The Great Wall (Mu Tian Yu) - 长城 (幕田峪)

On April 26, 2006, the school organized a free trip for our class to the Great Wall. There are 4 well-known sites which you can visit the Great Wall - Ba Da Ling, Mu Tian Yu, Si Ma Tai, and Shi Xia Guan. I've been to Si Ma Tai in 2001 and found it absolutely breath-taking. For this trip, we went to the Mu Tian Yu which is about an hour away from Beijing. It's supposedly not as crowded as the popular Ba Da Ling so it's a bit more peaceful. At Si Ma Tai, the wall was left unrestored but Mu Tian Yu has reconstructed parts of the wall so you can see the what it should look like in its full glory. Here's a picture of the Si Ma Tai wall from my 2001 trip so you can compare:



As I arrived at the Mu Tian Yu location, I was once again amazed by how long the wall is! It just goes on forever...it's so...great. Instead of taking the cable car up, my class decided to walk up the mountain to see the wall. The stairs were killer and went on forever as well...should be called the great stairs. It wasn't very interesting to climb them either since there was not really much to see. As I reached the top, I have to admit, Mu Tian Yu didn't have the same impact as Si Ma Tai. I'm not sure why....maybe it was because it was the second time I was seeing it or maybe it's because there wasn't a nice blue sky that day. Most probably it was because Si Ma Tai was in a more remote location and seemed to have a more natural, peaceful atmosphere. Don't get me wrong though, this location was still impressive. You stand on the wall and can't help think about all the history behind this wall, how many people died building it, and how the hell they got all the bricks up the mountains to build this!! The best thing about this trip was that it was a very good opportunity to get to know my classmates outside the classroom and I believe we all took advantage of it. We really began to bond on this day. We all opened up a bit more and took pictures together. Mu Tian Yu also has very steep sections which you must climb. Yes, there are stairs but in most cases, they were slanted and some steps felt like they were designed for a giant. You really had to take a break sometimes to catch your breath. As I was taking my breaks, I couldn't help but stare at the length of the wall in amazement. Seriously, how did they build this thing??! Unfortunately, since this was a school trip, we couldn't stay for a long time. We were given about an hour and a half. I was so obsessed with seeing more of the wall that I tried to run part of it.....I think my body will never forgive me for that. Eventually, time was running out so we had to make our way down. As I was walking down, I noticed a slide which you can take to go down the mountain. This was obviously put there to make money off the tourists. I've included a picture but I'm not sure you'll be able to make it out since there's a lot of trees in the way. I have to admit, it looked kind of fun. ;-)

Why I went to China

Everyone always asks me why I went to China so I thought I would answer it here in my blog.

1) I always wanted to live in another country (not just visit). I felt that living in China would be much more challenging and exciting because the culture is so different than Canada and English is not a primary language used there. I was always jealous to hear when other people have lived in sooo many places and all I knew was Toronto. I really wanted to see how other parts of the world lived.

2) I wanted to learn Mandarin. Funny thing is my parents forced me to go to Saturday Chinese school when I was young and I hated every minute of it. I hardly retained any of the lessons I learnt. When I finally got them to agree to not send me anymore, they told me I would "regret it one day" and I responded "I will NEVER regret it". Oh well, I guess they were right. In Toronto, I see a trend that lots of the new Chinese immigrants now speak Mandarin instead of Cantonese. Although Cantonese still seems to be the dominant Chinese dialect here, I think it will change in the future. Plus China is becoming a major player in Business so Mandarin will definately be useful to know.

3) I had to get out of my job. I was miserable and the truth was, I needed a break. After the first week in Beijing, I was walking home after class and I began thinking of work and said to myself "this is probably the best decision I have ever made. I will never regret this". Today I am 100% sure that I made the right choice. Life is soo short and the time in Beijing have been some of the best times in my life.

I know my post about the dorms was a bit negative so to end of this post, I thought I would post a picture I took from my room one morning. I couldn't believe my eyes but immediately I knew it was going to be a good day. BEIJING DOES HAVE BLUE SKIES!

