oksze’s blog

Though there are only 7 days to go before I’m heading back to HK, it’ll be a busy week.

I’ve just returned from Tianjing this afternoon on a business trip. Before exploring the city, I thought Tianjing’s an industrial centre which’s full of dust and factories. However, obviously I was wrong. It’s in fact a beautiful town which is well-organized, full of historical buildings in European style (I apologize for not being able to describe them in a nicer way, I’m no archi student, after all) and taxi drivers there are really nice! (I guess Annie would agree with me, haha)

Other than the trip, I am doing follow-up analysis concerning the survey conducted some weeks ago. I enjoy doing it, cuz I can apply my knowledge in my work.

And I will be on train to 承德 this Saturday. That marks the end of my internship in Beijing.

I have gathered a number of funny pictures along my way.

Well…

Oh, I found the entrence! We just need to go… hmm… underground? 

They arent heading to boook fair nor they are waiting for the emergency food from charity. They are in fact lining up and getting into the museum of Mao.

It’s said that there were quite a number of Beijing people hit by the lightening and got killed when they talked on their cell during the storm. Glad that we havent heard of this kind of news in HK yet (due to the highrise buildings? Maybe).

There are far lots of this knd of interesting pictures that I have captured. But once again, too much to say, too little time. So, stay tune and wait for my final entry.

This journey’s unforgettable to me. Since it’s the first time I have…

1. travelled for more than 8 hours on a coach

2. rode on an animal (a horse, to be exact)

3. seen the Twilight *v* (from my facial expression you can tell how beautiful it’s)

There are a lot more than the above that I wanna talk about my trip but I’ll just put down some of them here. For example, the inflexibility of the tour guide. He’s so infexible that he asked whole group of people joining the tour to get off the coach and sit according to his sitting plan. I bet this would not happen in Hong Kong. However, as here I am on the mainland and I was depending oin him in my trip, I had no say but follow his instruction. Anyways, I have “forgot” and let the 8-hour travel behind when I arrived the wonderful grassland in 內蒙古. I spent a nice afternoon there lying on the grass while looking at the blue sky as if I was a shepherd. Of course, there were hundreds of hungry sheeps as my company. This scene which is not possible to be found in Hong Kong made all troubles and thoughts get out of my head so that I can enjoy the peace and silence in the sunny afternoon.

I will certainly visit 內蒙古 once again in my life.

Sorry to disappoint fans of the Twilight series, it’s because the Eclipse I talk about here is the solar eclipse in reality. Oh yes, I have witnessed the solar eclipse here (on tv). The view’s amazing enough even watched it from television screen. I now realise why solar eclipse is said to be the scene one should not miss in his life time. And I wish I could really watch it one day.

I have waited for 1/2 hour to see the sparkling moment but it’s worth waiting. The Sun was slowly eaten by the shadow of the Moon, bit by bit, till it became a eye-bow like image.Suddenly there’s a sparkle coming out and the eye-bow transformed into an extremely beautiful diamond ring. Unlike the ordinary diamond ring which shines forever, the ring’s gone within seconds and further transformed into a so-called solar crown. It took minutes till the ring came up again. After that, the shadow of the Moon gradually left the Sun and the solar eclipse ended.

If you missed the solar eclipse this year, you should grab the chance next year in South America. Of course, there’s always a more convenient alternative which is to watch it on the web.

This Beijing internship gives me a brand new experience to be away from my hometown to live alone. Sound curious, I suffer from no homesickness at all. I guess there are quite a number of reasons which contribute to that.

First of all, I dont see myself different in the Beijing society. Despite my strange accent of Putonghua, I communicate quite well with the locals that I have no problem travelling around the city. In fact, I have taken a different route to the Great Wall with 2 other summer interns of BJO, Annie and 雷公. We have shared an unforgettable experience here in Beijing, which put me far away from homesickness.

