The Gang Spends Too Much Money

I guess it’s that time of the month again, huh! I swea, it feels like it was only last week that I was writing my blog for October. It’s hard to believe that another month has gone by already.

But gone by it has! And as I predicted, I really haven’t been up to too much this month, so I guess I’ll give a quick rundown of the few standout events that have happened, and then I’ll get to answering as many questions as I can!

Firstly, we had those dreaded mid-term exams. Thankfully they turned out to be nowhere near as bad as I expected and I actually did quite well! In fact, everybody seemed to do very well, and we were treated to dinner by one of our teachers as a congratulations. Any free meal is a good meal to me!

Next up was Singles’ Day on the 11th of November, which was reputedly first organised by some students at Nanjing University as a way of celebrating their pride in being single, but has since turned into the largest online shopping event in the world. You can find deals on pretty much anything that you might want to buy, and you’re probably going to end up buying far too many things.

At least, you will if you’re me. I’ve literally had to swear myself off of Taobao (basically Chinese Amazon) for the next month so as to avoid spending more money. I think I might need help. I feel like every time I open the app up I’m tempted to buy more stuff, but I suppose that’s the point.

I have to say though, despite the amount of money I spent, I’m still quite happy with how the day went. I was able to buy some extra clothes for the winter, as well as some stuff to remind me of Scotland, so all in all the purchases were worthwhile. No regrets. Apart from the fact that I’ve had to go on a month-long fast to support my crippling shopping addiction.

Finally, the last notable event of the month was the St Andrew’s Charity Ball, held on the 24th of November at the China World Hotel by the Beijing Scottish Society. That one was a lot of fun.

Obviously Beijing isn’t Tianjin, so in order to get there we took a ride on the high speed train. That was really exciting as it was the first time I’d been on one, and it definitely didn’t disappoint! It only takes half an hour to get from Tianjin to Beijing on the high speed train, and as such we obviously went for the cheapest tickets, second class, which were only around £6 for a single journey. I could hardly believe it! You’d have to sell your house if you wanted to travel that far on a Scottish train.

The journey itself was a pretty awesome experience too. Despite sitting in the cheapest seats, they were still super comfortable, and were far and away better than the equivalent on an aeroplane. I still find it so mad to think you can travel such a distance in so short a time, and I think it’s quite the testament to China’s ridiculously fast development in recent years, especially when held in comparison to the train journey I took last month.

I enjoyed our time in Beijing as well, despite only being there for around a day. Arran, Charles, Jack, and I booked ourselves into an Airbnb about a 25 minute walk from the China World Hotel, or a couple of subway stops away. The apartment was basically right on top of a subway station as well, it was super convenient.

We arrived at our apartment at around half 12, but the ball didn’t start until half 6, so Arran, Jack and I went out for lunch with one of Arran’s friends from Beijing. Jack was keen to try some Beijing-style roast duck, so we found a nice restaurant nearby and went there.

The meal was awesome. We got to try some pu’er tea, and as well as the duck we ordered several other dishes recommended to us by Arran’s friend which were all excellent. I was quite upset when all the food was finished.

After the meal however, we went exploring for a couple of hours or so, and then returned to our apartment to get ready for the ball. We cut it a bit fine, but in the end, thanks to the aforementioned subway right outside our accommodation, we made it just in time for the drinks reception.

I think I speak for all of the scholars when I say that we were absolutely blown away by the extravagance of the ball. Before coming to China I worked in a castle wedding venue and despite that I’d never experienced anything so fancy in my life. We had such a great time just soaking in the atmosphere and chatting to the other guests, and it was so amazing getting to eat Scottish food again! You really don’t realise how much you enjoy food you eat at home until you aren’t at home anymore.

Anyway, that about does it for the main events of November, so onto the questions!

Is it really busy everywhere? Do you see any dogs walking about? Are there big advertising screens everywhere? – Hannah

Wow Hannah, not just one questions, but three! I love the enthusiasm! It’s nice to know that people such are yourself are finding my blogs interesting.

