Tag: Beijing

七月是我在中国的最后一个月，趁离开中国之前，我有机会在内蒙古跟一些朋友们去旅游了一趟。内蒙古是一个很大的自治区，而且因为人口比较少，交通系统不是特别发达，我的朋友们只有周末有空，因此我们只能去呼和浩特附近的一些地方。我们去的地方是鄂尔多斯市，那边最有名的景区是成吉思汗陵。成吉思汗陵很有意思，是一个去谒陵成吉思汗的地方，而且那边有些元代的东西。
当天晚上我们去了东胜区的一家烧烤店，那个饭馆的烧烤是我人生中吃到的最好吃的烧烤，尤其是他们那边的羊肉串儿。我们吃完晚饭以后去了一个很潮的小酒吧。这个酒吧的老板们都是嘻哈人，他们的风格跟美国的嘻哈文化很类似，我感觉在这么偏僻的地方能找到嘻哈文化是件很酷的事情。
第二天我们在回呼和浩特之前，去了一个地方叫响沙湾。响沙湾是个沙漠休闲景区。响沙湾景区很好玩儿，在那里可以体验到美丽广阔的沙漠。响沙湾也有很多不同的活动可以参加，比如说，骑骆驼、看民族艺术表演、坐过山车等等。内蒙古的骆驼很可爱，它们是双峰骆驼，骑这种骆驼很舒服。我们在响沙湾玩儿了一整天，直到响沙湾景区下班的时候我们才离开，然后我们回了呼和浩特。这次旅行虽然很短暂，但是我们玩儿的很好。希望未来有机会能去中国的更多地方旅游。

As August was my last month in China, I took advantage of my free time to go travelling for a few friends in Inner Mongolia. Inner Mongolia is a huge region and its population is relatively small. The transport network there isn’t particularly developed, so as we only had a weekend to travel, we could only visit some places nearby to Hohhot. We visited a city called Ordos, which is the location of the famous Genghis Khan’s Mausoleum. Genghis Khan’s Mausoleum is very interesting, it’s a primarily for paying respect to Genghis Khan, but also includes a collection of artifacts from the Yuan Dynasty.
In the evening of the first day, we went to Chinese barbecue restaurant in Ordos’s Dongsheng district. The barbecue at this restaurant was the best I’d ever had, especially the mutton kebabs. After dinner we went to a very trendy bar, owned by two rappers. The bar owners had a dress style very similar to classic American hip hop artists, I thought it was pretty cool to find hip hop culture in such a remote destination.
On the second day, before returning to Hohhot, we visited a place called Xiangshawan. Xiangshawan is a leisure resort located within a sandy desert. It was a lot of fun to experience the beauty and vastness of the desert there (despite being in a leisure resort). The resort also offered many entertainment activities, for example, camel riding, ethnic dance performance, rollercoasters etc. Inner Mongolia’s camels are very cute, they are two-humped camels which are very comfortable to ride. We stayed at Xiangshawan for a whole day, heading back to Hohhot after it closed. This trip was very short, but we had a lot of fun. I hope in the future I can return to China to do more extensive travelling.

At the end of June my Chinese course concluded and two weeks later I officially graduated from Beihang University. In addition to passing my university exams, I also recently passed the HSK 6 exam, which is the most advanced level of official Chinese exams for foreigners (comparable to the IELTS exam for english learners). Although I’ll miss attending daily Chinese classes, I’m also excited for the next stage of my life and I’m pleased with the progress I’ve made in learning Chinese over the past year. At the same time, I hope to continue improving my Chinese in the future and rather than not studying because I’m too busy with other commitments.

Having already graduated, I had some time in July to go travelling. Recently, I visited Suzhou, which is an ancient city near to Shanghai. Suzhou’s most famous tourist spots are its classical landscape gardens. The gardens I visited are the Humble Administrator’s Garden, the Lion Grove Garden and the Lingering Garden. These gardens are all exquisitely designed and very beautiful, walking through the gardens is very relaxing and a good way to experience China’s rich and ancient culture.

My favourite activity in Suzhou was going to watch pingtan one evening. Pingtan is a type of traditional folk music from Suzhou. I first became interested in Pingtan after watching a TV drama (都挺好）in which the main character often goes to watch Pingtan in a teahouse. After watching this show I was very keen to experience pingtan myself. Pingtan usually features two singers, the singer on the left hand side also plays a sanxian (a type of three stringed plucked instrument) and the singer on the right plays a pipa (a Chinese lute). The two performers sing and play together, with the songs mainly about ancient love stories and other folk legends. Pingtan is sung in the Suzhou dialect, which sounds very different to Mandarin Chinese, but although most people can’t understand the lyrics of pingtan, people still like to listen anyway.

