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December

Christmas in China isn’t traditionally celebrated but more and more young Chinese celebrate the occasion for the gifts and ‘togetherness’ it brings them.

Class
Catriona and our fellow UK friends introduce classmates to the meaning of Christmas, SWEETS! Lots and Lots and LOTS of Sweets!! =P The classes at BLCU and everywhere else around China still run during Christmas including Christmas Day! But not surprisingly, most people don’t go to the class (even the ones who don’t celebrate Christmas!).

Although it’s quite difficult to find Christmas-y Gifts and products , many department stores and restaurants are fully decorated with Christmas tree and Santa!

We fell in love with Beard Papa’s ‘Fondant au Chocolate’ and decided to hunt it down for Christmas =Pp

Christmas Eve Subway Crowd
Taking the subway on Christmas Eve was hectic because of the huge crowd! This photo is of the people lining up for the subway on the left, and people leaving the station (to transfer) on the right. Both are equally packed and has very little movement.

Mulled Wine!!
A very interesting way of drinking red wine introduced to us Aussies by our UK friends =Pp

Christmas Eve Service
Our candle lit Christmas Service led by Steph was like a very small version of Christmas by Candlelight =)

Desert!!
Just 20seconds in the microwave and you have the delicious Fondant au Chocolate!!!

Category: Events, Travelling in China Tags: beijing, beijing language and culture university, beijing student life, BLCU, christmas Leave a Comment

Goodbye Dalian, Goodbye my fishy friend…

December

Selina Lai

I took a weekend trip from Beijing to Dalian leaving Friday night and returning to Beijing on Saturday morning.

The two nights sleeping on the train (sleepers) turned out to be a lot more beneficial considering the train beds are much softer than the one I have in the dorms! The sleep wasn’t too bad because my bunk cubical for 6 didn’t have any extreme snorers or babies crying. The problem with the bunk bed would probably be that it’s much too narrow (roughly three A4 widths – refer to photo below), obviously they don’t cater for fat Chinese people…
10hr overnight train ride to Dalian

A weekend isn’t enough to really see what Dalian is all about, but it seems that my tour guide easily covered the non-nature-related-attractions … within one day!

I quite like living in a city, always bustling with people and being able to always have or find something to do. But when a city gets as big as Beijing, the magic just fades after a while. A city like Dalian reminds me a lot more of Perth;

Big town turned small city

There's still a whole lot of construction going on around Dalian

limited places to visit

Russian Street
Dalian Centenary Sculpture

Shops close too early

Shops in close earlier in Winter

The ocean and…

bj-dalian03

it’s own uniqueness (randomness)!

Dalian has many random sculptures!
Random Sites at Xinghai

How can you not love it?? =P

Don’t get me wrong, I think that Beijing isn’t too fantastic even though I love it here, I just don’t like the fact that staying here has made me lose interest in the culture as well as damaging to my health. Beijing is just getting less and less mysterious as each layer of paint goes on.

All for the preparation of the 2008 Olympics Games of course!

Anyhow, the stay in Dalian was a fantastic mini adventure, and it’s probably the only city in all of China I’ve beaten my mum to =P wOOt!

The train ride back to Beijing was a little more entertaining than the ride to Dalian because there was a WHITE person in my carriage! Most China people completely ignore me because I blend in well as a typical “China girl”, but when I struck up a conversation with my fellow English speaking friend, it was hard not to see those blatant stares.

So come Monday morning, after my hike from Beijing Central Station to Wudaokou (BLCU), the first thing that greets me back in my dorm room is my fishy friend looking VERY dead. I suspect Jinjin and Heihei had another one of their head-butting rounds which of course Jinjin, the one that eats the most, came out on top.

aHhh well, it was bound to happen sooner than later…

Category: Education, Travelling in China Tags: beijing, beijing language and culture university, beijing student life, BLCU, dalian Leave a Comment

Flushing Toilet in China

December

Selina Lai

There’s a notice on my dorm building (the main dorm for international students at BLCU) that told us that we won’t be having any HOT water for a week from 8am-6pm.

This is quite alright with me since I like having late showers anyway, but when I went to turn on the hot water (during the set time period), a stream of ugly brown sewer-like water came out!!! So, to my horror, I had to make do with an unsatisfying FREEZING COLD shower – and can I just add that it’s currently WINTER here and I’ve never experience below zero Celcius until now.

I suppose I should be happy it’s the HOT water that they’re fixing up and not the COLD water. It was already bad enough the last time we didn’t have cold water because that meant we didn’t actually have any flushing toilet water! I only discovered this fact when we had used up all the stored water in the toilet…

For those who may come across this problem, you might want to consider the following for flushing toilets:

Fill a large container (a medium sized pot will suffice) with water (assuming they only blocked the hot or cold water). If you don’t have either and you’re desperate, use drinking water.
Lift up the toilet seat to optimise the target area.
Position the container about 30cm from the toilet rim.
Pour in ALL the water at once into the toilet bowl. It’s important that there is a decent amount of water poured in all at once and also at a decent but steady speed to create the ‘flushing’ effect.
If the nasty stuff is still there, increase the amount of water and repeat with increased speed.
If it still doesn’t work, fill the toilet tank manually and then FLUSH!
If all else fails, call in a Fuyuan and bug the hell out of them until the toilet is fixed!

