A Proud Bike Owner

Getting around in Beijing is easiest with a bike, so i had to get one. Price for a bike here is about 30 euro but i wanted to get i cheaper...Turns out that the cheapest bike around here is a rented one.
There is an old chinese guy in the street that rent bikes for a few months and i manage to close a deal with him (in chinese ofc) and got myself a bike until the end of May for about 5 Euro.
Advantages with getting a rented bike is that it will not get stolen because all rental bikes are white AND i dont have to think about how i should dispose of the bike when i leave Beijing one day... :)
A true beauty, picture added.

The Forbidden City

The Forbidden City was once a palace for the royal people in China, therefore the name, "forbidden for normal people". The Forbidden City has been invaded and looted a few times in the past but some treasures still excist. There are huge and priceless Jade figures and the archietchure is amazing. This place took around 200 years to build and looking at the size of it, i dont wonder at all. Its HUGE and so damn cool! A must see tourist attraction...

The 6 Star Hotel

This is my home! Its a 3 room apartment on the 6th floor. The location is brilliant and i have about 300m to school from here. The subway is just next to my place and there is a McDonalds and a lot of other food chains open 24h just downstairs. Rent for this place is rather high at the moment because of the weak and sucky Euro. I pay 3800 kuai a month for this place which is about 450 Euro...Some pictures added.

Tian An Men Square

The Tian an men Square is the biggest square in the world. A lot of important and terrible events have taken place here. For example the celebration ceremony of a 50 year old republic of China in 1999 where many world leaders were invited. Another less fortunate event in 1989 was the "student protest" where the chinese army killed over 5000 students and other civilians because they refused to leave the square. I cannot really post any more information about that event because all the websites about that incident are banned in China...

The square is full of police and gueards all day...A few years ago some religious cult members called the "falun gong" burned themself on the square because they oppose the communist party in China. After these crazy jesus freaks deed it has been forbidden to take any liquids to the square and all bags are examined, dont bring any waterbottles with you :) And dont ever mention the religious cult because you will be shot...

Tian Jin Xi

Today me and Hyan went to Tian Jin. Tian Jin is a small city located just outside Beijing and with a normal train it took 1,5h to get there. To our unfortune all seats were sold out in the train and we had to stand. The train was really packed with people and im not doing this again, picture added.
Tian Jin has many western buildings and churces because there is a lot of history about how the invaders of China tried to take over Beijing from this place.

After walking around and checking out places we went to another train station and took the express train back to Beijing. The speed was up to 325km/h and it only took around 30 minutes to arrive. This train was so much more comfortable and if you ever go to Tian Jin from Beijing, take the express. Price difference is 24 for the slow and 58 for the fast..

School Began!

Today was my first day at school. The teachers divided us into groups depending on our previous knowledge of Chinese with and interview. There are 3 different groups: A-, A regular and A+. I was put in A regular because i already know a little...

Met some new friends here as well and going to have a drink with them now, im not the only foreigner here anymore :)

Now im well rested after an almost 2 month long vacation! Xue hanyu!! Life is great here, LOVE BEIJING!

Snow...

Today it has been snowing in Beijing. I came to China to try to avoid wheather like this but i guess it followed me here all the way from Finland... On the picture is a view from my balchony this morning when i woke up...

Signed up at a gym today and they have Sauna! It felt damn good with sauna after 1 month without it!! Beijing is great!

Out for a trip

Early wake up, today it's time to drive out of Beijing city. Hyans high school class mates have decided to have some kind of reunion and we are joining. Some people were late and we had to wait for then a long time... When everybody finally had reached our meeting point, nobody really knew where to go, we had to stop frequently here and there to ask people about directions.

After an over 7h drive we just decide to go back home because the place where we arrived to had nothing to see. So much for this trip. The rest of the people took a hotel and decided to stay over night at that deserted place.

