Saturday, October 31, 2015

Entry 2 - Hong Kong, Transition into Beijing, Wudaokou, Site Visits


Getting my visa for the upcoming semester in Hong Kong turned out to be a nice break for me between classes. As it turned out, a lot of people either spoke Cantonese or English and all of the Chinese characters written on signs were traditional, so the environment felt different from being in mainland China. While I waited for the visa to be processed, I explored the city at random. It was the first time I had been alone in a foreign country and the freedom of it was exciting. I did not have time to come up with a plan before I went there, so what I did was select random spots on the subway line map to visit and from there I walked around the area. Normally I’d find at least one site that’d make it worth the trip. On one occasion, I chanced upon Victoria Park (Weiduoliya Gongyuan 维多利亚公园 ) right as the sunset was coming. There I spotted a large group of old men playing Chinese chess against each other, something not too uncommon in China, but it was the first time I had actually caught sight of it. There were so many of them standing there watching the others play, picking up new strategies by observing carefully what they were doing or simply enjoying the matches. Most of my other trips through the subway lines were like this; taking pleasure out of sightseeing the various parts of the city. Additionally, the weather in Hong Kong was wonderful for exploring with its subtropical climate.

I later found the opportunity to visit some more popular sites such as Times Square, the Ladies' Market, and the Hong Kong Museum of History. My luck did eventually run out though. On one occasion when I tried to explore by using the subway map, I tried looking for a smaller attraction that was about an hour away by foot and I got lost. It wasn’t until I failed to find it that I realized there was no other subway station nearby. I didn't want to waste my money by hiring a taxi and I was unfamiliar with the bus lines, so I decided it was just best to walk back. I was a little upset about having wasted my time like that with such a short time to be in Hong Kong, but I decided to take new routes going back, enjoying some of the other sites the area had to offer, and realized that getting lost was actually a nice way to see some of the spots that tourists don't normally see. The day before I left Hong Kong, I also went for a ride on the Aqua Luna, a traditional Chinese junk boat with distinguishable red sails, as I sipped on a glass of wine with the view of the city beyond the coast.

Once I reached Beijing in late August, I only had a few days to relax before the Fall 2015 SU Abroad students would come and we would have to leave for the 2 week-long signature seminar trip. I spent the time decorating my room a little bit and making it feel more like home. In the corner was an old television that received basic cable and next to that was a desk with a decent amount of storage space. My wood-hard bed was across from the window that gave me a nice view of the campus. The kitchen only had a sink but I had a private bathroom all to myself. Downstairs in the lobby were a couple of vending machines with snacks and drinks. You could even purchase beer from one of them. After everyone arrived, we were divided into groups and given a quick tour of the campus and surrounding area by some of the Tsinghua University students who volunteered to help us out. The biggest concern we all had at the moment was getting everything ready for the trip, which meant buying phone plans and proper clothing for poor weather conditions.

We took a trip down to Wudaokou 五道口 , a spot five minutes away by bus that turned out to be a reliable place for shopping and entertainment. At Wudaokou, as soon as you got off the bus, you could find a Lotus supermarket (Yichu Lianhua 易初莲花 ) and many restaurants and food stalls on that same street. You could also find a MINISO, a Japanese department store that's really trendy and sells everything at low prices. I'd always stop here to collect their brand of double-ended markers that resembled the Prismacolor or Copic brands, except they were significantly cheaper. A short walk away was the movie theatre, a large shopping mall, an underground club, and several bars. Dividing the area ran the subway line with a station located at Wudaokou. Walmart was only one stop over from there. After surveying the area, my group headed back to campus and we ate dinner together. We'd spend the rest of our time before the trip having brief meetings with our program director to discuss what to expect in our program and be given our schedules for the next two weeks.

