Last weekend I went skiing. My housemate had invited me to go with his friends. We went to a place called Chongli by a city called Zhangjiakou, which will host some of the 2022 Winter Olympics. On Friday evening we took the bus to Chongli. At around midnight we arrived and went straight to collect our rented ski clothes and equipment, before heading to the hotel to sleep.
On Saturday morning we ate breakfast at 7 in the morning and then started the first day of skiing. As I’d only been skiing once before and that was more than ten years ago, I first went to the beginner slope to practice my skiing. After around half a day, I was surprised to find that I was able to ski at the level I had reached before, so I went and joined my friends for the rest of the day. That afternoon was a great afternoon of skiing. In the evening, the whole group of around 20 people went out for dinner. Everyone was very friendly and made me feel very welcome. It was a great evening and an excellent chance to practice my spoken Chinese.
On Sunday morning we again had breakfast at 7 before heading to the slopes. We spent most of that day on the black slopes. By the end of the day we’d almost skied down all the blacks at Chongli. After the skiing ended I felt exhausted, especially because earlier on I crashed and hit my head hard on the ground. But it was a great day, I felt very satisfied with my skiing and I was already thinking of returning to Chongli when I have another opportunity.
At the start of November my girlfriend and I went to Shanghai for a short break. We took the high-speed train, China’s fastest type of train. It only took 5 hours to travel from Beijing to Shanghai. Compared to Beijing, Shanghai’s weather was very warm, which made a nice change. In Shanghai we visited several famous sights including Shanghai’s Old Town, Yu Garden, and the Bund. We also went to a collection of streets called Tianzifang, which I especially liked. Tianzifang’s streets are lined with Shikumen style buildings, which is a traditional style of Shanghai architecture which features courtyard houses with large stone gates. Nowadays Tianzifang’s old houses have been converted into small shops selling all kinds of arts and crafts, clothes shops, small restaurants and bars. In this area there was also a large selection of xiaolongbao available including a very tasty crab soup dumpling. We stayed in Tianzifang all afternoon and evening, ending up in the bars drinking beer and gin and tonics.
On returning to Beijing I continued putting all my energy into studying Chinese. At the end of the month I took part in a movie dubbing competition. For this competition I had to choose a scene to dub from a Chinese film. I chose the film Hero, which is in part about the first emperor of the Qin dynasty, Qin Shi Huang. Through participating in the competition I learned many old Chinese words, as well as learning some Chinese history. The competition was a lot of fun, and I think it helped my Chinese not only through learning new words but also through studying closely the rhythm that the actors spoke with.
Recently I attended a Nadam celebration in Beijing. Nadam is one of the most important Mongolian festivals. Beijing’s Nadam celebration was held in the Central Minzu University of China (“Minzu” translates to ethnic minority). At this event I experienced many aspects of traditional Mongolian culture.
Mongolian wrestling
The festival began with the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony started with a dance performed by a group comprising one dancer from each of China’s ethnic groups. After this, there was a performance by a group of horse head instrument players who played some traditional Mongolian music. The horse head instrument is a string instrument with a head that has been carved in the shape of a horse head. I really enjoyed this performance and the sound of the instrument.
After the opening ceremony ended, we walked around the festival site and browsed the many small stalls selling Mongolian products. I tasted Mongolian cuisine including milk tea, steamed buns and mutton pasties. I also bought a pair of cashmere leggings made in Mongolia. I hope these can help me survive the freezing cold winter when I visit Inner Mongolia next year (I plan to go there during the new year).
For the last part of the Nadam celebration there was a Mongolian wrestling competition. Mongolian wrestling is a very distinctive sport. The goal is to force the opponent’s knees to touch the ground, after which he loses the match. In order to be successful, the wrestlers have to both have a lot of skill and be very strong.
It’s been 5 weeks since I arrived in Beijing and started a new adventure. I’m studying Chinese language at Beihang University in Beijing and I’ll be studying here for 11 months in total. I already really like the feel of the city. Beijing has a long history and there are many interesting places to visit. As a foodie, I’m also very happy to be surrounded by so many restaurants selling every type of Chinese food. The language course at Beihang is very good; the teachers are excellent, the course well organised and my classmates are very friendly. Beihang also has a beautiful and peaceful campus.
About a week after I arrived in Beijing, China celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival. During this festival it is customary to eat a special cake called mooncake. To celebrate the festival my girlfriend and I, in true Chinese style, went to Beihai park where we watched the moon and ate mooncake (and drank beer).
China also recently celebrated the 70th anniversary of the establishment of “new China” (i.e. the People’s Republic of China). Through being in Beijing during the festival I noticed the pride that Chinese people feel towards their country, with Chinese flags attached to shopfronts and vehicles all over Beijing and the sound of choirs singing “me and my country” floating across the city. Because of the festival I had a week’s holiday during which I visited the Great Wall of China and also went on a day out to Tianjin, both fun trips. Now the holiday has ended and I’m working hard on my Chinese. I hope I can continue to progress and write a better blog entry next time!
