Hey 同学们!
This booklet has been produced by undergraduates in the year above to tell you about what will happen when you go to Beijing to study. This period is, for most people, their only opportunity (during the degree) to spend a long time in China and to gain some fluency in Chinese. From third year onwards, the Oxford course places more focus on history and Classical Chinese, so take advantage of the opportunity to get your modern Chinese up to scratch and gain a decent speaking ability in Chinese to take away with you. But don’t forget to make the most of the experience and have fun! This booklet should tell you most of what you need to know before you leave and what to do when you arrive, and it will hopefully help you make the most of living in Beijing. You’ll find the “Step-By-Step Guide to Setting Up Your Life” section has particularly useful information before you go and when you first arrive. Some things can’t be covered by the booklet, so if you find yourself in a bizarre situation in China, or have any other kind of question, feel free to contact any of us by email or WeChat (see usernames in parentheses):
Samuel Wejchert, St Anne’s: [email protected] (weishumo1997) Jonah Kaplan, St Anne’s: [email protected] (jonahkaplan) Alishiya Tanna, St Anne’s: [email protected] (alishiya_tanna) Lydia Dowden, Christ Church: [email protected] (lydiadowden) Humphrey Paton, Pembroke: [email protected] (humphreypku) Islah Wallace, Pembroke: [email protected] (islah_wallace) Andrew Scanlon, Pembroke: [email protected] (aitkenas) Nabeela Zaman, Univ: [email protected] (nabeela7) Niamh Calway, St Hilda’s: [email protected] (niamhcalway) Isabel Galwey, St Hilda’s: [email protected] (isabelgalwey) Sasha Burnet, Queen’s: [email protected] (sashaburnet) Eloise McAllister, Queen’s: [email protected] (elmcallister) Isabelle Wilson, Wadham: [email protected] (isabeabod) William Gardner, Wadham: [email protected] (willgardner9) Roseanna Mundell Perkins, Hertford: [email protected] (rmundellperkins)
We each have our own areas of expertise: Will is the food expert; Rosie knows all about accommodation; Samuel will inform you about the role of class representative; Niamh can point you in the right direction for finding teaching jobs, etc. We each worked on different parts of the guide, but we’ve all had experience with everything you’ll be going through next year, and we’re all happy to help. Should you have any questions, feel free to contact any of us and we’ll pass your query on to someone more knowledgeable if necessary. But the most important thing to remember by far is just to have fun. Make the most of your year abroad and don’t be afraid to try new things. The only thing left to say is: good luck and enjoy!
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Contents
Before you go ...... 5 Flights ...... 5 Airlines ...... 6 Insurance ...... 7 A Step-By-Step Guide to Setting Up Your Life ...... 8 Money ...... 14 Packing ...... 16 Hand Luggage ...... 16 Clothes...... 16 Household ...... 17 Other ...... 17 Vaccinations ...... 20 Medicines ...... 21 Mosquitoes ...... 22 Sanitary Products ...... 22 Drinking water ...... 22 Sunburn and heat stroke ...... 23 Toilets ...... 23 Food hygiene ...... 23 Smog ...... 24 Pre-existing Conditions ...... 25 Insurance Contact Details ...... 27 Hospital Contact Details & Locations ...... 28 Student Finance Reimbursement ...... 31 Arriving ...... 33 Methods of transport ...... 33 Where to stay ...... 34 Beida ...... 34 Alternatives ...... 34 The Beida Course ...... 36 Classes ...... 36 Holidays ...... 38 International Language Competitions ...... 38
Class Representative（班长） ...... 39
Extracurricular Activities ...... 40 Beida ...... 40
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Jobs and Internships ...... 41 Earning Money ...... 41 Internships ...... 42 Beijing ...... 42 Accommodation ...... 44 Student Dorm – Global Village ...... 44 Renting a flat ...... 45 Location ...... 45 Rental Agencies ...... 45 Choosing an apartment ...... 46 Living in an apartment ...... 47 Approximate Accommodation Prices ...... 48 Registration at the police station ...... 50 Communications ...... 51 Internet (& VPN) ...... 51 Phoning ...... 52 Post ...... 52 Bike ...... 54 Travelcard ...... 54 Subway ...... 54 Bus ...... 55 Taxi ...... 55 Long Distance Buses ...... 56 Train ...... 56 Plane ...... 58 Around Beijing...... 59 Food ...... 62 Food apps ...... 63 Eating in Beida ...... 63 Eating in Wudaokou ...... 64 Chinese Food ...... 64 Other Asian Food ...... 65 Western Food ...... 66 Beijing Roast Duck ...... 66 Street Food ...... 67 Vegetarianism and Veganism ...... 67 Cooking at Home ...... 68 Nightlife ...... 69
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Before launching into the specifics of the preparation process, here is an idea of what the structure of your year will look like. This is the programme for the current second years – while it will not be absolutely identical for you, it should hopefully serve as a rough guide.
12th September Registration at Beida You will be welcomed by the International Students Coordinator, Li Ke. Afterwards, you will meet your new language partners, have a group photo taken and have a welcoming lunch. Collections/First day of classes
September-October Beijing tours/activities Staff from the university will arranged by Beida organise (free!) tours around some of the touristic sites of the city. Among these might be the Forbidden City, an acrobatics show at Chaoyang Theatre, Peking Opera, a Hutong tour, the Temple of Heaven and the Great Wall. 1st October – You will have a week off These dates are approximate as 7th October class. they change every year. 17th December Classes for the first term You may have one or two Beida end exams just before the end of term, but we didn’t. 19th February Second Term Registration at We had a week of collections Beida from the 22nd. 20th February Classes for the second term begin Before 24th June The week of final Beida exams.
The prospect of spending an entire year abroad is both daunting and exciting. Your time in China will likely be more fantastic than you can imagine. Having said that, relocating to China is something of a mammoth task, and there are certainly things that you need to account for well in advance. A variety of considerations (such as flights, visa procedures, health checks, insurance, documentation, money, housing arrangements, etc.) need to be dealt with, or at least should have some thought, before leaving the UK. Chinese visa bureaucracy is definitely better to be anticipated than not!
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Before you go
From our experience, it is highly recommended that you head to China about two weeks before you are needed at Beida. We would advise this so strongly because it will be much easier to sort out living arrangements (which requires lots of cash as deposit payments) without the commitment of having to be in class every day. The “Documentation/Temporary Residence Permit” section has more information on what you’ll be obliged to do in Beijing so early on.
You might be booked to stay in Beida’s on-campus Sháoyuán (勺园) accommodation for either one week or two. You may alternatively decide to find accommodation nearer Wudaokou, where many students decide to live. This will be discussed in more detail in the “Arriving” section.
Flights
When you have decided when you want to fly to China, try to book your flights as soon as you can—the sooner you start to enquire about fares, the more likely you are to find a good deal. If you travel in groups, Beida have been known to send out a minibus to collect people from the airport (for groups of five or more). If you arrive alone or in smaller groups, you are on your own! Alternative transport from the airport is not too difficult. You can use the Airport Express train, which connects to the Beijing Subway for 25RMB or you can go with taxis from the well-organised taxi rank at the airport. If you’ve never been to Beijing, get the ones with a yellow strip on the car—the men who specifically ask if you need a taxi are black cab (黑车 hēichē) drivers and will rip you off. Taxis will inevitably be pricier (still only about 100RMB), but a lot more convenient if you have a lot of luggage or are unfamiliar with the city. There is more about getting to the city in the “Arriving” section. If you want to come home for the Christmas break, you will have four individual flights to book. You could book this:
❖ in two segments (a return ticket for the beginning and end of the first term, then a return ticket for the beginning and end of the second term) or; ❖ in three segments (any arrangement of two singles and one return).
If you book it in two segments, you can be limited by Beida’s somewhat unpredictable change of term dates/exam arrangements and thus have to change flight dates, but if you book it in three segments, it could be easier to overcome these problems by only booking the segments whose dates you are sure of.
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Consider what you want to do at the end of the year—do you want to come home straight after term time ends or will you want to travel around China? It is a really good opportunity to travel around and the Beida course doesn’t really allow much time for any long excursions. The Oxford Careers Service also advertises great opportunities for internships and teaching work in China over the summer. This summer two students at least will be interning through programs provided by the careers service based in Beijing and Shanghai, and many students have done the Qinghua University summer schools both before and after their year at Beida. Student Finance England may offer you reimbursement for a few flights. It seems that since tuition fees went up this has only been for students who are entitled to finance based on parental income (i.e. those who get more than the minimum maintenance loan of about £3,500 per annum). It’s best to have a look and see if you’re entitled to help with travel.
Airlines
China Southern/KLM/Air France all seem to be in a partnership. You can easily get a quick flight from Manchester or London to Paris or Amsterdam, then a direct flight to Beijing. Sometimes people haven’t had personal screens or anything for entertainment, but the leg space is surprisingly good and most flights are around £550 return, so a reasonable price for quite a short travel time. If you are on a China Southern flight from your European airport, the staff might have poor English, but it’s a good chance to warm up on your language before the grind. Note that some of us have found changing flight dates at short notice particularly tough on China Southern. Emirates has received great reviews from those of us who have travelled with them. They have good food and service, comfortable planes and, importantly, a generous baggage allowance (30kg); however, you might be paying upwards of £700 for a return flight. The other disadvantage is that reaching Beijing takes longer as you have to transfer in Dubai (around 20 hours to Beijing is the standard). However, if you don’t mind the longer journey time, the baggage allowance definitely makes Emirates a good option to consider. Aeroflot, the Russian flag carrier, is usually has low prices. The quality of service is adequate, but not as good as Emirates, and Moscow is not as nice an airport to transfer at as Dubai, though it is quite a direct route from Western Europe. Their baggage allowance is standard, at 23kg. British Airways is often the most convenient option, although not always the cheapest. You can (obviously) fly directly from London, which is a big plus. Its luggage allowance is 23kg, as well as a laptop bag to supplement your cabin baggage. Additional baggage is fairly cheap (£30~ if flying direct), which could be useful at the end of the year. Its flight change policy is a £100 flat fee. Finnair is an excellent option too. You transfer at Helsinki Vantaa, their hub, but this is pretty painless. The service is excellent, and baggage allowance is standard.
