Chinese Facebook, among other things

Oh, I'm back finally. Do you know why is it so hard to write here every time? Because I have to click *wait 5 or so minutes*, click *wait some more* and so on... just to get to this text box into which I'm typing now. I so hate this firewall thing which makes using Blogger so much of an annoyance. I know, I know, I could use proxy every time I write here but that's also a hassle.

Anyway, I'd like to start (if this still can be called a start) with a quotation from our beloved chairman Mao, who said something like "one is not a true man, until he has stepped on the Great Wall". Well now, I'm going to continue with another will-be-famous quotations of my own: "one is not a true Chinese student, until he has registered on Xiaonei", the Chinese Facebook-clone.

Actually, on a quick glance, they bear so much similarities that you couldn't distinguish between them. But after discovering and fervently using the Chinese version, I've began to notice subtle (and some not-so-subtle) differences. Firstly, when you visit someone's profile, you leave a mark (like it or not), which means you can't stalk on people without them noticing, haha :D Secondly, there are no relationship information available, it's not even asked for. Instead, on the so-familiar left menu, right under the picture, you get one's hometown (because it is quite normal to travel far distances to go study).

And boy, do the Chinese people love to share stuff (links, pictures, videos etc.) on it! My main page is constantly updating (with only some 40+ friends atm). But the main thing about Xiaonei is that it forces me to learn Chinese as I'm trying to stay current with the latest gossips and stuff like that :D That's why I've become a heavy user of some of the online Chinese English dictionaries. Indeed, my Chinese is has improved quickly. Now I wish I had had the energy to get on it earlier. This is a bit too little too late, but still fun!

Last few weeks have been hectic. Not necessarily because of school. I've been growing a bit apart from it, skipping classes here and there (but still almost always returning homework on time). So I guess the trend seen from my last posting was not temporary. I've also been spending a lot of time at the TV station. They are my family now. Next Wednesday, on Christmas Eve, me and some of my dearest TV station friends are going on a late dinner. I'll try teach them some Finnish Christmas traditions, the good ones I learned when I was young. And of course, there will be presents :)

Yesterday, a fellow exchange friend called me. He said, "I just called to say goodbye. I'm leaving today." After I put my phone down I realized that it has started. The decline. The end of the banquet is near. With that realization came the sadness, sending shockwaves through my body. One by one, my exchange buddies will be gone.

Then one day, it will be my turn.

What's worse, I leave behind so many people whom I've learned to call my friends (In Finnish: "ystävä", not "kaveri", there's a huge semantic difference). Well, they still are after I leave, but I also know what distance does to relationships. Like roses, no matter how you tend them, they wither. Slowly and painfully. Someone said to me, "treasure these moments, for we will miss you". How can I treasure them when my heart is full of pain?

I feel like a prisoner, sentenced to death, knowing my execution date. I'll be forever counting the days...

This will be my third and last quote this time around, and it will be in Finnish. It's from a song and I'm sorry if you don't know the language, but you'll have to look it up, because in the process you might learn something important:

"Kuka voisi kellot seisauttaa / ja ajan pysäyttää / kun maailma lainaa kaikkein kauneintaan."

Yes, my time here is only on a loan. And I'll have to pay it back. With an interest...

But despite all this gloom I hope I've achieved something while being here. Rocked the boat. Left my mark. On things and on people's hearts and minds. You can watch one of these marks on Youtube. It's a music video... hope you like it!

Busy times

Whew, I think now's the time to chill out for a while. I was so busy (and wrapped into) shooting a music video for my colleague at the tv station that I let it interfere with my studies. That video will be shown at their department's students' festival. Nothing biggie but I'm actually skipping classes to do shooting. But I guess if the locals can do it, why can't I? And for your information, the video is going to be GREAT! I'll link it here when it's finished :)

By the way, today I got to do one of the coolest things ever here which was to shoot a four-camera live broadcast and webcast of the 2008 campus singing contest finals. The only bad thing? I heard that in the Spring semester it will be a model / fashion show instead of the singing contest. Why god whyyyy!??!??