Not long ago I saw a notice from the Tsinghua University Ski Association in my dorm. Because I wanted to try skiing in China I signed up straight away. Furthermore I wanted to see how skiing here compared with skiing in Europe. That Friday after class, we took a bus to the Taiwoo ski resort in Chongli district, not far from Beijing.
When China hosts the 2022 Winter Olympics, all the skiing events will be held in Chongli district. Taiwoo ski resort has the largest vertical drop in Chongli, with the highest and lowest points 2160m and 1650m above sea level respectively. There are 10 pistes, with a total length of about 20km. Compared with the ski resorts in the Alps, in Taiwoo the vertical drop is much shorter, and the length of the pistes is much shorter, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t fun! And although skiing in China is relatively new, as the middle-class is growing, skiing is now very popular.
On the second day we started skiing. Because I have never been skiing outside Europe I was very excited. The feeling of being on the snow again was awesome, it really is one of my favourite hobbies! The weather was sunny, although terribly cold. The mountain is not as high as those in the Alps, but it was still minus 17 degrees! And although it was so cold here, it actually rarely snows, so the most surprising thing was that all the snow was man-made! How odd!
After skiing we all got together to eat hotpot, went to the sauna to warm up, and then sang some songs in a nearby bar. It really was a fun day!
After seventeen weeks, I’m finally on holiday. It’s now -5 degrees in Beijing, so people recommended that I go to somewhere warmer like Yunnan, Hong Kong or Macao. But instead I decided to go somewhere even colder: Harbin! I decided to go because from December through to February each year Harbin hosts the International Snow and Ice Festival, which is one the best and most famous tourist attractions in China.
Harbin has an tumultuous history. Before 1896, it was just a small fishing village, but at the end of the 19th century, Russian workers started to build Trans-Siberian railway: Harbin’s railway connected Lake Baikal and Vladivostok. In 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, Harbin was the base for Russian military activities. Then in 1917, many Russians came to Harbin to escape the Russian Revolution, thus Harbin had the largest Russian population outside the Soviet Union at that time. Therefore, on the streets there are Russian-style buildings everywhere. For example, Saint Sophia’s Cathedral is the city’s biggest and most beautiful church: it’s dark green dome really is jaw-dropping! I could have quite easily be standing in Moscow! I also tried some Russian delicacies, like borsch, which was tasty.
Snow sculptures
Also, Harbin’s International Snow and Ice Festival is the word’s biggest Snow and Festival. In 1984, at the first festival, it only attracted Chinese tourists. But since then, it has become an international event, attracting people from all over the world. In 2018, 18 million people came to Harbin. The festival comprises of Sun Island and Snow and Ice World. Sun Island has various snow sculptures: despite their large size, they are nonetheless very intricate. As it became darker, I headed over to the Snow and Ice world which had full-size illuminated buildings, made up of 2-3 metre thick ice cubes cut directly from Songhua River. The buildings included temples, Big Ben and the Colosseum! Although it was bitterly cold, and so my phone quickly ran out of battery, I still managed to taken some photos: the contrast between the multi-coloured buildings and the black sky really was something special. But after two or three hours, having seen nearly all the sculptures, I really wanted to go back to the hotel: even wearing three jumpers, two jackets, and four pairs of jeans, I felt absolutely freezing.
The Unit 731 Mausoleum is the most pitiable attraction in Harbin. In WW2, Japanese soldiers carried out atrocious experiments: 3000 Chinese and enemy soldiers were guinea pigs for the experiments; they were deliberately infected with the plague, choler and anthrax. Some of the more horrific experiments include vivisection without anaesthesia. Seeing all the used medical equipment, the photos showing the prisoners with the awful symptoms as well as the accounts from the prisoners moved me greatly. But I also felt angry because I learned that very few Japanese generals and soldiers who carried out these experiments were brought to justice since the post-war American and Japanese governments made a secret deal whereby those Japanese involved got immunity in return for giving the US the results of their experiments.
Although this wasn’t my first Christmas away from England it was my first away from my family. It was also my first in a non-Christian country so I was interested to find out what it would be like. Although we were meant to have class, our teacher gave us permission to miss it for the day.
English Christmas Dinner
On Christmas morning, after waking up, some friends came to my room and we gave each other presents. I got a new white woollen jumper, a pair of black leather shoes and lots of small things (mainly food and drink). I gave my girlfriend a pretty red dress.
We then met with some other friends for brunch in the Hutongs by Gulou Dajie. Some people were wearing Christmas jumpers, others were wearing Christmas hats, I had both! The restaurant was quiet and a little empty. We were the only ones celebrating Christmas which seemed strange, but we put on some Christmas music to make the atmosphere more lively and festive! The food and drinks were very good.
Then we went to Beihai park, walked a little and went ice skating. They also had special bicycles that you could use on the ice, which were very fun!
Christmas Dinner
After that we took a taxi to Beijing’s Chaoyang District and had an English Christmas dinner. It had everything: roast turkey, roast potatoes, carrots, parsnips, Brussels Sprouts, sausages wrapped in bacon, cranberry sauce, gravy and even bread sauce! We also had a few glasses of mulled wine and a few bottles of red wine. After eating, I was stuffed, and had no room for Christmas pudding. It really was a wonderful feast. Afterwards we played some fun games and then went to a small bar nearby for a few more drinks before returning to the dorms!