The last place I visited in Suzhou was Suzhou museum. Suzhou museum is located in a very interesting building that was designed by the famous architect I.M. Pei. The museum design is a fusion of modern and ancient architecture together with Suzhou’s traditional landscape garden architecture. The museums holds a large collection of rare items, including many items from Wu State. Wu State is an ancient kingdom (existing from around the 12th century BC to 473 BC). It was located in the Suzhou area. Wu State had a very rich culture, which greatly influenced later culture in Suzhou. I think it was a great choice to visit the museum last, because having already visited a range of historical sites, I already had some awareness of the history and culture when I visited the museum, which allowed me to appreciate the design and contents of the museum better.

六月底我的中文课程结束了。除了通过我的大学北航的中文期末考试，我最近也通过了HSK六级（可以说是中国的雅思)，六级是最高级的中文水平。即使我将来可能会想念每天上中文课的日子，我也为开始我下面的人生阶段而感到兴奋，而且我对自己这一年来的中文水平的进步很满意。与此同时，我希望我将来还能一直继续提高我的中文水平，而不是因为太忙而不继续学习中文。

因为已经毕业了，所以七月份我有了时间出去旅游一下。我最近到苏州去了，苏州是一个离上海很近的古老城市。苏州最有名的地方是其诸多苏州园林。我去的一些园林是拙政园、狮子林和留园，这些园林都是设计得很精致而且特别美丽的地方，在那边走走感觉很轻松，也能感受到中国丰富悠久的历史。

我在苏州的时候最喜欢的一项活动就是我到一个茶馆去听了评弹。我第一次了解评弹是因为电视剧《都挺好》里的苏大强经常去茶馆听评弹，我当时就很想去听评弹。评弹是一种传统的苏州民间音乐。弹词一般两人说唱，上手持三弦，下手抱琵琶，自弹自唱，内容多为儿女情长的传奇小说和民间故事。评弹的歌词大部分是苏州话，听起来跟普通话非常不一样。虽然大部分的人听不懂评弹的故事，但却因为苏州话很好听，人们还是喜欢去听。这让我不禁感叹中国各地的方言的复杂性。

我在苏州去的最后一个地方是苏州博物馆。苏州博物馆是一栋特别有意思的建筑，是著名建筑师贝聿铭设计的，是集现代化馆舍建筑、古建筑与创新山水园林的综合性博物馆。在苏州博物馆里有很多珍贵的东西，包括很多来自吴国的藏品。吴国是一个古老的国家（约公元前12世纪―公元前473年），大概位于中国苏州那一带，吴国有很丰富的文化内涵，而且吴国文化对后来的苏州文化的影响重大。我觉得最后去苏州博物馆是个很好的选择，因为我已经去过很多景区，了解了苏州的文化与历史，所以我去苏州博物馆的时候具备了一些对苏州文化的知识，因此在逛博物馆的时候更能感受到到苏州文化的美丽底蕴。

我上个月去了北京的一家朝鲜饭馆。这家饭馆在望京，叫玉流馆。因为欧洲没有朝鲜饭馆，所以我去玉流馆之前没吃过朝鲜料理，因此我听说北京有一家朝鲜饭馆以后就决定一定要去那儿尝一尝炒咸菜。其实，我想去玉流馆不只是因为想尝尝朝鲜料理，而是因为我对朝鲜这个国家很好奇。朝鲜是个很神秘的国家，平时只能靠看新闻报道的猜测来了解这个国家的情况，连一个朝鲜人我都没遇到过，所以我以为去一个朝鲜饭馆是个很好的机会来了解一下朝鲜的文化。

周六晚上我跟一些朋友到了玉流馆。玉流馆是一个比较大的餐厅，里面的装饰比较豪华，在那儿吃饭让我感到一种仪式感。我的朋友说玉流馆有点像一家中国八九十年代的人民饭店这样的地方。所有的服务员都是朝鲜人，但是他们的中文说得相当流利，水平比我好多了。我们吃得料理跟韩国料理很类似，有很多海鲜和各种各样的泡菜。说实话我也不太了解韩国菜，所以不好说朝鲜和韩国菜的区别。不过顾名思义，平壤冷面肯定是朝鲜的一道地道菜，而且平壤冷面很好吃。

在玉流馆的一边有一个舞台。我听说在玉流馆平常可以看一些传统的朝鲜舞蹈或者表演。可惜的是，因为疫情的缘故，玉流馆暂时停止了演出，所以我们没有看到一场演出。话又说回来，我们在玉流馆里吃得很满足，而且体验了一下朝鲜的气氛，所以是个很好的经历。

A North Korean Experience in Beijing

Last month I visited a North Korean Restaurant in Beijing. The restaurant is located in Beijing’s Wangjing district, its called Yuliuguan. As far as I know the UK doesn’t have a North Korean restaurant, so I had never had the chance to eat North Korean cuisine before. Hence, when I heard that Beijing had a North Korean restaurant I knew I had to go and give it a try. As well as wanting to try North Korean food, I also wanted to go because I’m curious about North Korea. North Korea is a very mysterious country; usually we can only rely on the inferences of news reporters to understand the situation there. Having never even met a North Korean person before, I thought visiting the restaurant would be a good opportunity to experience North Korean culture in person.