Writer's blog

A common definition of a writer's block is that the they lose their ability to write due to lack of inspiration or creativity. Me? Sometimes, I just don't write. Period. I should, though, and I should do it more often. Writing clears my thoughts and puts them in a more organized form to be dissected and analyzed. Or whatever.

I participated in an English speech contest here, hoping to actually achieve something here. In the first round (a kind of qualifying one), the texts were given. Or rather, you randomly select one of five or six different texts. Of course it was just my luck to get a overly sugary sweet speech about love. Actually, now that I think of it in retrospect, it seemed more bittersweet after all. Needless to say, I didn't make it past even the first round. Will blame it on the topic.

If you have followed my tweets (Twitter updates, same as my Facebook status messages), you know that some student here committed suicide last week. She (yes, a girl) apparently wasn't afraid of the heights. They say in the school's BBS (discussion board) that the motive is either the high pressure due to exams or problems in love life, both of which are quite plausible explanations.

I guess that just about ruins my earlier plans to talk about how I felt that the Chinese people were so much happier than people in Finland, for example. But it was just an initial illusion I had, being in ignorant bliss and "tourist mode" myself. The more I got to know people here, the more I learn about the stuff beneath the surface and the more I realize how alike all the people in the world are. How similar problems they are all dealing with. It also acted as a harsh reminder that I couldn't escape my own demons by just going to someplace new. The dust has officially settled. Oh, and the nights here are officially colder than in Helsinki.

You may also have noticed from my tweets that I finally saw both Wall*E, the Pixar movie I was eagerly anticipating since this spring, and the Dark Knight, the "second" batman flick (which I didn't quite anticipate, but was just curious about). Out of these two I have to admit that I was soooo disappointed at Wall*E. Maybe all those praising reviews I read had me set ludicrously high expectations for it. A movie about robots, for gods sake! To me, they didn't feel human at all. I even liked Ratatouille better. The Dark Knight, however, was a pleasant surprise. Maybe also because I didn't expect so much of it. It was gloomer than I thought, which is good for a superhero movie. I mean, the Iron Man was just too happy hippy.

Other than the news, my life is still going on the same. School and work still come and go, stuff at the tv station is still interesting as ever, and I still miss u guys at home. Laters...

Singles and boys

November 11th was a singles' day. At least in China, that is. And I spent most of it on schoolwork.

I've never heard of the singles' day celebrated anywhere else. The date "11/11" is just perfect though: four ones, aka singles. According to internet sources, it started in the 1990s from a Chinese university mostly as a joke, but then has evolved into mainstream. But mostly it's still celebrated in schools. As well as the subsequent day (here at Tsinghua -- I think the date fluctuates from school to school), the boys' day.

It sure pays to get friendly with the local kids.. erm girls? Again, most of them are from the tv station anyway. At eleven fifty on singles' day, just about when I was going to go to bed, I got a phone call from one of them to come down and out my dormitory. Believe me, you want to pick this call up. So right after midnight, I was greeted with four (!) girls from the tv station, which is a kind of primary peer group of mine here, as us exchange students don't have our "home classes", similar to high school.

What's this boys' day then? Well, the girls are supposed to give their male classmates presents and boys are supposed to pretend they didn't know the girls were preparing. And vice versa on girls' day in the spring. A) I'm just glad I don't have to go through all the trouble in the spring because I'll be gone by then lol and B) ... did I have a B?

Anyway, I guess in a culture experiencing such a rapid change from traditional to modern there are lots of lonely souls caught in the middle of the fray, and so the need for these kinds of festivities exists. Not implying anything but I sure enjoyed my "surprise". They gave me a hot cup of coffee and a pair of gloves, with my initials and a text "THTV" (Tsinghua TV) on it. So heartwarming, right?

It's about time I needed a new pair of gloves anyway... ;)

Midterm frenzy and other things

Wow, this week's been frenzy. With lots of midterms coming up next week the people are getting very busy with their schoolwork and deliverables. I myself have done a few half-nighters, with some of my Chinese (you know... Chinese Chinese) schoolmates pulling full-nighters this week. And when the Chinese people do it, they have to work in the shared washing room of their floor, because electricity to their rooms are cut at 11 pm.