(You can read more about the Fall signature seminar trip here). As soon as we returned to Beijing from the two-week trip, which had me traveling and studying more than I expected, we immediately had to start classes at Tsinghua University. It all felt really overwhelming by this point, especially considering this was my first time so far away from home.  I started to break down a little bit. The intensity of the CLS program, the loneliness from having to part from all of my friends in Suzhou, and all of the preparations I had to make to get to Beijing and have to leave again so soon for a trip that kept us going and going, mixed in with some family troubles back home; it all had me really worn down. I had a small expectation that maybe people from Beijing would be more used to foreigners as well, which they were, but I felt just as much a fish out of water here as I did in Suzhou. The transition smoothed out after I got settled into my classes and into the city however, and it wasn't long before I adjusted into everything.

Before we actually started classes, we were required to take a placement exam to find out what level we needed to be in. During the exam, we would listen to an audio tape and answer questions based on what we heard and put them on a given answer sheet. There was also a writing portion of the exam where we had to be able to recognize characters and either write down their pinyin (pronunciation), match them with other characters, or be able to fill in the blank to complete a word. Not many people do very well on this exam their first time and they are usually placed in a level they don't belong in. It happened to me where I was placed in a beginning level class and right after we introduced ourselves to each other, the teacher sent me off to the intermediate level to see whether or not it was more suitable. The first week of classes we were allowed to switch around the classes as we pleased and test them for ourselves, and once we found a class that worked, we would go to an office to be interviewed by a professor or guidance counselor. Similar to how we did it in CLS, the interviewer would hold a conversation with the person who was requesting to switch classes and then have them read a passage from one of the class books. After that, we'd receive written permission from them and it'd be done.

Throughout September and October, we have had a lot of opportunities to visit sites in Beijing as part of some of the courses that are offered to SU students through our program. Not everyone is required to attend them, but it is not a bad idea to tag along for the experience of seeing some of the more popular areas of the city. I have so far missed two and kind of regret it now: a trip to the Great Wall (Changcheng 长城 ) and one to China’s National Museum (Zhongguo Guojia Bowuguan 中国国家博物馆 ). Granted, I will have this opportunity again either over winter break or during the Spring semester, but for those who only have a few months in China, you definitely don’t want to miss out on what may be a once in a lifetime chance to see these things! So far, the other places we’ve visited together as a group are the 798 Art District (Yishuqu 艺术区 ) and the Summer Palace (Yiheyuan 颐和园 ). The 798 Art District was one that everyone seemed to enjoy and wanted to come back to for another visit. Many of the works that could be seen, at least from what I could tell, had a modern Chinese style to them and it was interesting to see some of China’s newest artists. The Summer Palace was also a fun trip, though it did seem a little tailored to tourists’ tastes. We first crossed the famous stone bridge that was decorated with small lion statues and saw people sailing kites high in the sky from it. Out on the lake, you could catch site of the brightly colored dragon boats floating by, and off in the distance, the religious temple of the palace. Oddly enough, an old photographer took an interest in one of our group members and followed us around the whole time. Though it was a bit of an inconvenience, it was a good opportunity for me to practice my Chinese, and I wound up speaking with him for almost the full 3 hours. Many of us have also taken our own initiative to explore the city of Beijing. I was lucky enough to have passed by the Silk Market one day and got to practice haggling a little bit with some of the shopkeepers right before they closed down for the day.

It was also during the month of October that I had the opportunity to go on a special trip with some of my classmates from kung fu class. Visit the martial arts section of this blog to see more about it though.

** For these two months, I opted to combine them into one blog entry because there was not much going on for the month of September other than the two-week signature seminar trip and starting classes.

Entry 2 - Photos


Victoria Park

Old Men Playing Chinese Chess

City of Hong Kong

City of Hong Kong

City of Hong Kong

City of Hong Kong

City of Hong Kong

City of Hong Kong

City of Hong Kong

Times Square

Ladies' Market

Hong Kong Museum of History

Hong Kong Museum of History

Hong Kong Museum of History

Hong Kong Museum of History

The Aqua Luna

On The Aqua Luna

On The Aqua Luna

On The Aqua Luna

At the 798 Art District

At the 798 Art District

Inside an Art Gallery

Summer Palace

Dragon Boat

Dragon Boat

Man Flying His Kite

Inside the Summer Palace

Inside the Summer Palace

Sunny Pathway

Religious Temple at the Summer Palace

View from the Temple

Down the Stairs

Dragon Statue

Walkway Beside the Lake