Some of the people with us have studied abroad in an english speaking country for almost 2 years and still don't speak fluent or even good english. I'm really wondering how that's possible and trying to keep up with all the Chinese conversations :)
Out for a

Beijing's on Fire!

Today is the 15th day after Chinese new year and people celebrate it here with the whole family by eating a these small balls called Yuan Xiao which refers to the full moon which comes out every 15th of the month. I had a wonderful dinner at Hyan's place tonight! Today is also the last day it's legal to shoot fireworks here so the streets are like war zones, again. After eating those small balls we went to see a tradition Chinese Opera which kicked ass coz Seba the Chinese guy understood everything :) The opera house was really huge and amazing (picture). After the 2h long opera we went home and on the way a car had flipped over on the street and the CCTV (Chinas biggest TV station) tower was on fire. What do we learn about the 15th day after new year? Stay home!

Another weekend in my new home

Friday morning we went to take my physical tests in the morning which I need for my permanent resident Visa. That place is really far away from the city and it took about 40 minutes to reach it by car. Wow! So convenient, all foreigners who want to stay in Beijing for a longer time have to drag their ass aaaaaall the way out there. The best thing is that there are no signs in English OR Chinese around that place or driving directions, they even taken away the name of the road just to make sure nobody finds it…oh China I love you!
Well finally we reached the clinic and I was put into 5 different rooms to take my tests like some animal. They were the following: Blood test, Weight+Height, Eyesight, X-Ray, Blood pressure and then some weird ECG where they put some wet metallic parts attached to my body to measure heart beating or something. It went really smooth once getting there and the test results are delivered home next week.

Later in the evening we went out with some friends to different clubs, our final stop was a salsa club where they had a live Brazilian band playing and most dancers there were professional or then just incredibly good…You can find any style of club here in Beijing, they have it all when it comes to nightlife!

Saturday I went hiking in the mountains with my “current family” just in the outskirts of Beijing for a few hours. A lot of people was looking and wondering what a white guy is doing with a big Chinese family... The view from the top of the mountain was great and you can see whole of Beijing from here (on the picture). Have to come up here again in the evening, must look pretty cool in when darkness falls. After the hiking we went to some super exclusive restaurant where the cutlery was made of gold, best thing was that we got the awesome tasty dinner for free.

Sunday has just been a hang around day and spending some quality time with my friend Xbox 360…Jonas, I’m level 20 now @ Fallout! Seems to be the MAX lvl, lame! I heard you moved into the new place, the kitchen pictures look really niiiiice! Send more to my hotmail if you have some spare time…
Hope ya all enjoyed your weekend!

Back home in Beijing!

Tonight we went to pick up Hyans dad from the airport. After driving him home Hyan got some sand in her eye and i drove the car home...on the way home a policeman stopped us, there was a road block where they checked that the driver hasn't been drinking, and I DON'T have a Chinese driving license! First thought that came to my head was "now i'll be deported from China because i drive illegally" I stopped the car beside the policeman and rolled down the window, the policeman just stood there looking at me and yelling in chinese "Who the hells car are you driving??" because the plates on the car belongs to the high ranked police officers which has special power around here. After he saw the plates and a foreign idiot in the car he just shouted GO! So i didnt have to show any driving license or prove that i was sober... First close shave, got lucky this time! Good to be home :)

Chengdu

Spent a few days in Chengdu shopping. This is so much cheaper than Beijing and Shanghai! Bought a few pair of jeans for about 8 euro each and other stuff. Good that i came with an empty bag :)

Went to see an old emperors tomb here in Chengdu which has been decorated with thousands of cool chinese lights. Picture added! There are hundreds of shops build around the tomb that sell traditional chinese food, drinks and souvenirs.

Chengdu is really a nice and cheap city, if you come to China for shopping i can warmly recommend this place, its about 2,5h with plane from Beijing and i paid 30 euro for the flight tickets, affordable! But don't expect anyone to understand english here, it's not a very international city...