Can you imagine that? Someone working over their laptop in the washing room in the middle of the night? Apparently, that's common. And here I complain being just massively tired.

Wait... have I already spent about half of my time here? That can't be true. One semester is definitely too short a time, noooo! Just when you get used to the idea that you're living in your true motherland, they'll take you away.

I never quite felt Finland was my true home, and after few months in China, the mixed feelings are even stronger. There's just this new sense of identity and belonging I've never felt before. Like not once have I woken up in my dorm and wondered "What the hell am I doing here?", it feels just so natural.

Oh boy, I just don't know what will happen in the future.

Another TWiT (this week in Tsinghua)... is in the can

Actually, there are still some homework left to be done in the weekend. But other than that, the week's been quite chilled both in workload and in temperature :/

Last Sunday I went to have a lunch with the TV station crew, outside campus. And you know the saying what goes around, comes around? Well, didn't I just write about me terminating the relationship with the Man upstairs. But as I followed the crew into the fray of what is known as the Beijingese traffic (ok I'm overly dramatic again, gonna tone it down a bit...), cold shivers began to run through my back. Haven't I been here before? Yes! This ONE time of the week when the Christian folk is meeting, we're going to have a lunch - in the same restaurant!

But, I think it went well. I sat at such an angle that the others couldn't recognize me, and I'm pretty sure they won't take a second look at what had been a bunch of college kids having craploads fun. Just check the picture on the right if you don't believe me :P TAKE THAT, DAD (I know you aren't reading but if you had, that's for you), I'm having my own fun! Ah, just gotta love these people.

Even Mel* came there. But turns out she's already got a boyfriend... mmh that explains a thing or two. Anyways, it seems that the whole station is full of gossiping or then it's just the Chinese people being different, but like the main topic through the lunch was who is whose bf/gf and who's got a crush on whom and I got to teach them how to say 'I love you' in Finnish... yay. For some reason, they forgot to invite Cindy there. I guess she's still unofficially in the ranks? Huh, beats me. And beat me she did, at the game pool, to which I took her playing this week. But hey, exciting news, she's single! Although according to her own words, she warms slowly... so don't get your hopes high!

Meanwhile, the midterm time draws near but apparently I still don't have exams for at least a week. I'm not even paying that much attention to school lol. These courses are quite easy to pass, and the professors give lots of points just for trying. One thing is annoying, though, and I already briefly touched that subject. It's the cold! In Finland, at least the apartments and rooms are well insulated but here, I'm freezing my ass off. There is a central heating, but it's not on yet (government controlled stuff apparently), so I'll just have to shiver more for at least a week or so.

Anyway, lots of love to the folks back at home, hope you haven't forgotten about me and keep on commenting! :)

*) If you didn't get it, please refer a few posts back. The names are in the title, can't really miss it.

Autumn or fall

Whichever way you call it, it is here. Leaves turn to yellow. Leaves fall. Another year is over and the nature is bracing for the apparently cold, dry and windy winter of Beijing. Especially cold and windy after rainfalls, that's what I've learned by bitter experience.

Thanks for all the comments on my previous post, looks like there really *are* people following my blog, which was a bit of a surprise to myself :) Well, now I know I have an audience, which kinda puts more pressure on myself too.

I've noticed that after the first eight weeks (or the first half of the semester), my weekends will be extended to four days long, as I will only have classes from Monday through Wednesday. I'm thinking I should use the remaining weekends effectively and go traveling around China whenever I'm not swamped by cases or doing some Tsinghua TV channel gigs.

For that, I'm open to suggestions and might actually listen to your ideas so if you'd like to see some places, I can go check them for you.

Forgive me Father, for I have... Melissa, Cindy and Gertrude!

Meh, note to self: Don't try crazy bike jumping tricks while going against this huge torrent of bikers riding to the opposite direction. Result: Only a dropped chain this time, luckily. No human casualties, just had to play grease monkey for a while.

