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: