An Idiot Abroad : China

An Idiot Abroad is travel documentary follow Karl Pilkington, who travel to the seven wonders of the world. And the first episode is Beijing, China, where he visit the Great Wall of China. I write these blog post one day before my school trip. The school give us 2 choices, Great Wall or Beijing Opera. Since I already visited Great Wall, I choose Beijing Opera instead. (and just realised no blog post about Great Wall.. Hahaha..)

If you watch it, Karl will experience how to spell his name in Chinese, China Public Toilet, Bizarre Food in WangFuJing, Great Wall of China, Fortune Teller, Traditional Fire Spa, and experience Chinese People's Attitude.  :)

Tian An Men - Gu Gong - Bei Hai Gong Yuan - Kros Nest

No plan to do after lunch, and we decided to go to Tian An Men, 天安门 simply because I never been there before. It was National Holiday, so no surprised it will be crowded with so many people.

Bought China Flag for 2.5 RMB, and took photo in front of Tian An Men. Hahaha, so chinese!!

The stupid was me n friend bought ticket to go inside Tian An Men, but we just walking along with people, and just realised after in front of Gu Gong 故宫 or Forbidden City, when we saw our ticket is different with another people. When I asked the guard there, I think he was laughing inside, and said we just passed the Tian An Men. So we're decided to throw the 5 RMB Tian An Men ticket, and get Gu Gong's ticket. Luckily we are the last person standing in one of the mobile tickets line, because the ticket was almost done.

Go Inside Gu Gong, and it's too many people inside..

After Gu Gong, we're decided to go to the nearest place, that is Bei Hai Gong Yuan 北海公园. It's a public park located not far from Forbidden City. We walk about 20 minutes, and arrived at the park. Unlucky, we didn't get student price. :(

On our way home, well, we both never been there and there were no subway station nearby. Then, we went to bus station and try to found if there was a bus to the nearest subway station or just bus station we familiar with. My friend said to go to XiSi 西四，there was a bus go there but we are not so sure. Then I found one that go directly to 圆明园 Yuan Ming Yuan, since we're going to met friends at Kros Nest. But the bus was never come, so my friend suggested to go to Xi Dan 西单商场. It was so crowded and so many people desperately want to go home.

When the bus came, all people just like zombies, went to that bus and start "attacking" want to go inside. My friend was already inside, but me still on the outside trying to get inside, but it was so crowded and there was no space left. So I gave up and wait for another bus. When the another bus came, it was got stopped before the station, and it was exactly like the same. But right now, I got inside. Hahaha..

It was a bit misunderstanding between me and my friend. I thought we're going to Kro's Nest by bus, since there was one bus from XiDan directly to Kro's Nest. And My friend thought we're going there by subway. Since we're afraid of the trafic, we're decided to go there by subway to Yuan Ming Yuan 圆明园 , then by bus.

About Kro's Nest. You can find these restaurant on SanLiTun 三里屯，it's located beside VICS club. But there was another one in YiHeYuanLuKou 颐和园路口, you can go there by bus 331, 690, etc.. They served big pizza.. and it's so big.. and delicious.. My favorite is Lao Beijing, the pizza with roasted duck. Nyummy..

Medium Size

Big Size

The Photos was taken by my friend, Silvia. :) except the two photos of Kro's Nest.

BLCU

Why I choose BLCU?

Because BLCU is the first school that provide program for foreigner to learn Chinese Language. And simply, I want to experience to school in International Environment.

After almost 6 months in here...

The Language program is suitable for me. BLCU have many selection programs, from the Intensive 6 hours/day and Regular 4 hours/day, from 12 weeks, 20 weeks, and 1 year.

WuDaoKou 五道口. Great places!! Many Korean Restaurant I like, have many selection places to go shopping. 

Foreign Students

The list of the foreigner who occupied BLCU, I would say the first place is Korean, 2nd is Indonesian, after that, still got, Japanese, Thailand, France, Italian, Philippines, American, England, Russia, etc. So many countries!! My Class got Korean, Japanese, Australian, France, Philippines, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and me, Indonesian.

