Yesterday was a very tiring day as my day started early at 9am since Kyle, Rex and I decided to visit Beihai Park (北 海 公 园), which is located in central Beijing. We took the bus 810 from the East Gate of Uni and reached Beihai in about 20-25 minutes. I was extremely annoyed with myself that I forgot to bring my student card which obviously provides a lot of student benefits i.e. discounted entrance fees. I had to pay RMB 10.00 for the entrance fee to Beihai Park whereas if I had my student card along, this would have been slashed down to RMB 5.00. I must remember to bring my student card whenever I am out.

Beihai Park is quite an enormous park but I was not particularly captivated by the beauty of the park. I much prefer the parks in England and in the European cities where a park is synonymous with peace and tranquility. However, this is certainly not the case with parks in Beijing. There are huge crowds of people who are dancing, singing and playing sports. Imagine loud music being blasted nearly across the whole park. Yes, maybe my concept of parks is too limited but surely parks are meant for quiet relaxation. Maybe the Chinese concept of a park is a public space for social activity. One thing that I still cannot get used to in China is that they just spit and blow their snot out right in public. It is just too disgusting for me. After walking in Beihai Park for a bit, we decided to head to yet another park - Jingshan Park (京 山 公 园).

I was very happy that the entrance fee to Jingshan Park was only RMB 2.00 but of course it would have been half price with my student card. In my opinion, Jingshan Park is so much prettier and definitely more tranquil than Beihai Park. The former has more of a park feel and certainly resembles the image of a park in my head. Of course there were still many tourists and also locals but less than Beihai Park. One really amazing thing about Jingshan Park is that it has a few peak pavillions. I went up to one of the peak pavillions and I was able to have an overview of the Forbidden City. It was so beautiful and picturesque. Too bad it was a bad day in Beijing as there was smog because it would have been even prettier with clear blue skies. The Forbidden City is the central hotspot for tourists and from the pavillion, I was able to see the hundreds of tourists weaving their way through the entrance. I would recommend Jingshan Park to anyone wanting to visit a park in Beijing since it is much prettier than Beihai Park, and also the entrance fee is ridiculously cheap. This leads me to the next point about how the Chinese charges fees for visiting parks. It seems a bit strange to me that you should charge the public for visiting a public space. Then again, it does not strike me as a shocking thing to do since we Chinese are notorious for being calculative to the last cent, or rather 分. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant located in the park itself and had dim sum for lunch. Funny since we almost always have dim sum in the morning. I was sorely disappointed with the dim sum as it was of low standard. The ones back in Malaysia and even England are better than the ones I had at the restaurant. However, maybe it was just that particular restaurant?

After lunch, Kyle decided to walk around the area near Jingshan Park but Rex and I wanted to visit the Beijing Zoo & Aquarium. Kyle had already been to the zoo and so, it did not make much sense for him to visit again I suppose. I was actually more keen to visit the Beijing Aquarium but when we finally realised how expensive the entrance fee was, RMB 120, we both decided to just visit the zoo since the zoo and aquarium are located close by. I am not about to list down specifically the animals we saw as that would be a pointless exercise. However, I am going to comment on the dire state of affairs in the zoo itself. We did not see a single park ranger or personnel-in-charge of the animals. The animals seemed dirty and malnourished in my opinion. At one point, we went into this big room that was housing big cats kept in cages. There was such a horrible stench of urine and faeces emanating from the room that we had to run out as quickly as possible. How could the zoo authorities (if any) allow that to happen? I felt heartbroken to see the animals being enclosed in such a dilapidated and dirty cage with no space at all to run wild. Most of the zoos I've visited provides for a decent amount of space for the animals to run about but that was not the case for Beijing Zoo. Also, I was extremely annoyed with the Chinese public in general for their ignorance and in a sense immaturity towards respecting animals. A sign was clearly put up that said "DO NOT FEED THE BEARS" and this was provided for in both English and Mandarin. However, the public decided to ignore the sign and feed bread to the brown bears. The bears are not circus animals to be played with. Instead these brown bears are meant to be respected and observed quietly. Furthermore, feeding bread and other food to these bears may likely result in them getting sick due to improper food content and ingredients. At one point the public was cheering on this Chinese lady, who seemed so thrilled that the bears were eating the bread she was feeding them with, and she was chanting out words of encouragement to the bears e.g. stand up bear etc. I was so perplexed by her behaviour and the other individuals in particular. Maybe I am too much of a prude? Regardless of what my behaviour is, I sincerely believe that something urgent needs to be done in terms of maintenance and proper care of these animals. Where does all the money from the entrance fee go to? From what I observed yesterday there were hundreds upon hundreds of tourists. Certainly they can chanel some of the profits to upgrading the zoo facilities and increasing the quality of care for the animals?! So my advice to you is definitely this: do NOT visit Beijing Zoo lest you want to feel depressed and disillusioned about the conservation and protection of animals. By the time we left, Rex and I were so depressed about the zoo because of what we saw first-hand.

We left the zoo early but took about 30-40minutes trying to find a bus stop going directly back to uni. Somehow we managed to stumble across the bus stop either through sheer coincidence or rather what I know was God's providence. We would have to take a taxi if we hadn't found the bus stop, and finding a taxi in that particular area was not easy either. Upon reaching the east gate of uni, the other Malaysians were waiting for me because we were all grabbing dinner together. We had what I call 小 吃 (small eats) and I was not entirely happy with the dinner since it was not exactly tasty. But rather than focusing solely on the food, I chose to concentrate on the fact that this was a time of interaction and bonding. Therefore, it turned out alright once I focused on this aspect. I then headed back to uni after dinner whereas the others proceeded to go somewhere else to eat. I was too tired by then and was also anxious to find out my placement results.

I walked to No. 1 Students' Apartment and soon realised that I was placed in Level 102. This means that I am in the highest stage of Level 1 since there is Level 100-101 preceding Level 102. There are of course more advanced levels i.e. 200-401. I was quite happy with my results considering how very little I studied. Furthermore, my knowledge of characters stem from my Chinese tuition classes back when I was in primary school and more recent self-study. I am starting my classes tomorrow on Monday and am rather excited as to who my new classmates are and what I will be studying. I collected my book materials earlier today in the morning and was flipping through the textbooks. There were certainly a fair amount of characters I was not familiar with, but I am not intimidated because learning is about being in an unfamiliar setting and acquiring new knowledge. I will be starting my 听 力 class tomorrow at 1pm. I shall be praying that it goes well!