I actually started to write this article over a month ago but then found some new articles I wanted to include and now had to start all over with it.

So this time I want to tell you something about the heating system in China. Here Northern Chinese Cities have got a central heating system; most of you probably know central heating system for a building or a building complex. Well here in China whole cities are attached to one heating system. Northern Cities are all those that are located north of the Huai He River (淮河). The area where the central heating is in place covers 17 Chinese provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions with around 700 million people living in it.  So how does this work in practice ? Well here in Beijing central heating will be turned on at November the 15^{th .}But from this year on it has been decided that they will turn it on if the city authorities declare that the winter has arrived. The Beijing authorities will concede that winter has come if the average temperature in Beijing is lower than 10 C for 5 consecutive days. So usually the heating will be turned on the 15^th of November. This year it was actually turned on around the 2^nd of November (and it was really needed as inside our building it was freezing cold the 10-15 days before the start of November and I usually was wearing my jacket at home) I also tried to spent as much time outside as possible as it was warmer outside than inside. Most of the time I went to a bakery to study which is about 200 meters away from the university where it is really hot inside (and their coffee and cakes are delicious and not expensive – if you want to go there it is called 贝果).

But now since the heating is turned on it is actually so hot inside that I can sit here in my t-shirt while outside it is around 0 degrees Celsius (I could probably be naked and still not be cold), I hope it will stay hot enough all winter as the temperatures are still dropping. That is one of the downsides of the system, you can’t turn the heating down yourself inside your room/apartment. I guess the building manager could turn it down a little bit but I am not sure about this. The second problem is that the heating runs 24/7 which is a big waste as I spend a lot of time outside of my room. The same counts for office buildings which are also heated during the night. Another improvement would be to build better isolated buildings (this would also help in the summer when the houses need to be cooled down).

Now I am not the only one having seen this problem and there is a discussion going on in China how to make this system more efficient, because the central heating system consumes about one quarter of the total energy china consumes per year and costs about 70 billion RMB (around 7,987 billion €) and an improvement of the system would reduce the costs and the greenhouse gas emissions.

As a final word I wish you a good winter, wear enough warm clothes when you go out and stay healthy!

The Mid-Autumn Festival is also a time of family reunion, traditionally people will gather with their family and friends on this day to eat Moon cakes and Pomelos, and admire the bright moon together.

In the past married daughters who went home to visit their parents were expected to go back home to their mothers in law’s home that night. Also on this night people living in a foreign land would go outside and watch the moon and think of their home country and their family. In some northern Chinese regions moon cakes are also called “reunion cakes”.

There are many story’s around the Mid-Autumn Festival and I will try to present a few of them here.

Emperor Ming visits the Moon Palace :

This legend goes that on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival Emperor Ming went to the Imperial Garden to admire the moon in company of a Taoist priest named Luo Gongyuan. When the Emperor wished he could fly to the Moon Palace, Luo Gongyuan told him that it was no problem, he threw his walking stick in the air and it flew straight to the Moon Palace, leaving a large silvery bridge behind it. The emperor and the priest stepped on the bridge and walked until in front of them appeared a beautiful palace. At the gate stood a large osmanthus tree, underneath sat a white rabbit pounding herbs. On the gatehouse there was a big sign reading “The Cold Palace”. When they entered the palace they found that there were exotic flowers and rare herbs everywhere. When they got into the palatial hall they saw hundreds of fairy maidens dressed in fine white transparent jade gauze, they were dancing on crystal like floor to a melodic music. As the emperor was proficient in music he learned the tune by heart. After they visited the whole Palace they went back to earth. When they arrived at the earth the emperor felt a tremor which woke him up. Realizing he only had a dream he wrote down the tune he had heard in the Moon Palace. The song would be  “Music of colourful Feathered Fashion Dance”.

Another story is the one of “Chang E ascends to the Moon” first recorded in Huainanzi.

In ancient legendary times there used to be 10 suns (which where suns on the Jade Emperor) on the sky, which made that the life on earth was very hard, because fires broke out everywhere and the rivers dried up. The Jade Emperor sent his bravest god to Earth to end this catastrophe : Hou Yi. Hou Yi tried to convince them to take turns in their journey through the sky so that each day there would only be one of them crossing the sky. But they did not listen to him but instead amplified their intensity.

Hou Yi then took his magic bow and his arrows and shot down 9 of the 10 suns. The last one begged for his life and promised to divide the day in two parts, night and day as we know it today.

