Celebrate good times.... Come on!

It is all very exciting, because I have finished exams! For those of you who don't know, our four exams were held over four days, each starting at 8am (the Chinese don't waste any time, you see.) They all went quite well, I have no doubt that I passed them all, and I think that the Reading Comprehension (阅读) exam was my best - hopefully another score in the 90s! So, to celebrate, Candy and I went SHOPPING! And my, did we shop. We first went to Zhongguancun (中关村), the electronics centre of Beijing, where I bought a 2GB disk for my camera in preparation for our trip to Tibet and did some research for Dad in regards to a camera lens.

We then headed to Dongwuyuan (动物园), which is a market area near the Zoo (Dongwuyuan translates to Zoo). Six hours later we walked out and caught the two buses back to uni, carrying a bin-liner bag full of clothes. But hey, I only spent AU$100, and some of the clothes are for eBay. After all of this, I was ready to go to bed, because my legs felt like I had run a marathon, but my classmates and I had decided to go for a celebratory dinner at the Kro's Nest, a pizza restaurant at Beijing University with the biggest pizzas imaginable (which we failed to take a photo of, but trust me, they are as big as a car tyre, and can easily feed 4-5 people.) Here are some happy snaps:







The pizza was fabulous, the bourbon and coke was mostly bourbon, and they had Led Zeppelin and Talking Heads in their music playlist. But we were all exhausted, so we all went home, except for Jiwu and Gaoshan, who went to Wudaokou to continue drinking.


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Our trip to Tibet has now been bumped back one day because they couldn't get the visas done in time, so we are now leaving on Sunday the 15th, returning on the 24th. Now that exams are over, I will translate the remainder of the itinerary and post it here.

I also have more photos from Lela and Mega's birthday. Here some of them are:


















On more random news, I finally found and deleted the lovely trojan that had taken up residency in my computer somewhere, and now my computer is running at almost magical speeds.

And congratulations are due to one of our classmates, who will soon be hearing the pitter-patter of little feet! But I am the only one who knows at the moment, so I cannot name any names!

Tibet - 西藏

Yes, yes, I am going to Tibet, in 9 days no less! I have been procrastinating by translating the itinerary we have from Chinese into English - here is half of it. I apologise for the dodgy translation, they use some odd phrases that we never use in English, and I'm not sure it is all correct, but you'll get the idea.

拉萨,大昭寺,羊八井, 日喀则双卧十日游
Lāsà, Dàzhāosì, Yángbājǐng, Rìkāzé shuāng wò shí rìyóu

Day 1
21:30北京西站乘T27次列车,踏上神秘旅途.
From Beijing East Station ride the T27 train, step on mysterious journey.

Day 2
列车奔驰在铁路上,领略高原,河流的无限魅力.
Train runs quickly en route, appreciate the tablelands, waterways of infinite charm.

Day 3
20:58到达拉萨,接火车导游献哈达迎接客人.人住兵官休息.
Arrive at Lasa, connect with tour train receive guests. People at hotel rest.

Day 4
上午参观世界上海拨最高的古代宫堡式建筑-有"高原明珠"之称的"布达拉宫",它始建于公元七世纪,自五世达赖喇嘛以来,直是西藏的政治和宗教中心,珍藏有存放历辈达赖喇嘛真身的金质灵塔和大量珍贵的壁画,唐卡,佛像,是藏民族文化的集中体现 (不含金顶及文物珍宝展小门票,各10元/人). 下午参观建于吐蕃王朝时期的最早的佛堂 - 大昭寺,它供奉有文成公主所带的佛祖释迦牟尼十三岁的等身像,是藏族老百姓心目中最为神圣灵验的一尊佛像,在这里游客不仅能够看到老百姓朝佛的虔诚,还可随老百姓一起围绕寺院转经为众生祈祷,随后可在充满了浓郁藏族特色的工艺品一条街 - 八角街上自由购物.

