Censorship Problems

Since I haven't posted in a week, some of you must have been thinking that I would be lazy again this semester and not post much. Well, think again!
The VPN that I use is apparently very popular in China and so the Chinese government decided to start blocking its servers, thus not allowing me to use Facebook, blogspot etc. for over a week. Thankfully, my VPN is quite beastly and they have come up with a way to ghost themselves to Chinese censors.

I was unable to make it to "The Place" shopping center but I am going to try again soon.

The one thing that I really missed about China, is the food. There are really just soo many kinds of dishes and styles to try. I recently found a dish that looks and tastes very similar to Lo Mein in America, I forget the name of it. Also, I am trying to make a better effort of eating healthy, and have been stocking up on bananas, apples and oranges. Spring time is also the time of year for pineapples in China, which happens to be my favorite fruit! Many of you know I am quite lazy and so I hate having to cut pineapple up, and in America its very expensive to buy pre-cut pineapple but in China you can buy a half of pineapple on a stick for 2 RMB or about 30 US cents!!!!

From now on, I think I will also be including interesting news articles about China that I think are worth reading and maybe give my opinion as well, if it warrants it.

Here are three:

The first one is about a Tibetan monk who lit himself on fire to commerorate the 3rd anniversary of the Tibetan protests.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article1546272.ece

And the second one, which I am really excited about is the high-speed rail line between Beijing and Shanghai
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90778/90860/7323191.html

The third is a follow-up to the second one, and about the different priorities of the US and China in regard to high speed rail
http://www.dailytech.com/US+States+Abandon+HighSpeed+Rail+as+China+Races+Ahead/article21107.htm

Back in Beijing: New Semester

Hey everyone,

I have now been back in Beijing for little over a week, and I must say that it feels great to be back. The hustle and bustle of city life is really exciting, no matter the city but being in China at this time makes things even more interesting.

My new semester has started and I have three new teachers for my classes. I am so happy too, because last semester if you can remember I said my teachers were terrible, well not anymore. I really like all of my teachers. I think the best quality of them is that they hold the students far more accountable and it forces you to study harder thus learning more.

My apartment situation is great and I don't have much to report there besides a small internet malfunction but I am taking care of that.

I started with my tutor yesterday, and it was nice to see her. I forgot some easy words but I must say that I am really impressed with what I have remembered. I think going back to America for a few weeks helped my brain absorb all that I learned last semester.

With the recent Jasmine Revolution "protests" being big news stories in America, I had expected it to have some impact on my life, but outside of discussions with my foreign friends and my Chinese friends in the know, there hasn't been an impact. In fact, if I didn't have a VPN or had been in America, I wouldn't have even known it was happening. I guess it goes to show that the Chinese government is doing a good job in clamping down on them.

Tomorrow night I am going to a place in Beijing called "The Place" it is a big shopping mall with the largest outdoor LED TV screen. So I will post some pictures of that soon.

One last thing, I came across a combo pack of cucumber, lemon grass and original flavored wrigley's gum. DISGUSTING! Only the Chinese would like that! Ha.

Kong Pao Chicken and Beef Kebab Dinner

Before my brief hiatus I mentioned that I wanted to show you guys some of the food I eat during my day. After all, food in China is one of the most diverse and unique cuisines of any country.

Here is a what I had for dinner tonight, Kong Pao Chicken and Beef kebabs. In Chinese the characters for Kong Pao chicken is 宫保鸡丁 pronounced "kung pao ji ding". For beef kebabs the Chinese character is 牛肉串, the 牛肉 is beef and 串 means literally stick and it actually looks like a stick or kebab. It is pronounced "niu rou chuan" or if your in Beijing "chuar". Most Beijingers have an “er" accent on many of their words and so if you say "chuan" no one will understand you but if you say "chuar" you will be perfectly understood. Here are the pictures.

Getting Back to Blogging

Hey everyone, sorry for not blogging in almost a month, but for those who don't know the last month, since the flood in my apartment, has been really difficult. I was either unable to live at home because of the flood or locked out from my landlord because he wasn't happy that I was planning to leave at the end of January. In the end, I just didn't feel like writing anything because anything I would have written would have been negative things about China and it would not represent my true feelings of the place.

So, a long story short, to recap what has happened the last month; I have moved out of my old apartment and into a new one. I really like the new one for a few reasons; one its cheaper and from what I found out the average cost of an apartment in Beijing, but also because it is just as good as the old apartment with only a little wear and tear. The thing in my opinion that makes it better is the view, I live on the 19th floor and look south into the center of the city! And the fact that the landlord isn't crazy and I that I now have heat (I actually have to open the window a little because it gets so hot).

Here are a few pictures from my apartment. In the third picture, in the upper, middle-left of the image you can see a large bright light. That is the Dragon Building and the Olympic Green.

