Hello again China Daily Blog! So much has happened since my last post here when I was a language student in Shanghai. After I returned back home to Canada after a semester of study, I went abroad to Brazil, finished my undergraduate degree and had another chance to study in Beijing this summer! Recently, I had been thinking of blogging again and have created a new blog under Blogger. This blogging platform is not accessible in China as it runs under Google. So I will post all my China related material in this blog in hopes of meeting new online users and re-establishing that fun experience I had nearly two years ago. Here is a recentlpost I wrote on learning Chinese. (edit, many of the sources I used in this post are not accessible in China, please message me directly if you are interested in obtaining the urls)According to this info graph from Business Insider's article The Easiest And Most Difficult Languages for English Speakers to Learn, Chinese is one of the most difficult languages for native English speakers to learn. The reason to why it is so difficult is due to the tonal characteristics of the language; the meaning of a word changes with different tones. In addition, there is an overwhelming number of characters to learn, According to BBC, there are over 50,000 Chinese characters, with a comprehensive modern dictionary rarely listing over 20,000 in use. An educated Chinese person would know roughly 8,000 characters, but one would only need a comprehensive knowledge of 2-3,000 characters to be able to read a newspaper. However, I find that not to be the case, as characters can be used together to form a new word with a new meaning. Despite the difficulty of learning this language, many people nowadays are becoming increasingly interested in taking up Chinese. There are many reasons for this trend, and depending on your geographical location, your interests and your career, you may understand why this is the case.Source: Business InsiderChinese is the #1 most spoken language in the worldAccording statistics, there are about 1.2 billion Chinese speakers in the world (including various Chinese dialects), with English trailing at position three with 3.4 million speakers. Although the majority of the speakers are concentrated in one country, there is a high chance that there would be other Chinese speakers, weather they be tourists or locals wherever you go. China’s booming economyThe news that China has surpassed the US as the largest world economy has made headlines late 2014, causing quite a stir in economic and business circles. Although quite controversial, the powerful presence of China in today’s economy is not new news. According to Business Insider, the GDP of China is expected to surpass the US by 2026. Consequently, the rising presence of China’s economic power has lead to an interest by many businessmen likewise, in learning the country’s official language. Source: Business InsiderThe widespread use of Chinese as an alternative languagePopular Chinese travel destinations, retail stores, supermarkets and airports now display signs written in Chinese as an alternative language. Airports such as JFK in New York, SEA in Seattle, YVR in Vancouver receive a high traffic of Chinese visitors and display signs with Chinese translations. Places in Thailand welcome Chinese tourists, with Patong Beach in Phuket, Thailand offering special discounts for souvenirs, restaurants, hotels and travel packages solely for Chinese tourists. Bangkok store owners call out Chinese phrases to promote their businesses. In Korea, some sales associates would speak to me in Mandarin. In my hometown of Victoria, Canada, a Tommy Hilfiger retail store displayed signs in English and Chinese.The increasing number Chinese business people investing and establishing business around the world. The recent opening of China's economy has seen the country creating business ties with various countries. Cities such as Vancouver, Toronto, Canada, and Melbourne, Australia, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, U.S, have been experiencing a large increase of Chinese immigrants, businesses and investors within the past few decades.According to CBC news, China has overtaken Canada as U.S largest's trading partner. With news relating to my hometown, the Times Colonist recently reported Viking Air in partnering with a Chinese company in manufacturing as many as 200 Twin Otter airplanes within the next two decades. The alluring lifestyle as a language student/ working expat in Shanghai or BeijingGlamorous nightclubs, cheap ethnic food, shopping paradises, towering skyscrapers, rowdy foreigner bars, scenic field trips and adventurous travels. The lavish pictures of the life of a Chinese language student or working expat posted on social media can make anyone turn green with envy.Beijing- HouhaiShanghai- Bar RougeXi-an- rou jia mo (Chinese hamburger)-Shanghai- late night street foodBeijing Great Wall- Music FestivalHowever, the journey in learning Chinese isn’t by far the easiest path to take. It is definitely not like learning French, Spanish, Portuguese or any Latin based languages. According to the Business Insider info graph mentioned at the beginning of this post, it takes 2,200 class hours, 1.69 years or 88 weeks to achieve language proficiency. However, I believe that number is a bit too enthusiastic and is probably based on someone who is practicing on a daily basis on reading, writing, speaking and listening. Or, they are already immersed in the language, working or studying in China. Even as an overseas born ethnic Chinese who speaks primarily Cantonese at home, I still struggle with learning Mandarin Chinese. Stayed tuned, as in the next post I will touch base on the struggles of learning Chinese and what resources a Chinese language learner can use to facilitate and accelerate their learning.