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Hainan Airlines offer direct flights from Manchester to Beijing, often cheaper than many other flight options (especially if you don't live near London). You also get two pieces of luggage (23kg each) included in the price of your ticket.
N.B. If any of you want to earn air miles (and you’ll accrue a ton of them, so do), you may want to consider looking at airlines that work together in one of the major global alliances. These are OneWorld (BA, Finnair, but also a bunch of other carriers such as American Airlines), the Star Alliance (Air China, Lufthansa, United Airlines, etc.) and the heroically named Sky Team (Aeroflot, China Airlines, China Southern, KLM, Air France and others). This is obviously a secondary consideration, but given that miles can be used on any airline within one of these alliances it could be worth considering if the prices are all very similar.
Insurance
Get travel insurance for the time you are in China, over and above the coverage that Oxford will provide you with (this doesn’t cover you for any trips you may take, or for time in China after the end of the year). Make sure you have adequate medical coverage, as if you need to see a doctor in China you will have to pay for it. There is a clinic in Beida, but as the doctors there do not speak English and seem to practice a mixture of Chinese and Western medicine they may not be able to help you. There are private medical facilities in Beijing with English speaking doctors who will charge around $70 for a consultation (see the “Health” section). This is claimable under travel insurance. If you are taking a laptop or other pieces of expensive equipment, this can be covered too, although there may be an add-on charge to your basic insurance. Consider a separate laptop policy: these will generally cover your laptop worldwide for anything, including accidental damage, for one year for about £50. You can either get a whole year policy or can book your year’s cover in segments. It may be more convenient and cheaper to consider doing it in segments, as you will obviously not need insurance for the Christmas period, should you wish to come home. Also, it may be more convenient to book it in certain segments as your travel dates and plans may change for the end of the year. Many insurance companies indicate that they do not allow you to take out cover whilst you are abroad, so all the organisation for insurance policies must be done in the UK. When finding a policy, the main things you’ll want included are medical, baggage cover, personal money (cash), cancellations of flights etc., and you may want to check if cameras, laptops and phones are included. Internet insurers are often cheaper, though some companies such as Endsleigh offer discounts to students. ❖ http://www.moneysupermarket.com/insurance/ is a decent comparison site. ❖ http://www.yearabroadinsurance.com/ is also a possibility: at least one of us uses them (though, not having had to make a claim, we can’t really speak to how good they’ll be come crunch time), and they seem to offer well-tailored coverage.
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Their limits are good, and you can also get an eighteen month policy, which may be useful if you’re arriving in China early/ staying on for the whole summer. Moreover, as you’ll be going for their “Worldwide” policy, they’ll cover any trips you take during the year, even if you go out of China. Warning: yearabroadinsurance.com will not insure you if you are under the age of 19 The main message on insurance is: don’t skimp on this. You should expect to pay at minimum £250, and possibly £350 or more, for the total of the year’s insurance. Again, Student Finance England might reimburse up to 40% of the insurance cost for you if you are entitled to it. See the “Student Finance Reimbursement” section for more details. Having said this, the insurance that the university offers is absolutely brilliant. Several students have had to go to hospital with quite bad experiences, and if a friend rings up the insurance company at the time, or a while before if you’re seeing a GP, then everything should be covered and you merely have to send back a scan of a claim form to Oxford. The best hospital in town is the United Family Hospital, 和睦家医院 Hémùjiā yīyuàn (see the “Health” section). All of the staff have brilliant English and it’s well kitted- out. The Oxford programme may only cover you if you are in Beijing, but it will cover you for almost any health issue in the city, so why not go to the best place? The only issue is that you need to create an account to make any payment, for which you need your passport and maybe your insurance reference. With this in mind, taking a friend along is a good idea.
A Step-By-Step Guide to Setting Up Your Life
This section is a brief summary of the mass of paperwork you will need to deal with during your first couple of weeks in China. Further details on arriving in Beijing and settling into life here can be found in the more specific sections later in this handbook - for now, this is just a guide to the bureaucracy through which you have to wade upon arrival.
Documentation
This section will cover the lengthy process of obtaining a residence permit. As long as you get all the right bits of paper in the right order, it’s not too difficult, but you do start collecting aforementioned bits of paper before you leave the UK, so it’s definitely worth having a file of some sort to keep them all together. This section will cover the following, in chronological order of when you will need them: • PKU application form • Initial visa (obtained before you leave) • Housing registration • Health check • Residence permit • Visa extensions
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PKU Application Form
You should be directed to this form by the department early in Trinity term. It is an online form which you submit directly to PKU. When you have submitted the form, you will be able to download a PDF copy of your application. The department in Oxford will probably ask you to send them a copy of this PDF to reassure them that you have applied. PKU will send your admission letter and JW202 form back to Oxford, and one of your teachers (probably Mr Gan) will distribute them. These two documents are important and necessary not only for obtaining your initial visa, but also for your residence permit application once you get to China, so do remember to bring them with you.
Initial Visa
The following information should be correct (as of March 2016) but make sure you check the website (www.visaforchina.org) for up-to-date information before you submit your application. This is the visa that will allow you to enter China, and you apply for it in the UK. You can apply in person (There are offices in Manchester, London and Edinburgh) or by post. You need an X1 visa (study for a period of more than six months), and it will cost you about £70 (plus an additional £15 post service fee if you choose to apply by post).
When applying, be sure to leave time for a failed application. The centre recommends applying one month before departure, and ask that you do not apply more than three months before entry to China
For this visa, you will need to prepare the following documents: • Passport • Photocopy of passport data/photo page • Visa application form (you can download and print this from the website) • Passport sized photo (attached to application form) • Signed declaration (also on the website) • Photocopy of any previous Chinese visas • PKU Acceptance letter • JW202 form (N.B. If you submit your application by post, you need to submit the original and not a photocopy of this form. Don’t worry, they will return it to you when they return your passport)
If you are applying by post you will also need to include a postage-paid, self-addressed envelope in which your passport will be returned. It is recommended that you purchase a Royal Mail special delivery envelope for this purpose to make sure your passport reaches you securely and promptly. For postal applications you also need to download and fill in an additional form for your payment details, as well as the ‘Mail application checklist’, a handy checklist of all the documents you should include, which you also need to sign and include. If there are any problems with your postal application (for example, a required document is missing), the visa office will phone you to sort them out (i.e. they won’t just reject your application straight away!).
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If you choose to apply in person, you will need to book an appointment (even if you have all the necessary documentation, you will not be allowed to submit your application without an appointment). Do not be late for your appointment as this may also hinder your application. The centre administrators will tell you when your visa will be ready for collection and give you a collection receipt. Same-day or next-day service is no longer available, so you will usually have to return about a week later to pick up your passport (including visa) and pay the fee. Someone else can collect your visa for you, but they will need your collection receipt.
Your visa will state that the duration of your stay in China is ‘000 days’, which means that the length of your stay is yet to be determined, and you have 30 days after arriving in China to apply for a residence permit. The X1 visa itself is valid for entry for three months after you applied for it, and permits you to be in China for up to 28 days from your day of entry, which is plenty of time to sort out the necessary paperwork and apply for your new permit. If anything happens to your passport, your visa can become invalid. In this situation, contact the visa office as soon as possible and make sure you also tell Mr Kan.
If you are planning to do any travelling that will require your passport before moving to China, make sure to factor visa processing times into your plans.
Housing Registration Certificate (住宿登记表）
This is a form stamped by the local police station to say that you live somewhere. According to the rules, you need to go to the relevant police station with the owner of the address. If you’re renting a flat, this will obviously be your landlord. If you are doing a homestay, ask the family with whom you are staying - it may be their landlord who needs to go with you. If you choose to stay in PKU halls it’s probably best to ask the course coordinator about this (none of us chose to live on campus so we don’t know what the process is) You may need to be a little pushy to get this done as soon as possible - just tell them you need to be taken to the police station (派出所 pàichūsuǒ) to say you live here and then arrange a mutually agreeable time.
Warning: In past years, some students have been told they need to pay a so-called ‘foreigners’ tax’ to get the housing registration certificate. This tax does not exist, or at least not for this situation. The reason this comes up is that landlords have to pay a small tax on the rent they receive and to avoid paying, many of them will get foreigners (who may not know about this) to pay the tax for them. Your landlord may be honest and not even ask you to pay, but make sure you know what money you are expected to hand over before signing a contract. You may be less lucky with your landlord, and paying this so- called tax may be the difference between getting an apartment and not. Note that this is not the same as an agency fee, deposit or advance rent.
