Guide to Settling in at BLCU

Now that I've been at BLCU for over a month, here's a list of things that I would advise newcomers to do in order to get adjusted as quickly as possible. You can make do just fine without most of them, but they are very useful:

- Internet: Most people on campus use Cernet (office is just before the West Gate). The monthly fee is 140 RMB for unlimited usage, and there are other options available (50 RMB for 40 hours and 100 RMB for 120 hours of internet). If you are registering for the first time, bring at least 250 RMB with you because there is a 50 RMB deposit, 50 RMB "installation fee", and 10 RMB for the ethernet cable on top of the first month's fee.

- Electronic Dictionary: Very helpful in learning and reviewing Chinese vocabulary on the go. A lot of the Korean and Japanese students use them in class, but if you get one that is small enough to fit in you pocket, it will allow you to learn characters that you encounter in everyday life on signs and flyers at a much faster pace. Dictionaries can range from 300 RMB to 2000+ RMB. They are available at the Friendship store, but I would advise you to go in a group to Zhongguancun and bargain for dictionaries. It will save you lots of money.

- Cell phone: Can get these at the Friendship store and pretty much anywhere in Wudaokou. The most basic phones are 200 RMB, and it is pretty much up to you on how nice of a phone you want. A SIM card is provided at registration, so all you need to buy is a phone and a card with minutes. Minute cards range from 30 RMB to 100 RMB. It takes of 1 RMB per minute of calling time and like 0.25 RMB for outgoing texts. I would advise to text more than you call to conserve minutes. Also, if you get your phone unlocked, you can just plug in the SIM that BLCU gives and buy a minutes card and be set to go.

- Bike: Not an absolute necessity, but it comes in very handy and allows you to get to places much faster. You can get used ones for a little over 150 RMB but I advise getting a newer one just because you'll have fewer problems. Also you can usually sell your bike to used bike vendors and get some money back. There is a Giant dealership across the street from the East Gate, which is where I got my bike for 350 RMB. (on a side note, a lot of people here get battery-powered motorcycles, but they are much more expensive, about 3000 RMB)

- Water tank: About every dorm on campus sells a big tank of water for 15 RMB. There is also a guy outside of Building 1 that sells it for 12 RMB. The first time you buy water, you have to put down a 50 RMB deposit, and you will need to buy a water pump, which my Dorm (Building 4) was trying to sell to me for 40 RMB. The guy outside Building 1 sells the same exact pump for 25 RMB. It is also important to note that once you buy from the building or other vendors that you have to go back to the same vendor for a new tank once you finish it. They will not accept someone else's tank. I recommend getting a water tank because it is much more economical in the long run than buying a 1.5 L bottle for 3 RMB every time you run out of water.

- Transport card: Cuts down bus fares from 1 RMB to 0.40 RMB, but subway fares still remain at 2 RMB. Card can be bought from any subway station in the city for 20 RMB and the minimum amount you can put on it the first time is 20 RMB.

That's all I can think of for right now. These few things have really been very useful over the past month, so I thought I would share this with all of you. If there is anything else you would like to know, please feel free to comment.

Working out in Beijing

As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently signed up for a gym outside of campus at the University of Science and Technology in Beijing (UTSB) because the gym at BLCU was quoting a price that was nearly 300 RMB more expensive than the place I am at now, and they were not budging at all. Pricing on China is very dependent on 2 things: the number of people signing up together and the length of time you are going to get a membership for. People who signed up for a whole year could get memberships that are maybe 100 RMB more than the price for 5 to 6 months. They will not just divide a year's membership in half and give you a membership. Luckily, I ran into a guy named Guo who worked for the gym I am going to these days. I was able to negotiate with him to give me a 5 month membership for 500 RMB which was by far the cheapest I could get in the area, and the gym itself is massive. They have a huge swimming pool, basketball courts, badminton courts, ping pong courts, an outdoor track, and a weight training facility.

The weight training facility doesn't have as much equipment as an American gym but it definitely has enough to get a good workout in. A good thing about gyms in China is that a trainer is included in the gym membership and yesterday I got one to help me out with an ab workout. He made me do some very interesting exercises that I had not seen before, but I definitely felt the burn in my midsection. It seems like a lot the Chinese are like Americans with working out, as in there are very few people that come regularly. I am one of the very few foreigners that come to the gym and I definitely get some very curious stares, especially because I also one of the strongest people in the gym. Random Chinese guys come up to me and start asking me advice on how they can start lifting as much as I do. I remind them that it takes consistency and that I also started at the same weights they are currently lifting. One thing I have noticed is that the Chinese are very welcoming and open once they see that you are making an effort to speak to them in their language. Using English here doesn't get you very far in doing anything and preference is given to those who speak the language more fluently. It seems that everyday I am reminded of how little Chinese I know, even though I have studied it for the past 2 years, which is why I've been making an effort to talk to as many Chinese people as I can. We'll see how far it get as time goes on.