Now, to offer you guys back at home new update on things, shall we? First I'd like to start with some lightweight news. I broke up with Jesus, and a huge burden was lifted from my shoulders. How did that happen? Haha, long story, but I blame it on my dad. Towards the end of the National holiday week he managed to talk me into going to this underground Christian community by exploiting my interest in new things.

Well, actually his sales pitch was: "You'll meet some nice girls there." And stupidly, I bought it. I'm beginning to think he knows some nice girls there. But anyway, in the end I did it mostly just because I wanted to make him stop nagging. I mean for god's sake, I'm atheist! So, Sunday morning I went there and told them I wasn't going to show up anymore. *Sigh* why do I always have to pick up the pieces after my dad? Let this be the last time I ever listen to his stupid ideas. Even my mum's were BY FAR SUPERIOR. Or is this just me being oedipal? Go figure.

A lot of people have asked me about how the Chinese girls are (I JUST WONDER WHY??). Well, ok I admit, I've avoided this topic long enough. Lol, even the Chinese people here have asked what I feel about them. Now obviously I've only spent most of my time here in Tsinghua, the geek school, where chances of getting a good-looking girl are pretty slim (it's still possible, though, but 2/3 of the students are male). On the other hand, getting a smart girl is a surefire thing: I feel like I'm the midget in the land of the giant minds here... please rescue me!

Yeah, anyway. They say there are lots of beauties in Beida, or Beijing University. It's the Arts (for my Finnish friends: humanismi, not taide) uni next door, so you know, less geeks and generally more women. Apparently these are the top two unis in China and they are always competing with each other just like Oxford and Cambridge. Have I gone offtopic? Oh I think I have. Yeah, girls. Obviously, there wasn't and won't be enough time for me to get a whole picture but I can give a quick overview on three different people I've encountered here. Let's call them Melissa, Cindy and Gertrude*.

Mel is a 19 years old English major. Her dad wants to go to America. Her English is very good, but that shouldn't be a surprise given her major. At first I thought she's shy, but she's actually quite confident with her English and isn't afraid to approach foreign people for an interview, for example. A nice, civilized and harmless girl, though I think she's been trying to avoid me lately lol :)

Cindy is 20 and from Changsha, apparently the creative center of the Chinese TV industry (Wikipedia). She studies journalism, but her English skill isn't that good. That's why she wants me to speak English with her... you know, for some oral practice. Has some sense of fashion, for a Chinese. (Ranting and offtopic again, but usually even if a girl dresses smartly otherwise, you can see them wearing sneakers... like wtf?? The Koreans are far more fashionable than the Chinese here). Well, don't know more about her yet so that's all.

Gertrude should be 21 I think... She's doing the senior year in the same department as me (SEM, the School of Economics and Management), majoring in accounting. Really book-smart, however a lot difference in sense of humour. Speaks ok English, has even been to Canada for an exchange period. We have many courses in common and work in the same case group in one of them, so of the Chinese students I've probably talked most with her. With her new haircut, she reminds me of the character "Edna Mode" in The Incredibles :D :D

By the way, I only wrote this much to spark some discussion into my blog, as I'm bored to see 0 comments one after another. For a post this long, there must be something for everyone. So please, comment!

*) And then of course there's Helen, who kindly named these people so I wouldn't have to invent the names myself. Thank you!

New stuff and Old stuff

Sorry for my absence - the uni is killing me :) Suddenly it seems that every course is out there to get you. At least that's what the rush of deliverable assignments felt like.

Anyway, I've beginning to love the Tsinghua TV station. Ok, some situation recap needed. Previously on THTV: So, I learned there were tons of clubs and other activities looking for members in the beginning of the semester. One time I went to have a lunch when I spotted a very nice looking camera standing on a tripod. At first I thought it was a movie club or something, but turns out it's a student-run TV-station inside the campus. I registered immediately.