Health Check Certificate
This can be very easy to sort out, or it can be a great hassle, depending on how long you have to wait at the centre (this usually depends on when you arrive in Beijing - it seems that the closer to the start of term it is, the more international students there are, all trying to obtain the same documents). Don’t forget to take your passport, as well as a
10 | P a g e couple of extra passport-sized photos (if you don’t have any, don’t worry, you can get them taken at the centre for about 30RMB). The cost of the health check may depend on any health tests taken in your home country (when applying for a visa) but in general, it will be a few hundred RMB (for us it was 540RMB but this may change so be sure to take plenty of cash).
To get your health check certificate, you need to go to a health centre, the Chinese name of which is 北京国际旅行卫生保健中心海淀分中心. You will need to go twice, first for the health check itself and then again a few days later to collect the certificate. The centre is only open for health checks in the morning (0800-1200), and for collections in the afternoon (1300-1600). When you go for the health check, we recommend leaving as early as you can, to try and get to the front of the queue, or at the very least, to try and guarantee that you get through all the tests before they close for the morning. Bear in mind that the queue can already be very long by opening time on busy days. On other occasions, it can be virtually empty, but it is better to err on the side of caution, to avoid wasting time and money having to go again.
We recommend taking a taxi, as it is by far the easiest way to get there, and not too expensive (less than 50 元) especially if you share a taxi and split the cost. Allow about 40 minutes to get there. Taxi drivers are unlikely to have heard of the centre, and may be unwilling to take you there when they realise that it is outside the fifth ring road, so you might have to try a few taxis before finding one that will take you. Its address is 海淀区 西北旺德政路 10 号. This alone may be enough for some taxi drivers, who can put it into their phone or satnav for directions. Alternatively, you can mark the centre on a map (easily obtained from a roadside newspaper stand) or find it on your own phone using Baidu Maps, if you already have a phone set up with data available. Some of us got there successfully by having the address already keyed into Baidu Maps before hailing a taxi, and switching on route navigation (with directions given in Chinese, of course) for the taxi driver. Then the person in the front seat just held up the phone for the duration of the journey so the driver could check the map and listen to the directions.
It is possible to reach the centre by public transport, using the subway and buses. It’s probably best to search the route on Google Maps before setting off.
When you get to the centre, you will see a guard sitting in a box with a folding fence across the drive. You can just walk through and round to the right of the building until you reach the entrance. You then fill in an arrival form (which are inside, even if the queue is out the door by the time you arrive). After filling in this form, join the queue. You will be given a form, then shuffled between different rooms for six very short medical examinations (chest x-ray, blood test, etc). If the centre is not too busy, it will take about half an hour, but you may have to queue for some of the tests. At each test, someone will stamp your little form. Once you have collected all six stamps, you go back to the front desk, pay, and hand them in. They will give you a receipt and tell you when to come back for the results. Apparently you can opt to have your results sent to PKU for collection instead, but this adds to the processing time and may delay your residence permit application.
Then you just need to hail a taxi to take you home again (there may not be very many taxis in this area, but it’s not an impossible taxi). If you want to save money on transport,
11 | P a g e you can get a taxi to Xierqi subway station then get the subway directly back to Wudaokou on line 13, or even get the bus which goes past the centre to a stop near Xierqi, and then the subway. Again, you can use Baidu or Google maps to search for public transport options. By the time you arrive in Beijing, line 16 if the subway may be in operation in which case you can take the subway to Xibeiwang and then walk to the health centre.
Residence Permit (居留许可）
Once you have collected all the other bits of paperwork you need, you can finally apply for your temporary residence permit, which will allow you to leave and re-enter China over the course of the year. Ideally you will have collected all the documentation, handed them in, and received your residence permit within 30 days of arriving in China, which means obtaining all the paperwork (including finding somewhere to live) within about a week of arriving. This is completely realistic and achievable, although it can be somewhat tiring and a bit annoying if you’d rather be exploring Beijing.
You will apply for your residence permit at the visa office at PKU, located on the third floor of the New Sun Student Centre (新太阳学生中心), just along the corridor from the office of your course coordinator, Li Ke. You can check with Li Ke when the visa office will be open. It was definitely up and running by about three weeks before term started, but it only works four days a week and takes a longer lunch break than most PKU offices, so check to make sure you’re not wasting your time.
At the visa office, you will hand in all of the following things: • Passport (including initial visa) • Acceptance letter from PKU • JW202 form • Housing registration certificate • Health check certificate • A small form (either Li Ke or someone in the visa office should give this to you - on this you will set the date that your permit will run out) • 600RMB (or thereabouts)
Once they have made sure all the necessary documents are there, they will give you a collection receipt, telling you the date you can come back to pick up your passport. Processing usually takes a couple of weeks, though it can occasionally take much longer than this.
Regarding the expiry date of your residence permit, it’s probably worth trying to set it as late as possible, to give you some flexibility for end-of-year plans. PKU will probably tell you that the latest they can set it is a couple of weeks after the end of term, i.e. mid-July, but some of us managed to get until the end of July, so it’s definitely worth asking. Of course this means that if you want to stay in China (for travel, internships, etc.) during the summer, you will need to get a new visa or extend your permit. See the ‘Visa Extensions’ section below for more details.
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Note that you will, for a couple of weeks at least, be passport-less (between applying for your residence permit and collecting it) so, if you plan to travel by train around China in the meantime, you will need to collect a yellow form (黄单子), which allows you to buy train tickets and so on without your passport. This form also takes time to process. You may want to consider the fact that the National Week holiday (the first week in October) comes around quite quickly after the beginning of term and is a great opportunity to do some travelling. Make sure that if you plan to travel at this time, you will definitely have either your passport or a yellow form. If you do choose to get a yellow form you will have to pick up your passport from the Public Security Bureau visa section (Exit/Entry Administration), near Yonghegong subway station, rather than from the office at PKU, so consider carefully whether you really need one or not and whether it is worth the extra hassle.
Visa Extensions
This section is based on information that has been passed onto us by previous year groups, as at the time of writing (March 2016) none of us have yet needed to extend our visas. By the time this becomes relevant to you, however, some of us may have direct experience of extending our visas, so it may be worth getting in touch with one of us to find out more accurate information.
If you are going to be in China beyond the expiry date of your residence permit, you have three options: • If you have plenty of time left on your residence permit but will eventually need an extension, you can go directly to the course coordinator at PKU and ask her for help arranging it. • If your visa is very close to running out, you may have to leave the country (usually, this involves a trip to Hong Kong), re-enter on an L (tourist) visa and then go to the course coordinator and ask for help converting this visa into a student visa (an L visa lasts 30 days) • If you want to stay in China as a tourist after your student visa runs out, you can apply for an L visa extension in Beijing. This visa only lasts 30 days, but it doesn’t require a letter from PKU (though you will need your housing registration certificate)
If you need an extension to your student visa (i.e. if either of the first two options applies to you), when you go and see Li Ke and explain, she will give you a form saying that you are a student of PKU. However, she will have control over the expiry date of your new visa, and she may put the date for when the course ends (mid-June) rather than the date you actually want to leave Beijing. If you have any issues with this, you can ask Mr Gan to email Li Ke explaining that you need to stay in China longer, and it should be fine.
You will have to take this form, along with your housing registration form and a colour passport-sized photograph, to the Public Security Bureau Visa section (Exit/Entry Administration), near Yonghegong subway station. When you get there, fill in the form and join the queue for visa extensions. There is a fee for processing a new visa, and it will take about a week to process. Like the offices in the UK, there is no express option.
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Visa Overstay
If you overstay your visa, it’s not the end of the world. It will mostly just be a hassle for you, and you might get sent back and forth between the Exit/Entry Administration Bureau at Yonghegong, PKU, and the police station. You might have to queue for a long time at Yonghegong with lots of other foreigners in the same situation, but you are unlikely to be deported or charged large fines. Ideally, of course, you won’t end up in this situation, but if you do, we are told that dressing very smartly when dealing with officials is “a godsend”.
Money
To begin with, you will need a lot of cash (around £1600) to pay for your accommodation, permits and household necessities.
1 元 (yuán) also called 块 (kuài).
= 10 角 (jiǎo) also called 毛 (máo).
= 100 分 (fèn).
The biggest denomination for Chinese money is the 100 元 note, followed by 50 元, 20 元, 10 元, 5 元, 1 元, 5 角 (0.5 元), 1 角 (0.1 元) notes. There is apparently a 2 元 note, but this has the mystical quality of the real, but never-seen, American $2 bill. The most common coins are of 1 元, 5 角 and 1 角, but there are also 10 分 to a 角, meaning you get strangely fake-feeling coins worth 5 分 (0.05 元), 2 分 (0.02 元) and 1 分 (0.01 元). Get some RMB before you leave for China: getting set up is quite expensive as you’re likely to have to pay your rent in one lump sum (see “Accommodation”). Your student loans might not come through until you’ve been in China for about a month, which can really make the first few weeks difficult if you don’t think ahead. There are plenty of ATMs in Beijing, you shouldn’t have a problem finding one that will take your card. There are some that will only accept Chinese bankcards though, so don’t panic if your card isn’t accepted. Most of the cash points in Beida accept foreign cards (there are several outside Wumei, see the “Arriving” section) and there are several cash points around Wudaokou. The big Western-style shopping malls are also a good bet. Beware! Money comes out of the ATMs before your card, so DON’T FORGET THE CARD. If you lose your card in an ATM attached to a branch of a bank, you should be able to go in to that branch, show them your passport and get your card back. If it is not attached to a bank, it will be difficult to retrieve. Withdrawing cash from a foreign account in China can cost a lot, so if you don’t have free withdrawals get out the maximum amount you can in one go and keep it in a safe place rather than withdrawing 100 元 when you need it.
