Blogs from Haidian district, Beijing, China, Asia - page 7

If you've ever thought of moving to a foreign country, there are many reasons Beijing would be a good candidate, and many reasons that it would be a bad. As a realist, I'll start with the bad. TRAFFIC. I mean, not that I haven't already mentioned it, but it must be emphasized. Second, unlike the friendly confines and grid based systems of my lovely hometown of Chicago, Beijing is setup in rings. Yes, rings, talk about confusing! However, there are many positives. It has an AWESOME subway system, and all stops are also listed in English. However, if you try to find someone to help you by using english, you will certainly be short on luck there, on the flip-side though, you will probably pick up Chinese (something I think will be very useful). Since my ... read more

“Chinese police carried out another high profile prostitution bust at a nightclub in Beijing. The complex undercover raid, which involved officers singing karaoke for two hours while wired, resulted in the 79 hostesses being detained.” Funniest thing I’ve read this week in Chinese press! The heavens have opened - I never thought I would be glad to see torrential rain - OK, very British talking about the weather but it has been so brilliant to feel some FRESH air. Today I went out and about in Beijing wearing my flip flops because I knew the puddles would be so deep that I might as well embrace them Asian monsoon style rather than try, and fail, to stay dry. Well I said I hadn’t ‘done’ the Olympic Park so as you will see from the series of ... read more

The last few weeks of CLS passed in a strange haze, as we did very little sleeping and a lot of drinking. My host mother originally said that I had to be in by 10 pm every night, but on the last two weekends I ignored her and stayed out ‘till between 3 and 7 am with my classmates. Man I had been missing out! The clubs in Sanlitun were super fun. Gay night at Alfa had my favorite music and atmosphere on the dance floor. The oppressive humid heat and pollution finally broke for our last week, which was amazing! I also recall the night before our final, traveling out to our friends’ host families’ neighborhood way out in the past-the-5th-ring-road boonies where we drank beer, watched the stars (you could see at least 20!) ... read more

Oh I went to the Capital Museum with our class and it was cool and my camera was out of batteries. It rained earlier today and by the time we got out of class, the sky was clearing up and we could see blue!!! After over a week of grey, I was so happy!! The rain must have taken some of the pollution with it or something. I don't know how these things work but remember that they were inducing rainstorms around the time of the Olympics to clear up the air?? The visibility was better than I have seen since our arrival! I didn't get the sense that there was nasty crap just hanging in the air, like I did yesterday when stuff 50 feet away looked hazy. So it was a good day to ... read more

Getting bad haircuts in a foreign country because you can't explain what you want has been a problem for some of my classmates! My friend said he brought in a picture of Brad Pitt and said, "I want to look hot like him," but it didn't quite work. I liked my cut though so photoshoooot!... read more