The killing of his sons made the Jade Emperor furious and he didn’t let Hou Yi and his Wife Change E back into Heaven. As Hou Yi felt pity for the people living on earth (filled with fierce animals) he decided to stay on earth and help the people to get rid of them. His wife didn’t like to stay on earth and often fought with him that he should not have shot down the nine sons of the Jade Emperor. Hou Yi did many good deeds for the people on earth and killed a lot of fierce animals. He even offered one of them to the Jade Emperor so that he and his wife could go back to Heaven, but the Jade Emperor still refused to let them back in.

One day Hou Yi was told of an elixir, if one would take the elixir he would ascend to Heaven but if two persons would share it both would become immortal. He got hold of the elixir and took it back home and gave it to his wife Change E who kept it beside her bed. During this time there were floods everywhere on earth and people didn’t have many places to live and no food to eat. At the beginning Hou Yi was able to hunt for some food but it became harder and harder. Chang E could not stand this anymore and thinking about the good life in Heaven she decided to betray her husband and consume the elixir. She then ascended to Heaven, when she arrived at the gates to Heaven all the gods and goddesses were standing there, but instead of welcoming her return they were gossiping about her, some even insulted her. When she saw that they all thought very low of what she did, she felt very ashamed and changed her direction and went to the Cold Palace on the moon.

Hou Yi was thinking about shooting his wife down from the moon, but he could not do it, so he finally decided that as he did not have any use for his bow anymore he would destroyed it. After having destroyed his weapons everyone sympathized with him except his disciple Peng Meng who thought that if he would kill Hou Yi he would be the best archer. So one day when Hou Yi was senselessly drunk he killed him. This angered the Thunder God so much that he struck Peng Meng with a thunderbolt and killed him.

Chang E stayed lonely and cold on the moon with only a rabbit and a toad as company.

[1]Gai Guoliang Traditional Chinese Festivals in China, Shanghai Chinese Classics Publishing House

First I visited some kind of talent shows where students can take part in. And here you have the whole range of different stuff going on. Some people play modern music, while others perform classic music and some others perform folk music. When I went to this talent show I was kind of surprised, from outside I heard a nice punk rock tune and then when I finally got into the concert hall it was 4 kids playing really good punk rock (they didn’t look like Punks if you are wondering about that) Also a lot of people in the concert hall had these plastic clapping hands or these plastic sticks you can blow up and clap against each other to make noise. After this band I watched another 3-4 performances in here (there was one band with a guy going totally emo, a girl playing on an acoustic guitar and singing a song).

Then we went to another concert hall on the campus where there was another show going on. Here the performances where more minority’s music (even though the Punkrock band that played in the first hall also played here). During the performances some people went on the stage with flowers to hand them to the singers or they had long white scarf’s which they put around the necks of the performers (this is a kind of greeting for some minority’s and they did this while the show was going on) Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera that day so I can’t show you any pictures from these concerts. But I got some pictures from another concert where a Tibetan group was rehearsing just before the show. I think there were such concerts every 3-4 weeks if not more often but you had to find out about it.

Also every Friday evening there was a public Tibetan Dance meeting where everyone could participate. There is Tibetan Folk music played and everyone dances in a circle, I think most of them know all the dance moves, for us it was a little bit harder (I think my coordinating dance skills are also not that great) There is also a dance meeting on Saturdays but I never went to that one, I only had a friend who participated in that Dance meeting every week and she told me that they had dance classes on Friday where you could learn all the dances they danced at the Saturday Dance meeting, so my guess is that for the Tibetan dance there might also be classes where you can learn the different dance moves. I got some pictures from the Tibetan Dance meeting unfortunately in a rather bad quality as there was no elevated place to take better pictures.

Last time I wrote that I wanted to write a little bit more about Minzu Daxue, so I will do that today:

There is nearly always something going on at Minzu Daxue, the first thing that struck you is the amount of sport events that take place, during one period there were sports meetings every weekend. There are the more “serious” sports everyone would except at such meetings mostly athletics (running, disc throwing, jumping and so on) but then there are also some fun sports like 2 people have their legs attached together and they have to run the 100 meters together, or 3 people on skies running the 100 meters. But the game that fascinates me the most is one game you play in teams of 2. There is one person standing in a circle with a basket attached on the back and there is another person around 20-30 meters away with a ball attached on a cord. Now the person with the ball starts swinging the ball on the cord and then throws into the direction of the circle. The goal of the game is to get as many balls in the basket from person 2 (you are one team so the one in the circle has to try and catch it. For the catcher it can be rather hurtful as I have seen it that they get the ball on the head or other body parts. But I have to say that I definitely want to try it out and participate in this discipline next semester!

On the weekend students from our University often play against students from other university’s (Usually basketball or football). At least I know that the Tibetans have got some teams that play against Tibetans from other University’s and if I’m not wrong the Chinese Kazaks do too.

