Silk Market = Shopping heaven

This past weekend, a couple friends and I went to the Silk Market.  If you haven't heard of it, it's pretty much knock off goods galore.  They have everything from designer purses, shoes, clothes, electronics, tea, souvenirs, and more all fit into a huge building with like 7 different floors.  Only in China haha.  When you come, be ready to bargain like crazy and spend money, it's impossible not to!

Right when you walk in, you see rows and rows of small shops where people sell their goods.  When my friends and I went in, the first thing we walked into was the purses.  I was instantly surrounded by a ton of fake Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, Marc Jacobs, and a lottt more.  We went right into the first store we saw and started looking around.  That's where I made my first purchase! A Longchamp bag :D  I've seen these around the U of M campus a lot and they're so simple looking but handy because they hold so much stuff.  I've wanted one for quite a while now so when I saw it, I wanted it right away.  I was able to bargain it down from 180RMB to 45 RMB (~$8).  I was a happy girl. 

 

Then the most sketchiest thing I think I've seen in China happened.  My friend Sara wanted some Louis Vuitton bags.  The store owner then proceeded to bring us down two floors into the basement of the Silk Market where all the cars of the store owners were parked.  Brings us to her knocked up looking white van, slides open the door, pulls out a couple stools for my friends and I, then starts bringing out cases of knock off purses.  It was straight out of movie or something; dim lighting, sketchy deals going on.  This woman had obviously done this many times before since she had stools in her van! :P  But my friend got some reallly good deals on her purses.  My second buy that day was a Louis Vuitton wallet that I got for 40RMB.  I definitely needed a new wallet and it's cheaper than any wallet I probably would have gotten in the US.  I'm still getting shocked all the time by how cheap everything is.  Sara was able to get a tailor made suit and pants for a total of 900RMB (~$150)!!  I need to find a job in the US that pays me in dollars but then live in China.  I'd like such a nice life haha.

My final buy at the Silk Market was a pair of running shoes.  Coming to China, I forgot to bring workout shoes so I haven't been able to do any running or lifting or anything and I feel my muscles melting away.  Sad, I know.  The locals and international students don't really go to the gym here at all.  What I've noticed is that instead, they will play a lot of sports; Basketball, Tennis, Soccer but they don't hit up the gym to lift weights or anything as much as I've seen people do in the US.  But anyways, I was able to get my shoes for 90RMB (~$15); down from 320RMB that the owner originally quoted me. 

Things I learned from the Silk Market:

1) Do not be afraid to bargain.  The owners expect it and quote extremely high prices.  You can easily get a price of 300RMB or so down to about 50-60RMB.

2) When bargaining, if the owner is not taking your low price, start walking away and they will run after you lowering their price.

3) For designer goods, many owners have a separate stash of designer products that they don't put out in front for everyone to see.  So don't be afraid to ask if they have anything more.

4) Bring someone along to bargain with you.  You can play off of each other and get an even better deal when talking to the owner.

5) If you make  the owner mad with the price you're paying, that means you got a good deal.  For my shoes, I could just tell the owner was frustrated that I was able to get such a low price (because otherwise I would have just gone to another store to buy the shoes).  I was happy though haha.

5) I like to bargain. It was pretty much a challenge of who would break first and give in. Kind of like a game... and I liked it! =P

The Great Wall

I've made it through another week of school! Yayy!!! Although I still can't say it really feels like I'm in school.  It's still much for of a vacation here :)  Out of all the classes I'm taking, I'm most excited for my Chinese class.  It's an intermediate Chinese class so hopefully I'll be able to read and write Chinese a lot better by the time I leave.  I'm teaching myself pin yin too.  I never realized that was how they taught Chinese nowadays because when I was younger, my parents taught me zhuyin (ㄅ, ㄆ, ㄇ, ㄈ, ㄉ, etc.) which is apparently a really outdated way to teach Chinese.  Thanks mom and dad :P haha.  While I've been able to practice my Chinese a little bit here, I need to work on using it more day to day with the locals and even with my friends.  There's a big group of students that are here at Tsinghua for the sole purpose of learning Chinese.  They have 4 hour Chinese classes 5 days a week.  I almost wish I could take it as well.  I feel like I'd pick up on Chinese so fast!  Well... for now I'll have to stick to my once a day classes.

