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!
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 (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.
Road to Beijing (3)
Road to Beijing (3)
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)
Road to Beijing (2)
It has been a long time since I posted for the last time. I will give you a small update on what happened the last weeks:
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.
Road to Beijing (1)
You might wonder why Beijing, well as so often it all starts with a girl. She moved to China this year to continue her studies, and as I wanted to be closer to her I was looking for Universities in China (preferably near her) so that we could spend more time together. As I’m studying European Ethnology I tried to find something that would be in that field. And lucky me there is actually an ethnology University in Beijing, the Minzu University. So in November I went to China to get to know the country a bit. I visited the Cities of Tianjin and Beijing (I will try to add some pictures from that visit here in the next days) and what I saw there stunned me and I wanted even more to go to China to get to know this country.
When I was back in Innsbruck I tried to find out if I my University would credit me the hours if I would go to china and study there. The initial plan was to take courses in English about Chinese Ethnology. But then I thought that it would be better to first study the language (and they teach you about Chinese Culture there as well) cause knowing at least the basics of the language from the place you intend to live at is in my eyes essential to get to know the local culture. So I decided to write a demand for language courses at the Minzu University (I actually wrote them an e-mail if it would be possible to take both courses, the English ones and Chinese language courses but they never replied to my e-mail, but the plan is to go to Beijing a bit earlier and ask. I’ll try to get some of the English courses in Chinese Ethnology as well [ at least the museology course]).
I sent the demand around the 9. of December and was since that day waiting for an answer to know if the enrolled me or not. I was somehow worried that the mail was lost on the way to China or that I didn’t send them the right stuff and so on. But then on the 29.12. I got an e-mail telling me that they accepted me! Lucky me Bisi, Vic and Chris were here, so that night we could celebrate a bit.
So that leaves me with around 2 Months time until the semester starts in Beijing, but as I want to be there earlier cut that down to 1,5 months. Now I need to plan everything!
I made a to do list
- Tell my landlady that I’ll move out
- Unsubscribe mobile phone, internet and the fitness studio.
- Buy a plane ticket (and decide on which day to fly)
- Make a list of stuff I need to take
- Move out of my flat in Innsbruck and get my stuff to Luxemburg
- Finish some papers for University
- Get my Visa as soon as I get the papers from the Minzu University
I guess that would be the most important, but I’m sure that there is more to do but I can’t think of it at the moment.