we took the opportunity to visit the Lama temple, near the Confucius temple. It’s the first “practicing” temple I’ve been to and seen people worshiping, even if most of the monks were sitting around on their iPhones! 

Day 17 in China

This morning in Chinese language we had a "chopstick challenge", how many peanuts can you move from one pot to another in a minute. 20, 21, 16, then the teacher got 40. In our break I had a go and it seemed easy enough, so I had a proper go and got 28! Bossed it

After class we went back to the silk market. I was meant to get a dagger, but we always have to get the tube back, and they X-Ray your bags. Don't fancy being caught with a dagger on the tube!

In the evening, over 50 of us headed to a big american BBQ restaurant in San Li Tun. It was, unfortunately, something of a last supper. It was SO good. They had like 4 different BBQ sauces (Texas, Memphis, and two others) and BBQ vinegar, the lot. Proper American food…. not that I’m bored of Chinese food or anything! :-D

Day 16 in China

Tonight, finally, we hit a karaoke bar. 20 or 30 of us in a room (which cost like £2.70 to hire for 5 hours each) with fairly cheap drinks and a stupidly large number of pages of English karaoke songs at our disposal. I think I sang every song that came on for 5 hours!

It's crazy, the scale of karaoke in china. We had a massive sound system, flashy lights, waiter service, everything. It was a whole floor of a shopping mall!

I feel sorry for everyone who missed out!

Day 15 in China

After a well deserved lie in (last night was a heavy one!) we taxi'd to the summer palace, one of the "must visit" places in Beijing!

Day 14 in China, 2 weeks down!

Today was amazing! The 7am alarm was not appreciated, but at 8am we were on the bus on our way to the Great Wall of China! It took a while to get there, but it was well worth it.

I feel that pictures can describe it better than words…

Day 13 in China

Today we went to the Confucious Temple on an Education course visit. On our itinery it said “Imperial college” so were were all expecting to go to a modern college and speak to people etc. Not the case! This temple was built in 1302 as a monument of appreciation to Confucious, arguable the founder of teaching and education in the way that we experience it today!

Not gonna lie, I didn’t really understand a lot of it, especially why it was a temple, but people got lectured there by the emperor…

Either way, it looked nice!

Day 12

We had a free afternoon today so after a well-deserved nap, a few of us headed to “Tea Street”. 900 tea shops are supposedly on this one street and in the market at the end - absolutely bonkers. After a quick pace up and down the street, we gave in and went inside the market. Just to the right we found a little tea shop without a pushy owner, so we went in to try some tea. I never knew there were so many types! Red tea, green tea, black tea, fruit tea, and every kind of each of those! We must have had 2 or 3 small cups each of at least 10 different types of tea! I’m surprised at how much I like them, actually. I even bought some for myself! 

Day 11 in China

llness has started to catch up with me now, I’ve been suffering with a horrendous cold and cough, probably due to the smog and the lack of sleep!

We had our last lecture on Education today, finally! 2 hour lectures are extremely long and I’m glad I don’t have any of them!

Tonight we went to an acrobatics show. It was the most amazing performance I’ve ever seen - it followed a character (a clown) and he went through a game defeating the bosses to get the prizes. The stage was amazing (LED video backdrop and 6 LED video flats) but the performers themselves were amazing - I counted 9 people on a bicycle, and a guy juggled 11 balls. Crazy stuff!

Definitely going to see a chinese acrobatics show again in the future, I hope they are as good when they come to England!

Day 10 in China

This afternoon we had a Chinese calligraphy class. It’s difficult! The teacher seemed to find it so easy, yet when I did it the page was an absolute mess! Ah well, as long as my normal Chinese writing is legible! 

In the evening we went to the birds nest, the 2008 Olympic Stadium. It looked amazing at night, and even though we couldn’t go inside (what could there be to see in there anyway?) it was a nice walk and I’ve got some photos I’m really proud of!

Day 9 in China

Been really busy so I’m trying to catch up here!

In class today our teacher gave us all seals of our Chinese names in traditional Chinese seal script (they have different scripts, like we do fonts - separate letters and joined up writing sort of thing). That was really sweet of her, all the teachers and staff here are lovely and really seem to care about us all!

Monday night was Posh Alex’s birthday, so we all went to Lakers for a “standard night”, if ever there was one!

Day 8 in China

We entered proper tourist mode today. The plan was for 20 of us to taxi to the Forbidden City, walk through Tianenmen Square, walk through BeiHai part, and then go for tea in a proper chinese tea house. This morning, 3 of us got a taxi to the Forbidden City, 1 broke off so 2 of us went to Tianenmen Square together, then went to the Silk Road Shopping Centre. 

The Forbidden City is undewhelming, if I’m perfectly honest. I mean, it was nice, but there were too many people there, not enough to go into and do. The gardens at the end were the best bit!

Day 7 in China - 1 week down!

Today was the dreaded family visit! Feeling slightly queazy after the night before, we lined up outside LanHui to be assigned a family which we would spend the afternoon with.

