Mobile phone photo post. Uploaded on: 4th October, 2008

On my regular market shop a couple of days ago, I managed to buy all the following for just £2.08

That includes Chinese Spinach, Garland chrysanthemum, Broad Beans, a dozen eggs, Spinach, Ginger Root, Garlic, Courgette, Chinese Onion, Tofu and Vermicelli. In fact, without the vermicelli, all of that would have cost just £1.28. So yes… the prices have gone up, even in China. However, there is nothing for me to worry about for a while yet!

My studies recommence on the 6th of October and to be honest, I really don’t know what to expect. I will be in the ‘Chinese’ department of Capital Normal University and will study Chinese along with possibly hundreds of other Chinese students. As to exactly what sort of material we will be studying I currently have no idea although I have been told that I may be able to take up modules such as Modern Chinese Literature and Ancient Chinese - all should be revealed on Monday!

Over the last week me and Siqi have been heading back to our favourite places in Beijing whilst the summer warmth lasts (the temperature has been a steady 25°C during the day since I arrived) - eating out a lot in restaurants, going to the Cinema, music festivals etc. We have also bought train tickets for tomorrow to nearby Tianjin which is on the coast. It will be a nice little day trip and exciting to discover another Chinese city. I’ve also heard that Tianjin is famous for its seafood so I wouldn’t be surprised if some crab or lobster isn’t consumed somewhere along the way! The intercity train between Beijing and Tianjin is also the world’s fastest operating train service reaching top speeds of 375kph and hence is a bit of an attraction itself - covering 114km in just half an hour!

This year promises to be quite an eventful one - not only giving me great opportunities to improve my Chinese, but also hopefully allowing me to travel a bit more and see more of China. My biggest complaint about last year was that we did not get much holiday and when we did, so did the rest of the Chinese - making it impossible to buy tickets due to the sheer volume of holidaymakers on the move. This year I hope that things will be more flexible and I already have a shortlist of places I would like to go. Even if I can’t go away for long amounts of time, I intend to make some ‘long-weekend’ trips to places outside Beijing.

Sorry about the lack of updates recently but as the title of this blog suggests, InChina is about me in China and as I haven’t been in China for a while I didn’t really have much to write about

Despite being away from home for so long, I’m actually not actually going to be at home for as long as I would like so its going to be a bit of a rushed summer! I’m back for 4 weeks in total but two of those are going to be spent on a cycle tour of the alps with the old folks - leaving only one week on either side back in Kendal.

After that its back to Beijing again for another year of study. This time I’ll be studying side by side with Chinese students on a normal Chinese degree programme - except that I’m only going to partake in the first year of studies, after which I hope to return to Leeds and finish off my degree there.

Anyway, best be off. Not long before my flight now. At least there is a wifi connection here so there is something to keep me distracted

Look forward to seeing you Kendalians very soon.

Mobile phone photo post. Uploaded on: 25th July, 2008

Mobile phone photo post. Uploaded on: 15th June, 2008

Mobile phone photo post. Uploaded on: 4th June, 2008

In the UK, as far as I know (and unless things have changed since I left about 8 months ago) recycling is on a completely voluntary basis. Furthermore, recycling is actually quite a hassle. Our house (back in Kendal) is full of tubs of empty cans, empty bottles, cardboard and plastics ready to be taken to the local council waste disposal site for recycling - a trip that we have to make ourselves in the car every week. OK, admittedly, the council introduced a new recycling scheme where all households now get a couple of small crates for cans and bottles which are emptied every week. However, this is completely unrealistic for a number of reasons:

• Most households get through quite a few glass bottles, jars and tin cans in a week. A small crate is hardly going to be big enough.
• Plastics and organic waste form the largest part of household waste and yet neither of these are catered for in the scheme.
• There is no incentive for you to go to the trouble of scrubbing out your glass jars and tin cans and putting them in the crate. You are not penalised in the slightest if you are lazy and just chuck them in the general waste bin.

China on the other hand - lets remind ourselves, a developing nation - has got things completely sorted. Recycling here is on a freelance basis. All over the place there are people riding three-wheeled bikes with trailers who collect rubbish for recycling. Likewise there are a number of fixed recycling stations (you are never more than a 5 minute walk away from one) where you can take your recyclable waste. Instead of wasting some petrol driving halfway accross town every fortnight on a voluntary basis, here you are remunerated for the waste you hand in - you actually sell it to the recyclers!

Recycling is no big money maker but to put things in perspective a couple of months worth of waste hoarded up in a cupboard in my kitchen made me 11 yuan when I took it along to the recycling lady last week. If we put that into context, its enough to buy you a Cheeseburger and Chips in any of Beijing’s McDonalds chains (not that I like McDonalds but its pretty good price reference). In the UK a Cheeseburger and Chips would set you back about £2.00-£2.20 so I guess you would make about that much money in the UK. Furthermore, in Beijing I actually don’t really use anything tinned (Chinese people aren’t really into tinned food) and I hardly stock any jars either. For a family of 5 in the UK who get though considerably more tins, jars and bottles than I do here in Beijing you could be making pounds a week by recycling rather than throwing away your household waste.

I know things aren’t perfect here in China and there is a lot to be done. However, I think that the UK government could learn a thing or two from China and other countries who run similar schemes (Canada, Germany etc). Its all well telling everybody to save the planet but few people will actually go and do anything about it unless there is some incentive there for them to take action.