If you have an opportunity to visit a city more than once, would you visit the same places? If you were to visit Beijing again, would you want to visit the Forbidden city, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, the Great Wall of China, Tianmen Square? If you were to visit Shanghai again, would you revisit the Bund, the Oriental Pearl tower? Sometimes, some places are worth revisiting. Maybe they left a lasting impression that left you thinking about that place. If you were to revisit a place again, would your perception of that place change? Or would you rather keep that first impression forever in your mind.

During the past few months I have been here in China as a student, I've had the opportunity to visit a few places. It is a wonderful opportunity as I get a chance to study Chinese and then use it pratically during my travels. Currently I am in Bejing, sitting in a hostel at this very moment as I struggle to finish two more blogs for this month. Travelling as 20- something year old students with like- minded individuals can lead to many adventures, especially spontaneous ones. Vague plans, young energy, and a unknown city will lead to great adventures. Today is a new day and a the rest of the day awaits as we carry on our adventure in Beijing.

Your heart is pounding, the adrenaline is kicking in, your eyes shift left and right, left, right, left, right, shoulder check. The green “walk” sign is on, and you have 30 seconds to do the deed; you’re about to cross the street at a busy intersection in China. I’m sure most of you guys know the video game “Frogger”, it’s this old-schooled video game where you play the role of a frog and you leap across the road while dodging cars and trucks, trying to reach the other side of the road. Well, that’s exactly how I felt during my first month here in Shanghai; I was scared and felt really unsafe. In this blog post I will touch briefly on some of the notable differences in comparison to traffic in Canada. 1) People yield to cars As a pedestrian, you have to let cars go first; they seem to have the right of way, even when the pedestrian “walk” signal is on. Furthermore, cars that are turning at the intersection into the crosswalk don’t stop, so you have to use your dexterity and your superhuman perception to judge if it is safe to go or to stop. 2) Big cars go first I can see why this may be the case; if you don’t yield, they will crush you to death. Also, the nicer and more expensive your car is, the more likely the other cars will yield. If you have a Ferrari or a Lamborghini, you’re pretty much the king of the road. Vroom. 3) Electric scooters don’t follow the rules of the road They go on the sidewalk, they ride on the wrong side of the road, and they don’t stop for pedestrians. You’re more likely to get hit by one of those than a car. 4) Buses don’t seem to understand that they’re very large and scary They could be doing whatever electric scooters are doing for all they care. 5) Traffic lights are confusing and crazy When I was in Xi’an I noticed that they have traffic lights that look ridiculously absurd. In my mind, it felt like as if they conveyed the message: “you have 60 seconds to do whatever you want; turn, go straight, and make a u-turn.” I was ridiculously scared to cross the road when I first came to China. I frequently followed the crowd, or matched my stride with other Chinese because they seem to know what they were doing. But now, after being here for a few months, I believe I’ve mastered the art of crossing the street in China; it’s like reaching level 100 in Frogger.

Learning Chinese is not all about the books, the dictation, and the interactions in class between teacher and students. In fact, most of the vocabulary, pronunciation and sentence structure I’ve learned during the past 3 months I’ve been here in Shanghai, have been through interaction amongst friends or strangers and reading billboards and signs. In this blog post, I will briefly touch base on some of the ways to learn Chinese. 1) Having a conversation in Chinese (of course) This includes practicing your Chinese whenever you can, making Chinese friends or having a language partner. Learning a new word in class and utilizing it in conversation is a good way to embed it in your brain. 2) Travelling My Chinese improves tenfold each time I travel to a different city in China. Interacting with strangers; asking for directions and recommendations is the best way to practice. You’re forced to use your brain and remember Chinese vocabulary and phrases to get around. 3) Watching movies in Chinese Following the dialogue with the caption, not only will you learn new vocabulary, you are able to learn the latest slang and culture. This method works well and it works even if you’re not in China. I know lot of people who‘s told me that the reason their Chinese is so good is because they watch Chinese dramas almost religiously. Learning a new language doesn’t have to take a lot of effort. It really is about pushing beyond comfort zones and barriers. It’s about willingness to let yourself make mistakes and know that mistakes helps you learn; there is no need to be ashamed or scared to make them. Once you pass that point, it is like a kick start and then learning comes naturally.