Anyways, so what is the one thing that every person visiting China have to do???  Visit the Great Wall!!  I finally got to go this past Thursday with a couple of my friends.  It was only about a 1 1/2 hour trip from Tsinghua University, so fairly close.  It really is amazing seeing what the Chinese people were able to create soooo long ago and it's still preserved so well today.  The scenery and everything was absolutely gorgeous.  Luckily the day we went was a Thursday so it wasn't as crowded as it could have been and the weather turned out nice as well.  We visited an area of the wall called Badaling.  Which is apparently the most "touristy" area of the wall, but it's still worth it to go because the views are stunning.  My friends and I walked for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.  It is quite a workout.  Going down steps is so easy but going up the stairs is way harder.  Some of the steps were easily a foot tall if not more.  

The gorgeous view

Freaking tall steps

I did a lot of walking on Thursday because at night on the same day I visited the great wall, a couple of us went to go see the Olympic park where the 2008 Beijing Olympics were held.  We went at night because we had heard the buildings light up and it's really pretty.  Which it was.  I was really excited to go see the bird's nest and the water cube! After seeing it on TV so much, getting to see it in person I was blown away by the architecture of it all.  We were lucky we got to see it with the lights because we got there at 9:30pm and they close the lights off at 10pm. I'm sure it's a completely different sight from seeing it during the day and definitely worth it.  The whole Olympic park is HUGE as well.  I want to go back during the day and go inside if I can.  That would be awesome.  Apparently the water cube is open to the public to swim in as well.  Can you imagine?!?!  You would be swimming in the same pool as Michael Phelps and all the the other Olympic swimmers swam in!  

Water Cube: I had the resist the urge to go and bounce off it :P  They look like big cushiony pillows!

Birds Nest: Absolutely amazing architecture

I had quite the fun filled day on Thursday, if not a little tiring.  I feel as if it's not possible to get bored here in Beijing.  There's always something new to do or eat or see.  I love it!  It's also pretty easy to get around in Beijing.  Their subway system goes everywhereeee, and a trip to any part of the city only costs 2 RMB which is about $0.33.  Can't complain about that!  One thing that is a bit annoying is that it only runs till 11pm.  I mean come on, we're in China! You'd think it would be 24 hours... but I guess not :/  This was just annoying when we went to Shanlitun last week and wanted to come back around 3am but we had to take a taxi for 75 RMB when a subway would only have cost us 2 RMB.  We're so spoiled by how cheap everything is now haha.  We would never complain about a $13 taxi cab for a 30 minute ride.  

Time for random picture to end the post again!  As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been trying to find a good place to study.  One of the places I mentioned was a shop called The Bridge Cafe.  They have a wide variety of drinks and food that is actually pretty tasty on their menu.  However... the name of one menu item raised my eyebrow a bit.

While the ingredients of the MSG pizza sound yummy, the name certainly does not :P

Settling In

After being here for about two weeks now, I think I can finally say I'm getting into the swing of things.  Especially with classes starting now, it really feels like I'm at school again... almost.  Finding motivation to study still has been pretty hard.  Today was the first day that I pulled out a textbook and started reading it.  I'm already feeling a little overwhelmed with so much information, but at least I'm starting now and not procrastinating till later :D  It has been a little hard finding a good place to study on campus though.  They have one coffee shop called Paradiso but it gets really noisy and I can't focus.  Since I don't like studying in libraries too much I've been trying to find places off campus.  I've found a small cafe but food and drinks are a little pricey there so I'm still on the hunt.  Hopefully I can find somewhere nice to study before I really need to start hitting the books.  Now, onto the fun stuff I've been doing!

This past weekend, I went to the Beijing Aquarium with a couple friends.  It's apparently the largest in the world!  It's also a part of the Beijing Zoo.  Being there and seeing all the different types of animals right in the middle of Beijing was a little odd, but hey, Chinese families need fun places to bring their kids too, right? :P  It was pretty cool seeing all the different animals but I can't say it wasn't anything I hadn't seen in Sea World in Florida.  No killer whale either :(  But we did see dolphins, beluga whales, and pandas!  Although the name "giant panda" that we saw on the zoo map did not really live up to the hype.  They were all sleeping... or sitting... and just in general not doing anything. I wanted to see some action!  But I think pandas are known for being pretty lazy... 

Sleeping panda

Unicorn fish?

Jellyfish always fascinate me

This past weekend, my friends and I went to this area of Beijing called Shanlitun that is well known as the business place of Beijing.  So pretty much it means, where all the money is at.  We went clubbing at a placed called Vics that is pretty popular in China I would say since a guy from Hong Kong had heard about it and wanted to go there.  Walking around the clubs before going in, I have never seen so many Audis, Ferraris, Mercedes, or BMWs all lined up right next to each other.  The guys were going crazy seeing all those expensive cars haha.  When we went into Vics it was the exact same kind of feeling.  Right when you walk in you enter this area where they have booths that start at around $4000 just to reserve for the night.  That doesn't even include alcohol, food, or anything else like hookah.  Walking around, so many tables were filled with bottles of whiskey reserve that apparently start at around $1000 a bottle in the US.  And tables here had like 20 of them!  I have never seen so much money just flowing around like that.  

Pink Ferrari! :D

While my time in Beijing has been pretty great.  There are some things I miss about the US.  My biggest thing would be eating fresh fruit.  I am craving apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries, etc. You name any fruit and I am craving it haha.  There is not as much selection here and many people have warned me against eating fruit with the skin here because of dangerous chemicals and whatnot.  But a couple people I know have eaten some and have had no problems.... so I think I am going to too. I think the healthiness of the fruit will balance out any chemicals anyways.  That seems logical :P I am so used to eating two or three different fruits a day so I'm struggling over here.  Also, the food on campus here, while cheap, is pretty oily and salty.  There are also many meals where I cannot exactly tell you what I'm eating.  It's mystery meat haha.  What I've noticed as well is that they do not eat a lot of protein here.  Starch makes up a big portion of their meals.  For example, I'll get a bowl of noodles and there will be 3 small pieces of beef and the rest of a huge bowl is noodles.  Just a small thing I've noticed.  

China is very different from what I pictured because I think I was thinking more like Taiwan but it isn't very similar at all.  The food (omg street food in Taiwan... drooool) the people (much nicer in Taiwan I'd say) and just the atmosphere are different.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to visit Taiwan sometime while I'm here because my Aunt lives there so fingers crossed I'll be able to go!

In China, the first week of October is the mid autumn festival which means the whole country has the week off.  A couple friend and I have planned a trip for that week that I'm really excited about.  We planned a trip to Pingyao (a preserved ancient city), Xi'an (Terracotta warriors), and Shanghai!  It's only 10 days away!  I'll make sure to report back with pictures and stories :)

Like always, I leave you with a random picture.  My friend Sara and I found a Starbucks! For how many I saw while I was in Taiwan, I'm surprised to see that there are almost none here besides the one we found a bit off campus.  But while I was there, I saw something that I don't think we'd find in the US...

Starbucks Mooncake!

Exploration

I have finally started going out sightseeing in China!  About time, right?  My first site was Tiananmen Square and I went with my friends Sara and Alex.  After three subways with two transfers, we finally got there.  The front of Tiananmen is hugeee.  The area where it's located is actually very quiet and it seems much more organized than other areas of Beijing.  The streets were much wider and there seemed to be a lot less chaos all over the place like there usually is. 