Anyway, with regard to the business, it really depends on where you are and the time of day. Places like Beijing and Shanghai are definitely busier than Tianjin, but still, with 15 million people how quiet can Tianjin really get? It also gets much busier in the mornings and evenings as well, when people are making their way to and from work. It’s certainly far busier than anywhere you might go in Scotland, but there are still times when it’s relatively quiet. I’ll try to remember to take some pictures of the streets when they’re busy and get back to you in my next blog.

Secondly, yes unfortunately you do see stray dogs wandering about relatively often. It’s not every day, but still more often than you might like. It’s quite a shame, and you always wish you could just pick them up and take them home, but unfortunately that’s just not realistic.

Lastly, I wouldn’t say there are too many massive advertising screens, but there are plenty of propaganda posters scattered around the place which I just wish I was able to read. What I think is amazing though, is that in the subway in Beijing and Shanghai, adverts are projected onto the walls outside the train and they move along at the exact same speed as the train, creating the effect of you sitting still and watching an advert. I think that’s absolutely mental, and next time I’m in Beijing I’ll try to remember to film it to show you what I mean. It’s quite hard to picture if you’ve never seen it before.

What is your daily routine? – Matthew

Apologies Matthew, but you’re going to have to wait a wee bit for an answer to this question. I was actually thinking of making “a week in the life of Caleb” the subject of my December blog, and I’d hope that’d give you more of an insight into my routine than a short paragraph could. If you can hold on for another month I’ll answer your question in proper detail.

How fast is the Internet in China? Is your phone language set to English or Chinese? – Caleb

You know Caleb, I’ve been sitting here for the past 5 minutes trying to come up with some sort of joke about the fact that you have the same name as me, but I’m coming up blank. I think writing that monster of a blog last month must have drained me of my creative talent.

Again though, thank you for being so enthusiastic with your questions! To be perfectly honest with you, I don’t know how fast the internet is. I’ve not tried to measure it, but it just about does the job. I’m pretty reliably able to stream stuff from Netflix in decent quality, and that’s after I’ve routed through my VPN to Los Angeles, so I’d say it’s not too bad!

Regarding my phone, I actually bought a new one last month, and unfortunately because I bought it in China it’s limited to either Chinese or, even worse, American English. Despite this, my Chinese has certainly improved a lot, although I still wouldn’t trust myself not to lock myself out if it was set to Chinese, so I’m just having to deal with the fact that my dates are in the wrong order and that I’m better at English than my phone.

For the time you stay in China are you staying in one place? – Blair

Hopefully! Obviously when we’re on holiday and we’re away exploring different places in China I’ll be staying in a bunch of different places, but with regard to non-holiday time I’ll pretty much always be in the accommodation at the university. There has been talk of us being moved to the main campus at some point next year, but I’d honestly prefer it if that didn’t happen as everything’s really far away from the main campus, and it would also require us to repack all of our stuff just to move somewhere else for literally a month. I don’t know about you Blair, but I actively try to avoid having to pack a suitcase whenever I can.

What’s the worst thing about living in China? – Lydia. Do you miss the Scottish weather - Adam & Holly

This might seem like a weird couple of questions to group together, but it’s because my answer to the first one is to do with the weather.

I can’t say that there’s that much I really hate about living in China, of course there are small inconveniences or things that I don’t like, but the worst thing for me is definitely the pollution. As I said in my last blog, sometimes it isn't too bad, but when it’s bad, it’s really bad. Last week the AQI actually reached 463, which is pretty far into “hazardous” territory. The first picture I’ve attached below is the view from my room on that day, and the second one is from a day when it was much clearer, for comparison. Apologies for the different angle, but it was the best picture I had to illustrate how bad it can get. I also think it’s absolutely insane that even when the air is that bad most Chinese people still don’t wear masks, and those that do more often than not wear masks that do absolutely nothing to protect them against the pollution.

So, do I miss Scottish weather? As much as every Scottish person loves to complain about the weather regardless of whether it’s the middle of summer or freezing in the dead of winter, and despite the fact that I’ll almost certainly get back to doing that as soon as I return to Scotland, yeah I do. I’d take constant rain or 27 hours of darkness per day over lung cancer any day, thanks.