I believe that was the best decision I made here this far. I went on their welcome event for the "new" people and god there were just so many girls :). The "older" people are also really nice. I talked them about my past so they let me take some responsibility straight away without any practice. That's why I was able to go shoot the 2nd world university shooting championships. Now I'm working on shooting the campus-wide singing competition (the format taken from Idols I guess). I don't have to work alone since they partner up a reporter with a camera operator, which is so cool.

The TV station is a place I can go when I need to clear my mind from all the school shaite. Still, I don't think I'll be too buried with schoolwork. After all, it's just an attitude thing.

Oh did I mention my dad was here? Yeah, he came over here on the excuse of attending a conference. Was here last weekend. It was nice, toured me around the campus - the places he grew up around. More photos about that coming later.

Tsinghua University shooting, Finns competing for score

TSINGHUA-The campus held its breath today as Tsinghua University Shooting 2008 began.

One street in the residential area has been closed and an unusually high campus security activity has been reported patrolling the area. However, athlete lodging arrangements have not interfered with everyday campus life much.

The Second World University Shooting Championship is being held in Beijing, China, with Tsinghua University as the main host for the athletes of the games.

The latest number of attending countries amount up to 30, among them Finland, which has lately caught extensive media attention for using illegal practices in school shooting.

However, after a careful study of evidence, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and International University Sports Federation (FISU) decided to drop all charges against the Finnish national university shooting team.

The championships will take place in Beijing from 8th to to 11th October. We will monitor the situation live as the event unfolds.

Update 1 @ 17:53 GMT+2: Got in :D. Will go to the Olympic shooting hall (where the real competitions were held) in Beijing on Friday. I'll be shooting, too. Just not with a gun, but a camera! Yay.

> Official website

Pleasant surprises

Roughly one month ago I bought a nice Tsinghua bag from the souvenir store here, and have been using it since. A week ago one of the buttons fell off and I thought the process of reclaiming it would end miserably, but little did I know back then.

I went to the shop to complain about the issue yesterday, and to my surprise, not only did they admit the problem was fairly common, but also fixed it right there, in a matter of minutes. Without charge. Of course, I might've just been lucky, but hey: you don't get lucky unless you try!

Traveling back

The day of the departure was marked by a constant rain. Indeed, the whole train ride from Nanjing to the capital city of Beijing was chased by the rain. It's been a while since the last time I went on an overnight train ride. That was in Finland I think.

I got tickets to a "hardback" bed which means a cubicle of 2x3 beds (three levels on both sides). That's the usual ticket type we bought back in the day, when living in China :) I slept on the lowest one. It was comfortable enough to be able to fall asleep, although I kept waking up once in a few hours. Anyway, back and still alive :)

P.S. the photos are starting to flow into Flickr... I'll keep a constant pace of about 8-10 pictures / day so that if you check back every now and then, there should be some new ones (instead of lashing them all at once).

More China phenomena

Here's an interesting article on how the city of Beijing plans to continue the improvement of air quality even after the Olympics: http://english.sina.com/china/p/2008/0928/189001.html.

It's clearly a good sign of sustainability from the government, that everything wasn't just for the show. However, I'll definitely want to see the public reaction, some of what is already expressed in the article. Ultimately their actions will determine if the project is successful or not.

My dad says one reason why democracy is still far from actually happening here is because of the way the Chinese people are wired. There's no single excuse, it's just the way things are done. People look for strong leadership and guidance or they will be as lost as the sheep without their sheperds.

However, there's still hope. The youth here are much more individual and liberal than the old people - to a point even I am surprised - so perhaps slowly, as the generation change takes place, the new way of thinking will be injected into the system.

Inner change will take time. We may not see it in five, ten or even twenty years, despite rapid development on the outside. But perhaps in fifty years, the promises of One World, One Dream will finally come true.

Yes, I finally watched the Olympics opening ceremony, which I missed on the 8th August due to some business I had to take care of. I have to say, though, that I felt so proud after seeing the ceremony. It was an NBC rip with American hosts, but even they admired the show.

By the way, I think I won't be uploading any photos from my National Holiday travels until I get back to Beijing (that's Oct. 5th). I just can't be bothered to set up Internet connection to my laptop.

