DONE!

I can't believe it. 8 weeks flew by so quickly. Before coming to Princeton in Beijing, I knew it was going to be tough, but the work was totally worth it. If I had to go back and decide again, I would totally do PiB again. At yesterday's final chinese table, several teachers were tearing up. The teachers at PiB work as hard, if not harder than the students here. The mutual struggle to teach and learn is what made the relationships with teachers uniquely rewarding.

Notes to future PiBers:
- Learn how to call for 服务员 in restaurants, and by call I mean yell.
- Bottled water pricing is weird in China, the smaller the bottle, the cheaper the per unit price
- Go to office hours as often as possible
- McDonald's is open 24 hours a day
- There are two subway stations near 北师大： one on line 2, one on line 10, both of which can be easily accessed by a short bus ride
- 三里屯 is best reached by starting on line 10, taxi is more convenient though
- 五道口 can be reached by the 331 bus, taxi isn't too bad either
- Properly plan your weekends because you only get 8 of them
- Plan your long weekend a week and a half in advance, otherwise all the tickets will be sold out
- Use the VPN; I've had almost no problems with the internet
- Bargain hard! If the price isn't right, then walk.

So I guess this is goodbye China. I will miss you dearly. But than again it's not really a goodbye, it's a see you later.

Dumpling count: 308

Super Gigantic Post

Yea. I'm behind. Way behind.
So where to start...

Karaoke

I went to sing karaoke probably 5 times while I was here in Beijing. Also referred to as 卡拉OK or KTV by the locals, karaoke is one of the most popular weekend activities for the young as well as the old. From Chinese songs such as 童话 (For more on this song see this post) to Lady Gaga (who's surprisingly very popular here in China, we sang for 3+ hours or until our throats were parched. The best part about karaoke here in China is that it comes with a free buffet! Anytime there is free food involved, I'm there.

KTV

Let's here it for New York

Beijing Opera

In my humble opinion, not all that great. I guess it takes a more refined sense of taste than mine to appreciate, but the high pitched voices blasting through the speaker system were unbearable. Several people even left halfway through the show. Some parts of the show were cool, but all in all, not my cup of 茶 (tea).
Fa Hua Ruins and Yin Shan Pagoda Mountain

PiB took us to see some pagodas just on the outskirts of Beijing, but these pagoda were not the usual brand of pagodas you would imagine (see pictures). After appreciating the towering pagodas of the Fa Hua Ruins, we proceeding to hike up the Yin Shan Mountain. The best part of the hike was the artificially series of canals and waterfalls that ran by the path. Making it to the top of the mountain was quite an achievement as it marked maybe the second time I legit exercised in China.

The pagodas

Mini Waterfall

Standing behind the super large waterfall

Ringing the bell

At the top with 大周老师

798 Art District

A boatload of fun. I also indulged in some American food while there (SO GOOD). Lots of posing with statues. At first I thought the government would be censoring the art, but for the most part the painters/sculptors had artistic freedom.

798 Art District

Hanging skulls. Where are the bones?

Dragons

Win

Fierce

Tiantan

The last weekend in Beijing brought me to the temple of Heaven (Tiantan 天坛). In all honesty, it looked like Gu Gong in many aspects. The temple itself was beautiful, but the surrounding smaller buildings were merely satisfactory. A lot of shopping was done though!

The temple of heaven

Mini

Sacrificing tripod

Clay pots for burning goats

Dumpling count:308

Olympics

"It's gonna look just like the pictures," I thought to myself. "It's not even old, what's so special?" But while walking up the stairs out of the subway, the sight of Bird's Nest, Water Cube, Olympic area in general overwhelmed me; my jaw pretty much hit the floor. The pictures really do not give the nest and cube due justice (still pretty though).

Olympic Tower

After walking out of the subway and through security, the eight of us roamed around the large pavilion soaking in the majestic surroundings. The Bird's Nest, Water Cube, and the Olympic Tower all change colors at night, so we were all mezmerized for a bit. Although our attempts to hop the fence of the bird's nest failed (they didn't let people in at night), we did manage to get into the water cube (legally by buying tickets).

Birthing the bird's nest.

Us @ the Bird's Nest.