On a Saturday night I headed to the restaurant with a few friends. Yuliuguan is located in a large dining hall with a plush but old fashioned decor, giving the place a ceremonial feel. One of my friends said that the restaurant reminded them of a typical “people’s restaurant” from 1980s China. The staff at the restaurant are all North Koreans but they speak fluent Chinese, certainly better than I do. The food we ate felt quite similar to South Korean cuisine, with a lot of seafood and all kinds of different Kimchi. As I’m no South Korean food expert, I can’t be sure of the exact differences between North Korean and South Korean food. However, we did eat Pyongyang noodles, which is a very tasty cold noodle soup dish unique to North Korea.

Located at one end of Yuliuguan’s dining hall is a large stage. I’ve heard that normally there are performances such as traditional dancing held there that patrons can watch while dining. Unfortunately, the performances were not running when we were there because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, we had a great evening at Yuliuguan and it was great to experience a slice of North Korean culture first hand.

因为五月一号是劳动节，在中国五月一号到五号是个公共假期。在这个月的博客我来写一写我五一假期过得怎么样。

我本来打算跟女朋到友去承德旅游。为了离开北京我先向我的大学北航申请了离京批准，结果我的学院院长说为了安全起见还是不要离京，所以我没法去，只能待在北京。虽然我有点儿失望还离不开北京，但是五一假期还是过得挺愉快。

假期第一天下午我和我女朋友到一个啤酒酒吧去了。这个酒吧挺有意思叫大跃，位于南锣鼓巷附近的豆角胡同。我很喜欢这个酒吧因为可以坐在外面，享受胡同的老北京氛围。我们约了另外一对儿跨国情侣一起去了酒吧，所以我们有很多共鸣的话题。那天我们聊的很开心，大跃的啤酒也很好喝。

第二天我待在了家里，因为那天特别热，一整天都不想出门。那天我为了练习中餐厨艺第一次试着做了红烧肉，而且做成功了，味道很地道，这让我感到很满足。第三天我继续在家里待着放松，那天我看了我的中文小说，晚上去了一个石板烤肉饭馆吃晚饭，是一家南城老字号，这家饭馆曾经上过北京电视台的美食频道，烤肉特别好吃。

第四天我跟一大批中国朋友们相约到香山爬山去了。跟我上次去香山不同，这次我们没有在香山公园里玩儿，而是通过香山的野路爬了山。在野路里，人很少，风景很美，而且感到很自由。我们在香山爬上爬下大概5个小时，和中国朋友们出去玩儿对我提高口语有很大的帮助，我们玩儿得很开心。那时在香山开满了槐花，闻起来很香，一些朋友在山上摘了槐花回去做饭，听说槐花炒鸡蛋和槐花面都很好吃。那天晚上回来后我又在家里做了中餐，做的是麻婆豆腐和黑椒牛柳，也都比较成功，我觉得我的中餐厨艺水平又提高了很多。

第五天是假期最后的一天，因为前一天爬山很累，那天没精力出去玩儿，又在家里休息了，同时写了 我的中文课作业。在学习一段时间以后有五天的假期，实在是太棒了。我期待可以利用我在中国的剩下的时间进一步提高我的中文水平，同时可以感受更多中国文化。

Labour Day Holiday, China

May 1st is international Labour Day and in China there is a public holiday from May 1st to May 5th to celebrate it. For this month’s blog I’ll outline how I spent the holiday.

I had originally planned to travel to a nearby city called Chengde with my girlfriend Sargai. In order to leave Beijing, I first had to apply for my university’s permission (this has been their policy since the Covid-19 pandemic began). The university rejected my request as they believe it is still not safe to travel, so I had no choice but to stay in Beijing. Although I was pretty disappointed, the holiday was still a lot of fun.

