Exploring China

你们好Nǐmen hǎo (hello),

I hope you are all keeping well!

It is so surreal to think that I am writing to you all from the other side of the world and I'm struggling to decide where to begin! What an incredible first month we've had in China (中国Zhōngguó)!

We’ve spent most of our days exploring our new beautiful city we can now call home. Our university ‘Tianjin Normal University' (天津十分大学) is opposite our accommodation so it takes no time to get there. Tianjin (天津) is nothing like I expected - hardly any smog, it's not crazy busy, and is pretty quiet with exception to all the car horns going off every few seconds! Being located in the Huxi district I feel we are very lucky to be so central to everything - our local supermarket (商店shāngdiàn), an underground/ subway station (地铁站dìtiě zhàn), this pretty little park, a 15 minute walk to the gym (健身房jiànshēnfáng), a stunning skyline of skyscrapers, the giant Tianjin TV tower, some restaurants and food stalls, and of course, something every city needs - a Chinese McDonalds (麦当劳màidāngláo)!!!

Every street I’ve walked down so far has its own different vibe and lots of character! Your eyes go crazy at all the reds and greens, all the flashing lights everywhere and the thousands of Chinese characters(房子hanzì) you pass along the way. In contrast, walking along the river with low hanging trees and a soft warm breeze and clean paths allows you to contemplate how pretty 中国really is!

Being a foreigner

On our first full day in 天津a group of us spent our afternoon wondering around, settling in and finding out a bit more about 中国. Little did we know that it is 100% necessary to always leave our accommodation looking our very best because wherever we go we get loads of people staring, pointing and taking pictures/selfies with us. We feel like celebrities!

On one of our first trips to the supermarket 商店we had a smiling elderly lady come up to us, pointing to our skin and repeating the word “漂亮piaoliang” (beautiful). At first we thought this was really odd, how did we suddenly go from pale white Scottish ghosts to “beautiful” pale white Scottish ghosts!? But after staying here for a month (月yuè) we understand that seeing foreigners with white skin (and especially blonde hair) is a very rare and exciting occurrence.

Supermarkets with a difference

We’ve been on adventures through several parts of Tianjin with massive mirrored sky scrapers and clean streets as well as loads of authentic Chinese markets and shops. While browsing through all the different food items and products they sell in China, we came across some pretty bizarre things: the first were these tiny baby turtles and fish in little jars next to the electrical appliance section. These poor little animals had a very murky, tiny amount of water in their jars and the turtles kept crawling from side to side trying to escape. We watched this young woman pick a jar up and rush over to her partner, begging him to buy one for her. It’s sad to think that these helpless little creatures are being treated like objects. We did contemplate buying each scholar a turtle and fish just so we could set them free!

We also found hundreds of assorted food items (sweets, spices, grains, you name it). Google translate was very handy when trying to figure out what everything was however it was still exciting to try and guess before looking it up. We found this pale yellow, squishy, fruit looking, vacuum packed food/snack. After taking many guesses we decided they were soft pears. What do you think this could be?

It turns out they most definitely were NOT pears. They were CHICKEN FEET!!! As we always say- “This is China” and it's full of surprises...

Transportation and near death experiences in 中国

During our initial week of organising and arranging various accounts, sim cards and memberships we made our way to many other districts in Tianjin via the subway/underground. This is probably one of the most common forms of public transport here in China and I can see why: as you enter underground the station is pristine clean and monitored by several security guards and scanners. The Chinese subway genuinely reminds me of an airport. I love how their tickets are reusable tokens rather than paper tickets. To buy a token we choose our destination line and then a plastic green token appears at the bottom like a vending machine. Most of our trips are only 2 yuan (二èr 元yuan) each way which is the equivalent of roughly 20p - which makes me think that Scotrail are definitely ripping us off!! It is so awesome how regular the carriages stop off at each station - you're never left waiting for more than 10 minutes for the next subway.

Cycling also seems to be very popular here! There is a full sized lane on the roads allocated for bicycles and other forms of transport like scooters (motorised and manual), swegways, little cycle driven carriages and even brave pedestrians.

I think the scariest, most shocking and surprising experience I’ve had and seen in China so far has to be crossing the road. Sounds simple, right!? When the green man illuminates we should cross? ABSOLUTELY NOT! China’s whole traffic system is based around timers; the red light will show for a short period of time (depending on how large the road is), generally for 70 (七十) seconds before changing to green for another 47 seconds. This is meant to keep the system fair, safe and efficient for everyone (pedestrians included). And I’m sure it would be fair, safe and efficient if everyone actually followed these rules! Instead the Tianjin traffic system goes like this: Green light= go. Red light= go. Pedestrians crossing on a green man = keep going. Can you imagine 22 foreigners getting to the middle of the road and screaming because cars kept coming at us? Yes, that did actually happen! It took us a while to stop screaming every time we tried to cross the road but now we are experienced and know the real secret to getting to the other side safely - we just have to brave it and walk across confidently as if we control the traffic otherwise we’d die from a heart attack every time. If you're still trying to picture that image then I can confirm that crossing the roads in 天津is exactly like the game ‘crossy roads’!

Settling in

We (我们wo men) have all settled in very nicely here! Everyone has organised their room to make it feel like their own. I have put up some HSK 1 post it notes to help me revise and a few pictures above my desk and bed so that I can just look up and see my family and friends so it doesn’t feel like we’re so far away from each other. I haven’t felt particularly home sick yet but I often miss hugging my parents or I forget that it’s not that easy anymore to go into their room to chat about all the exciting things we do every day. But almost every night us scholars sit together in the social area and we talk for hours on end about what funny/exciting things happened that day or about getting in trouble from our parents for not sending all our photos to them or about anything and everything. So you forget that you miss home because we have become this big 中国family and it’s so comforting to know that every scholar is there for one another even if it’s just a hug that we need! Everyone is just so lovely in their own quirky ways and I have days where I'm just so happy in China and I could not imagine being surrounded by better people in a better environment! We are all getting along so well – it feels like we've all been together for years! ❤

It’s been a wonderful first month 月for me!

This month has also been very important for China because it is the time of year to celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival (中秋节Zhōngqiū jié)! I will write more about this beautiful festival of reunion in my next blog.

In China we say “再见” Zàijiàn (zuy-jee-an) which means goodbye!

So 再见 for now....

With love (爱),

Kayleigh (凯琳Kăi Lín) xx