Shi Du 十渡

Have you heard about ShiDu 十渡？

We got 3 days of holiday Mid Autumn Festival. And, One of my korean friend, advice us to go to ShiDu. first time I heard about the place was from TingLi books, Shidu is the place where we can go bungee jumping. We bought train ticket, for only 12 RMB. Actually, Shidu is still Beijing. It's on the south part of Beijing. And it's nothing like Beijing City. With only train ticket on hand, we went to Shidu "backpacker style"

Day I : We took train from Beijing West Train Station. On the station, we met a lady who offer place to stay. Actually, first we a bit scared with the lady. The lady even followed us to the train. And it's not just that lady, many "the same kind" persons, offering place at station and train. After two and half hour, we arrived at ShiDu, in the middle of the night, without light, we decided to follow the lady, because we didn't have any choices.

We thought the Shidu Train Station is like other station, we can easily find taxi. But it's not, it's just a place where you can exit the train, theres no building or anything. It's just road in the middle of corn field. No joking.

We follow the lady and arrived at her house. It's Farm House, with guest house service. Actually the place is really nice, got two rooms that enough for five of us. Got TV and bathroom inside the room. Even have Air Conditioner and Warm Water. And it's only cost us 20 RMB/ person.

The Lady also provide breakfast service for 5 RMB/person. Great.. We also met her husband, who work offering horse riding service at ShiDu.

Day II : After breakfast, we went to GuShanZhai 孤山寨。We took 110 RMB Ticket, which including the tourist attraction, the bamboo raft, speed boat, and HaHaLeYuan, it was small park inside the tourism object.

The best thing is 一线天, it's extremely narrow passage between two cliff.

After that, we visit Tourism Office of Shidu to figure out what we need to do for tomorrow. Have Dinner and went back to our Guest House at night.

Day Three : Went to 拒马乐园 Juma Recreation Park. It's the place for bungee jumping and other recreation activities. We took 100 RMB, including the Cable Car and Boat River Recreation.

Finish playing, we went back home by bus 917 to Beijing. It's one great experiences. Don't need to go so far to enjoy natural sceneries, you can go to ShiDu. 

At Shidu, there are not many foreign tourists there. I think not many foreigner know about ShiDu. All places are filled by local tourists. 

Registration, Placement Test ( 20 Weeks Regular Program )

Registration Date is on 13th - 15h of September (Fall 2010 program). All my friends came on Sept 14th, so we decided to have registration on Sept 13th on the morning. The line was already long from the morning.

Prepare your JW 202, and your Temporary Residence Form for registration. Then you will pay the school fee on the 2nd floor. Better pay with cash, because it is easier and won't take much time. After pay school fee, you need to pay the medical insurance. I never get one, so I don't know the procedure really well. Just prepare the money and passport.

After pay the fee, go downstairs, and go to the International Students Office, to take your student card. Prepare every form you've got on the building, and your passport and 2 photos of your. And It's done. Simple and Quick.

__________________________________________

After registration done, just go and see your name for the placement test, the room, the building, and the class they placed you. example : Last Semester, I had my test on 210, Run Run Shaw Building, they placed me on B1 Class.

On the placement test day, they will give you test according to your chinese level. If you are beginner, ask for the A test. The A test is filled with english and pinyin, so don't worry. If you already know some chinese, ask for the B test. The B test is filled with simple and easy hanzi.

First, you do the written test. Later, the teacher will give you conversation test. If you can't understand what the teacher said, just said " Ting Bu Dong! 听不懂！“ ( I don't understand ). Answer as long as you can. After conversation, the teacher will give you Reading Test. Last semester, I failed on these test, that's why they place me on B1. These semester, I skip these test, since the teacher know I'm from B1 last semester. Another student also skip these test, with the same reason as mine.

That's it. The day after, just saw the announcement. And go to the class, to receive your book and your first day. On the first week, you can still keep change class, upgrade or downgrade.

My tips is don't downgrade your level if you think you still can handle. The first few weeks, you need to study harder to keep up with your classmates, but after that it will be easier. 

For intensive program, I heard from my friends. They had conversation test on the morning, and HSK Test on the afternoon.