Morning visit the world's highest lake and highest ancient temple fortress structure - is "Plateau's Bright Pearl" named Potala Palace, it was constructed in the Christian 7th Century, since the fifth generation Dalai Lama, continuously been Tibet's centre of politics and religion, looks after the treasure of ancestral Dalai Lama's real body of God gold spirit tower and large quantity of valuable murals, Tang dynasty blocks, images of Buddha, is Tibet's ethnic culture's centralised realisation (does not contain cultural treasure exhibit ticket, each person 10 kuai). Afternoon visit Tibet's earliest imperial period's Buddhist sanctuary - Dazhaosi, it is a place to worship the statue of a 13 year old princess and the founder of Buddhism (Sakyumuni), is Zangzu's (Tibetan ethnic minority) civilians most sacred image of Buddha, here tourists not only can civilians praying, also can follow civilians together move around the temple, soon afterwards can be brimming with rich ethnic minorities distinguising handicrafts at Bajiao Street for free shopping time.

Will add more when I finish translating!

World Park - 世界公园

Yesterday (Wednesday) was the last day of class - hurrah I hear you say! After lunch, Chris, Mega and I jumped on a train or three, and headed to somewhere on the other side of the city. We then met up with Horatio, and we caught a bus (it had air-conditioning!) to the World Park, another spectacularly tacky theme park. As you probably guess from the name and the pictures, the attraction of the park is its scale replicas of famous monuments and buildings from around the world. Included in the spectacular tackiness was:

The Eiffel Tower



Mega on the Champs-Élysées



Angkor Wat - Cambodia



A Thai palace (I forget the name)



Aaaaaand.... Sydney!





Then the batteries in my camera died. Nothing much else happened; a camel spat on Horatio, a werewolf bit my arm, Chris nearly fell asleep on a rollercoaster, Mega posed for lots more photos - same as usual. We then caught another damn bus to Horatio's house, where his mum cooked us dinner, Mega and I fell asleep, then Horatio's dad drove us back home. It was a very exhausting day... And I even managed to get a bit sunburnt *shhh*.

After spending 4 hours on Chinese public transport in one day, I can happily say I've had enough for a while.

Lela & Mega's Birthday Party

On Tuesday night, we went out for dinner to celebrate Lela's 3rd birthday, and Mega's 25th birthday. Lela is Gaoshan's daughter - his wife and Lela had been staying with him for two weeks, and they flew back early Wednesday morning. The restaurant was called Guilin, I think, and it was HUGE. We had our own private room on the second floor, and as we were being led there, we passed two massive ballrooms, an enormous main room, and what seemed like hundreds of private rooms.

And we ate like kings. The pinnacle was the Peking Duck, which was definitely the best I've had since I've been here - and they carve the duck right in front of you. Needless to say we all ate too much, then we ate some more. We also had bought two cakes from Tour De Jous (a "French" bakery in Wudaokou... it's about as close to real pastry and cake that you get in China). Here are just a few photos - there are more to come.



This isn't a whole group photo unfortunately.
Standing - Jiwu, Andri, Candra, Gaoshan, Aishanxin.
Seated - Phoebe, Me, Andres, Lela, Mega, Delia (Turkish)



Andri with our bottle of Yellow Wine - it tasted like nasty white wine, but it's made of rice.



The two birthday girls!

Lela is absolutely adorable - she has the squeakiest, highest, cartoon-ish Japanese voice you've ever heard, and so smart for 3 years old! She was teaching us Japanese, and she learnt how to say thankyou in Chinese (谢谢). She also spent quite a while playing with her new presents under the table.

It was a fabulous night, and the restaurant was great, albeit a touch expensive. I will add more photos as I get them.

The Go! Team

Last night, Fabien and I went to see The Go! Team. They're a band out of Bristol, England, known for their cheerleader-chant-style singing, '70s-esque horns and loud loud drums. The gig was at 'Star Live', which from what I gathered, is a casino (I didn't realise casinos existed in China). It also has apparently the best sound and lighting gear in Beijing, and can hold about 1,000 people (that's pretty small). We caught the train there, actually two trains, and the venue was right near the Lama Temple, so at least now I know how to get there.

The support band was a Chinese band called 'The Verse', who sounded like the RHCP. Very funky. And they sang mainly in English, which was a bonus. Then The Go! Team... They. Blew. My. Mind. I had heard from lots of people that they were incredible live, and they really were. Here are two dodgy photos I took. My camera doesn't take photos well at live gigs, and I am too short to see over everyone's heads.