Before we got to Tiannamen around 1, we hadn't eaten.  Which was a really bad idea because there was no food anywhere nearby the square.  So we ended up walking 15 minutes to a very busy shopping area that my friend told us was known for street food.  So what ended up being a bad idea, actually turned out to be a good thing because of the area we found.  We saw and ate some pretty cool things!  Our first objective when we got to the area was finding food.  And we found a restaurant that is pretty well known for their steamed buns.  They were DELICIOUS.  I'm sure anything would have tasted good for how hungry I was, but they really were yummy.

Pork steamed buns

After our stomachs were happy from eating, we decided to walk around a bit.  We ran into this part of the shopping area where they had a whole bunch of street food.  This wasn't just normal street food you guys, it was weird, delicious, stinky, and everything else in between street food.  The weirdest thing I saw was scorpions on a stick but what really made it was the fact that they were still moving!  They hadn't all died yet so they were moving their pinchers and tails.  Very disturbing to say the least. However, they did have a lot of other street food that looked really yummy!  I even saw the infamous stinky tofu 0_0 which I still have not learned to appreciate.

Only in China would you find seahorses and live scorpions on a stick

After we headed back to Tiannamen square, it ended up being pretty late.  So in the end, we didn't actually get to go into the forbidden city :(  So I will have to report on it once we go back! 

Wednesday night's in Beijing mean open bar night! This means that guys and girls pay a flat fee of ~$7 and ~$3 respectively and get unlimited drinks for the night.  Crazy, right?? Sooo, this means lots of drinking and dancing!  I've actually come to like going to the clubs in Beijing.  There are always a lot of people and the music is always good! 

Today I went with a couple friends to an area in Beijing known as the 798 Art District.  It's essentially an area in the northeast of Beijing that has a bunch of cool shops and sculptures that different artists have created.  It has a different feel than the rest of Beijing because it was so calm and zen like in the district with calm music playing and no crazy hustle and bustle of the city that we usually experience.  Getting there was definitely an experience though.  After getting off the subway, we had to take a taxi to get to the art district.  However, because the district is a fairly short taxi ride away from the subway, many of the drivers refused to drive us!  It was really frustrating but we ended up taking what will probably be the most dangerous ride I will ever take in my life haha.  After being rejected by 3 taxis, a guy in a electric rickshaw pulled up and offered us a ride.  After hearing multiple warnings to never do things like this, we decided to go ahead with it and said yes.  With no side doors, seatbelts, or any other devices to keep us from flying out the window, lets just say that the ride to the district was definitely an experience to remember.  Especially since the driver we had was a maniac on the road.  While it was a fun experience, we will probably not be doing that again :P

View from the rickshaw

It's crazy how much I've done already in a week!  There is just an endless amount of things to see and do here.  I'll make sure to keep you all in the loop ;)

Classes

So, today was the first day of classes!  Which for me meant one class that started at 1pm.  So a nice, easy way to start the school year.  Oh, and I also must mention that I only have classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday =D  At least for the first half of the semester.  Once I'm halfway through, I'll start two more classes for a total of four and have class every day.  So I must utilize my first half of the semester well to make the most out of all my free time.

My first class today was financial management.  For those of you back in Carlson, it's pretty much the class after FIN 3001 in ICore.  It seems ok so far.  There are only two homework assignments, a group assignment, then the midterm and final.  So it'll really depend on how much I'll be able to motivate myself and study on my own because I won't have consistent homework to keep me up to date.  What I've noticed about the classes in Beijing are that they are only one day a week for about three hours.  So I'm guessing a lot of the learning will have to be done on my own to make sure I understand the material.  The teacher for my finance class seemed really nice and she is actually a graduate of the Carlson school at the U of M! What a small world, right??

On a completely different note.  I bought a bike!  The main way that students get around on campus is using a bike.  They are literally all over the place;  sidewalks, dorms, streets, EVERYWHERE.  Especially after being here for a while, I've realized that Tsinghua University is fairly large.  Walking from one end of campus to the other would probably take about 30 minutes.  While bulging leg muscles sounds great, a nice, short bike ride around campus sounds even better =D  The bikes here are fairly cheap (like many other things in China) and around $40.  The lady selling me the bike originally price it at 280 RMB but I was able to bargain it down to 250 RMB with a bike lock thrown in.  Not too impressive on the bargaining skills haha.  That is one thing I've realized coming here.  I am not good at bargaining.  But I'm really happy with my bike.  It's so cute!

