Whilst most of you back at home have probably already kicked your legs up and are busy attending Christmas parties, over here in China things are rather different. I am currently preparing for the last week of University before the long winter holiday (28th Dec - 3rd Mar) - and its no normal week by all means. As it happens, the Christmas festive period also coincides with the Chinese end of term exams!!
Panic!
After the initial panic a couple of months ago when we found out about this unfortunate coincidence, we were relieved to know that on the 24th and 25th of December we are allowed to take “Exam Leave”. So whilst we may still have to do some work during those two days off, at least we won’t be sitting in a classroom watching the hands on the clock slowly wind their way round to 12 o’clock. However, wednesday, thursday and friday are going to be choc-a-bloc with reading, speaking and written examinations, all of which contribute a large amount to our final mark - so it will be a huge relief when the 29th of December finally arrives.
Christmas Abroad
Whilst being half way around the globe in a country that doesn’t really celebrate Christmas obviously means that the festive season won’t be quite the same as it used to be (no family reunions, no meeting friends back from uni, no eating mince pies and drinking mulled wine), us Leeds students over here in China are still going to try and make the most of things. With this in mind I have kindly been invited around to some friends’ (rather lush) apartment on Christmas day for a secret santa and a Christmas dinner for the 10 of us. After hunting around in vain for frozen turkies in the supermarkets here, in the end, we decided to give up and instead contacted the nearby Shangrila hotel who said they would happily roast and deliver a 6kg turkey to our doorstep - in my opinion probably a lot less hassle! The rest is in our hands so I will be heading round to their apartment on Tuesday morning and lend a helping hand putting the rest of the banquet together. Of course, there will be plenty of wine glass chinking and merrymaking going on after I’m sure.
As for Christmas eve, I think its going to be a somewhat quieter one than the family gathering I’m used to - me and Siqi are planning to go and eat a spicy Chinese Hotpot and then maybe attend some carol singing and christmas festivities at Wangfujing. Whatever the case, I’ll try and take plenty of photos and get them up on Flickr by the end of the week.
Holiday Plans
As of the 29th of December I am completely free and have no study obligations whatsoever. My first objective is to move out of the Jasper Hotel (the student residence I am living in) into a rented apartment of my own. Hopefully I can get this out of the way quite quickly so I can get on with other things. Providing everything goes smoothly, I’ll have the photos of the new place up on here in two or three weeks time. After the move, I intend to go and do a spot of travelling. Whilst I had initially hoped to head to Japan and visit a fellow Leeds student who is currently in Tokyo studying Japanese, I later found out that our national holidays do not coincide and that he is no longer able to offer me some floor space in the Nippon capital so the plan has fallen through for the timebeing. Instead, I now intend to make a trip to Shanghai to have a look around and visit a friend who was studying at Leeds last year and then later head on down to Hong Kong where the weather will hopefully be nice and warm. I would also like to visit Sichuan but I’m not sure I can fit all that in. No fixed plans yet, I’m going to play it by ear.
Anyway, I best get back on with the revision now, the more I get out of the way today, the less I have to do on Christmas eve and Christmas day!
Merry Christmas
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Do make the most of the festivities and get out of your daily routines if just for a few days to spend time with Friends and Family. It’s only when you are unable to get involved in the fun back at home that you fully appreciate how important Christmas is.
Photo Courtesy of Appleping.
It was Siqi’s Birthday on Thursday so I treated her to a surprise Thai meal at a restaurant in Chaoyang district which some friends had recommended. The restaurant recently won the award for ‘Best Thai Restaurant in Beijing’. The decor was lush and comfy, the service was good and the food was absolutely delicious. We shared the following dishes:
- Deef fried shrimpcakes
- Thai Red Curry with Fragrant Jasmine Rice
- Vietnamese Noodle Soup with Beef and Veg
I would also recommend that you wash all of that down with a nice pitcher of Beijing Beer.
Won’t be long before I’m heading back! Great value for money from a UK perspective (10 pounds, including two pints of beer). Pricey from a Beijing perspective (A meal for two in quite a posh restaurant should still be less than a fiver).
For those who are interested, the restaurant is called Purple Haze (紫苏庭) and their website can be viewed here (with menu, photos, info and contact details).
Here are some photos:
I was recently browsing ‘Google Labs’ - where you can test some of Google’s latest online applications and services - and fell upon Google China Bus Search （谷歌公交搜索）. This is just the thing I have been looking for! Anybody who lives in Beijing knows just how many bus routes there are in the city and how confusing it can be to get from one place to another without taking a taxi or the metro. However, things have now got much much easier. Google China Bus Search allows you to search bus routes in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Nanjing. You tell Google where you are setting off from and where you want to get to and the rest is all done for you.
Google gives you all the possible bus routes (sorted by distance) to get to your location and you can also view the journey on a map. Not only does it work out changes for you but also tells you how to get from where you are to the stop you need to be at and how to get from the end bus stop to your ultimate destination (on foot).
Even better, you can share the route with your friends via Gmail and even send the route to your mobile phone for free.
In fact, there were a few sites that already provided this feature to Beijingers, notably:
http://beijing.8684.cn/
http://map.baidu.com/
However neither of these were particularly innovative or easy to use.
You can have a sneak peak at a test route below:
Whilst diligently doing my homework the other evening, my Thai roomate burst into the room with a bowl of piping hot Thai chow mein noodles and a pair of chopsticks. At first I thought he just wanted me to try some of his concoction, however, he plonked the bowl down in front of me and insisted that I ate the lot. I must say, his noodles were probably the best I have tasted… ever!!
Thank you Jackie! Made my day!
Jono