In NJ

Well, it seems there won't be a road trip with my dad as my aunt was able to get me a train ticket back to Beijing

This morning me and my dad drove from Hangzhou to Nanjing. Well, I did most of the driving, as in back in 2006 :) I guess once you get used to the Chinese traffic "rules" - or lack thereof, everything goes a lot smoother.

I also finally saw my grandma - I mean after she got seriously ill, was hospitalized and subsequently released for home care about a year ago.

I guess I'll be spending the rest of my week here, so there's plenty of time.

Loma!

... that was Finnish and means "Holiday!". Yup, the National Holiday week (around Oct. 1st) has begun. I flew to Hangzhou as soon as I could (last lecture on Thursday morning, flight on the same night), got delayed for an hour and a half by the Shenzhou VII rocket launch and arrived in the early hours of Friday morning.

Hangzhou is a beautiful city in the eastern coast of China, few hours' drive from Shanghai. It was very humid when I got here, and a bit warmer than Beijing. I heard Nanjing is even hotter. That's my next destination. The most well-known place in Hangzhou would be the lake Xihu, or West Lake, a very scenic place right by the city. I went there today, but unfortunately my internet connection at the moment (at my dad's place) is a bit slow so the pics will be coming later.

I also visited Zhejiang University, which is the place my parents worked at during my early childhood here in Hangzhou. My good friend from Finland, Shilei (people tend to call him Chili), is also in there to study Mandarin for a semester, and with a stroke of luck we met each other today.

My tour will continue to Nanjing on Monday, and I'll return to Beijing the next weekend. Details unknown for now, but it looks like I'm going to have to take a very long road trip with my dad on my way back...

A little bit of this and that

Hmm, lots of stuff to write about, let's see where to start. Ok, school first. My home uni (HSE) put some tough requirements for outbound exchange students, so I'm taking a total of seven courses for this semester. Quite stupidly, as an undergrad student, I'm not able to take Chinese (Mandarin) language courses for credit. They are only for the MBA students.

Luckily there's a add/drop period in which students can try different courses. I pre-registered a course called "Commercial Bank Management". Sounds fairly easy, huh? But it was actually an "Economics of Banking" course, with loads of maths. But Chinese people are quite smart. As Bagher (the other exchange from HSE) said, even the most beautiful girls are smart (there's no trade-off) and even not bitchy. Well, another friend of mine would disagree on the last part, but let's just leave it at that.

Yeah, back to the topic: I'm changing the math-happy course to something more relaxed but overall the courses are okay. Some teachers are more open to the idea of speaking English, some are less. The extreme case was one course where the teacher would repeat the English part in Mandarin just to make sure all the Chinese people understand it. However, the same course is also the easiest to pass, because there's no final exam for foreigners. Communication with the locals is quite easy since most people speak English from good to well. On one course, I'm doing teamwork in a team of 2 exchange students (another one is a Thai student from Erasmus Rotterdam) and 2 locals. So far the teamwork's been working well.

On Tuesday I visited the National Stadium, or commonly, the Bird's Nest. It's the main venue of the olympic and paralympic games. I went there with my cousin, and our tickets let us see some of the paralympic finals. For example, we saw China win in the Women's 4x100m wheelchair relays (just follow the Youtube links on the right side). Anyway, the Nest and its surroundings, including the National Aquatics Center (can't remember the common term... well, the water cube?). The whole place in night lightning just look so stunning and no photo from my camera would capture and do justice to the atmosphere. This one comes pretty close, though.

Yesterday I climbed the Great Wall with one of my new friends here (actually my mom's colleague's daughter from England). Anyways, we almost missed, being so late, every possible method of transportation to the Wall (the nearest accessible point about 50 km from Beijing). With a little bit of luck and extra money spent, we caught up with the rest of the tourist flow, though. There we climbed to one of the peak points for some of the most breathtaking view I've seen for a while. The sky was blue on that day, so it was perfect. I'm a bit lazy with the photos, so they'll be uploaded when I have time.