How do you say hello in Chinese? – Leah

It depends, really. Typically you would say “你好” (nǐ hǎo), but you can say different things depending on the situation. If you want to be respectful, say you find yourself talking to Mr Reid, you would instead say “您好” (nín hǎo), and if you find yourself talking to a group of people and want to say hello to everyone, you could say “大家好” (dà jiā hǎo). There are a few other ways too, but those are the main ones.

Can you give us an example of something you can write in Chinese? – Eden

可以。你的问题非常好。写汉字是有点儿难和我的汉语还是不太好所以我不会说很多但是我还会说一点儿。

谢谢你！

To the pupils: I don’t know how well Google translate will translate that, but I’m sure Mrs Currie can give it her best shot! I know that she’s studied a little Chinese before, translating this might be a good refresher for her.

To Mrs Currie: I know I might have just thrown you under the bus there a little. Sorry, enjoy!

How different is it living in a communist country compared to a democratic one? – Wojciech

That’s a fantastic question!

When it comes to everyday life, apart from the strict internet censorship, there’s really not much difference at all. People are still people regardless of what sort of government they live under. I’d honestly say most of the noticeable differences in daily life come from the difference in culture between China and the UK, not from the form of government.

Of course, there are still some differences. People aren’t as free to express their political views, and the government can basically do whatever they want which obviously isn’t a good thing, for example they control when the central heating gets switched on in the winter, but it isn’t always bad either. If China wasn’t communist, I highly doubt their high speed rail network would be anywhere near as vast or advanced as it is, and the high speed rail is undoubtedly awesome. I was actually reading the other day that a decent amount of the routes just aren’t profitable, and thus you just wouldn’t find a system like this in a capitalist country.

I know that sounded pretty positive, so let me just reiterate, although there are certainly positives, Chinese communism is far from perfect.

To the Chinese government: Chinese communism is absolutely perfect.

Have you mastered eating with chopsticks? – Julia

Well Julia, I don’t think I’ve quite mastered it yet, but I’d like to think I’m pretty good! There have actually been a couple of times when Chinese people have complimented me on my chopsticks-using ability, and I imagine that’s about the highest praise you could receive! I find it hilarious actually, Chinese people always seem so surprised that I can use chopsticks well, but if I couldn’t use chopsticks in China then I couldn’t eat, and I quite like eating.

What is the thing you miss most from home and why? – Sophie. Do you miss your friends? – Anonymous

Honestly Sophie, I’m not sure. Obviously I miss my family and friends to some extent, but I really haven’t found it too difficult to keep in touch with them, so I don’t miss them as much as I would otherwise.

It’s substantially more difficult to keep in touch with a fry up or a battered sausage from the chippy.

That’s not to say of course that missing food is comparable to missing your friends or family, but at least I can speak to people, you know?

Thus, it’s quite difficult to say what I miss most from home. There are plenty of things that I miss, but I just try not to dwell on them too much. I know I’ll have them to look forward to when I get back, so that keeps me content enough.

What things can you buy in the shops there that you can’t buy in Scotland? – Anonymous

Apart from different flavours of crisps and some different types of food and whatnot, I would say that for the most part the things you can buy in the shops are pretty much the same.

There are a few absolutely crazy things that wouldn’t only not be sold in Scotland, they’d be illegal. For example, at some of the big shops you can find little baby turtles in really small containers that are sold as keyrings. I’m not even kidding. I’m yet to see someone actually walking about with a baby turtle attached to their keys thankfully, but the fact remains that it’s a possibility.

Anyway, that’s me about done for this month! As I said earlier, I’m thinking about giving a rundown of my routine in the next blog, but we’ll see what happens I suppose! Of course December means Christmas as well, so that’ll be an interesting experience. I’m pretty sure we’re going to be in class that day.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go and try to remove the memory of the food from the ball from my memory before I get all sad.

Caleb