The pictures I put up this time are from the one game where you have to throw the ball into the basket and from a basketball tournament where different Tibetan teams played against each other (if I remember right)

If you wonder what Campus life is like here I can tell you it is very very different from what I know from Uni.lu or Innsbruck University!

Let me start with the most important : FOOD! We have 5 canteens on the campus ground and 2 Restaurants!

One canteen for the teachers, the other canteens are for students, 2 very large ones, one large Muslim canteen, one smaller canteen which is actually more like a restaurant, one Muslim Restaurant and one Korean Restaurant.

For breakfast I often go to one of the big canteens, for lunch and dinner I usually go to the smaller canteen. There you can choose between 6 different kitchens (from different Chinese Provinces) where you then order the dish you want to eat and which is then freshly prepared! (you can look in the kitchens as they are behind a glass window and it looks great when they cook). And at each stall you can order more than 20-30 dishes if not even more at some of em. This canteen is open from 9 am till 9 pm.

The big canteens are only open during certain times (breakfast – lunch – dinner time) and in the big canteens you have also an unbelievable choice of dishes.

Now the best part about all of it is that opposite of what I tasted in the Innsbruck canteen everything here is delicious! And on top of that it is not even expensive. Also the staff is usually very friendly and helpful (I don’t know if that is usual or because I am a foreigner). In the small canteen it usually works the way that you first try to get a seat (Usually at lunch time or at main dinner time it is very crowded) and put your backpack or bag on a seat or if you don’t have anything to put on the seats you put chopsticks on the table to mark that this seat is reserved and then you proceed to order your dish. After you ordered you can then sit down again and 3-5 minutes later you can go back to the place you ordered at and get your dish. It’s absolutely delicious! I will put in some pictures of different dishes.

As I don’t know many people (yet) in this City I had to check websites about what was going on, browsing them I found a post about a concert that was labeled as a Punk concert. I checked out the website of the Band and what I heard was good sound. (Not the Punk I’m used to listen to but it was a good sound so I thought I would give it a try, , I think what actually made me wanna go to the concert was that one of their songs was somehow ska-like. I still checked out an optional place to go to if I didn’t like it there). No one from my classmates had time or was motivated to come along so I went alone. The description of the bar the concert was said that it was very small and indeed it was very very small. When I got into the bar I kind of wasn’t sure if I really was at the right place, the first thing that struck me was a guy on the stage who played on an acoustic guitar and sang a German kid song translated in Chinese (Alle meine Entchen), after that he played another song I knew the but I couldn’t remember which one it was but it was also some European kid song.

After this guy they finally set up everything for the concert and a Chinese band started to play, the singer had his head bandaged with medical-bandage which he took off after the first song to kind of strangulate himself. Their sound was kind of punky and raw; the singer went all crazy and was topless after the third or fourth song. At some point people even started to pogo, but a very gentle pogo. I have no clue what the band was called and even after the show when I asked some people no one of them knew.

Finally the thedamallamas started to play, their sound wasn’t really what I expected but they rocked and I really liked them (It’s really not the music I tend to listen) you could describe it as a mix of Punk-ska-pop-rock? They also covered some songs like killing in the name off from Rage against the machine. I had a really good time and even went into the crowd to dance some pogo. So if the thedamallamas ever pass in your area you should go to their concert as you will probably pass a good time.

What I found out about this festival so far are two different things, the first one (actually the one I found in the news) is that you have to cut your hair on this day as it will bring you good luck. A story of why this is done is the following :

“A Chinese legend goes that a poor barber loved his uncle dearly but could not afford a decent new year's gift for him. So he gave his uncle a nice haircut that made the old man look many years younger. His uncle said it was the best gift he had ever had and wished to get a haircut every year from him.

After his uncle died, the barber missed him very much and cried every new year. Over the years, his "thinking of his uncle" (si jiu) was interpreted as "death of uncle" because in Chinese, their pronunciations are almost the same.”

The second thing I found out about the Festival (which might be the real reason behind the festival) is that in ancient China the Dragon was responsible for Rain and therefore very important in agriculture, and this day was seen as an important worshiping ritual for a good harvest in the following months. It is celebrated in various ways, eating Chinese Pancakes, dumplings and noodles.

I got my hair cut today, and  if you are superstitious you might want to get your hair cut today

So what does my day look like? Usually I get up around 6:45 in the morning (I don’t want it to have to wait till one of my apartment mates is out of the shower so I go first (I share the bathroom/kitchen and “living room” with 2 Thais). Then I get me some breakfast downstairs from a street vendor or one of the small stalls that are in my street. When I’m back in my room I eat my breakfast and usually watch a 20 min TV-show. Then around 7:50 I go to the University. Courses start at 8 and finish at 12 from Monday to Friday. Then usually a group from our class goes for lunch. After lunch we sometimes do something together or everyone goes home to study (most of the time we go home to study) and meet again for dinner. On Mondays and Wednesdays we have tutoring class in the evening from 19:00 to 20:30. Then on Mondays and Friday afternoons I have got optional classes. As you can see my week is well filled.