Today they lifted the even/odd day restriction on cars and you could feel it immediately. On my way to my relatives', I sat in the bus for over 2 and half hours. Of course the rain might've also have something to do with it. You can't sense the traffic in Tsinghua campus, though, because it's always so quiet and calm inside.

The national holidays (the holiday around independence day on Oct 1) will be soon, which means a pause of over a week to all the studying, which is like yay! I'm flying to Hangzhou to see my dad, who is working over there. Then we'll drive to Nanjing to see the rest of my dad's family. I'm hoping I'd see Wall-E at some point, been reading the reviews and just can't wait to see it.

Happy Mid-Autumns!

So, tomorrow the classes will start... which is very weird, because I think most of the other people have Monday as a holiday (prolonged weekend because of the festivals).

Mid-Autumn festival (or the Moon festival) is the second biggest holiday in China, right after the Chinese New Year. According to Wikipedia, the farmers celebrate the end of the harvesting season. It is nowadays celebrated by eating mooncakes, a kind of small sweet cake, which taste quite good. Also on the Mid-Autumn festival, the moon is at its brightest, although today was a poor day to witness it because there was a thunderstorm over Beijing.

I've now been over a week here, and it's looking really good. I think I can survive here, even though the language barrier (which in my case means difficulties to express myself in Mandarin even though I can speak a bit) often makes me feel quite stupid, like an illiterate moron around some other people.

I hope everything is well wherever you're reading this. Enjoy the festivities and have a bite at the imaginary moon cake!

Blazing Beijing

Someone said that Beijing’s air is rather poor, which I admit is true. However, today it breathed at its best, offering a clear blue sky and up to 26 degrees celcius of warmth. As it was an even day, we set out on foot. And by bus. And why wouldn't you ride public transportation. The local bus/subway card costs like nothing. Zit. Bus fare starts from 0.40 RMB which is like 4 euro cents. Subway costs about 10 euro cents. And subway is fast compared to sitting in traffic jam :P

But oh boy did that sun burn warmly out there today! I can already notice a nice tan coming up and there will be more sunny days coming up.

We went to a lake near the center of Beijing (which would be the Forbidden City and stuff like that), called Bei Hai (or Hou Hai, depending on which side of the lake you are). It’s a bar and restaurant area around a beautiful scenery, with lots of foreigners. And those little boats you can paddle on (see the photos on the right hand side). We didn’t go to those foreigner restaurant places – yet. Instead, we went in on this little alley maze and found a traditional Beijing snacks restaurant. They serve snacks that in the ancient times were the food for the poor people. Both sweet and salty snacks were at offer, and we also saw a talking parrot there. Mandarin, of course :D

Tomorrow would be the start of the semester, I believe, since it’s orientation day. I’ll finally meet the other exchange students. On Friday we’re going on a tour to the Forbidden City together.

Rollin' like a local

Today I finally met my Tsinghua buddy. If you don't know what I mean, try imagining a tutor, except personal one. Seems like every exchange student gets their own. My buddy is a from a minority group from western China. They have their own language and stuff and they are muslims. But my buddy also speaks good Mandarin and English, and today he helped me get a bike so that I can haul my ass around the campus more quickly. I'd better be able to, because the campus is huge. My legs are still sore after all that walking around bikeless...

My cousin got a few free tickets to see the paralympics, so I guess I'll tag along. You've read that joke about paralympics on the internet right? I'm going to be PC and not say it... But anyway, the tickets are for next Monday and Tuesday. I'm not that keen on sports (didn't watch "real" olympics either), but the Bird's Nest Stadium should be a cool place to visit. I saw it from the outside and pretty close the day we drove from airport. It is a very magnificent looking building.

Orientation day on Thursday. That'll leave me few more days to wander around this great city (getting around is a bit time-consuming because you can spend over one and half hours and twice on roundtrip, even on subway system -- things will get better when I move to the campus, though).

I can only drive on every other day? I'll buy another car!

(Previously on Tiger Returns: I discussed the fact that vehicle restrictions are in place and that on odd days, only the cars with a license plate ending with an odd number are allowed to drive and vice versa, except for cabs which are allowed to drive always.)

