Day 11: Nèi Měnggǔ

Hey all! will be gone for the weekend to Inner Mongolia!

Recent Developments:
1. Classes have begun and I have been placed in level 2 (out of 10 levels!), and its $%#@ difficult!
2. I met a random Beijinger and he has asked me to teach his niece English for RMB 200 (RM100) an hour!
3. My 5-day old bicycle is beginning to rust.....
4. I bought a pair of 'Converse' for RMB 50 (RM25), a pair of 'Lee' jeans for RMB 110 (RM55). They have yet to fail on me.
5. The food (super oily + salty) is starting to take a toll on my health and physique.

China will be celebrating their national day on the 1st of October, and hence, the entire country is on holiday from the 27th September - 5th October!!!!

再见

Day 7: This city is forbidden

Maintaining a blog is hard work. And I've learnt that writing a good post takes quite a bit of effort and tons of creativity to have you scroll down what I have to say.

Enough of reflection.

Moving on to what happened the last few days....

So, I've finally purchased a damm-cheapo-creaking-new-bicycle for RMB 160 (RM 80). But after 2 hours 15 mins and 10 seconds, the damm breaks were loose, back light fell off, my seat broke and my bell stopped ringing (got free basket and bell thrown in). But there was a bicycle doctor on campus to help out and guess Hu! DR. HU! WHO? DR. HU!

left: Sonia, Malaysian, soon to be KPMG Advisory London
right: Jessie, Australian, CPA holder with EY Sydney

Forbidden City (Zijin Cheng 紫禁城) was the chinese imperial palace (like the Kremlin to the Russians) and it served the Chinese for 5 centuries as the ceremonial and political centre. It also where lots of concubines hang out and the eunuchs (male servents who had their genitals removed to serve the imperial palace grounds), served the Emperor to satisfy his sexual need.

Eunuchs: He who serves the Emperor shall have his balls chopped off.

Now, I know you're more interested in the concubines so this is what I learnt according to the legend. In the Dynasty days, it is believed that the more sex the emperor had, the greater his longevity would be (be it his shlong or his life). The emporer had A LOT of concubines and it was hard to keep track of who he had slept with, so a table of jades representing each concubine was created. When the jade tablet is turned faced down, the eunoch would then run off to fetch the concubine, strip her naked, wrap her in yellow silk and piggy back her to the emporer's bedroom.

This service is made possible by the American Express Company

Of course there is more to the forbidden city than just sex! Find out more from wikipedia here.

Adult admission - RMB 60
Student - RMB 20
Audio Guide - RMB 80
Chinese spit - Free

Day 2: registration, damm hot water, NO kitchen!

I finally moved in today into my room after many ching-chong-ers I had to see and pay them money.

The entire morning was spent registering from building to building, distributing money to different officials.

my glorious paperwork achievement

The reward: Keys to my room!

The TV is a great addition to help me brainwash myself to learn mandarin. No English channels available except CCTV123456890



Toilet: Clean and there is HOT water. Seriously, HOT!
(China Fact: Gas heating is provided FREE by the government!)
but the priceless thing about the hot water is that.............
it ONLY RUNS FROM
7am-9am
3pm-5pm
8pm-12am

The Kitchen:
Kettle - Check
Sink - Check
Cooking Hob - ???
Refrigerator - ???
Kitchen - WTF!!!!!!!!!!

The governemnt provides free gas but NO COOKING HOB! WTF! WHAT DO PEOPLE EAT HERE?!!

Beijing International Marathon

The best way to orientate yourself in a city is to join a MARATHON!

http://www.beijing-marathon.com/

Event Date:	Sunday, October 19, 2008
Start Times:	8:00 AM Elite Men Full Marathon Start 8:15 AM Elite Women/Recreational Full Marathon, Half Marathon, 10K and Mini Marathon Start

The last time i ran a marathon was in Zurich (May 07) for KPMG and I finished last!!!

-being escorted out of the marathon for being too slow-

Special thanks to Sophie for dragging me into this. -_-

Day 1: Wo 'Arrive' Zai China!

Helloooooooooooo China!

Arrived at 6:30 am and found 2 friends who happened to be on the same flight!

China-wannabe-no.1 = Shan Lin, an ex-uni friend who studied economics is here on holiday with her family
China-wannabe-no.2 = Suwandi Tio, an Indonesian-Monash-graduate whom I met through a mutual friend at Old-Town Kopitiam is here to study mandarin too! (Bei Huang uni? something like that)

I then proceeded to Starbucks to wait for my dad and ordered myself a Grande Latte in Chinese! And then, the beijing-barista-girl approached me to ask me to translate what the two jewish man was trying to say! wah wah wah! so the conversation went on like this:

Beijing girl: Wo bu ming bai ta jiang se mo, ni ke bu ke yi pang wo ching chong ching chong ma?
Jewish dude: you know where is EO, where you buy toys? you know?! you know?! you know?!
ChinamanFoong: Ta jiang ta yao mai xiao hai ji dong xi zai EO, ching chong ching chong......

So, in the end, i didn't really help much. lol.

Anyways, thats the adventure so far and now i'm watching my dad talk to himself in his sleep.