On the first day in the afternoon I went to a bar with Sargai. The bar is called Great Leap, it’s a very nice bar located in the Dou Jiao hutong in Nan Luo GuXiang, which one of a small number of old neighbourhoods (hutongs) in Beijing made up of traditional Beijing houses. I really like this bar because it has outdoor seating where you can enjoy the old Beijing atmosphere. We were with another international couple, so we had a lot of common topics to talk about. We had a great afternoon drinking excellent beer.

It was very hot on the second day, such that I didn’t want to leave the house and spent the whole day indoors. In the evening I practiced my Chinese cooking, making red braised pork, which was a success as it tasted quite authentic. On the third day I also stayed at home and read a novel. In the evening I went out to a barbecue restaurant. The restaurant is a Nancheng “lao zi hao” (roughly meaning time honoured brand), famous for making an appearance on tv some time ago. The food was delicious.

On the fourth day I went hiking in the Fragrant Hills with a group of friends. Unlike last time I went to the Fragrant Hills, this time we didn’t walk in the national park, instead taking a ‘wild path’ outside of the park. On this path there were very few people and the views were beautiful. We walked for around five hours in total, it was great fun and a great opportunity to practice my spoken language with Chinese friends. Some friends were picking the flowers of the Chinese Scholartree (also known as the Japanese pagoda tree), which they were going to cook with eggs or noodles. That evening I again cooked Chinese cuisine, this time I tried Mapo Dofu and fried beef with black pepper sauce; my Chinese cooking improved greatly over this holiday.

I spent the last day at home relaxing and reading. It was great to have a holiday and a break from Chinese lessons and homework. I only have half a term left now of my course so hope to continue improving my understanding of the language and culture.

鉴于最近因为疫情的缘故我大部分的时候待在家里，在这个月的博客我要来介绍一下我看过的一些中文小说。

我现在最喜欢看的中国作家叫余华。我来中国以前已经看过他最有名的一本小说，《活着》。最近我也把《许三观卖血纪》和《兄弟》都看完。我喜欢余华的小说因为余华的笔凤很幽默，而且通过看他写的小说可以来更深理解新中国的历史。《活着》和《许三观卖血记》这两个故事都大概在六十年代和七十年代发生。这两个故事关于老百姓在这个多事的年头的经验，尤其是关于新中国的成立以及大革命对人民的影响。《兄弟》这个故事有两个部分。第一个部分也关于六十年代和七十年代的生活。跟其他的两本小说不同，《兄弟》的第二部分是在最近经济发展得很快的中国发生的。

三月份我也看了曹文轩的《草房子》。《草房子》是中国的一个非常有名的儿童小说。我听说大多数的中国孩子在学校学习这本小说。故事是关于在农村长大的一些孩子。即使《草房子》是个儿童小说，我也觉得这本小说的中文比余华的小说复杂一些，因为余华的笔凤比曹文轩直接。

除了上述介绍的经典小说以外，我也这年也看了一侦探小说，《圣女的救济》，作家东野圭吾。原来，这本小说是个日本的，但是在中国他的小说超级流行，所以他的小说也有中文版。我觉得这本小说很容易看，而且故事抓了我的注意力。因此我又买了作家东野圭吾的一本小说，而快要开始看。

Seeing as recently due to Covid-19 I’ve been spending most of my time at home, for this month’s blog entry I will introduce the Chinese language novels I have read (without giving away the plotlines).

Currently, my favourite Chinese author is called Yu Hua. Before I arrived in China, I’d already read his most famous novel To Live. Recently I also finished reading Chronicle of a Blood Merchant and Brothers. I like Yu Hua’s novels particularly because he has a very humorous writing style and through reading his novels gives a deep insight into the history of the People’s Republic of China. To Live and Chronicle of a Blood Merchant are both set around the 1960s and 1970s. Generally speaking, both stories are about the experiences of normal people during these tumultuous times of great changes in China, particularly the founding of the PRC and the influence of the Cultural Revolution. Brothers is divided into two parts, the first of which is also set during life in China in the 1960s and 1970s. Unlike the other two books, the second part of Brothers is set during the more recent rapid economic development that has occurred in China.

Last March I also read The Grass House by Cao Wenxuan. The Grass House is a very famous children’s book in China. I have heard that most children here study this book in school. It tells the story of several children growing up in a village during the 1970s. Although the book was written for children, I found the level of Chinese slightly more difficult than that of Yu Hua’s novels. This is because Yu Hua has a more direct writing style compared to Cao Wenxuan.

In addition to the modern classics described above, this year I also read a detective novel called Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino. This book was originally written in Japanese, but as Keigo Higashino’s novels are extremely popular in China I was able to buy a Chinese edition here. I found this book fairly easy to read and the story very gripping. My friend recently bought my another one by the same author (as well as yet another Yu Hua novel), so I’m looking forward to starting that soon.