P.S. The toilet service man usually only comes in the evenings around 4pm. If your toilet was blocked the night before, you might want to consider hiding out in the many cafes around the Wudaokou area.

P.P.S. And please remember, learn from other peoples’ mistakes, no flushing toilet paper down china toilets (especially the ones with the sign). The toilet WILL clog!! (Squat Toilet Troubles)

Toilet

Let’s hope this dirty hot water incident is a once off. I might have to borrow someone else’s shower if it isn’t fixed!!

Category: BLCU, Education, Travelling in China Tags: BLCU, China 3 Comments

I really should study for that exam tomorrow…

November

Selina Lai

I’ve caught a cold.
There was no cold water in the building until 5pm and the fuyuans didn’t think it was that important to tell us this. Cold water also means no flushing toilet water!!
Catching a cold means lots of fluids and bed rest, and having no flush on the toilet isn’t really helping any.
One of my fish died… and it’s the one that I actually wanted to stay alive!
We had a great indoor picnic with some classmates. Real pasta by an Italian, real tomyum by a Thai and random stir-fry by two alcoholics.
The Tree should still be called Hidden Tree!!!
Red leaves at Xiangshan cannot be found from the top.
My classmates are so nice and sympathetic.
My roommate cooks lots of yummy food for me.
Exams are almost over!
Kai has cheap drinks and good music 25RMB for absinth?!

Category: BLCU, Education, Travelling in China Tags: beijing student life, BLCU Leave a Comment

Studying for that exam…

November

Selina Lai

All this cramming makes me think of anything but study! Here’s some random things to note:

Adam’s finally here in Beijing!!! =D But I have a few exams so I can’t just skip classes to hangout with him =(
The weather is FREEZING and they still haven’t turned on the heating. We were told that we have to wait until the 1st Nov or 15th Nov … And since I’m still freezing my ass, I’m guessing I’ll have to wait til the 15th =(
Hei and Jing keep head butting each other and they gobble up all the food I feed them so I’m sure one of them will die soon …
I accidentally bought a Japanese fighting fish…it refuses to eat because I can’t find any freaking bloodworms =(
We’re going to a Jap/Korean Halloween party Friday night to make up for the Halloween parties we missed on Wednesday night.
Roughly have plans to go Sunlitun to party with Adam…
I’m still looking into going to see Groove Coverage in Beijing this Dec!! Turns out my classmate’s bf is a huge fan ^_- I also found out that Linkin Park will be in Shanghai!!! But I’ll probably just stay in Bj
I haven’t seen my language partner for a week and I don’t plan on contacting her soon because she’ll make me feel guilty for being a bad student.
Tanya plans to get her language partner drunk, I think all our language partners should get drunk together for their ‘fist time’ =D
I bought the first 4 Harry Potter books. And I’m halfway through already!
My roommate has started to wake up at 6am everyday to study and I snooze a bit longer because it’s so freaking cold!
I’m really hating this dodgy China internet that keeps disconnecting me every 5mins!!!

Category: BLCU, Education, Travelling in China Tags: beijing student life, BLCU Leave a Comment

Family Reunion

October

Selina Lai

Beihai

My parents left to join in my grandfathers 80th birthday celebrations in KL already. In the short time they were in 北京 Beijing, we had the chance to go to 北海 Beihai, 西单 Xidan, 秀水街Xiushuijie, walk through 景山公园 Jingshan Park, drive around 故宫 Gugong,天安门 Tiananmen, 后海 Houhai, some 胡同 Hutongs, eat some yummy 北京烤鸭 Beijing Duck and saw my cutie nephew!!!!!

Beihai

Baby Arthur
Beijing Duck

It’s hard when one person wants to do the cultural site seeing thing and the other wants to just go shopping….
Forbidden City

Either way, that hotel bed was lovely to sleep on and the showerhead was to die for! I wasn’t too fond with the slow drainage and windowless curtains though. I stupidly walked from the new train station to their hotel on the first day thinking it wouldn’t be that far. Yes well, it wasn’t that far on the map…

The new subway Line 5 was pretty spiffy, their trains were upgraded (lights to show the progress, extra bars for people to hold on to, AC etc) and they also put in glass doors on the platforms which I thought was stupid because the train doesn’t actually line it’s doors with the platform doors when it stops. Anyways, they still have a long way to go before it can even be compared to HK.

So I gave my family a quick call on Saturday to say “Hi!” and “Happy Birthday” to my Grandfather. But it was so noisy I doubt they even heard me… I wish I had been there to see everyone and eat the wonderful banquet I’m sure they had =( Now I’ll just have to make do with the photos and videos…

Yesterday was apparently the Vietnamese Women’s Day! It’s the day where the guys will treat the girls like a queen by buying them flowers or a gift and doing the chores for them. We ended up having a yummy steamboat on the kitchen floor in dorm building 4 with a bunch of Vietnamese people. You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve met more Vietnamese people than local Chinese!

PS. I bought myself a couple of fishies (黑黑 and 金金)! I decided it was just too cruel to kill a turtle.

Category: BLCU, Education, Photo Blog, Travelling in China Tags: beijing student life, BLCU, China Leave a Comment