It's midday on my third day in Beijing and I am busy with the classes and trying to tackle this incredibly complicated language! The classes started yesterday - I have 20 classes over a four day period. I have one-to-one tuition which is good as it means I can structure what I would like to learn. I have asked my teacher to focus on the practicalities so in terms of booking trains, buying tickets, handling restaurants etc etc! Once I set off on the independent part of my travels I shall really need to be able to master this kind of vocabulary and the relevant phrases!
I am staying in a student residence not too far from the school, good accommodation and students from all over - from "Anglo-Saxons" to even French, German and Spanish! Feels just like Brussels - well apart from the Chinese!
I have had some particularly challenging moments with my Chinese already - it's amazing how difficult it is to communicate and understand even when you have the basics. But this does lead to some fun experiences too. For example, on Monday evening I found what turned out to be a Chinese fast-food restaurant for dinner - but unlike any fast-food I have seen before. The basic idea was that on arrival you chose your dish from hanging bamboo tickets with the names of dishes on them, which were then ordered from the kitchen for you. Having worked out the system, I began asking for the dishes I know in Chinese (not wide ranging on Monday evening I can tell you!) and took from the reaction of the waitress that they had run out of my selection! Gridlock ensued ... until a kindly Chinese chap got up and came over to enquire of me, in perfect English, what I wanted to eat! I have rarely been happier! Then, once settled with beef noodles (spicy), I had the surreal experience of watching the!
e locals watch a documentary about David Beckham - I nearly stood up and said "wo shi de Manchester" but thought better of it... :)
Yesterday morning before the classes started I decided to go and check out some of the sites in the city which I will not see as part of the tour. I wanted to go to the area north of the Imperial Palace where there are gardens and lakes. Well, getting there felt like crossing a country - Beijing is so big! We're in the northwest of the city and it took me 2 hours, mixture of walking, suburban trains and metro to get there, but in the end I did. It was a beautiful area to walk around, and I may try and go back at some stage.
Yesterday evening I met up for dinner with a Beijing local - Ma Yi. My colleague in Brussels, Bernadette, had met her in London when she was on a press visit and she took me for a traditional Chinese meal. It was excellent - noodles, beef, fruits and some bizarre sour stuff called duo zhi which I am told only old Beijingers can handle! Ma Yi seems to be encapsulating the entrepreneurial spirit that China is renowned for, having given up her job as a journalist to try and set herself up importing an American company's cosmetics into China!
This evening the school has organised a trip to a Peking Duck restaurant so we're raring to go off there - once another two hours of Chinese have been ticked off! It's nearly lunchtime too, but this time I am prepared: my teacher has recommended a fast-food place and a dish - fingers crossed they have it or it could be a difficult lunch!
More to come later :)
Rob
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