As part of my undergraduate degree in Chinese Studies, I set off to Beijing in August 2017 to spend a year living and learning in China’s capital, enrolled in an exchange programme at Peking University.
This year has been a vital stage in the journey of my language learning and has offered me so many opportunities to improve my Mandarin that I would never have obtained back in a university classroom in the UK. The language programme I am taking at Peking University – conducted entirely in Mandarin – has been a fantastic way to systematically develop all four key language skills and I am very grateful to have had the chance to study with some excellent teachers at China’s top university. However, my language skills have come on the greatest through living in a Chinese-speaking environment and experiencing Chinese culture and society first-hand. Life in China has made me pay greater attention to Chinese film, politics and current affairs and I have enjoyed being able to discuss these topics with new Chinese friends.
I have also relished the opportunity to use my university holidays to travel widely around China and learn more about the great geographical and cultural diversity of the country. This has not only allowed me to practise speaking with locals but also hear a wide range of regional accents and dialects, vastly different to the Standard Mandarin I have previously encountered in class and Beijing. In my spare time in Beijing, I have used my time to take part in extracurricular activities at the university, do an internship at an international PR company and explore the many different areas of this exciting city, all of which have contributed to the improvement of my language skills and cultural understanding.
I would recommend studying abroad for anyone wishing to learn a language, or really anyone who wants to grow as a person and better understand our increasingly interconnected world. It has been a wonderful way to get outside my comfort zone and learn to understand a different language, culture and society from the inside.
I would like to extend my thanks to the John Speak Language Trust for the financial help to fund my time abroad and make my experience in China as enriching as it has been. I strongly believe the UK needs more people with a genuine understanding of a foreign language and culture and it is fantastic that this trust is helping to enable this.
After moving to China was the first time I started to pay attention to Chinese urban planning. The reason I have a deep interest in this topic is because I believe the structure of a city reflects a country’s political system and society, and it also influences the lifestyles and conditions of the city’s residents. In particular, in a country like China which has a massive population, the way the Chinese government designs the living environment for its residents is very important.
To alleviate the current problems of Beijing – such as extreme congestion, overcrowded subways and water shortages – the Chinese government is planning on building a new big city in Hebei Province called Xiong’an. This new district represents the new style of Chinese urban development. Xi Jinping hopes that before 2030, Xiong’an will become one of the emblems of his so-called ‘Chinese dream’. The city government of Xiong’an is making sustainable development one of its priorities: green spaces will make 70% of the city, and forests will cover up to over 40%. With no doubt, China is always associated with air pollution and industrialisation, so this type of green policy makes me feel very optimistic about China’s future. Moreover, the Chinese government hopes that Xiong’an will become the technology hub of China. For example, the city government of Xiong’an has already agreed with Baidu to run a driverless vehicle project, which shows that the China of the future will be very distinctive.
Although Beijing is an enormous city, going to different parts of the city is pretty convenient, as Beijing’s public transport system is very advanced. Also, you can find Beijing’s public bikes almost everywhere. Wherever you are, you can conveniently ride a bicycle to your next destination, which makes you feel very free. However, Beijing is still facing many different problems. In my opinion, the most significant problem is Beijing’s overpopulation. In the most recent 20 years, lots of people from the countryside have moved to Beijing to make a living.
If you ride the subway, you can clearly see that Beijing’s city government still has a long way to go before Beijing can truly become a wonderful city.
As I only have morning classes at university, after arriving in Beijing I decided I wanted to make the most of my free time to improve my knowledge of companies operating in China, as well to advance my future job opportunities. Therefore, last month I started to work at an international PR company. My team’s client is a very big Chinese technology company. As this company wants to do more business abroad, they also want to improve their public reputation. My current responsibilities include doing research into the field of technology, translation and editing tasks. In the office, 90% of the staff are Chinese and I am the only foreign intern! Consequently, everyday lots of people ask for my help to improve the language of their English documents. This has helped me to better understand the differences between Chinese and English. This internship has also been me a valuable opportunity to learn things I would never learn at university. For example, it was only after starting my internship that I realised how advanced the technology of Chinese companies has become. These companies are some of the world leading companies in the fields of artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles. This internship has also given me lots of opportunities to practise my Chinese. When I am doing research, I need to use Chinese language materials, such as newspaper articles and reports, to supplement English language materials and allow me to fully understand the topic that I am researching. Furthermore, although I am interning at an international company, I usually use Chinese to communicate with my colleagues. When I go to eat lunch with my fellow interns, we will talk about a wide variety of topics, which helps me to better understand the lives of Chinese students.
Last week, I attended my work’s Christmas party. After eating a delicious dinner, each team had to put on a different performance for everyone. I participated in two different performances: in the first I sang a Christmas song with one of my colleagues and the second was a play. My character was Guan Yu, from the Chinese classic novel ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’. He is a very ferocious character, which didn’t really suit my personality!
Overall, this internship is a great opportunity to experience the life of an office worker in China, and help me to consider what I want to do after I graduate, in particular how I can find a job related to China.