The Dorm - 我的宿舍

Hey all,

Well, I finally decided to get off my butt and post some photos from my time studying at the Beijing Language and Culture University. To be honest, in Beijing, blogging was the last thing I wanted to do after class. I was pretty tired from getting up early and then having 4 hours of language classes. China's firewall just gave me a a better reason not to blog ;-)

Today's pictures are of my dormitory. It was called the Beijing Foreign Students Activities Centre (BFSAC). I really have no idea why it was called the Activities centre since there was nothing ever going on. On my floor, I didn't meet one person since the halls were always empty. Maybe it was because I lived on the 6th floor (top floor) and since there was no elevator, no one wanted to live up there. You have to understand that after walking 35 mins back home in the 35 degree Celsius weather, the last thing you want to do is climb 6 stories!


I began my search for housing at the campus dorms. After going to wrong building after wrong building, a lady finally sent me to the "foreigner" dorms. The room cost around 90 RMB/night (divide that by 7 to get CDN). I looked at the room and the walls were blue which kind of made the room dark. The washroom smelt bad and it was small. So what made it the foreigner dorm? It had a western toilet instead of a hole in the ground. I decided that I didn't really want to live on campus anyways so I went to visit the BFSAC which was recommended to me by some previous students who attended BCLU. The room was only 60 RMB/night and the room seemed much brighter due to the white walls. It had a better vibe so I decided to take it. The washroom had what I call the integrated toilet/shower where the water from the shower would splash all over the toilet seat. Obviously I trained myself to use the toilet in the morning first before taking my shower ;-).
After a few days, I did begin to notice that the washroom smelt a bit (like sewage). It didn't bother me too much at first but at the end of my term, I really wanted to get out! After 1 month, I came home from class one day and noticed the water on the floor did not drain! I called the 服务员 (fuwuyuan - a term used for servants in China. i.e. maids, waitresses/waitors) for help and she lifted up the white lid which was covering the drainage. Oh my god was it ever gross! All the hair just gets clogged up there. I wish I had a picture to show you how poorly designed it was but you probably wouldn't want to see it. So what does she do? She just takes the shower head and sprays the big clump of hair straight down the drain. GOOD AS NEW! After that experience, I decide that I should clean it myself regulary instead of waiting for the next flood. Also, you can tell it was getting bad when you see little insects crawling out of the drainage! BUT I KILLED THOSE LITTLE BUGGERS ;-)
Speaking of little buggers, I noticed my room would occassionally have some spider-like bugs crawling on the walls. It usually didn't bother me but sometimes they would be chillin' on my bed! Let's just say, everynight I would have to make sure that my single bed was still a SINGLE bed! BTW, if anyone can identify this insect, please let me know. I'm kind of curious if it could bite....it might explain some things ;-)
Alas, even though I talk so negative about the room, it was still my...uh...home...and I was glad to be there...sometimes. Besides, I didn't go to China to act like a prince....I was there to learn Mandarin.Later in the term, I found out there was another dormitory on campus that was very nice - otherwise known as "BUILDING 17". I would hear "you're in 17?? #$@ lucky bastard!" Oh wait, that was me saying that. Turns out the only way to get into this dorm is to either go through a middleman agency (which rips you off because you couldn't find a place on your own) or you would have to know someone powerful (like Bruce Lee, Yao Ming, or some dude with a lot of money) that can get you in. Being a student of the university wasn't good enough to get you in as I quickly found out. I asked the front desk if they had any rooms now or in Septemember. She just looked up and said "No". Now I knew there were empty rooms because my friends live there and they told me the room beside them was empty. It's ok though, a single room was double the price of my room. I've included a picture of my friend's room just to give you an idea of the difference!

Well I'll end this post here...stay tuned for more...

Back Home

Hey all,

Well I'm finally back home in Toronto. I had a really fun time over in Asia and I can't wait to head back to Beijing in September. Anyways, hopefully I'll find some time to post some pictures and comments over the next few weeks.