As mentioned previously in my blog “Take a Deep Breath”, my university program arranged a two day field trip to see China’s “countryside” which included a trip to Tong Lu County. I have never heard of Tong Lu and initially, I was excited for a change of scenery contrary to Shanghai’s metropolis environment. I have only been to China’s major cities and have never quite ventured out far into counties or villages. Filled with naïve thoughts of peasants, farmers and quaint little streets, I arrived in Tong Lu and my eyeballs nearly fell out.A bit about Tong Lu Tong Lu County is under administration of the Hangzhou city and has an area of 1,780 square kilometers with 400,700 household registered members. Since 2009, the transformation and development of the city began to increase dramatically. Industries such as manufacturing, food and materials, construction and agriculture began to flourish at prosperous rates. In 2009, the county’s GDP reached 17.156 billion Yuan (Hangzhou municipal government, n.d). Massive buildings When our tour bus neared the city, we were presented with impressive views of new, tall and remarkable commercial buildings; some of these buildings processed dramatic modern architectural designs. We then pulled into a beautiful five star hotel that was comparable to hotels in Las Vegas (minus the casinos and the shops). This was our view of the city from the 17th floor: View of the city from the 17th floor of our five star hotelUnoccupied Apartments The most prominent observation involved multitudinous amounts of unoccupied condominium residences and neighborhoods. Some of them still under construction, some of them finished but unoccupied. Furthermore, advertisements or any sort of marketing for the residences were not very evident, which made it seems a bit like an odd ghost town that consisted of new buildings. On the contrary… In spite of this “big city” façade Tong Lu seems to convey, the city centre unmistakably has a “small town” feel. The traffic isn’t as crazy, there are considerably less people on the street, the people seem to be friendlier, less busy and have more times on their hands. I was told by my tour guide that people from Shanghai make that 2 and a bit hour drive down to Tong Lu to get away from the big city hustle and bustle. In conclusion, I guess the reason why I would say that I felt “shocked but not shocked,” is because subconsciously, I have a general idea of China’s booming economy and immense development. However, I would have never imagined that the development would be so extensive. I am so grateful to have the chance to experience this; witnessing something like this opens up your eyes and really gets you thinking… Hangzhou municipal government. (n.d). “Tonglu County”. Retrieved April 28, 2014, from http://eng.hangzhou.gov.cn/main/zpd/English/AboutHangZhou/T326229.shtml

Before coming to Shanghai, I've never cared much for Traditional Chinese Medicine. Previous experiences have included acupuncture and medicine in my hometown for my sensitive skin or drinking medicinal soup my mother makes. I’ve passed by Chinese medicine shops in Richmond (a Chinese populated region in Vancouver, Canada), but never really had much interest in what they do or what they are for. The various types of ingredients and their weird looking appearances are enough to intimidate anyone with little to no background knowledge of their uses. Lately, ever since I’ve been in Shanghai, I have not been eating well because I have been eating out two times a day for the past two months in restaurants or at the school cafeteria. My dormitory does not provide a kitchen, not even a fridge or a microwave. The food I’m used to making at home usually include fresh salad with chicken breast and quinoa or rice with steamed vegetables and baked salmon. I barely use any oil, and use salt and soy sauce sparingly. Chinese foods in restaurants are typically really oily and salty and sometimes spicy. As a result, my skin has been acting up and my energy levels are really low. It also doesn’t help that I exercise less here as well. And so, since I’m in China, I thought to myself, why not explore Traditional Chinese Medicine/Herbs and find a way to balance myself? I started asking my mother questions about the types of ingredients I should be consuming if I were to regain balance. (Please note that I’ve only started exploring Chinese medicine/herbs and definitely not an expert, also, I am at a loss for words in describing some of the things in English) Eating spicy or fried food can cause too much “Internal Heat”. It is good to cleanse your body by ingesting/drinking things with Chrysanthemum in it. Chrysanthemum flowers in a tea mix packet These “cool” teas are also good for cleaning internal heat. I’m thinking of seeing a Traditional Chinese doctor here in Shanghai for my skin, and I’m wondering if anyone would recommend a good place; it would be greatly appreciated .

I’ve often wondered why the Chinese like to stare at us. Maybe it’s because we look different, dress different. However, in addition to our differences in appearance, based on personal observations, I here will discuss some other reasons why the Chinese think we’re weird. 1) We’re really loud and obnoxious We travel in large packs, laugh and talk loudly. On the subway, in taxis, we don’t stop talking, and we do it loudly. The Chinese have a quiet conversation or watch movies on their phones. 2) We’re amazed by a lot of things Seriously, even the smallest things faze us. And what do we do? We whip out our phones and take pictures of every angle while going oooooh ahhhhh and discussing it loudly with our friends. 3) We speak funny Chinese Most of us are still learning Chinese and our tones and grammar are not 100% perfect. We may accidentally say wrong things by using the wrong tones, and may end up waving our hands around in desperate measures in trying to get people to understand what we are trying to say. Or we might try to say a word and realize that it might not be the right tone, and end repeating the sound with different tones in hopes of getting the right one. “Today my presentation will be about Xiong1mao3??? (chest hair) Hmmm Xiong1mao2??? (chest hat) Oooohhhhh Xiong2mao1 (PANDA)!!!” Often when I learn a new word, I repeat the word over and over again out loud. Like the time I had no idea what packing tape was in Chinese. I kept on holding up a parcel and repeatedly saying “Tie”? (to stick) to the salespeople until I learned that it’s called “Tou ming jiao” (transparent plastic). 4) Our clueless expressions and reactions are really amusing Sometimes the Chinese speak too fast for us, or they say a word that we don’t recognize. We’ll start to look really confused and end up stuttering and start waving out hands around (see number 3) or ask our foreign friends in our mother tongue in desperate measures. I’ve seen this happen many times (and I do the same thing too), and I agree it is pretty amusing from a Chinese’s point of view. Don’t get me wrong, as a foreigner, I think other foreigners are interesting and we all have reasons why we are here in China. We all chose to be here, and although it may sometimes be a disadvantage to be a foreigner and not know the language and the area well, each of us are learning to assimilate and grow in a culture and environment that is completely different than our own.

