Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Ni hao!
Hope all is well back at home. Things are going fantastically here in Beijing - I woke up from a deep, 12 hour, jet lag induced sleep on Wednesday morning feeling rejuvenated and ready to do a bit of exploring. Sarah - the girl who I share my hotel room with - was still asleep, so I got ready and walked down the hotel lobby, where I met some other people on the teaching orientation who were just about to set off to see the Forbidden City. I decided to tag along with them, and after a quick breakfast we successfully navigated the underground system to get to our destination (managing to use public transport in a new city/country always makes me feel a sense of achievement)!
The Forbidden City, a relic to ancient China which dates back to the early 1400s, was home to over 20 emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties, who lived for many years within the sprawling walls of the great palace. For the past 100 years it has been uninhabited and - since the mid 20th century - open to the public.
To say that the Forbidden City is huge is an understatement - this place covers over 700,000 square meters and is made up of 90 palaces and courtyards, 980 buildings and 8,704 rooms. It is at once beautiful, imposing and peaceful. We were given a tour of the Forbidden City by a Beijing-based University student called 'William' who did the tours as a way of meeting English speakers and improving his English - he was really fantastic and pointed out lots of interesting things about the place that we wouldn't have noticed on our own. We had to get back to the hotel for 2pm, so left after only three hours in the Forbidden City - a place where you could easily spend a whole day. More public transport on the way back - buses! I really do think catching a bus in a foreign city is a great way to get a good feel for it, in Beijing they were bustling and the passengers looked happy!
The afternoon was spent having photos taken for our teaching visas, and learning a bit of mandarin before the official welcome dinner at a local restaurant, where the 117 Teacher Interns on the programme came together. It was really nice to meet people from all over the world, all of whom will be doing the same thing as me for the next 4.5 months (albeit spread across all corners and crevices of China)! After that a group of us went out on 'bar street' - ended up in a karaoke bar which sold huge bottles of tsing tao for 10 yuan (about one pound). Super duper!
Thursday was the official 'orientation day' - which meant we spent most of the day in a lecture-type room being talked at. We learnt more about the Teacher Internship programme, the practicalities of teaching in China, and were given our teaching contracts to look over. Another big thing that happened today was finding out our teaching placements - as until now we had no idea where in China we would be teaching, and to what age group.
So…. Drumroll…… I will be spending the next four and a half months in…. XINGTAI! No idea where that is? Never heard of it? Neither had I, or my lonely planet guidebook for that matter! A bit of google searching later I learnt that Xingtai is in the Hebei province, about 250 miles south of Beijing. It's a small city by Chinese standards, and apparently there isn't that much to do. Here is an extract from a forum posting about Xingtai:
"There is a bowling alley, 1 or 2 discos, many bars, Kung Fu, Thai Boxing, a local skateboarding community (and a skate shop), Roller skating, Movie theater, Swimming pool, Pool halls, and a few big parks"
To which somebody replied:
"Just wondering where these bars you mentioned are? I have been here 6 weeks now and it seems pretty dead"
Hahahaha, excellent! Every cloud has a silver lining though; I've been placed in a Middle School (my first choice of age group), and Sarah (my roommate in the hotel) has also been placed at the same school, so we will be sharing an apartment in the city together, and I'm sure we will find our own fun…and also become pretty adequate in Mandarin along the way as apparently there aren't a lot of foreigners there.! We leave for Xingtai on Saturday….
Early start tomorrow for our last day in Beijing, so zaijian for now wo pengyou.
xx
- comments
Fraser Great to hear your news Zoe, and give yourself another pat on the back for using public transport! Good luck in Xingtai. i'll be following your updates closely.
Dave Zoe, Zaijian sounds an exciting prospect, small and remote but thats got to be part of the fun hasn't it. I'm super jealous, keep up the blogs, a great way to distract myself while working! xx
Sooz Zoette, glad to hear everything is going so well and that you've arrived safely! Looking forward to hearing more about the up and coming city of Xingtai, I hear its the next Beijing! xxx P.S. Greys Anatomy is amazing, there was a massive ferry crash, Meredith nearly died (again)!
Carley Zo! Pleased to hear you have arrived safely and that prospects for the placement look dandy! Looking forward to hearing all stories and antics- im sure there will be many! Photos soon please! I shall read your blog avidly, it's my travel life line at the moment (and I dare say may have more cultural content than maddens -sorry luce!). loves xx
Alex wowza, thai boxing and a bowling alley? I don't know what you're b****ing about - I'm in Nantes and can't get a latte! That's suffering my friend! ok just kidding, sounds cool, i'm sure you'll love it! i shall follow your antics closely! xxxx
kate Hi ya, It sounds like your having fun! i dont think this place you speak of is anywhere near where I will be going... but i will have a closer look, it has been located on my map with an X. xx
Rob a huge, understating, 150 sq metres!? wow, thats mahoosive. those 90 palaces must be sparsely scattered in that vast expanse. sarcasm. im glad you are safe and sound and enjoying stuff. that description of your town makes it sound like a small dusty town in '80s america. keep s*** real yeah? x
James Hey Zoe, glad to hear your safely arrived. your trip sounds epic so far, the forbidden city is something i'd really like to see. you have a great writing style, Considered travel journalism ever? keep it Nottingham and eat loads of weird s*** you can tell us all about
Mikey Ahh Xingtai...of course...famous for its earthquake in 1966 (touch wood!). Call me old fashioned but i still refer to it as 'Xingzhou', of course being its name before the end of the Tang dynasty in 907. I wouldn't call it a 'small city' though Zoe, it covers over 150m²! Anyway, glad you're enjoying it thus far and congratulations on catching a train and a bus! Hope you had room for your wooden elephant in your case, you never know when you may need it! xx
Adam Ni hao Zoe! Yay for you - Found a blogspot and got stuck in with Chinese culture - karaoke!!! Love it. So jealous of you right now! Even though Xingtai sounds quiet I'm sure you will find stuff to do and will come back having a real Chinese experience. Looking forward to your next blog. This one was awesome.
Naresh You lucky, lucky, LUCKY girl! My husband and I were spueospd to go to China for our honeymoon but he was still active duty military and one of our AF planes went down there and he wasn't allowed to go and well anyway, we didn't get to visit. But I did live in Korea for three years so did see a lot of amazing temples and such!