In related to that topic, they are now contemplating whether to extend the restriction after 20th September. My cousin says they probably won't do it, because an interesting phenomenon has come from it.

They say that when they introduced the semi-"banning" of cars, they tried to encourage people to use public transportation instead of their own cars. However, as the price of the cars are so cheap nowadays, people just bought another car with a different ending to a license plate so that they can switch cars every day. And believe me, I've seen it: two identical cars, one with an odd number and another with an even number sitting next to each other.

Oh by the way, the gasoline is also cheap. Hooray. To hell with global warming when I can pwn the streets! ;P

Things will get better though, because regardless of the outcome on decision to lift the car restrictions, the olympic lanes will be freed. My cousin told me that now if a car is caught using the lane, the driver can get a roughly 1400 euro ticket + one week jail time. The horror!

First impressions

Hot! Gusts of warmth began immediately after stepping out the plane. In the afternoon heat, mercury rose up to 35 degrees celcius. Dang!

The first day is nover now and I've already spent over 1200 euros for administrative and registeration costs, paying for the room for 5 or 6 months in advance, for example, although they'll return the money for unused days when I check out at the end of my studies.

Lucky for me, I can speak a little Mandarin and understand most of what people say. I can imagine how it feels not being able to understand a thing. Saw a raggae-funk-soul-brotha from Namibia or somewhere looking pretty lost even with his local Chinese buddy / interpreter.

But hey, at least now I've got an apartment (roughly the same size and price than mine in Finland), Internet connection (not tested yet, might be slow, I'm at my cousin's place 512k broadband yay!), a campus dining card, and a Chinese prepaid mobile phone number. Ican still receive sms or calls for that matter on my Finnish number, but I still won't pick them up.

The first day also involved lots of "running around" in Tsinghua campus to get this and that. Good that my cousin who picked me from airport has a car and we were able to drive around campus area, though it's discouraged as most of the roads are blocked and only open to bikes. Speaking of them, I still have to get my hands on one of those...

Beijing is HUGE. But that wasn't a surprise :) Lots of driving to do, lots of places to go... My cousin's car licence plate ends with an odd number, which means that until September 20th or something she's not able to drive on even days (in relation with Olympic and Paralympic games). Despite that fact, the traffic during peak hours is still stiffy, and I can't imagine the situation when every car is allowed onto streets again. However, they now have these special olympic lanes reserved for olympic traffic, which will be freed when the car ban is lifted, that'll help the situation a bit. The other "relief" is that people use a lot of liberty in interpreting rules and thus traffic is more "elastic" if you may.

I'm dead tired now for all the running and stuff, need a good night's sleep!

I'm standing here outside your door

(Originally written: on plane)

Sorry I had to post first few entries and then backdate them, but I wasn't able to do it on the fly (literally)...

Anyway, all the farewells are said now. I'm writing this on the plane so that there's no escape for me anymore :) I'm really no good farewell person, but at least now in the age of the Internet, keeping touch with friends is easy enough so the distance doesn't feel long.

Let's not worry about things that gets people upset. Instead, keep a keen eye on what's coming! See you in Beijing! (Although my plane is about 2 hours late... surprise surprise, Finnair...)

All my bags are packed I'm ready to go

Wait, hold it. Slash the topic. I still haven't packed a thing. It's just Jewel's song is so sweet that I've borrowed the first line from it.

The handles of the clock has now officially turned into first of September, the month my exchange studies begin.

I've set up this blog as a "base of operations" from which all essential parts of my trip can be tracked. I believe I've got everything here, but of course if I discover new resources, as I like to call them, I'll put them here. Right now I've already got feeds for twitter (for quick status updates) and flickr (for, obviously, my trip-related photos) and some other stuff. If you don't like it, then remember kids: you can always skip the extra stuff by subscribing to my blog feed.

Anyway, this is just my opening post, more will follow after my jet lands onto Chinese soil (hopefully runway though :)

Edit: (September 4, 18.28 Helsinki time) Well, now I'm packed. :) Flight delayed for 2 hours, so I'm still sitting at home, waiting.