First Week

This update's been a bit overdue, but I had to go through a lot of trouble to get internet over here and I've been swamped with work, so I haven't had much time to update the blog while I was settling in. The first week was very busy. I went through a whole day of registration, and the next day I had a placement test to judge which level I would be placed in. The test was pretty hard and I didn't know a lot of words on it, but I was placed in the lower intermediate level (中级上), which corresponds to a student who has studied at least 2000 words, so I felt it was the right level of difficulty.

Classes move very quickly here and a lot of the students in my class spent last year in BLCU studying Chinese as well so they are a step ahead of me. One of the main challenges for me is catching up on all the words that were introduced in the lower level books to these students, as the books I used in the US had a totally different set of vocabulary. One of the things I really like about BLCU is that it is very international, and there are people from all over the world over here. Most of them know some English, but the best way to communicate is through Chinese, which is great because it only gives you that much more practice. My Chinese was not as good as I thought it would be this time around, but I've already made long strides in the short time I've been here. I can easily carry on a 5 min conversation with a local and that has really bumped up my confidence in speaking Chinese. The problem for me is not in understanding what is being said, but it is in speaking and putting words together on the spot. I just met with some Chinese BLCU students studying English and made them my language partners, so I am really going to do my best to improve my spoken Chinese.

Outside of classes, I've been doing my best to explore the area around my university and I have found that BLCU is in a great spot and there are a lot of restaurants and shopping centers near campus. I also got a 5 month membership to a pretty nice gym about 10 min away from campus on a bike for 500 RMB, which was a great deal. The gym was a major training facility during the Olympics in 2008 and they also give you free personal training sessions. Stuff here is cheap by western standards but you still have to keep your eyes on your finances to balance it out because it is very easy to overspend or get suckered into paying a higher price. One thing to remember about China is that unless you are in a big department store, almost no price is set, so you always have to haggle and bargain your way down. And if they don't bargain, they will flat out tell you, but it never hurts to try.

I am planning to post a video up on Youtube showing a tour of the BLCU campus. I will also try to update this blog much more regularly.

Peace out

The Red Army

Ok, so I should be packing right now but I have to share this video of the Chinese Red Army. It is so epic:

The journey is about to begin...

In a little over a day I am going to leave my home in Atlanta for a long journey to Beijing (nearly 18 hours). I have yet to pack my stuff, but I am not too worried as I am trying to take the bare necessities that I won't be able to find over in China because a lot of things are readily available in China. I am going to study Mandarin Chinese in China for about 5 months, and I will leave Beijing right after the Chinese New Year in early February. I started this blog in order to record some of my experiences in China and to provide students considering to study abroad in China a resource on how they can make the most out of their trip.

This is going to be my second time in Beijing, as I went to study at Tsinghua University through a program at my university back in the US last summer for 8 weeks. I had a great time over there and really saw my ability to pick up Chinese accelerate, so I'm hoping to continue advancing my proficiency in Chinese while seeing some parts of Beijing that I missed out on last time. I have been studying Mandarin Chinese for the past 2 years at my university, so I do have a decent background in speaking and understanding the language. I know I can get a lot better, and I'm hoping that by the end of these next 5 months, I will be able to carry on a conversation with a native Beijinger almost as fluently as I can communicate in English. It's going to take a lot of hard work to get there, but I feel confident in my abilities to pick up the language, and the fact that I already have a solid foundation in the language, I will really be able to accelerate my proficiency much more quickly than someone starting from scratch.

I will be studying at the Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) in their Chinese Language program. It is located very near Tsinghua University, so I will be very familiar with my surroundings which will be nice. I didn't get to see much of BLCU's campus last summer, but I did go there a couple of times to play volleyball. This experience is going to be different though because I won't be going with 50 other kids from my university. That was really helpful last time because we were able to get really close to each other, explore the city together, and share a lot of the experience of being in a very new environment and setting. This time around I am pretty much going to be on my own, and I won't really be able to use English as a crutch to communicate to people because my classmates at BLCU are more likely to be from other non-English speaking countries, so that is a plus in some aspects. I am pretty excited to create my own experience this time rather than have my experience create for me through my university's program.

Finally, I want to mention a very important resource for anyone considering to study abroad anywhere in the world: MAKE USE OF SCHOLARSHIPS!!! Studying abroad can be very expensive depending on the country you are going to, and that deters so many people from trying to go somewhere new, but through the use of scholarships, you can really make things much easier for yourself in making a study abroad experience possible. I was fortunate enough to receive the Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship this summer and it is really the main reason I am able to go on this trip, so I would definitely recommend anyone to look into it in order to make your trip financially possible. I will also try to upload videos weekly to my Youtube channel, so do check on that to get a glimpse of what I am doing in China.

So ready or not, here I come Beijing! Feel free to leave any comments or questions about studying or living in China in the comments section below. You can also contact me by email (link is in my bio). That's it for now and I will catch you guys on the other side of the Pacific.