恭贺新禧／Happy New Year!

On the 17th of December my boyfriend was flying over to spend two weeks in 中国. He was arriving in 北京 (Beijing) at 5am so me and Suzie decided to go the day before and explore 北京. The airport is quite far away from the city centre so we had to catch a few subways (地铁-dìtie) then transfer to the airport express line which is a train that runs between the subway station (地铁站- dìtiezhàn), terminal 2( 二-èr) and terminal 3( 三- sān). What we didn't realise was the last train left the subway station at half past ten. We arrived at the ticket office at 10:29 and they wouldn't let us through the gates. This was a solvable problem but a taxi would be very expensive so me and Suzie were determined to find another way and save £10. Outside the subway station there were bikes so we decided to jump on and see how far we could cycle.

The bikes in 中国 are very useful. All you need to do is buy a monthly subscription and you can use the bikes as much as you want. I pay 9元 a month which is around £1 and I use them every day.  As we were cycling we decided to try to cycle all the way to the airport, we did have 6 hours to spare. After cycling for just over eight (八-bā) miles we gave in and called a taxi. We then had to wait for four (sì-四) hours for Blair to arrive, plus another hour because the airport express line opens at 6:30am. 

After a good catch up and some ice-cream for breakfast, it was time to head home and as you can imagine there was another dilemma. When we arrived at 北京 railway station we had to pick up our train tickets to get back to 天津. As we were picking them up the woman working at the ticket office was checking our passports and said we couldn't get them because I had spelt my boyfriend’s name “Blair Calum Fraser” instead of “Blair Callum Fraser”. One L was wrong and we couldn’t collect our tickets. We started to rebook tickets then she asked for the third passport back. We were initially confused because we had given them all to her. I asked for the ones she had and it was Blair’s passports that was missing. After 5 minutes of thinking my boyfriend was going to get sent back to Scotland, she found his passport. She had dropped it down the side of her desk. To add to the situation, she couldn't move the desk to retrieve it as it was too heavy. After being awake all night it was not how I wanted to spend my morning. After help from a strong man we managed to get it back. It was definitely a stressful, yet funny introduction to 中国.

I felt quite proud showing Blair 天津 (Tianjin). We visited ancient culture street, The Natural History Museum and may other main attractions of 天津. The weather was very frustrating as we wanted to explore more but it was too cold to spend a long time outside, even ten minutes was hard as temperatures started to hit as low as -15 degrees celsius.

Christmas ( 圣诞- shèngdàn) came around very quickly. It was very strange celebrating in 中国, it really didn't feel like 圣诞. Outside our dorm rooms it was very unlikely and rare see decorations in the streets and very few shops sold them. The only thing that held some element of Christmas was the nearby 7-11 shop that played 圣诞 songs. For 圣诞 dinner all the scholars came together, ordered or picked up takeaway food and had dinner together. It was a really memorable night and was good to see everyone together to celebrate. New Year was also very different. We spent it in a taxi on the way home from dropping Blair off at the airport. It was very funny and something I’ll probably not do again.

One thing that was quite shocking this month was the temperature, I knew it would get cold in 中国 but not as cold as it did. At its coolest in was around -15ºC. What didn't help was the wind. 中国 gets very windy in the winter so with the added wind chill it felt like -20ºC. I slept with 2 duvets and 2 blankets and I was still shivering. Running through 天津 is a river. It’s very long and wraps around the city. Due to the freezing weather conditions the whole river froze. We started to see marks on the ice of where people had been ice skating and fishing. Surprisingly, there is no ice on the paths or roads, 天津 is so dry that other than the river, nothing else freezes.

This month was very special and holds a lot of memories. 圣诞 in 中国 was something different but I loved it. As we head into January we face our final exams on the 7th and 8th. These are quite intimidating but after we complete them we begin our holidays which is a great relief after working since the start of October. I am very exited to start the holidays as I'm going back to Scotland (苏格兰- sūgélán) to see my family and friends. I'm very excited for the upcoming month.