Water Cube
(Note: because my arms move faster than the speed of light, they distort the space-time continuum, and therefore are not visible)

Inside the water cube, we roamed around, and spent a lot of time in the olympic arena making letters and faces (pictures will explain). O, and the water cube's bubbles are actually bubbles of air. So cool. All around a good time.

Purty.


Y is for Yale


Smiley Face is for Smiley Face.

Bubbles.

I do my best not to be mistaken for a FOB.

Dumpling Count: 210

天津 (Tianjin)

The 所谓 long (3 days...) inter-semester weekend was spent in 天津 a city only 30 minutes away by train, and by train I mean bullet-train. Traveling at 330 km/hr (~200mph) was surprisingly smooth. After stepping out of the train station, the first thing I noticed about Tianjin was that the 环境污染 (pollution) was worse than 北京 in that the smog was more dense, the air was stickier, etc... After checking into the hotel, we hopped in taxi#1 to go the beach! After an hour long drive, we arrived at a different part of Tianjin, but still no beach, so we decided to have lunch at one of the local seafood restaurants. When we walked into the restaurant, we were first shown to a room with all the seafood the restaurant had to offer.

That's a lot of seafood.

Overall, the meal (clams, shrimp, fish, etc.) was excellent and relatively cheap compared to American prices (as usual). After the the seafood bonanza, we hopped into taxi #2 for what was supposedly a short ride to the beach. 10 minutes later we arrived at the water's edge, except this was more like a harbor/bay/not the beach.

The group at the faux beach.

Nice Architecture.

We then proceeded to walk around for a while. Still not satisfied we hopped into cab #3 where we were then taken to the 所谓 "so called" beach. Apparently, it was high tide so the sand was not visible, but I'm going call that total BS. Although the water was littered with empty bottles, I still walked in up to my knees, but I didn't stay in to long for fear of contracting some sort of water-borne disease.

Favorite Teacher!

Attractive photo of myself.

After the beach, we headed back to the hotel, rested a bit, went to see Little Italy (not that impressive), ate dinner, then proceeded to walk around Tianjin. The best part was seeing an old man continuously doing the "Monkey" dance as exercise in the park. After walking around, we retreated to the hotel and played cards until 2 in the morning.

Little Italy...

The following day, breakfast consisted of a KFC wrap except that it had a 老北京味道 old Beijing flavor (kind of like the flavor of Peking duck except with chicken). After walking around the city for quite a bit, we had lunch at a mall, and then hopped on the train back to Beijing. Overall the trip was a lot of fun. Whew, now I'll let the pictures do the talking.

We rode in one of the 3 wheeled cars. (Not a tricycle)

Yale takes Tianjin!

Statue somewhere in Tianjin

The group!

Tianjin at night.

Special thanks to Yvonne for lending me photos :)

Dumpling count: 160

Za Ji, Yi He Yuan

So I lied. Last weekend, I didn't have time to fully update my blog. Keeping up with a blog is tougher than I expected, especially with PiB's heavy workload... but I'm doing my best so here we go...

杂技, za ji, is one of the most absolutely stunning facets of Chinese culture. The show opened with an amazing acrobatic showing, with small Chinese girls (no more than 7 or 8) being thrown through the air. At one point, one of the girls was standing on a male performer's shoulders, who was standing on another male performer's shoulders, who was standing on another male performer's shoulders! (That girl was probably 20 feet in the air)! The most impressive act, by far, was the running/bicycle act. At first, I laughed when 8 performers rolled out on the staged riding bicycles in a circle, but at the end when 16 performers were piled onto one bike, my jaw had dropped to the ground. Wow.

Chinese Acrobatics

In other news, PiB took us to 颐和园, aka the summer palace, last weekend. Paddle boating was fun, but unfortunately, while racing another, my camera fell out of my pocket and into the lake... On a lighter note, weaving through the 17 arches of the 17 arch bridge 十七孔桥 was fun. To get through the smaller arches, we had to literally rock the boat. The Summer Palace, even on a hazy day, still was breathtaking (I think I may be running out of breaths to be taken because there are so many beautiful places in Beijing!) Now, I will let the pictures do the talking.

