The winter is here!
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 15th .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 15th of November. This year it was actually turned on around the 2nd 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!
Mid-Autumn Festival中秋节
Today is the Mid Autumn Festival in Chinese it is called “zhong qiu jie” 中秋节. (It is a legal Holiday here in China) The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month in the Chinese Lunar Calendar. It is the day of the autumnal equinox and it is said that on that day the moon is at its fullest and brightest. It is also known as the Moon Festival. It is a popular harvest Festival celebrated in South-Eastern Asia. The origins of this Festival date back to 2000-3000 years, the earliest records go back to the Zhou-Dynasty, in these records it is said that : “in mid-spring, beating earthen drums and playing Bin Shi are aimed at welcoming the approaching of the summer, and it is also true of Mid-autumn to await the coming of autumn”.[1]
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
Beijing (6) 北京
So what else can I tell you about Minzu Daxue ? Beside of Sports there are numerous other activities taking place on campus. There are many cultural activities trough the semester. This time I will tell you a little bit about concerts and dance meetings.
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.
Beijing 北京 (5)
My term is finally over and the holidays began last week. Slowly most of the students begin to leave for their home country and the student dormitory starts to get quieter (but the summer students should arrive soon so it will not be quiet for a long time). The semester has been absolutely fantastic and I could meet a lot of very nice and interesting people and learn some Chinese.
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)
Beijing 北京 (4)
Finally the mid-term exams are over, I think that I did pretty good. At least I’m pretty happy with what I have learned so far but I still have to study much more. We are still advancing very fast in class but sometimes I think that it is getting a little bit easier in terms of remembering new words (I actually worry more about grammar now but it seems logical that you first need to get a minimum vocabulary to even start to worry about grammar) But still Chinese as probably every language has it’s finesses and I doubt I will get behind them very fast.
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.
Beijing 北京 (3)
This time my post will be about my last weekend out in Beijing.
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.
Beijing 北京 (2)
So today is “er yue er“ which means the second day of the second month (this year the Chinese New year was one month ago – I will make a post about the Chinese New Year in the next days). The day is also called “Long tai tou” Festival, which means the “Dragon raises its head”.
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 
Beijing 北京 (1)
So now it’s nearly a month since I’m in China, it’s still cold here and twice we even had a lot of snow and apparently we are in for some more snow on Sunday, but anyway I didn’t have much time to spend outside because I really have a lot to study. The first two weeks were just crazy at university, lucky us they slowed down this week. Otherwise it would have been impossible to follow anymore anyway. Those that know me from different classrooms know that I tend to fall asleep very easy, well since the university started here I didn’t fall asleep once (and I didn’t skip any classes) I somehow wasn’t even sleepy. So far I really like it, it’s challenging and I hope that I can soon have at least small conversations with native Chinese speakers (I do have to communicate in Chinese with some of my Classmates). Oh yeah about my classmates, it’s a very interesting mix we have, there are 3 Japanese, 2 Nepalese, 2 Indonesians, 2 Kazakhs (?) 5 Americans, 1 Georgian and 1 Thai. It’s really interesting to get to know people from a lot of different cultures (even though we are really spoiled in Luxembourg with that already).
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.
November In Beijing
November in Beijing:
In November I spent some days in Beijing already. I think I will write some more about Beijing in February. But I wanted to share already some pictures with you. The first pictures are the Tiananmen Square, the National Museum and the Forbidden City. The next pictures are from a marketplace (market house) where they displayed statues of the Chinese Zodiacs, and as it was before Christmas even some Santa Clauses. The last series of pictures is from the Dongyue Temple. It’s located in the Chaoyang District. The temple was founded in 1319. Today it’s protected as a National Key Cultural Relict. The Beijing Folks Custom Museum is located in the temple. The temple is a Daoist Temple dedicated to the God of Mount Tai.
The second temple is the Yonghe temple also called Lama Temple. It’s is one of the largest Tibetan Buddhist temples in the world. One of the highlights in this temple is the 18 meter Buddha Statue carved from a single piece of Sandalwood. Then you can see one of the famous horse paintings and a Statue of Xu Beihong in front of his Museum. And finally a picture from the St Joseph Cathedral.
Tianjin
Tianjin
On my first visit to China I spent most of the time in Tianjin. It’s located around 130 kilometres south of Beijing. The fastest way to reach it from Beijing is by fast train (travelling at 330km/h you need half an hour to travel from one city to the other). Tianjin is the 6th largest city in China in terms of urban population with around 11 million habitants. In the beginning of the 20th century there were 9 foreign concessions in Tianjin, they all had their own prisons, schools, hospitals and so on and they left a lot of buildings in the style of their home countries. (Especially churches and villas) Most of these buildings are under protection and you can still see them in the city.
Here are some of the pictures I made in Tianjin :