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The Western Union (西联 Xīlián) is another practical way of sending/receiving money, especially when you need a large quantity for a multi-month rent payment. The easiest way to do a Western Union transfer is to pay your parents the amount of money you want sent to you (via online banking from your British account). They then go to any Western Union outpost in the UK (many Post Offices have them, and the http://www.westernunion.co.uk website will list those nearest you) and fill in a form with your name, passport details, etc. The person in the shop should be able to walk them through it. Once they’ve paid, you then go to a Western Union outpost in China—there’s one in the large Post Office on the main street of shops in Beida—taking your passport with you. You fill in another form, being careful to write in the name of the person who sent the money exactly as they gave it. Some Chinese bureaucracy later and you’ll have myriad massive stacks of 100RMB notes. Western Union is quick, reliable and allows you to transfer huge amounts in one go, possibly up to £4,000. The main thing to note is the necessity of getting all the details (sender’s name, recipient’s name as shown in their passport, etc., exactly right). Otherwise, who knows, your money might get lost in the international banking ether. It is perfectly possible for you to travel to China with your normal student debit card without going through the rigmarole of searching for the best deal. However, it might be a good idea to drop by your local branch and inform them that you will be going to China for X months and that you’d appreciate it if they didn’t block your card. Whilst your card may still end up being blocked, you will be more entitled to your indignant fury. Check out your bank’s policies on blocked cards and make sure you have their emergency number in case something goes wrong.
N.B. Nationwide have cancelled the Cashcard free-withdrawals-abroad system: they now require you to open a Current Account with them and probably want you to make it your main account. Whilst it is still a better deal than the other banks offer, switching accounts is a bit of a hassle.
A good back up in case of a lost debit card, is a currency card. These cards offer great exchange rates; you transfer money onto them online then use them to withdraw money. They can’t be used for transactions but as they only contain a finite sum of money, if they are stolen, the thief won’t have access to all your cash. You can apply online: Caxton FX: http://www.caxtonfx.com/ Fair FX: http://www.fairfx.com/
Traveller’s cheques are becoming less popular and, according to one Post Office employee, more and more of them are coming back unused. They are potentially a good failsafe method of getting cash, but be warned that you will be charged if you return them to the Post Office and want them exchanged back into money. They’re basically the
15 | P a g e old-fashioned equivalent of Western Union, but at least one of us has used them and they’re a perfectly serviceable method. It is unlikely that in most towns or cities you will fail to find places to withdraw money, but in some rural areas you may have problems. However, good planning is probably the best way around this.
Packing
Hand Luggage
❖ Laptop and charger (and adapter!). ❖ Note on laptops. Many people found having laptops invaluable but make sure your laptop is insured if you bring it. Consider that you might want to go travelling after the course ends and will either need to courier it back home (which will probably cost you about £100), leave it with a friend while you travel, or carry it with you and risk it being stolen or damaged. Consider this carefully as the type of accommodation you choose might limit your choices. If you are staying in a Chinese dorm with five others in your room, for example, there may not be room for one and it’s probably not a safe idea either. ❖ As long as you have unlocked your mobile, it will work absolutely fine in China. This can be done by calling up your service provider and probably paying about £10. ❖ Travel documents (passport, ticket/boarding pass, visa, address of hotel/Shaoyuan and hotel booking confirmation) ❖ Photocopies of travel documents ❖ Spare passport photos ❖ Wallet with pounds and RMB for use in both airports and the taxi when you arrive in Beijing (this will be about RMB 100, but bring more than that. How much exactly would depend on your plans.) If your flight is stopping over in Europe it might be worth bringing some Euros for buying stuff in the airport there while you wait.
Clothes
The weather in Beijing when you arrive in August will be swelteringly hot, so some of your clothes should be for hot weather, however from October to March, Beijing is freezing. Make sure that at least for the first half of your year here, you focus on warm clothes – you definitely won’t regret it when November and December come around. Although it is useful to note that the Uniqlo store in the U-Center has a diverse range of thermal-
16 | P a g e everything, should you find your initial packing wanting. After March or April, Beijing heats up again, before returning to the high summer temperatures in May. Bear in mind that you might find yourself climbing mountains and visiting cold areas on your travels so take a decent pair of walking shoes, waterproofs and a fleece. Similarly, you may want a bikini and sun cream for China's lovely beaches. Sun cream is available from Watsons in Wudaokou in the summer but won’t be appearing in the shops until late May/June so take some if you burn easily. Clothes in Beijing are not especially cheap. They are about the same price as clothes in the UK, if a few pounds cheaper, so if you're hoping to buy most of your wardrobe when you arrive (which is definitely an option) bear the cost in mind.
Household
You can bring sheets and pillow cases, but this isn't crucial. The rooms in Shaoyuan (or wherever you’ll end up staying when you first arrive) will have clean sheets, and you will most likely have the chance to get your own bedding before you move into your flat. Another option is to buy bedding at Wumei on the Beida campus, or a supermarket in Wudaokou. You can buy a hairdryer in a supermarket for about £5, so think about how much you need your one from home. Straighteners might be harder to find, however. If you're bringing any electronics from home, like a laptop, you will need an adapter. Electronics in China tend to have three pins (not the same as in the UK) but sockets have both three pin and two pin slots. Other
❖ Have several spare passport photos for various forms in China. You can get these done in the Wumei mini-mart on campus near Sháoyuán 勺园. It's a good idea to carry a photocopy of your passport in case it goes missing -this will facilitate your getting a replacement. It may also be a good idea to take down your credit/debit card numbers, passport numbers and insurance policy numbers and leave them with a trusted person back home (i.e. mum) so that if you lose any of these or have them stolen you can more easily get your cards stopped and get replacement documents. Alternatively, think about setting up a Card Protection Policy (CPP) before you go so you can cancel all your cards and order replacements with one phone call, rather than 5. ❖ If you're on prescribed medicines make sure you get a prescription to last you the time you're in China. Also bring paracetamol/ibuprofen as these are hard to get hold of. Things like plasters can be purchased very easily in Watsons, so you don't need to take loads and loads, but you might want to carry a few just in case. See the Health section for information on medicines, mosquito repellents and sanitary products.
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❖ A Lonely Planet, Rough Guide or similar guidebook is definitely worth investing in, especially if you are intending to travel in China. These are hard to get hold of in China and can be confiscated at the airport. Most people manage to bring copies in from England but if you’re desperate, try the Bookworm in Sanlitun (三里屯). Both guides may underestimate the price of stuff and sometimes the information in them is a bit outdated (particularly for more unusual destinations) but they’re rarely completely wrong. ❖ Bring your books from Oxford for the year abroad (for us these were these were the red literature and classical book, the orange newspaper reading book and the blue T’ung and Pollard). (You should have learned the contents of the blue book by the start of the course at Beida.) You can buy stationery really easily and cheaply here, so for the very beginning just bring a couple of pens and a notebook. ❖ Most modern mobile phones from the UK will work fine in China if unlocked. You can buy a GSM SIM Card suitable for UK phones from China Unicom once arriving in China, and most phones (especially smartphones) will have Chinese character input available. However, if you are using an older phone, bear in mind that you may wish to buy a mobile phone in China to enable you to text in Chinese, and if you do not have an unlocked phone, then you will certainly need a Chinese handset. It is a good idea to bring your UK phone and also buy a cheap Chinese handset in order to make sure you have access to communication should there be any issues related to using your UK phone with a Chinese SIM. ❖ Completely indispensable in China is the smartphone app Pleco, available on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. Pleco offers character recognition, has a highly comprehensive and expandable dictionary, and is affordably priced (free, if you don’t get the useful add-ons, which can be bought at a student price). Plus, if it’s already on your phone, there’s no need to carry around another device to decipher what those 汉字 on subway ads are! There is even a classical add-on. ❖ There’s a full selection of technological devices on offer in China, with the latest phones, tablets and cameras all readily available from a range of stores. Some brands (especially Chinese brands of electronics, such as Lenovo and Huawei) are cheaper to buy in China, whilst others such as Apple and Samsung are much the same price as elsewhere. It’s completely possible to buy devices for your year whilst you’re in Beijing, or buy beforehand and bring them over. Do bear a few things in mind if you’re planning to make a big purchase in China though. Consider where you are buying from: there are many phone shops in Wudaokou, but prices can often vary wildly between stores next door to one another. Some features may also be disabled on Chinese versions of Android smartphones (Google Play store, Facebook apps etc), so be wary that the Android smartphones popular in China are rather different from those bought at home, and you may find it difficult to get the apps you want. iPhones, iPads and iPods purchased in China bear no differences to their UK versions, so there are few reasons to avoid buying those in China. Buy in China if need be, but there are certainly pros and cons to be aware of if you do so. ❖ If you’re a contact lens wearer, don’t bother packing lots of bottles of solution as it’s available everywhere. There are plenty of opticians in Wudaokou.