Paddleboating

Weaving through the Arches!

Dragon Statue

The Palace

So, I think my English is getting worse, the longer I am here in Beijing. This may/may not be a good thing. Time is flying by so quickly here, I already know I am going to miss China, but then again Yale isn't such a bad place to be.

Dumpling Count: 156

Gu Gong, Jing Shan, Bei Hai

Time is certainly flying by here in Beijing. Today's semester exam marks the halfway point of PiB. Entering the much-hyped long weekend (3 days), I now have time to fully catch up on all of my adventures.

Cheezing it up with Mao

天安门广场

Long live the unity of the great people of the world

The Saturday before last, a couple Yalies and I traveled to Tiananmen Square and Gu Gong (The Palace Museum). 漂亮得不得了! Simply beautiful. The light rain, while persistent, did not dampen our spirits (the hawkers in Tiananmen Square trying to sell us umbrellas did slow us down a bit). Tiananmen Square's walls were grand and imposing; I felt a tad intimidated. We visited a bunch of places within the palace, but my favorite site by far was the Imperial Garden, which contained elaborately crafted faux 100 ft tall "mountains" and a wide variety of flora.

Imperial Garden

Gu Gong

After visiting Tiananmen and Gu Gong, we went across the street to Jingshan Park, which is famous for its artificial mountain (45.7m high). Built for favorable feng shui (supposedly protected the palace from the northern winds) using earth from Gu Gong's moats and surrounding canals (took from wikipedia, not going to lie...), Jingshan Park's artificial mountain offers spectacular view of the Imperial Palace.

Jing Shan Park

The view from JingShan (looks better in person or on wikipedia)

After Jingshan, we took a short walk over to the renowned Bei Hai Park. All Yale Chinese L1/L2 students know the Bei Hai Chant (see the video). Turns out the professors fudged the description of the park a bit; 左右两边没有竹子 (the left and right sides of the park are not bamboo). 白塔 (the white dagoba) was spectacular, but we missed out on paddleboating when the rain began to pick up.

Overall, the trip into the heart of Beijing was a successful one despite the rain. I think I'm starting to think in Chinese, so my English 水平 has 下降了.

I almost forgot to mention that I had dinner with Master Pitti, Kelly McLaughlin(Light Fellowship Coordinator), and a few other Stilesians! The restaurant was a little hard to find, but the food as good as the company.

Fantastic dinner.

Dumpling count: 129

Xiabu Xiabu (Hot Pot)

Many apologies for the lack of posts recently. Recently, time to write blog posts has been hard to come by.

About a week and half ago (yes, falling behind quite a bit), I went to eat hot pot/火锅 with my Chinese language teacher. We arrived at the restaurant at approximately 4:50, but that still wasn't early enough to beat the dinner rush, but the delicious food was well worth the 45 minute wait.

I thought the restaurant's name Xiabu Xiabu was phonetically derived from Japan's version of hot pot, but my teacher soon corrected me saying that Chinese characters for Xiabu Xiabu 呷哺 呷哺 have 20 口, which is the Chinese character for mouth; so the twenty mouths represent how delicious/ mouth-watering hot pot is.

Xiabu Xiabu Restaurant

If you haven't had hot pot before, here's a quick briefing on what you're missing out on. Hot pot centers around the pot of boiling broth positioned in the center of the table (hence the name hot pot). Accompanying the hot pot are thinly sliced meats (lamb, chicken, port, beef), vegetables, uncooked noodles, and seafood. After each batch of food placed in the pot is done cooking, the food is dipped into a sauce (spicy, sweet, whatever floats your boat) and then eaten. The flavor profile is difficult to describe, but with each progressive batch, the flavors begin to meld and compound upon each other. So good.

The hot pot. Left side is a mild broth, right side is spicy.

A lot of food...

Gone.

Chinese Language Table Group!

With each day, I'm finding life here in China becoming easier. Talking to teachers has become easier, calling for the 服务员 has become easier, even understanding the taxi drivers' thick Beijing accents has become easier. As the new phrases increase in number in difficulty, I find it is the inexpensive and delicious food, (like hot pot) here in Beijing that keeps me going.

Dumpling count: 114