Secondly, I have more time on reflection than I do in Hong Kong. I feel that I’m growing from what I have seen and what I have heard. One thing which is different from the old me is that, I didnt usually write down something. However, when I have time I would put down the feeling or doubt I have got towards somebody or something. Sometimes, when I go through it once again days later, I would realise how come it’s so. Then I learn something.

Not suffering from homesickness doesnt mean I dont miss Hong Kong at all, I do miss my hair dresser when my hair gets longer day by day. It’s because I have got the above-mentioned things which suppress my symptoms of homesickness.

The other day when I was doing my research project as told. My boss stopped by and asked if I was free the night after, I thought she would like to ask me out for a dinner or something (kidding) so I said yes without a second thought. Then she fished a notice concerning a show called “looking for JC”. Well, she would like we 3 interns representing BJO to show up the event. So we just grabbed the chance to meet JC.

In fact, it was the variety show of university students from  Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan who have been doing their internship in Beijing this summer. The show went fine but then a large screen was on stage and a film called “looking for JC” was on. JC stands for Jacky Chan. More curiously was that the real JC was on stage after the film ended. I was kind of surprised by the crowd. Almost everyone (mainly mainlanders) at the theatre rised and had their camera ready in their hands when JC’s in. JC’s real popular among mainlanders. As we 3 were afraid that we would miss the last train to home, we left early. But then a security guard stopped us by saying, “why not wait till JC has finished his speech?” We just headed to the exit as if we couldnt hear what he said. Somehow I understood what is the meaning of idol — it’s when people go crazy about you wherever and whenever you are. 

Eventually, we are given 2 tasks to do. Research on cultural facilties in 15 cities and provinces in PRC and the way different countries celebrate their national day. As you may realise, the first research project is to make reference to 西九文娛藝術區while the latter is for the coming 13th anniversary of HKSAR.

Perhaps, I am a workaholic. I have been feeling great when I am in office since I knew the above-mentioned tasks. Work rocks my life!

Unlike the city of sleeplessness, we dont have much entertainment here in Beijing. For me, I have played pool games for 4 times within a week. Well, I guess after the 1.5-month internship, not only my Putonghua will improve, my pool skill will, too.

Though I have been living in the cosmopolitan city like Hong Kong for 20 years, I have little chance to communicate with foreigners. Curiously, I can do so when I am in Beijing. The other night when I was with my bottle of Qingdao beer with my friend, a group of westerners came in. They yelled a lot, so we werent really wanna to greet them at the first place. But then I recognised one of their faces was an Asian. And when she heard the chat between my friend and I, she said to the gang,  “Hey, there are some other Chinese girls over there!” Then one of the western guy came to us and started my very first conversation with a foreigner in China.

The guy, Nick, is from London studying Chinese in Shanghai. He’s travelling to Beijing to spend his semester break with schoolmates. Nick is a funny guy. He told me the reason why he studied Chinese was because he wanna meet Chinese girls (what a reason). Another guy, let’s call him unamed (it’s because I havent asked for his name) is a mature guy from Switerland. He’s the schoolmate of Nick. We talked about something more serious than Nick and I did, like unamed felt kind of disappointed when heard me addressing myself as a Chinese instead of a Hongkonger. Well, political issue –> sensitive topic –> ILOP internship workshop –> end of the topic.

Though I have been here for more than a week, this is my very first blog entry. I wanna talk about my life in the hostel. Right now, I am staying at Red Lantern House with Annie. It’s transformed from a traditional 四合院 and so the whole building is full of old Chinese style. I will upload fotos of my hostel later, or, if you cant wait, you can simply visit its website.

Out of my expectation, there are quite a lot of foreign travellers living in Red Lantern House. We can have a little chit-chatting with them while enjoying the breakfast (just in the first couple of working days, since we have trouble getting up early in the following days, haha)

Staff members here are very friendly and helpful. Unlike ordinary hotel staff, they are eager to chat with you when they see you sitting all by yourself at the common area. We greet each other whenever we meet just like family does. This warm feeling is a sort of comfort to me when I am away home for more than a month.