My bike

Bikes lining the street

Another interesting thing I've learned here is that Pizza Hut is a fancy restaurant! Apparently they are trying to become a place where people can have a business lunch or dinner.  A couple of the international students and I went to go try it out and we were pretty surprised with what we saw.  They have a ton more options on types of pizza along with appetizers like calamari and chicken wings, along with salad, dessert, and drinks like coffee, hot chocolate, tea, fruity things, etc.  

Pizza hut menu

Seafood pizza .... yum?

Yesterday, I was able to take a tour around campus led by some of the Chinese students at Tsinghua University.  While I didn't really see it when I first go to campus, Tsinghua is a gorgeous campus.  Some parts of it even remind of the U of M.  It's also not as loud around campus as I thought it would be.  Apparently Tsinghua University is somewhat far from the heart of Beijing, so it isn't crowded as much as other areas of Beijing. 

Tennis courts!!! I should have brought my tennis racquet :/

Northrop Mall area look alike

Main gate

So, I've realized this whole post was filled with pretty random things, but that just kinda shows you how scatter brained I can be sometimes andddd just the different things I have been experiencing.  Hope you guys have enjoyed reading this.  More to come soon! :D

To add to the randomness, I had to share this picture before I go.  McDonalds, and KFC deliver in Beijing! Guys ride around in bicycles to deliver the food.  You can see in the picture below what they drive around in.  I was pretty amused when I saw it myself haha.

Because eating fast food isn't lazy enough... some people have it delivered

The Arrival

I have safely arrived in Beijing!  It's been a bit of a whirlwind as I feel like I've been here for so long already when it's just barely been over a day.  I can honestly say that I am very sick of flying now.  The fact that my trip over here took three planes and transferring twice did not help that fact.  On a side note, the food on the plane was actually not that bad!  On my flight from Seattle to Korea, and Korea to Beijing I took Korean Air.  First off, their service is soooo much better than Delta and the food was much better as well.  From Seattle to Korea they had Bulgogi that tasted really good with some seaweed soup (pic below).  On top of that, they had good movie choices too! So props to Korean Air! :D

 

  When I landed in Beijing, it wasn't too late, about 8:30pm.  However, my mom being my mom freaked out about a girl being alone so late at night so she called up my aunt in China who arranged to have her friend come pick me up.  In hindsight, I'm really appreciative she did because I would have been so lost without their help.  So I got off the plane and got into a taxi pretty quickly and got to Tsinghua University by about 9:30pm.  Then I had to find the dorm check-in which turned out to be quite the hassle as many chinese students at the university don't actually speak English that well/ know where the international students office is.  I can tell that I'll have to improve my chinese while I'm here because English the students here aren't very fluent in English.  I really don't mind because I originally wanted to come to China to improve my chinese anyways so this will force me to use it.  After checking in to my room, which is pretty cheap (~$390 for my own bedroom and shared bathroom), I moved into my dorm.

I'm pretty happy with the size and ammenities like my own room especially since my roommate told me that Chinese students at the university usually share 6 people to a room!  That would be wayyyy too many hormones for my liking.  Anyways, my roommate is actually from Iowa!  But she's a graduate student that has been living in China for 6 years now.  Her Chinese is much better than mine... which is slightly embarassing.  However, hopefully that won't be as much of an issue as the semester progresses when I start taking my Chinese classes. Another minor gripe I have about my room is how FREAKING hard the bed is.  I have a pic of what the cushion on it looks like.  It's literally 3 one inch pads put on top of a wood bed.  The first night I had so much trouble sleeping.  Maybe it'll improve my posture or something by making me lay flat? I dunno, it's just unpleasant. 