I miss taking a deep breath of fresh crisp air; air that is easy to breathe in, air that feels nourishing. I miss the fresh green smells of a forest, a clear stream, or the ocean breeze. I miss being able to go outside for a workout, let it be yoga, or a run or a hike, and come back feeling refreshed, feeling alert with fresh oxygen flowing in my body, my brain. I miss not having to worry about the pollution levels when going out for exercise or day to day activities; it’s a new burden to worry about in addition to the weather. Before coming to Shanghai, I was naive and was not aware that pollution levels could be so high and dangerous to a point where it could obscure objects of close proximity and cause health issues to sensitive groups. Now I have an app/widget on my phone that checks the pollution levels every so often and I keep watch of the levels. Last week, my program at my university went on a field trip to visit China’s country side. We visited Tong lu and Xi tang which are near Hangzhou and Suzhou respectively. The air quality there was significantly better. Better yet was the trip to Yan Ziling Fishing Platform where we did a small hike up a mountain of the Stele Forest. The forest was so nice, and so green; it reminded me a bit of home. Best of all was the air quality, the air filled my lungs with ease and I just didn’t want to stop deeply breathing it in. Stele Forest in the Tong lu County, Yan Ziling Fishing Platform

Referencing back to my previous post about expensive gyms, I've come to the realization that people who went to these kinds of gyms were typically expats, or at least the two gyms that I went to were. With the membership prices so high, even in my Canadian standards, a looming question started to build in my mind; how DO the Chinese stay fit? In this post, I will touch base on this topic based on personal observations.Chinese workers are strong, have good endurance and endless toleranceLiving on campus, I would see typically older men about 55-60 years of age pulling large wagons piled sky-high with objects, like garbage, goods or piles and piles of cardboard. They'll be pulling them around campus and up and over bridges, and this is their job. I've seen them throughout the city as well, but less frequently. Comparing these men to the men in my country, I am ashamed to say that it's not comparable at all.Working man, carrying tons of items on his bike. Photo credits to my friend Jason W. who took this picture in GuangzhouBack in Canada, this job would be executed with the help of machinery, like at my university, a small golf-cart-like vehicle or a truck would be used in place. Moreover, older men wouldn't even working such a job.The Chinese would find the most economical way to exerciseLike walking. I learned from my friends that the Chinese frequently take a short walk following a meal to aid digestion. Which probably would explain why I found so many people walking around the school track around 8pm (refer to previous blog about exercise). In addition, many students play soccer or basketball in outdoor fields and courts; it's free, fun and a good workout. Tai chi, qi gong and Chinese group dancingWalking through a park in Shanghai, you'll find that the Chinese tend to go for strolls are very early hours at around 5-6 am. Throughout the day, you'll find people practicing tai chi, qi gong by themselves or in a small group. Usually during the evenings and during the weekends, you'll find older Chinese women dancing outdoors to Chinese music. Chinese women dancing to chinese music on a Saturday morning.Free outdoor gymsI recently discovered a free outdoor gym at a park near my university, I was so mind-blown and amused because I have never seen such a thing before. The gym equipment there were so cleverly manufactured to suit the needs of the users with respect to the limitations such as space, cost, and electricity. There was an elliptical machine that did not require electricity, a leg press and a row machine that uses your own body weight, pullies and wheels to work out the arms and shoulders as well as many others. Although the equipment did seem to target seniors, I found good use of some of the equipment by modifying the way you are supposed to use it. Seen: Elliptical on the left side, pull up barsSwing your legs to and fro; works out the absTwist upper torso back and forth; works out the lats/absRow machine that uses your own body weightI wouldn't be surprised, I knew the Chinese are very conscious about their health. I'm Canadian-born-Chinese, my mother would always cook medicinal soup to "balance" my body, my father would frequently practice tai chi or qi gong in the backyard. I haven't visited a elementary school here is China, but my mother told me that when she was little, she would have morning exercises everyday as a class. Moreover, with scrumptious food every direction you look as well as street vendors offering fragrant and mouth watering food, it's no wonder that the Chinese do exercise as much as the people back in my hometown do; just in a different way.