We were assigned our family, a mother, a father and a son, a standard Chinese family, in a standard 4 room apartment just outside the city. The son, Jerry, was so funny. He was 5 years old, and fell asleep on Holly in the car on the way to the house. We went shopping together to a supermarket, which sound boring but really wasn’t! There was so many different fruits, the fish counter you get in England was replaced by a row of fish tanks with live fish and a slaughterer - you catch your fish, put it through this little hole in a window, like at the post office, and the angry looking Chinese woman kills it and skins it for you, ready to cook! The cooked meat section featured cooked chickens, complete with head and neck, and the frozen meat aisle included pigs heads and sword fish, like you get in those kung-fu video games. It would have been a great place for a fight! After that, we hit the cake shop, 

When we got back, the lady had already started cooking, and together we all made dumplings. Ours didn’t start out well, but got much better after about 10 or 15 each, we made so many! The array of food was interesting, chicken, beef, tofu and tomato, more chicken, spring onions and onions (sounds weird but was my favourite), bean juice, and of course, our home made dumplings! Then for dessert, all the fruit we’d bought. Pears, oranges, apples, dragon fruit, watermelon, mango, and strawberries. 

It was a really great experience, good for practising Chinese and interesting to learn about Chinese  food, family life and family relations, and we’ve been invited back next weekend!

Day 6 in China

Tonight was interesting, we went out for tea to Coffee Canada on campus and had chips and pizza, against our pact to exclusively eat Chinese food! 

After that, we all bussed out to a club on the other side of town, Club Latte. £5 entry for guys, and £5 for unlimited drinks. The club was above some really nice shops, there were super cars parked outside, and awesome lights and music in the club, which was lined with chandeliers and interesting relics. It sounds promising, but the place was packed! I enjoyed it, and there are loads of hilarious photos that will end up on Facebook once we get home! But, I don’t think you’ll find me in there again. It was a little shady, and we found out after being there that it’s actually on the US Embassy’s list of “places to never go under any circumstances”, though we all made it back unharmed!

Day 5 in China

Today was a rather chilled one, we again had Chinese language class, then a lecture on the education system, and then we all just headed back. Some of the group went to a Silk market, something I’d like to do, but last night I wasn’t up for it! We just stayed in the rooms chatting, and I was in bed by 11.30!

Day 4 in China

This was a long one, first proper Chinese classes from 9am, Tai Ji for 2 hours in the sweltering heat in the afternoon, and then a trip to see Beijing opera in the evening, followed by a mental night in a bar, definitely a story worth telling (though hopefully none of the Study China staff will see this one….)

I was a bit apprehensive about doing Tai Ji. Anyone that knows me will know that I’m not the most physically capable human being (my shoulders hurt just from typing this), so when the Tai Ji instructor said to stretch forward and I just managed to touch my shins, looking up and seeing his head on the floor between his feet was unsettling! However, it was nowhere near as bad as I had feared, and it was very relaxing, as I’ve heard it to be. Not something I plan to take up in the future, but definitely not something I’d avoid doing!

Day 3 in China

Today we had our opening ceremony, first Chinese classes and our first module class, and then a few of us went to the Temple of Heaven.

Although the 8.20am start for the opening ceremony was not the most pleasant thing I’ve experienced so far, I feel more sorry for the girls, some of whom woke up at 6am to get themselves ready! It was in a really snazzy lecture theatre, attended by very important people at the university, someone from the british council and of course all of us. We received an amazing welcome from our hosts, and their wishes of good luck were well received, these 9am starts are going to kill me!

Day 2 in China

Today was interesting! We had our introductory talk from our student adviser, followed by a tour of campus, then a 16 meal banquet, then a trip to HouHai to see the lakes! Very busy!

The campus here at Beijing Normal. University is MASSIVE! The library is humongous, the "main building"'s porch is the size of our university library (alright, maybe a slight exaggeration, but you get my point!).

The banquet was amazing. We had loads of different dishes, from crispy fired chicken to duck, and fish (with head on the plate) to spicy chili salad-type dishes!

HouHai is a spectacle. It’s almost touristy, but there were so many locals there too. It was also amazing that it cost on £2.20 to get to in a taxi! 

Day 1 in China

We finally arrived after 18 odd hours of travelling! Study China were there to meet us as we came out of the terminal. The bus to our dorm was daunting, it was a long journey around the outside of town, and has taught me never to bother trying to drive in China, I do value my life!

The dorm in which we're staying, Lan Hui Dorm, is nice. The showers are a bit temperamental, as I learnt very quickly, but it's big and open and we've all been out in the corridor getting to know each other - I think of the 84 people on the program, I've spoken to at least half already!

Today we we went for a few walks around campus (and off campus, but it's not that interesting unless you go quite a way, apparently!). I went with another guy to a canteen, and met too lovely students here who helped us buy food and explained to us what everything was. I had omelet(ish) and rice, and it cost 25p!

En route...

🎵 Woaaahhhh, we’re half way there…

nearly.

Chillin’ in Frankfurt airport at the minute, the flight from Manchester to Frankfurt went amazingly quickly, they only just managed to get sandwiches and drinks to everyone before we had to land again!

My culinary experience has already begun! Lufthansa’s sandwiches today were “Turkey salami”, definitely something I’ve never had before!

Must dash, have to work on my Chinese Culture essay, it has to be done!

Travelling to China

This time next week I'll be in Manchester getting ready to fly tomorrow! I'm really looking forward to it!

I've had my jabs, I've done a list of what I need to take, now I'm just counting down the days!