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REMEMBER: If you’re bringing large amounts of medication into the country, ask your doctor to print a copy of your prescription, keep this with your medicine in its original packaging. Don’t forget to tell the bank you’re going away. Here’s a more concise checklist of things you might want to bring: ❖ Passport; plane ticket ❖ Chinese RMB; bank cards; traveller’s Cheques ❖ Photocopy of passport/bank cards/traveller’s cheques ❖ Copy of insurance information/certificate; Beida admission letter ❖ Hotel/hostel/Beida address in Chinese ❖ Guidebook ❖ Money belt ❖ Padlock (for lockers, bags, etc.) ❖ Camera; MP3 Player; CHARGERS/CABLES ❖ Spare passport photos ❖ Laptop, charger, ethernet cable, microphone (for Skype, if you don’t have an inbuilt one) ❖ Adaptor plug ❖ Clothing (Summer and Winter) ❖ Accessories- sunglasses, hat ❖ Toiletries (deodorant can be difficult to find in Wudaokou) ❖ Medicines- plasters; paracetamol/ibuprofen; Imodium; hand sanitiser, Pill ❖ Books, notepad and pen
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Health
Vaccinations
You should have been registered with a doctor when you started university. Each college is affiliated with a particular surgery; these may be able to help with vaccinations. Annoyingly this means you are no longer registered with your GP at home, so you will have to reregister before you can get an appointment if you want to do it outside of Oxford. Which vaccinations you need for China will depend on your travel plans. If you don’t know where you’re planning to travel, it may be best to be prepared rather than end up vomiting blood. In particular, malaria remains a problem in Yunnan, so if you are planning on travelling there, make sure you have obtained tablets or some other form of medication. The following vaccines are free on the NHS: Hepatitis A, Typhoid, Diphtheria, Tetanus and polio. Most of these will have been received at secondary school. For other vaccines: the website for the 19 Beaumont Street surgery says, “there is a charge for other vaccines and a price list is available at reception.” As a rough guide, here were the prices in 2013:
❖ Rabies course: requires 28 days, costs £100 for three jabs. (Most of us don’t have this, having opted for a strategy of avoiding foaming-mouthed dogs. Nonetheless, this is a nasty disease, and if you think you might travel to remoter areas you should definitely consider the course, since it allows you several more hours to get to a medical centre before the likelihood sets in that you get full- blown rabies and die.)
❖ Hepatitis B: requires 21 days, costs £60-ish for three jabs. If you only need a booster, it’ll be £20.
❖ Japanese Encephalitis: requires 14 days, costs £150 for three jabs. This is very dependent on where you're headed.
❖ Malaria: three different types, one of which requires a trial. Varying costs. Need to discuss with a travel nurse.
❖ Yellow Fever: requires 10 days, location-dependent, costs £50.
If you don’t know what you need it doesn’t matter. Just ask the receptionist about vaccinations and you should get an appointment with a Travel Nurse who can check out your records and advise you as to what you may or may not need. Make sure you leave enough time to complete your courses of vaccines: many of the vaccines come in
20 | P a g e courses over a 3-4 week period so it is advisable to allow at least 6 weeks prior to departure to ensure that you are covered. Note that the clinic may have to order in certain vaccines too, and this can add more time. If you’re pressed for time or can’t get an appointment with your clinic quickly, some SuperDrug stores have travel clinics. You won’t be able to get any vaccines done free on the NHS here (though most of the vaccines you might be getting probably wouldn’t be NHS-able anyway), but it will solve the problem of peripatetic travel nurses who are only in surgeries once every Friday when the moon is full. If you’re worried that you don’t have enough time to get your vaccines done (say you’re only four or so weeks from your flight date), this is a great back-up option. 19 Beaumont Street recommends the following website to travellers: http://www.fitfortravel.nhs.uk/home.aspx
Medicines
Paracetamol (醋氨酚 cùānfēn) and ibuprofen (布洛芬 bùluòfēn) are both available in China. Therefore, it’s advisable to bring a small box of each when you arrive to save you having to make an unnecessary trip to a pharmacy in your first few weeks. Make sure you check the strength of the tablets too, as they often come in double strength capsules. One other point is that a lot of people develop a cough in the first couple of weeks in Beijing due to the adjustment to air laden with carbon particulates, so it is a good idea to bring a bottle of cough medicine with you. If you take prescribed medicines, make sure to get a prescription to last you the time you’re in China or, if you plan on returning home sooner, to make an appointment for a refill in the UK. You will, however, be able to get prescriptions on the universities’ AON insurance scheme for illnesses you develop while in China (see: Medical Emergencies.) There is a pharmacy about 5 minutes walk north-east of Wudaokou subway station, on Wangzhuang Road, just beyond the United Family Hospital and Maan Coffee on the opposite side of the road. There is a pharmacy in Beida: go to the Wumei (物美 wùmĕi) underground supermarket south of Shaoyuan 7 (the Beida guesthouse). Walk through the corridor of Beida souvenirs and at the end turn right, and then left. Wumei also has an opticians, in case you sit on your glasses or get drunk and leave them in a bar.
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Mosquitoes
Beijing may not be a hotspot for mosquitoes but if you are usually popular with them, they will find you. The local alternative to Deet is 蛇胆花露水 shédăn huālùshuĭ), a green liquid that evaporates almost immediately, leaving you cool and tingly as well as pungent enough to ward off mosquitoes (but pleasantly scented to the human nose). The stuff is cheap and available in supermarkets, and even better, it works. It is also soothing post- bite. Tiger balm or an equivalent is also good for easing the itching. Just show the assistant the bite and talk about itching (痒 yǎng) and mosquitoes (蚊子 wénzi). They will hopefully give you a little pot of stuff that looks like Vaseline and smells like Vicks (i.e. burns your sinuses). If you head south, you’ll encounter many more mosquitoes. The best advice is really just to cover up in the evenings: once you get bitten, it gets a whole lot worse if you later have fabric rubbing the bite. Otherwise, try to hang out with someone who you know gets bitten a lot. Hopefully the mosquitoes will go for them instead.
Sanitary Products
You can find sanitary products in any supermarket in Beiijing, although most of them only sell pads. You can find tampons in more western-style supermarkets (the one in the basement of U-center in Wudaokou), and also in the Watsons under Lotus, so don’t bother bringing over boxes and boxes of them. You may also want to consider 'Femmecups' or 'Mooncups', especially if travelling in areas where sanitary products may be more difficult to obtain. Drinking water
Drinking tap water is a bad idea. Boiling tap water in your kettle is a simple and safe alternative. Be wary of pedlars selling re-sealed bottles on the street. One other possibility is to buy/bring a thermos or tea flask to keep your boiled water in when you’re out and about. N.B. Rinsing your mouth out with tap water is very unlikely to result in any ill effects.
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Sunburn and heat stroke
The Beijing sun has a habit of hiding behind clouds, composed either of H20 or PM10. Whilst it may seem impossible to burn in such weather, UV thinks otherwise. You may want to wear suncream of a high enough factor to avoid a peeling nose and painful shoulder blades. Most of us aren’t used to consistently hot weather so the summer months can come as a shock. Take all the usual precautions (sunglasses, hat, etc.) and keep an eye on others in your group who may be flagging. Frequent breaks are wise, and take advantage of the watermelon vendors at the roadside—a messy but tasty way to keep up your water levels.
Toilets
Toilets on the Beida campus and Chinese public toilets almost never have toilet roll or soap, so it is advisable to have a pack of tissues and hand sanitizer when you are out. The crouching toilet is allegedly more hygienic than our sit-down loos, which is a thought to comfort you as you try and maintain balance whilst avoiding all surrounding surfaces. Whether at home or out and about, try to remember not to flush toilet paper down the loo: plumbing here generally can't take it.
Food hygiene
The university will advise you not to eat food purchased from street vendors, but it can be difficult to resist. Just be sensible about it. If you’re hungry and there’s only street food around, buying something meatless is a good option, as it’s much harder to get food poisoning from vegetarian food than meat. A lot of the local Chinese restaurants look sketchy from a hygiene point of view. A few of us have had minor bouts of food poisoning, but such are the trials of human existence. You will hear stories about bad restaurants recycling oil, which concentrates the toxins in it, but don’t spend your time fretting; the basic rule of thumb in China is to eat where other people eat — if a restaurant is empty, this can be a sign not only of bad food but also of poor hygiene. When you’re cooking at home, usual common sense applies. Make sure that you wash fruit and vegetables thoroughly, do your washing-up with hot water (Chinese flats’ tap water sometimes doesn’t get very hot, so boiling water is a good idea if you’ve cooked with meat). Try not to forget about any foodstuffs that may be mouldering away gently at the back of your fridge or cupboards as it may attract cockroaches!
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Smog
It’s very easy to take a lax attitude to smog in Beijing as it will become a part of everyday life, and while you don’t have to wear a mask everyday, it’s really important to keep track of smog levels and adjust your activity appropriately. When winter swings round, the coal factories will be churning out smog and last year the pollution crept into the black band several times. There are lots of different phone apps and websites available that track and forecast smog levels in Beijing, and they all use the basic sliding scale from green to black to indicate severity. A very reliable and regularly updated website is: http://aqicn.org/city/beijing/
When the level reaches yellow, it’s advised to wear a mask outside and to refrain from strenuous exercise. The easiest option is to pick up a small box of disposable masks with a rating of N90 and above, which means it filters out 90% of pollution particles in air. These are widely available at 7/11 and most convenience stores. The masks with adjustable metal nose clips come especially recommended as they reduce the amount of air that leaks in around the nose area. Some people opted for reusable, slightly more expensive and aesthetically pleasing masks but be aware that they may not be as good a fit as you can’t try before you buy. As for people who enjoy exercising, some gyms, such as the one in Beida, have air filtering so you can still exercise safely indoors. Otherwise, it is highly unadvisable to run or cycle outside without a mask when pollution is above safe levels. Some members of our class chose not to wear a mask and refrain from exercise when the pollution was bad. As of April 2017, they are still alive and well.
