Golden days for a Golden Week...

Ok, very cheesy title, I know, but I'm a tad sleep deprived at the moment and that combined with the maple syrup I consumed earlier today (not straight from the bottle, just so you know...), means my brain feels a bit fried right now.

So from 1^st October to the 7^th October, we had a whole seven glorious days off work - Whoop! Unfortunately, due to the fact that TTC are simply stupid, we don't get paid til 15th October, which means I had no money at all to go and explore China. I don't know who's bright idea it was to say that interns shouldn't get paid til the 15^th, and only then get paid for four weeks work instead of the six weeks we've already done, but I was not a happy bunny when I found out (there's also a whole other load of issues as to why TTC aren't in my good books right now, but I'll save that for another time!).

Anyway, due to my financial situation, it meant I had to sit tight in Beijing for the week. Luckily, Kristen (my fellow intern that I met in Shanghai before the internship began) decided to come up to Beijing to see me – plus, Alan was due to fly out to Beijing on the 4^th October – so at least I wouldn't be completely alone for the whole holiday!

Kristen arrived at 12.30am on the 3^rd (which meant we had a very interesting taxi ride back to my flat at 2.30am...) - we were planning to go to the Beijing Police Museum that day, but due to a combination of oversleeping, having a late lunch at McDonalds and then the loooong journey from my district to the centre of town, we made it to the museum just in time to see them closing the doors! So instead, we walked up to Tiananmen Square, which was heaving with crowds because of the holiday, and we managed to see the flag parade – every day at sunrise and sunset they raise/lower the flag that's at the top of the square. It was quite cool to see – especially seeing all the soldiers marching in perfect time!

The next day, Kristen went to the hostel where she'd be staying for the rest of the holiday, and I went to meet Alan at the airport. We got a taxi to the hotel we were staying at for the weekend (again, a very interesting taxi ride, as the taxi driver wasn't entirely, sure where to go) but we managed to get there in one piece. We didn't venture far for the rest of the day, as Alan was feeling a bit tired from jet-lag. The next day however, we met up with Kristen and we went to explore the Forbidden City. Me and Al were approached twice by different people who offered to be our guide and take us round the Forbidden City (for a small sum, of course), but we declined their offers – then a PhD student asked me to fill in a questionnaire about tourism in Beijing and gave me a good luck charm to say thank you! We were supposed to be meeting James as well, but the Forbidden City is just so huge, we couldn't find him! Luckily we found him by the exit and we went out for a meal together – it was only when we'd finished our meal that we discovered we'd been to a Tibetan restaurant! The food was amazing!

Unfortunately, I came down with a horrible flu-like thing the next day, so again, me and Alan couldn't venture very far! So for the next few days, we just took it easy, and managed to make it back to my flat – as I live in a fairly new development, taxi drivers have real trouble finding it – luckily for us, this taxi driver managed to get us to my nearest subway station, and I managed to direct him to my flat in a mixture of English/Chinese. He didn't seem to mind – he started laughing whenever I tried to say 'straight on' in Chinese, but he did try to teach me some directions in Chinese! He also stopped his meter when it got to 70 yuan, bless him!

So that was pretty much it for Golden Week – not quite as crazy as some of the intern stories I've heard since, but it was lovely to see Kristen and Alan again, and to be honest, it was nice to take a break and do everything at my own pace! On the downside, that's the last long holiday we get until the Chinese New Year now – we get a day off for Christmas and three days off at New Year, but no doubt we'll have to make up those days off somewhere! Still, I've worked out that I've been in China for about 9 weeks now (where has the time gone?!) and there's only another 13 weeks left til I finish the internship!! Time really does fly!

Happy (very belated) Mid-Autumn Day!

I can't believe that Mid-Autumn day was a whole month ago – I swear time goes quicker in China than it does anywhere else! So anyway, here's a little belated post about this mini-holiday.

Mid-Autumn day (held on 19^th September this year) celebrates, well, mid-autumn, and it's a day where everyone eats moon cakes (which by the way, I am not impressed with...sorry China!) and gets together to celebrate. But there's also a legend behind Mid-Autumn day – this is the story, nearly word for word, that I was told by my friend Holly (who is Chinese by the way...), prepare to be utterly amazed by this Chinese tale...

There once was a woman who lived on the moon with a load of rabbits. A man from earth looked up at the moon and fell in love with her. Mid-Autumn day is the only day of the year when he can travel up to the moon and see his love, and to celebrate, the Chinese eat moon cakes and give moon cakes to their lovers. The end.

So, despite the fact I wasn't given all the specifics, it's still a very sweet story! Though, if my love gave me a box of moon cakes now, I'd probably be more likely to throw the box out than eat them....

Anyway, we all got two days off work to celebrate this festival (although, in the end, it turned out we didn't really get two days off at all, as we had to work two Sundays in a row to make up for it...). So on the day itself, me and Holly went to the Yonghe Lama Temple, which was quite impressive – it would have been a great place to relax and be at peace and whatnot, if there hadn't been a load of tourists milling around the temple, on account of the holiday. Ah well, I enjoyed seeing a Buddhist temple at any rate! We went out for a meal with James at night, and although the food was very spicy, it was ok!

The next day, I didn't do much during the day, but I met up with Holly and Matt at night and we went out to a bar in Wudaokou, called Windows. I think it was mainly an ex-pat kind of bar, but the food was good and they gave you free big bottles of beer, so no complaints there!

On the Saturday, me and James went to Yuyuantan Park – we finally found it after getting lost for a good hour or so, but it was worth it in the end. Although the park was so huge, I don't know how we missed it in the first place! The park has over 3,000 cherry trees, and it holds a Cherry Blossom festival every Spring – if I'm still here when the weather warms up, I'll definitely be going to check it out!

So that's it! It was nice to get a bit of a break from work, and I enjoyed seeing a few more sights that Beijing has to offer – it's just a shame that in China, you have to make up any days you have off by working at the weekends! But ah well, that's China for you!

Until next time,

Zaijian!

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