Yesterday I finally got subscription in a Fitness studio next to the university, thanks to William who bargained us a good price. So from Monday on I will try to go at least 2-3 times a week to stay fit (the food is way too good here)

I will attach some Pictures from my Campus and my Breakfast to this Post.

I finally got internet (and I hope that it will stay that way) so I'll post the first post written in Beijing on February the 17th.

So finally the big day arrived and I left for Beijing. Now I was kind of nervous, I’m not sure if it’s cause of the flight or the fact that I‘m going to Beijing. Oh, about the flight. Some of you might know that I used to be very afraid of flying. Since the last time I went to China that’s not the case anymore, but I have to say that I still don’t feel that comfortable all the time. My main problem is that as soon as I fall asleep I wake up cause I get the feeling that I’m falling down. I guess that comes from the fact that you are never really in a stable position in a plane (Like you really fall down half a meter and only realise it when you are asleep)? If anyone knows a trick to avoid that please let me know. The other thing that happened to me this time was that I had three or four kids in the row in front of me; actually I should say babies and not kids (Somehow they didn’t keep me from falling asleep). All in all the flight was ok, the food wasn’t bad, and the flight was way shorter than announced! When I arrived in Beijing it was 5 in the morning and somehow I arrived at a different terminal than the last time (my guess is that this is due to the fact that I flew with a Chinese company) there were way less shops and bars here than in the bigger terminal and most of them were still closed. I waited till around 7 and then went to have breakfast. It was really good and not that expensive (the coffee I had afterwards in a pub was way more expensive than the all your plate can carry is yours breakfast).

Then I finally went to the University, where I spent all morning getting my stuff organised, there was a small problem with my accommodation in the student home as apparently you should have reserved (when I called them they said that no reservation was needed) so I had to wait 2 hours in the office before they finally told me that it was ok that there was still a room available in the student home and that I should go back there. I got my own room but the kitchen (with only a water cooker and a fridge in it) the „living room“and the bathroom are shared with another room where 2 guys live (one of them is from Thailand). It’s not that bad but it for sure needs to be cleaned. The afternoon was spent on walking around to get to know the area. I still have to find a smaller shop near the Student home than the one I went to today (there is actually one on the campus but it has weird opening hours but maybe that’s cause it’s still holidays), otherwise it seems that there are a lot of restaurants around the campus but I haven't  tried out any of them yet, I hope to change that in the next days. Tonight I went to bed around 5 in the afternoon only to be woken up by the housekeeping lady to know if they by accident put the internet in the wrong room. At least this way I saw some of the firework that took place everywhere in the city (the Chinese New Year started 2 days ago so they are still celebrating)

If you can remember my last post “Road to Beijing” you might remember the list of things I had to do during the last month. I actually managed to do all of the stuff from the list. I moved back to Luxembourg last weekend (Big thanx to Bisi, Stefan and Massimo! It wouldn`t have been possible without you). I got most of the stuff I need for China, now all I need to do is to pack. The main problem is that I can only take 30kg.

Some people asked me if I`m not nervous about going to China. Actually no, I think those that know me since a longer time know that I have had some adventures with a far more uncertain perspective. So I`m not really worried for Beijing as I will live on the campus and it´s a well developed City. I`m actually more excited to see something new and to meet new people. My chance is that people from every Chinese minority are studying at the Minzu University (there are 53 or 55 different minorities in China), so I hope that I will get insights into the different cultures that exist in China.

The last week in Luxembourg was ok but you can`t compare it to the time I passed in Innsbruck the last month! Cause the last month in Innsbruck was really really great, due to the people I passed the time with. Some I only met recently but I miss them a lot already! Then some others that I know since a longer time but only started to pass more time with in the last months, and then of course the ones I know since I moved to Innsbruck. I hope to be back soon to see you all again! but it`s not only the people (cause my Luxemburgish friends are also great), it seems that in Luxembourg there is still no pub open during the week where you can have a drink and meet a lot of people and then move to a casual place to dance (and dance to more than the boring always the same style of music the play in Luxembourg). You have got pubs that are nice but then when they close all you can do is go to expensive discos. In Innsbruck after the pub you move to the “Bögen” where you can find something for every taste and have a drink at a reasonable price. Maybe I haven`t found the right place yet in Luxembourg for the weekdays. If anyone knows where to go during the week and have a good time, please tell me when I come back in summer!

The next time I post something on my blog I will be in China as I´m leaving in three days. I hope that I can give you an update soon with some pictures from my campus and Beijing.