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What to do if you are ill
❖ Use common sense to determine whether you can look after yourself or if you need to seek medical attention.
❖ If you need to contact a hospital, or make a doctor’s appointment contact AON Insurance (the university’s provider of travel insurance) and they will take care of things for you. For more information, see the “Insurance” section.
❖ Let a friend know and consider informing the course coordinator at Beida.
❖ If you’re going to miss class time, inform your class representative who can make sure you are marked ill, not just AWOL.
❖ Remember that you can still access the NHS Direct Website, which can provide helpful advice. From experience, phoning them for advice outside of the UK really does not work. If you get a stomach upset, drink lots of water, as you’ll be losing a lot of liquid.
Pre-existing Conditions
If you have a pre-existing condition, such as an allergy, make sure you:
❖ Carry your insurance details and any relevant medication with you at all times;
❖ Inform the International Office;
❖ Tell your friends what to do if there is a problem;
❖ Ensure you always have credit on your mobile phone;
❖ Keep a spare 100 元 note tucked away in your wallet or purse just in case;
❖ Carry a note that briefly explains your condition in Chinese (Mr Kan or one of the other teachers can help you with any complex explanations).
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我对花生和果仁有严重的过敏反应。 万一引起过敏反应，本人携带肾上腺素注射药， 和抗过敏的（抗组胺）药片。
请立即将我送往就近医院。非常感谢。
I have a serious peanut and nut allergy. If I have an allergic reaction, I carry epinephrine injection drugs and anti- For example:
Where to find more useful information:
❖ http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/
❖ http://www.worldtravelguide.net/china/health
❖ http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/
❖ Beida International Student Office can offer good, reliable advice and help you explain what you need.
Medical Emergencies—急诊 (jí zhěn)
Cross your fingers that it won’t happen, but on the off-chance that it might, pay attention to this section. The emergency number is 120, but be aware that you will have to speak in Chinese, and know your location and that you will be expected to pay for the service afterwards. A better option may be dialling the Beijing United Family Hospital’s emergency line. This hospital provides English translation and has a hotline to ambulance services so you can be picked up more quickly (see below for more information on this hospital). Dial: +86 (10) 5927-7120 (Add this to your phone) You can also ring the emergency room at Beijing United Family Hospital for emergency medical advice.
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In cases where the individual can be moved and needs to get to a hospital quickly (as in the case of an allergic reaction), the best bet is to hail a taxi and ask to be taken to the nearest hospital. There is a United Family Hospital Clinic (和睦家) in Wudaokou (王庄路 1 号清华同方科技广场 D 座 1 层); a small hospital on Beida’s campus (North-East Gate, 北京大学医院) and a Chinese hospital in 中关村 Zhōngguāncūn. Chinese hospitals will demand that you pay as soon as you enter; staff may also seem frustratingly unbothered. Try to clearly and concisely inform them what has occurred. Shouting at them won’t help. In cases of emergencies and medical treatment, you will be able to claim back the money under insurance (minus a £50 excess) but treatment will be costly and you may have to pay by card, depending on the amount. Call AON or your own insurance provider as soon as possible to get this process started, as it can involve some bureaucracy.
Non-Emergency Medical Situations
If your condition isn’t critical and you have the luxury of time, one way to make your hospital experience infinitely more convenient is to prepare in advance. Insurance companies—especially the one that Oxford has a policy with, AON—are used to dealing with these international hospitals. As mentioned above, a lot of the time they will demand payment prior to any treatment. But one way to get around this is to contact the insurance company in advance and ask them to send the hospital a “guarantee of payment” in the form of an email, for example. This will let the hospital know that they can send the bill directly to the insurer, and you, the patient, will not have to foot any bill. They can send this directly to the hospital, but it may be the guarantee of payment is sent to the hospital’s central offices, so if they can’t find the email on their own computer systems, make sure they check with their central offices too.
We have done this several times at Beijing United Family Hospital (和睦家医院 Hémùjiā yīyuàn) and found it to be by far the most convenient way of dealing with them. Having done this once, you will also have an account opened for you at the hospital, and will be able to make future visits with no inconvenience whatsoever. NB: Once you’ve gone through this process, you’ll still need to pay AON your £50 excess fee, so for very mild conditions it may be worth just going to a cheaper Chinese hospital and/or paying for the treatment yourself. Insurance Contact Details
The phone number for AON while you’re abroad, good as of 2016 is: +44 (0) 207 173 7797 Add this to your phone; check the documents that the Oxford Chinese department will email you to see if this number has changed. Be aware, you will need to use Skype or the
27 | P a g e phone of somebody who can make international calls on their phone contract to reach this number. As they say, ‘in the event of any medically related emergency, the patient should call this number any time of the day or night, 365 days a year.’ The email of Oxford’s insurance division: [email protected]
The email of AON’s assistance provider: [email protected]
Oxford insurance webpage: http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/finance/insurance/travel/
Hospital Contact Details & Locations
Beijing United Family Hospital 2 Jiangtai Lu, Chaoyang District Telephone: (0)10 6433 3960 Emergency telephone (24/7): (0)10 64332345 http://beijing.ufh.com.cn/
北京和睦家医院,
朝阳区将台路 2 号
The hospital is clean and modern with English speaking staff. They are available to contact by telephone (very useful in an emergency) and very familiar with foreign health and travel insurance policies. The service and care received is of a very high standard and the staff members are very. However, this hospital is very expensive. Ensure that you have your insurance details with you (if you phone the university’s insurance before making an appointment—or as soon as possible—you shouldn't have any problem).
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Beijing United Family Hospital Wudaokou Clinic 1st Floor, Building D, Tsinghua Tongfang Hi-Tech Plaza 1 Wangzhuang Lu, Haidian District, Beijing, China 100083
北京市海淀区王庄路 1 号清华同方科技广场 D 座 1 层 邮编: 100083 Emergency Tel: (010) 5927 7120
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Beijing International SOS Clinic Suite 105, Wing 1, Kunsha Building No 16 Xinyuanli, Chaoyang District Telephone: (0)10 6462 9112 http://www.internationalsos.com/en/about-our-clinics_china_38.htm
国际 SOS 北京办公室,
朝阳区新源里 16 号琨莎中心 1 座 105
Bayley and Jackson Medical Center 7 Ritan Dong Lu, Chaoyang District Telephone: (0)10 8562 9998 Emergency telephone (24/7): (0)10 8562 9990 http://www.bjhealthcare.com/
庇利积臣医疗中心,
朝阳区日坛东路 7 号
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Student Finance Reimbursement
When the various student finance organisations talk about travel grants they mean reimbursement for necessary travel and visa related expenses. Which for China will cover: ❖ Up to three return flights within the academic year (though there have been successful claims for flights in August, it’s recommendable that you check that flights technically outside of the year will be covered) ❖ Visa-related fees, incurred in the UK or China; ❖ The medical portion of any non-Oxford travel insurance you buy (typically 40%); ❖ The foreigner health check (which is, of course, necessary to attain a residence permit).
Student Finance Organisations for each country of the UK have different policies on reimbursement and what they will cover:
Student Finance England This coming year, English students’ entitlement to financial assistance for the year abroad will fall again. English students’ travel grants are reduced by £1 for each £8.73 (previously £9.27) of household income over £39,796 and every student must cover the first £303 for each separate claim application themselves.
If you are eligible, you will automatically receive two forms after you have applied for Student Finance: ❖ The Course Abroad Form which should be completed by the university (e.g. by Rosanna Gosi) or college to confirm the period abroad; ❖ The Travel Expenses Form which you should complete.
Student Awards Agency Scotland The same as the previous years, Scottish students are entitled to full reimbursement for flights and medical insurance (if they choose not to take Oxford’s insurance). This is unconditional and will not be affected by their household income. Scottish students will not be asked to cover any of their travel expenses.
You will receive an email containing the relevant form from SAAS to personally fill in.
Student Finance Wales In a change from last year, Student Finance Wales has removed the household income element of their travel grants. This means that all Welsh students will be able to claim the ‘reasonable costs’ of travel. Like English students, Welsh students will also be required to contribute the first £303 of their travel costs.
The form to claim is available on the SFW website (see Sources).
Student Finance Northern Ireland Northern Irish students get very vague information about the travel grant they will receive. 31 | P a g e
SF Northern Ireland simply states it “depends on your household income” and that every student must cover the first £309 (a whole six pounds more than Wales and England) for each separate claim application themselves.
SF England, Wales and Northern Ireland have similarly worded statements on the reasonableness of expenses incurred, and while there is no similar warning from SAAS to Scottish students, you’d still best not try and claim business class flights. Make sure you have scanned/electronic copies of any UK receipts of any such payments made and have your parents send the originals, but do not trust the Chinese postal system with the originals of any Chinese evidence receipts: scan these in, hold on to the originals, and email them to your parents to send SFE printed copies (SFE understands that you don’t want to risk sending off the originals—plus, the post will take time). In fact, it may be best just to hold on to all receipts and then send the whole thing off when you get home next summer.
As for “evidence” of the obligatory year abroad, apart from the form Student Finance provided, past students had tutors write them a letter of confirmation that, yes, students definitely do have to go to Beida in their second year. You should want to get the department to sort out the paperwork for you in Trinity Term (it is much easier when you are still in Oxford). The claims form lists everything you can claim for, but keep receipts for anything you reckon you can claim some eligibility for—it is worth trying.