The first morning of my day in Beijing my roommate took me around the campus to walk around.  Then we walked over to Wukaodo which is the area of Beijing where most of the international students hang out.  We had lunch at a noodle place where my dish was only $2! It's gonna take a while for me to stop being how shocked how cheap everything is.

Later that day, I met up with one of my American buddies and met with a lady who runs an English teaching school for Chinese kids.  She was interested in finding new people to work there and was willing to pay 200rmb/hr! That's >$30/hr you guys 0_0.  Even if I could only work a couple hours a week that would add up to so much money, especially since the cost of living is so low. The lady said she might need some help and will  get back to me probably next week. I actually wouldn't mind working there because I love kids and the pay would be amazingggg.

That night, I went with my American friend and we went to this bar called La Bomba where we met up with a whole bunch of other international students. We ate there and started drinking as more and more people came.  We got there around 5:30pm and stayed till like 10:30pm.  All I can say after last night is that those Europeans can drink.  Pretty sure one of the guys had like 10 big cups of beer and was completely fine.  The night before he had got completely wastedddd because the bars had a special where it was an open bar for 50rmb (~$8).  All the alcohol is suuuuuper cheap here you guys.  A big glass of beer is under $1 and a mixed drink is a little under $2.  Now if only I liked drinking a lot of alcohol....

Just a small snapshot of how much beer people had

After La Bomba we went to a Karaoke place but didn't end up singing because the place was all full.  I was actually pretty bummed.  I was ready to sing my heart out! :P  Then, we went to a couple more bars where they were giving out free drinks for girls.  ANY drinks we wanted.  This was a pretty common theme I realized from walking around.  I had heard from my roommate that the bars usually do this the first couple weeks of school because they realize international students will be lured in by this and hopefully we'll keep coming back.  I called it a night around 1am (since I had been going since like 5:30pm!) which is pretty early considering bar closes at like 6am here.  After last night, I breathed in so much cigarette smoke (blegh).  They allow smoking indoors in all the bars/ clubs and since it's such an enclosed area the smoke can get pretty intense.  Even walking out into the city air after being in the bars felt refreshing.  I feel my lungs battling lung cancer already :P.  All in all, the clubbing and bar scene is pretty similar to America over here.  Most of the students are trying to enjoy their last couple days of freedom before school starts.

Orientation with all the international students is today! Hopefully I'll be able to meet a lot more people.  I'll keep you all updated :)  To leave you guys, I'll show you a picture of the wonderful view I woke up with this morning.

I'm gonna miss those clear, blue Minnesota skies

The Beginning

So, the time has finally come.  I'm leaving for Beijing in less than 24 hours.  It still seems so unreal.  I feel like it really won't hit me until tomorrow morning when the plane takes off and I realize it will be another 5 months before I get to see any of my friends and family.  It's a mixture of excitement and sadness since I know I'll be missing out on a lot especially since I'll be gone for a couple of holidays too.  However... I'm sure I'll be celebrating it in China! And I'll have to report back on how different things are over there.

I finally started packing this morning.  I couldn't procrastinate any longer.  I remember when I was a kid, I would pack 1 month ahead of our trip because I was so excited.  Even though I'm excited for this trip, I think I've become so tired of the whole packing and unpacking process.  It's also been a little tough planning out what I need to bring and how much.  Especially since I can only check in one bag for free, I need to be somewhat strategic in packing.  Anddd, I wanna make sure to leave room for all the stuff I'm sure I'll bring back!  It's a little weird packing pens, notebooks, and folders since those aren't in my usual list of things to pack when I travel.

In this whole process, I've realized how badly I can procrastinate.  Things like applying for classes, applying for visas, finding information out about the school, and packing which I did at really the last possible time.  But I still got it done! Which is what really matters, right? 

Well, I hope that I'll be able to update this blog pretty frequently and keep everyone in the loop about all my adventures.  I'll make sure to take tons of pics (especially of the fooooood :D) and post them for you guys to see!