[February 19]

Hey everyone!

 

I'm finally in Beijing, have been here for almost a week, and can hardly believe it.  It's been a long time since I've talked to some of you, but I'm studying here at Peking University (BeiDa) with a study abroad program called CIEE until the end of May, and hopefully going to Shanghai for two months in the summer to work and continue on with Mandarin.

 

I'm living on campus in a foreign student dorm, which is hardly what we would consider a dorm.  The lobby resembles a hotel, which is the way that foreign students bypass the residential permit issue in China.  We also have a daily maid service, which come into our rooms every morning to make our beds and clean our bathrooms.  However, our semi-posh lifestyle isn't standard at the rest of the dorms at BeiDa- Chinese undergraduate students live 6 to a room in the same size room as us, with the majority of the room occupied by desks and bunk beds.  Their electricity is also turned off by 11 pm at night, and there is no hot water in their dorms, i.e. they have to walk across campus to shower (which is really enjoyable in the cold and windy winters).  It makes me appreciate how much we are being given here as foreign students, and also highlights how different Chinese higher ed culture is from ours.

 

Beijing is such an amazing city.  It has changed so drastically from the third-world city I remembered visiting when I was 13 and living in Hong Kong.  In preparation for the Olympics, city planners have made huge attempts to clean up the streets, tear down traditionally-styled buildings and residential areas and replace them with new and modern sky-scrapers.  While the air is definitely cleaner and the city has a more modern edge to it,  it's kind of sad to think about how much tradition Beijing has lost in a matter of 7 years.  The fact that I stick out like a sore thumb hasn't really changed, with random people approaching me wanting to touch my hair and practice their English.

 

I've attached some pictures from Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and a popular shopping/restaurant district called Wang Fu Jing.  There is so much I want to do while I'm here, and I can only hope that I can get it all done by the end of May.  I hope all is going well, wherever you may be, and look forward to keeping in touch over the next few months!

 

 

 

Jocelyn