Kesa Kiinassa/A Chinese Summer

Yangzhe cruise and back to dry land

2009-08-15T05:54:01+03:00

From Monday to Thurdsay we sailed the Yangzhe river in a very Chinese company (us and 200 Chinese in a small boat..). The boat was not what we were expecting, there were bugs in the bed and the whole thing had seen it\s best days but the river and the gorges were great. We took small boats and went to small rivers connected to the Yangzhe and that was great too. It was a pity that it was raining almost the whole time and it got really foggy so my pictures are not all that great. After the cruise we spent one day in a small 4 million people town called Yichang. Really liked the city, it was so lively in spite of the smallness and taxi started from 3 yuan! From Yichang we took a bus to Wuhan which is still by Yangzhe river. It\s so hot here since there is not so much pollution and we can finally see the sun! Wuhan is siprisingly modern , there are big malls and even western food available. We are going to see Mao Zhedongs summer villa and take a walk around the lakes today. Tomorrow evening we take a train to Shanghai, it takes around 15 hours so we will be in Shanghai on Monday.

In Sichuan

2009-08-09T15:43:01+03:00

We have spend 4 days in Chengdu and love Sichuan province! It's like coming to tropic paradise after dry Beijing. We have been to Sichuan opera, panda zoo (where there really were around 40 pandas!) and to a mountain near Chengdu. It's really humid and we have to do a lot of laundry after each day but it's all good. Tomorrow we take a bus to Chongqing, which is one of the biggest cities in the world with 32 million people and from there we start a 3 day Yangtse cruise. Really looking forward for the cruise and being outside these big cities for some time. There is most likely no internet available in next 4-5 days so next post is coming after the cruise. I'm trying to upload pictures but at least the connection in this hostel is way too slow..

Last day in Beijing

2009-08-04T10:49:01+03:00

It's the last day in Beijing, tomorrow we take the train to Chengdu, Sichuan. That is pretty much in the middle of China, train takes around 1,5 days. Looking forward to seeing Sichuan and getting out of hot Beijing! More reports to come soon!

Leaving renda

2009-07-31T11:11:01+03:00

Lasse arrived to Beijing today so I'm leaving the university for a quite nice hotel. Great to use a clean toilet for a change! We are trying to get tickets to travel but so far no luck, we keep on trying... I'm not sure if there is internet in our hotel but if not, I will continue from some internet cafe once I know where we are going!

Time for holiday

2009-07-29T06:15:01+03:00

School is out and handed in my last essay yesterday. Now I'm trying desparately to find train tickets to leave Beijing next week. It's hard because also Chinese people travel a lot in August. Probably will end up taking any tickets there is just to leave this overheated plasticbag city for some fresh air!

Today I'm going to 798 art district to practise with my new camera which I finally bought last week. It's semi-professional so it takes a while to learn all the functions and features...

Solar eclipse and exam week

2009-07-22T07:46:01+03:00

Today was supposed to be the biggest solar eclipse of all time but as usual Beijing weather made it impossible fr anyone to see anything. I caught a climpse for 5 seconds and we waited for some time for the clouds/pollution to clear. This week we have exams and essay deadlines so it's keeping everyone quite busy. Friday is the last day of Summer School and I hope they will let me stay at the dorm for one week more since Lasse is coming next friday. Internet is not stable yet but I hope I can post at least this small thing!

At the antique market

2009-07-11T07:11:01+03:00

Internet is still very slow but I got my blog page opened for a while, so I will quickly post some pictures from the antique market. It was a really big place with almost anything that Chinese handicraft has to offer!

Internet problems

2009-07-08T05:35:01+03:00

Internet is really slow and most of the time out in Beijing so right now I'm struggling to write my blog. Can't upload pictures or anything but all is well and I hope this ends soon! Although it's nothing new, this happens here all the time.

Finally some pictures

2009-07-03T05:42:01+03:00

Lectures have started and the best days I have classes from 8 to 5.30!! There is of course a lunch break but with this heat it seems like the longest study day ever. My Chinese class is good and the teacher is really nice. She has also been teaching in Helsinki so right now I’m the only one she remembers from the class. I chose intermediate level since advanced seems to be all about the names of the strokes and history of the characters. We have useful words and phrases we can use daily. I’m becoming better in ordering food at restaurants; in the beginning I had trouble with finding dishes with no meat. But my new tactic is to talk to the fuwuyuan (waitresses) and just ask what they have. This has worked out quite well so far. I have been taking some new people shopping couple of times and had a lot of fun bargaining for them. Today I go to see Lama temple and some Taoist temple as a part of my lecture. It should be interesting since we also get a guide with us.

Here finally some pictures:

My friends moms restaurant opening in North Beijing

A beautiful hot day by Houhai lake

My very own room

Opening ceremony of the Summer School

Avajaiset

2009-06-29T14:49:01+03:00

Tänään oli rekisteröitymispäivä ja avajaisseremonia. Kesäkoulu näyttää olevan yliopistolla iso juttu, nimittäin itse rehtori oli paikalla lausumassa pari sanaa. Kiinalaisten yliopistojen rehtorit on yleensä sellasia, että pitää olla melko tärkeä juhla, että viittiivät tulla paikalle. Tänään saapui myös paljon uutta porukkaa, kesäkoululaisia on yhteensä n. 100, suurin osa koreasta. Kuvia tulossa heti kun netti antaa periksi.