As said above, you leave the form at home for your parents to sort out as you accumulate Chinese receipts and send scans of these for them to collate alongside British receipts, so bear in mind that, given the form itself requires the physical signature of the student/claimant, you might wish to sign the blank form before you leave in the summer! You can start claiming at any time, but consider that for each separate list of claims you send off, that £303/£309 excess applies, so, if you can, wait until you’ve collated all of the things you want to claim and submit just one big claim and pay that excess once. Past students have submitted this in early Spring after we had booked our final flights home. The system is complicated and you may face bureaucratic failures at several points, so keep on your toes.
Sources England: https://www.gov.uk/travel-grants-students-england/overview
Wales: http://www.studentfinancewales.co.uk/undergraduate-students/new-students/what- financial-support-is-available/travel-grant.aspx
Scotland http://www.saas.gov.uk/_forms/sas4.pdf (page 18)
Northern Ireland http://www.studentfinanceni.co.uk/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/NPIPG001/NPIPS001/NPIPS 087/TRAVEL_GRANT_FACT_SHEET_1617.PDF
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Arriving
Although the turnaround from finishing your Prelims to arriving in Beijing is very short and you might feel like you want some time to relax in between, many find that it's good to get to Beijing as soon as possible to sort out your accommodation and settle into your new life! In fact, we strongly recommend that you arrive here at least a fortnight before your lessons start (usually 1st of September although for our year it was later). Otherwise, you’re likely to struggle with getting over the shock of being in China, lots of bureaucracy and health care checks, sorting out all you need at Beida, dealing with estate agents, landlords (房东) and moving into your flat all at the same time! Your flat will almost definitely be in need of a clean, so maybe get a number for a cleaner off your landlord/college parents. There's a lot to get done, but it will be much less stressful if you don't have to do it all at the same time. If you don’t already have some Chinese currency, get some before you leave the airport to pay for cabs and hostels, etc. There are ATMs at the airport. Check the exchange rates, but at the moment it’s about 9RMB to a pound. Make sure you’ve told your bank that you will be going away. And even so, be prepared to have your card blocked! Keep your English SIM card to hand for the first few days as some banks allow you to unblock your card just by responding to an automated text message. In our experience, different ATMs seem to work for different cards, experiment and don’t immediately freak out if an ATM rejects your card.
Methods of transport
To get from the airport to wherever you’re spending your first few days, you may take the Airport Express and then the metro, and overall it will take you around 90 minutes to get there. It’s very well signposted, and you’ll be able to get to both Beida and Wudaokou with just two transfers. There is a Beijing subway map in every station to help you plan your route. It might be an idea to download a Beijing Subway map app as well. Alternatively, you may want to take a cab. Only use the official taxis outside the airport and not the drivers who hang around inside. These hēichē (illegal taxi) drivers are uninsured, illegal and will charge you phenomenal prices. Previous years have done this in their jet-lagged confusion and were charged 600RMB for a short trip. They may try to pull you in by claiming you have too much luggage to fit in a regular taxi, before ushering you to a larger people carrier. When exiting the airport, follow the signs for the taxi rank. Legitimate taxis are recognisable by their broad yellow stripe on a blue base. Look out for the yellow stripe, plenty of official-looking certificates and driver IDs inside the cab, a registration plate bearing “B 京” and a “TAXI” Toblerone-thing on top. The taxis are really cheap compared to British ones, so it should only cost you 100RMB (£10) to get to Beida or Wudaokou. You can usually spot it because you'll see a congregation of half-yellow- half-green/purple cabs with a queue of people being directed into them by a warden. Be
33 | P a g e prepared to queue for quite a while and ignore the random people who will be coming up to you and offering you a ride.
Where to stay
Beida
If you are planning to arrive before Beida’s official arrival date— we’ve already advised that you really should do so—then you will obviously need to sort out your accommodation. Beida offers accommodation in Shaoyuan for about 150 元 a night. Two weeks was the maximum length of stay no matter what we put on the form. This may have changed but don’t rely on it. Hostels or hotels are a better option if you want to be certain of a roof over your head for your desired length of time. Alternatively if one of your friends is moving into a previous second year’s flat then making use of their floor or sofa can be the easiest option. If you do need a hostel, The PekingUni International Hostel is a fifteen minute walk east from the East Gate, between Beida and Wudaokou.
If you are headed for Beida, tell your driver to go to 北大西门 Běidà xīmén(r) (in taxi- speak) on Yiheyuan Lu, and then tell him you want Sháoyuán bīn’guăn 勺园宾馆 in the Beida campus—he can drive you right to the hotel, and you just make yourself known at the desk. If you are forced to get out and enter on foot, when you get to the gate the security guards will want to see your letter of admission to prove you should be let in. If you choose to take the subway, the nearest station is East Gate of Peking University on line 4. Note that this is on the other side of campus to Shaoyuan (where you’ll be put up), so be prepared to approach someone knowledgeable-looking and ask for directions across campus. After you have arrived, maps can be bought in several of the on-campus shops (including one in Shaoyuan). They can be found for as little as 10 元 and can be very useful for the first few days. If you are going to 五道口 the time and price is very similar. If you don’t happen to have RMB on you at the time, note that the ATM in the lobby of Shaoyuan does not accept Visa. To use a Visa card, go out of Shaoyuan, turn right and keep walking until you reach the 物美 Wùměi minimart. To the right of the minimart is a bank with ATMs, all accepting Visa and other international debit cards.
Alternatives
Even if it is available, you may want to reconsider staying in Shaoyuan. All the estate agencies are in Wudaokou—a good 30-35 min away on foot from the Shaoyuan buildings—and your flat will most likely also be in Wudaokou. Therefore, even though
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Shaoyuan bedrooms are reasonably comfortable (but have no wifi), staying in a hostel in Wudaokou may turn out to be a better option, since it will make contacting estate agents and moving into your flat a lot easier. Bear in mind that renting a flat involves a lot of comings and goings with money, passports and so on (see “Accommodation”) and the same applies to moving in. On the 1st September, or whatever date you’re told by Beida, you will have a welcome session. You should be given a map of Beida, a general introduction to your course and allocated a language partner. Beida International Office and your course coordinator, Li Ke, will process your Residence Permit (外国人居留许可), but in order to do so they’ll need you to do a couple of things (which is another reason to get to Beijing earlier). They will request the following: ❖ A health check. (See the “Documentation” section.) ❖ Passport pictures. Get A LOT of passport pictures before leaving the UK. As stated previously, during the first few weeks the International Office and Li Ke will do their best to help you. Don’t miss out the chance to ask whatever questions you may have; as the term goes by you will see them less frequently. Although you can always go to their office or ask your 班长 to pass on a message.
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The Beida Course
Shortly after you arrive, there will be an introductory meeting with the Beida International School programme organisers. There will be around 15 hours of class time a week, divided into five kinds of class: three according to Beida material and two based on the red book you should have collected from Oxford (remember to get this during Trinity, it is a hassle if you try during the holidays.) It is a collection of interesting classical and modern literature passages set by Oxford tutors. The Beida classes consist of oral (one or two classes per week), newspaper reading (two classes per week), translation (two classes per week) and one classical lesson per week. Classes are made up of two 50-minute sessions with a ten-minute break in the middle. They are scheduled at 8.00-09.50, 10.10-11.50, 13.00-14.50, or 15.10-17.00 Monday– Friday. Classes for us were all held in the 对外汉语学院 in the first term and a general teaching building in the second. We only had two 8am classes per week.
Classes
The language can be a bit daunting at first, but your listening ability will improve rapidly and by the second term you won't have any problems. The Chinese teaching style is less interactive than in Oxford but you may be pleasantly surprised by how open to discussion some of the teachers are. How much vocab you learn will be pretty independent and open-ended. Rather than receive a list of 50 characters and be expected to know them by the following lesson, you will see the same characters cropping up again and again in different texts and different classes, before you know it, you’ll have mastered the most common. If nothing else the classes are two hours of Chinese listening practice. Both Classical and Literature lessons are based on material set by Oxford. In general, the literature class was very helpful as long as you’d done the homework. If you turn up without having done your homework, you will likely be lost very quickly. That being said, we had different literature teachers for each term, and they had very different styles of teaching. In general, Beida teachers are very open to your suggestions. If a particular style of teaching isn’t working for you, point it out! They may not change their style completely, but they will almost certainly make an effort to accommodate your suggestions. Our classical teacher was wonderful. It may take you a few weeks to find your rhythm in classical classes, but once you’ve figured out how best to adapt to the style of teaching, you will find the classes very helpful. Translation class is based on a textbook which can seem daunting and fairly dull but manages to test a wide variety of sentence patterns in some challenging ways. The texts are English language magazine-style articles to translate into Chinese, and many of them include sentences which a native English speaker would only dream of being able to concoct. We had one teacher for both terms who was willing to alter his style to cater to
36 | P a g e all members of the class, and very willing to assist us outside of classroom hours. This class is often whatever you choose to make of it. If you participate a lot in class, you will get a lot out of the lessons, but you can just as easily stare at a laptop screen for 2 hours. Newspaper lessons are not approached in an Oxford-style analytical way, but that’s actually ok, don’t worry. You will be working mainly from a textbook and not actual newspapers (much to our disappointment), but the teacher will ask you to prepare reports on Chinese newspaper articles that you have read. Warning: the first few weeks will feel like a barrage of new vocabulary (which you should not attempt to learn all of—instead, pick the useful items), and you may feel like the articles are above your level. Stick with it and you will quickly become more comfortable. The oral classes will be most helpful for your everyday life and encounters with your Chinese friends. Crucially the oral classes can help you learn some of the nuances of modern Chinese culture which you would otherwise not uncover on an Oxford course. In everyday conversation with Beijingers you will often only get as in-depth as the, “I’m from England, I study at Beida, I live in Wudaokou”, conversation, and generally speaking you won’t have much of a chance to discuss your views on smoking or the political situation in China. This is not always true, taxi drivers for example are often very willing to discuss politics. Speaking with language partners is a good way to have more complex conversations. Beida does pair you with a language partner, but if you don't click with them (or are a shameless language partner thief) it’s easy to find Chinese students who are eager to trade languages with you. Post ads in cafes (especially Paradiso), ask your teachers or Chinese friends or even approach students in the street if you're feeling bold. Joining a Beida society is probably the best and most natural way however of meeting Chinese students. Fluency (well, relative fluency) is best achieved by the above and having plenty of mundane, everyday conversations, so get out and speak as much as you can. But do try and keep on top of your vocab as well. Getting out and living life is important, but don’t expect moving to Beijing to be a magic fix-all for your Chinese. Everything in moderation! When you are out and about, don't worry about sounding stupid – the Beijing people are very friendly and kind towards foreigners. And remember, they will have heard much worse speakers than you. One member of our class was given a bunch of tangerines, a telephone number and an invitation to dinner by one particularly friendly driver on the way back from the airport, and even if you don’t feel up for dinner, being stuck in a small vehicle with someone for an extended period of time is a good way to try out some more sophisticated topics of conversation. If you find it awkward to randomly initiate conversations with strangers, go to a hair salon/barber and chat to a hairdresser, or go and get your nails done and chat to the nail technician (there’s a salon in the basement of the Wumei supermarket, between the photo store and the bookshop, and there are several in Huaqing Jiayuan). After nine months, you may end up bald and with three-inch blood-red talons, but you’ll also be a whole lot better at Chinese. These are all situations where silence can be more awkward than talking, so you’ll hopefully find it more natural to chat.
