Celebrating in Beijing
On Mondays, I finish university quite early, which gives me time to do some sightseeing as everyone else is still in class. One Monday I went to Shuishang Park (the largest park in Tianjin), the Radio and TV Tower and the Tianjin Olympic Centre Stadium. Something I love about China is that Chinese people have little to no inhibitions and feel comfortable with expressing themselves in ways we wouldn’t do back home. For example, in the park, there was a middle aged guy just walking around the park and every 10 seconds he’d scream at the top of his lungs. Similarly, there was a lady walking about waving her hands up in the air and doing random dances. That said, I still managed to get a good few looks of concern due to the temperature being in the minuses and me still wearing shorts. The park itself is beautiful and I managed to get a good few photos of the views.
At the beginning of November, we also had our mid-term exams. These contribute to 30% of our final grade so it was important that we did well in them. I achieved A’s in all my classes so I felt the hard work paid off. Happy days!
To celebrate, Max, Caitlin and I went to Beijing for a night to see Denis Sulta, a Glaswegian DJ, play in Dada Club. We got the high-speed train to Beijing and then 3 subways to the district where the club was. We were a little early so we went for a walk around the neighbourhood to discover that we’d actually been there last summer on the 2-week trip to Beijing and Xi’an. It was the Gulou district of Beijing, situated north of the Forbidden City. It is an old part of Beijing with a beautiful pond, lots of old hutongs (narrow streets and alleys commonly associated with northern Chinese cities) and trendy little shops.
After our walk, we made our way to the club. Prior to our trip, I had researched the club and knew that its capacity was only 300, but it was quite literally, a room. A very, very dark room at that. At half 12, Denis Sulta came on and he didn’t disappoint. His set lasted around 3 hours. At one point during it, he spotted me in the crowd wearing my Celtic strip and gave us a wee smile and a thumps up! After his set, I got a photo with him and was talking to him and his girlfriend about life in China and his Asia tour. The night was yet another amazing experience in China, with a little Glaswegian twang!
Towards the end of the month, we had the St. Andrews Ball in the China World Hotel in Beijing. Caitlin, Max, Cara and I travelled to Beijing in the morning so we could go to Pearl Market. After the market, we went back to the hotel to get ready for the ball. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at the ball, enjoying a five course meal, including haggis, neeps n tatties! It was great hearing some Scottish accents again, meeting new people and comparing stories about life in China.
The next day, we went to the wrong train station so we had to get the slow train home, which was much more traditional and Chinese. Before the train took off, old Chinese folk music was being played and then, all of a sudden, the ‘Foggy Dew’ came on. It is one of my favourite Irish songs so it was a very strange but special experience to be listening to it on a traditional Chinese train on the way back from Beijing.
November was action-packed and full of fun times. December will consist more of preparing for our final exams, travelling and of course, Christmas. There are quite a few Christmas trees around already and some of the scholars have put some decorations up but I can honestly say I don’t feel remotely Christmassy yet! Of course, everyone loves Christmas but I think one year without it and celebrating other festivals and cultural events is a very enriching and unique experience.