Dodgy photos, I know. All in all, it was a fabulous night, and definitely one of the greatest gigs I've been to (but don't I say that about all of them?!) I got lots of comments on my dress (the op-shop one from Salvos in Fyshwick, ACT - I wore it to the Rolling Stones gig, remember Mum + Dad? I looked smashing, if I may say so myself) and my shoes (the metallic silver winklepickers from Japan). I have never seen so many foreigners in one place before - it seemed like every single American, Brit and Aussie under 30 years living in Beijing was there. We then stumbled into a taxi and went home to bed!

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Ok, now some random photos, this is the view from our classroom window:



And one of the pollution lately:



And finally, the corridor in our classroom building - it reminds me of a prison



We haven't really done anything lately - have been busy studying and preparing for exams, which start on the 9th. Then, it's holidays! Blissful holidays, which I plan on spending the majority inebriated, watching old TV shows and reading horror books, while staying indoors as much as possible to avoid the disgusting heat, or the dirty rain.

Happy Valley - 欢乐谷

Yesterday we went to possibly the tackiest place in the world. Yes, in the WORLD. It is called Happy Valley, and is a new amusement park in South East Beijing. I was talked into going by Horatio and Chris, and they were under the impression that I would be joining them on all the rides. (Yeah, I may have failed to mention that I don't particularly like rollercoasters.)

We met at uni at 7.30am, which meant that I had to get up earlier on a Saturday than I do on a weekday; I was most unimpressed. We then caught a two hour bus to somewhere south of the city, then transfered to another bus for a shorter half-hour ride. We got there just after it opened for the day, and there were already swarms of people (to be expected I guess, it is China after all). So, following Horatio's lead (he had been once before), we went to a rollercoaster that he promised me remained upright the entire time. He was lying. It was possibly the longest 35 seconds of my life, and I had my eyes shut and my jaw clenched the entire time. Here it is:



Following this, we went on a ride similar to the Terror Drop in Australia. Basically, whilst seated, you quickly ascend to the top (about 500m) and then drop again. It's all over in 10 seconds. Again, I wasn't feeling all that great. It looks like this:



I had learnt my lesson so i watched the boys go on a few rides while I played mum and held their bags. We ate a relatively expensive lunch (25yuan!) then went on a ride similar to the Bermuda Triangle at Sea World. Basically, the cart (is that the correct term) climbs up and then slams down into a lake of water from varying heights. You get so wet that the sell disposable raincoats at the entrance. And still, even wearing the raincoats, we managed to get very drenched.

The most enjoyable part of the day was watching the greatest ride ever. Ten people sit on a spinning disk (like a merry-go-round but on ground level), and the disk spins and spins faster and faster until they all slide off. I saw kids throw up, adults slide off and take out kids - one even got a blood nose. Was great to watch.

I wasn't expecting staying there all day, but we did. We left at 7pm, and Horatio's dad picked us up. We then went back to their place for dinner (yummiest Chinese food I've had so far), and we watched Silent Hill. Horatio's place is T.I.N.Y! The kitchen is the size of Mum and Dad's ensuite, the bathroom as big as a hallway cupboard, and the living room/dining room/master bedroom is about half the size of my bedroom back home. Horatio had the biggest room, which I could still reach both walls if I extended my arms out. I think their entire apartment is about the size of our living room extension.

Here are some more photos from the Happy Valley website - will be getting our photos soon hopefully

Min Bao Huo Guo Cheng

Well, we went back to the Hotpot restaurant on Friday to celebrate Candra's 21st birthday. Lots of fun had by all. I won't bother explaining it again because it was exactly the same as the previous trip, apart from a few new faces. By the time we got home, it was midnight. And I had to get up at 6am to go to an amusement park (next blog), so I didn't go with everyone else for coffee and beer.



Standing: Candri, Aishanxin, Mega, Gaoshan.
Seated: Jiwu, Andri, Miguel (American-Peruvian), Me, Andres (Mexican)











More photos coming soon I guess.