The Great Flood

I mentioned in an earlier post about the heating situation in China, and since the heat was turned on in the building Novemeber 15th, I have, despite much effort been unable to get my heat to work. After my wonderful Chinese Thanksgiving, I came home and tried for the third time to get my heat fixed. The guy came to my apartment fiddled with things and declared everything fixed. For the next hour my apartment seemed to be getting warmer. Then I started to hear a trickling sound but didn't think anything of it until I had to use the bathroom and walked across my apartment and into a giant puddle of water in my apartment. As I found out later, when they built the building they didn't seal the water pipe to the apartment heater correctly and it leaked through the dry wall all over my floor.

It now appears that they will have to tear the drywall down and fix the piping this week. So my apartment will be come a work zone until Wednesday.

I went to McDonald's for lunch today with my friend because I was sick of Chinese food. As it turns out we arrived during "special time." Special time is what the girl at the counter called it and I can only assume it mean that it was just a happy hour of sorts were all the food is discounted. I ended up getting a Big Mac meal with a large fry, two chocolate milkshakes and a water for 24 RMB, which is a little less then $4. The other thing was that because it was "special time" many Chinese students were at 麦当劳 (McDonald's in Chinese, pronounced Mai Dang Lao) studying. I wish I had gotten a picture of it but it took us 15 minutes to get a seat. I am not sure how anyone could study in there for hours with that greasy smell, but it is China so....

In other news, my one classmate is looking to move off campus next semester, so we have to decided to look for apartments together next week. I hope that by getting a roommate, I can reduce the cost of rent by almost half. Any chance to save money is a good thing I think. Plus it will be nice to have a roommate. The other cool part is that he is from Kazakhstan. He also doesn't speak English that well, so we usually have to communicate in a mix of English and Chinese, which is great for both of our Chinese.

One last thing, my school just decided to post an emergency exit plan for the students and so I thought I'd share with the three emergency exits! Also, if you live on the top floors and their is a fire, there is no way in hell your going to survive because their is only one stairwell. Anyway, here is the picture:

Chinese Thanksgiving

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't terribly miss home on Thanksgiving. I did however miss the food. So my thought was if I can't be home for Thanksgiving, I might as well go eat my favorite Chinese food, hotpot! For those of you who don't know, hotpot is the greatest thing to come from China, better then gunpowder, fireworks and whatever else has come from China.

Hotpot is literally a pot of boiling soup placed at the center of your table. The pot is generally split between spicy and not spicy broth. You then order all of the ingredients that you want, vegetables, meats, noodles etc. You then put all of what you ordered into the pots and let it cook in front of you. In addition to the flavoring that comes from being cooked in the broths, you also prepare your own dipping sauce by taking things like peanut sauce, onions, garlic, MSG, spices and what-not.

The hotpot restaurant that my friends and I went to is considered the best in Beijing, and so when you go around dinner time, there is generally and hour to two hour wait (its worth it). So what the restuarant does is set up little tables for people to sit at, they provide popcorn and other snacks. Many people will bring cards or other games to play while they wait.

Also one thing that is common in restaurants in China particularly hotpot restaurants is for the restaurant to give you a plastic baggie to put your phone in because all Chinese people leave their phone out when they are at the table.

Here are some pictures from hotpot:

One thing that I will try and focus on in the next few posts is food in China, because I haven't discussed it much and I think it is a very fun and interesting topic.

I also hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Top Down Society

One of the things that makes Chinese culture very different from Western culture is how we view authoritative structures. In the US, we are very much anti-authority, always questioning those above us and around us, I think a bottom-up society. China, on the other hand, is very much a top-down society. Whether its from the national government or your boss, Chinese people view those above them with a sense of respect. This respect for authority sounds great, but in reality it makes things very to get done, leaves very little room for flexibility and reduces peoples choices.

Just a few examples of this:

In the US, when you have a home or an apartment, you pay for your electricity each month when you receive a bill. In China, when you rent an apartment you are given an electric card. To get electricity in your home you must go to a state-owned bank, wait in a long line to load with money. It can be really inconvenient because you may run out of money on your card in the middle of the night and the electricity gets shut of (like what happened to me) and because the only way to pay for electricity is to wait in the electricity line at the bank, which is usually 20 people long.

I went to see Harry Potter today, and unlike in the US where you can sit anywhere you'd like, in China you are given assigned seating. I think I like this way better, because you don't have to rush to get to your movie but it is another example of someone else making choices for Chinese people and not leaving it up to the individual.

On public buses in China, their are usually two or three doors. Each door is for either entering or exiting the bus. I am sure many cities in the US are like this but in China, there are no exceptions to this rule. If you are next to the entrance door and you need to get off you MUST move to the exit door because the bus drive will refuse to let you off through the entrance door. The only exceptions I have seen for this are the elderly.

During my exam week, I had my grammar exam in the morning of one of the days. Both of the classes that day were grammar, so I had the same teacher. I figured we would have the 2nd class free since we had just had an hour and half exam. Turned out I was wrong, my teacher said her boss told her we are supposed to have class all day, no exceptions. So despite her being tired, the students being tired, and only 4 out of 17 students staying for the second half, the teacher decided to push on with the lesson.

I know there are many more examples of the cultural differences but these are just the four that came to my mind now, since they happened recently.

On another fun note, here is a picture I secretly took of a 50 year old man and his man bag. No lie, I didn't fake this picture.