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Beida has a rule that you must attend 75% of all classes in order to pass and not only do teachers take attendance every lesson, they’ll be telling Mr Kan whether or not you’re going. We still don’t really know how much emphasis Oxford or Beida put on this particular statistic. Obviously attending your classes is important but don’t get too neurotic about it. If you fancy a weekend away in Shanghai or a week-long hiking trip to Hunan, then do it. Technically the course has exams halfway through the semester and at the end, although we only had mid-terms not finals. Note that, unlike Oxford exams, your participation in class, your homework and your attendance record may all count towards your final exam mark. Oxford collections will take place at the start of each semester and some of them seem to get marked and some don’t.
Holidays
You’ll get a few days off for National Day, qingmingjie and May Day. These are great opportunities for travelling. Shànghăi, Shānxī and Shǎ(a)nxī are all readily accessible by train, and internal flights allow travel to just about anywhere. Bear in mind that China is huge and it often takes a day just to get to a place, so try not to be over-ambitious with your plans to avoid disappointment. Also, book early: train tickets are often available up to 60 days in advance! The holidays are nightmare times to travel, so booking tickets as early as possible is a must. It is not inconceivable to be lumped with a standing ticket for long train journeys during these periods (for 12 hours or more depending on your destination). You will receive a list of term dates and holidays from Beida when you arrive, but do be aware that the first holiday (National Day) will take place very soon after you get to Beijing, so try and get any administration requiring your passport done well in advance so that you’ll be free to travel.
International Language Competitions
Although this is billed as a competition, it’s really more of an “everybody wins” occasion. The first one of the year occurs before Christmas, around November time, and consists of one member of the class having to make a speech. In our year, the entire class was given homework to prepare a speech and perform it in oral class. The speeches were then marked and the students and teacher voted for who would attend the competition. The premise is that each international class does a three or four minute slot in Chinese, on pretty much any topic pertaining to China (for us we were given the topic of art’). On the day of the competition, you will be given the afternoon off and it is highly advised that you go and support your 同学!. The speeches will be filmed and put online and this is when the real competition begins. Anyone from around the world can cast their vote for you online and the online winner gets the biggest prizes (last year it was an iPad mini).
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However, the BETTER competition takes place at the end of April and is an opportunity to warm up the old creative cogs. Most people do mildly entertaining and generally incomprehensible plays, and a very few do something funny and good (this is recommended). The audience and judges have to watch group after group give rather grave and rather lengthy ‘sketches’, so it might be an idea to organise something that will give them a break. If the whole class is involved, it takes the pressure off individuals and helps avert the dreaded desperately-shuffle-notes-and-try-and-find-your-place moments that occur when one person alone is facing an avid audience. Whatever you do, aim for fun rather than fear—it’s nothing to worry about.
Class Representative（班长）
For those lucky individuals who are elected/roped into being class representative, don’t worry! You aren’t expected to do all that much, but rather the job is as much as you wish to make of it. The main task is to give a speech at the welcome lunch. A few of the university bigwigs may be there, along with your future teachers, fellow Oxford students and students from the Cambridge cohort (third years who will be spending their time in China concurrently with you). The speech must be in Chinese; if you’re nervous about it, email it to Mr Kan beforehand so he can check it over (note: he may not reply) It doesn’t need to be very long and it is really not a big deal, although memorising it is advised if you wish to appear super confident and put together. Compliment the Beida campus, talk about ‘building bridges’ between your two great countries and you’ll be fine. Once you’ve done the speech, your job basically consists of liaising between the International Office and the Oxford students. If there is any communication that needs to take place between the central International Students Office and the class, you will be the messenger. You will also be expected to be the model student, but don’t worry about living up to this expectation. You will be the first port of call for any task the teachers need doing (be it handing out textbooks, contacting truant classmates, 等等), and may also be used to ‘soften the blow’ of any news the class needs to pass on to the teachers or International Office. If nothing else, it’s a chance to speak some more Chinese and represent the interests of your classmates to the teachers. You will also be asked to coordinate the updating of this lovely guide which you are reading now. At the time of writing we haven’t received any information on any end of year administration or any kind of closing ceremony that may take place, but you may be required to do another speech at the end of the course. Be prepared to do some running back and forth to Beida and the International Office, as you may be called on to deal with certificates, student cards, etc.
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Extracurricular Activities
Although you will be going to Beida Monday to Friday it’s a really good idea to involve yourself in other activities when you’re out there, not only to have fun but also to meet Chinese students, enrich your experience of Chinese culture and hopefully improve your language skills.
Beida
Some time in the first few weeks of each term, there is a societies’ fair at Beida, near The Triangle (a huge triangular open area). There are a huge number of different societies that you can join, involving everything from calligraphy to skiing. If you want to know more about a particular society, then your language partner can probably help you, so do ask them. Some of the societies we took part in were calligraphy, karate, sign language and a choir. Societies are really a great way to make Chinese friends, which unfortunately can be a little tricky at times. You also learn some rather amusingly specific vocabulary (“forward lateral kick” for example). WeChat – as always – is an important part of the organisation of societies. Societies tend to have massive WeChat group chats where everyone discusses what is going on. Don’t be too intimidated by them – you don’t need to read every message, but sometimes that is where people post changes to schedules etc. There is a running track which is free to use on campus, and also a gym and several different sorts of courts. The gym costs 1200 元 to join, and has all the usual amenities, but can get quite crowded. The tennis courts, etc. are free but you have to sign up for them. They do also have exercise classes which some people attended, just go and ask for a schedule. Unfortunately, there are few venues at or around Beida to practice musical instruments. Again, the best way to go about it is to ask the Chinese students. The year above us managed to get in contact with the leader of Beida symphony orchestra who was then willing to let us use the practice rooms, and even managed to put on an entire musical via the Beida network. Alternatively, if you sign up for music lessons, your music teacher might be able to provide or direct you to a place where you can practice. If you’re interested it’s worth a trip to 新街口 where you can find both instruments and teachers! The Beida library is quite well stocked with English books, although as a visiting student you can’t take books out, only look at them in the library, unless you pay a deposit of 500RMB. According to the year above us, you can take borrowed books and have them photocopied whole. This can easily be done on campus and costs about 15RMB, so you can build up a
40 | P a g e good library of material to bring back with you. No one in our year has done this yet, but feel free to give it a go. The PKU site for searching for books is: http://pku.summon.serialssolutions.com
Jobs and Internships
Earning Money Earning money during the year abroad is great for giving you an extra bit of spending money to help you enjoy your time in Beijing. If you want a longer term commitment, then teaching English would be the best way to do this. However, it is also possible to look for smaller jobs such as recording work to earn the odd bit of cash. Teaching English Many foreign students at Beida earn money this way, and most private tutor positions don’t require any formal training or teaching experience. You may also find Chinese University students who are willing to pay to practice their English with you; this kind of agreement is usually more casual than a formal tutoring job. • Average Pay: 200RMB per hour • Time Commitment: Anything from 2 hours to 6 or 8 hours a week • Duration: Most Commonly you will be asked to commit to a semester, although some students will only want a short-term agreement to help prepare for a certain exam. • Where to find: The easiest way to find teaching jobs is probably by checking the Wechat group chat run by the WSU (Western Students Union) at Beida, although jobs tend to go fast (especially at the start of the semester) so respond quick if you’re interested! Alternatively, cafes in Wudaokou may post ads. One-off Jobs If you don’t want to commit to a certain number of hours a week or a semester- long contract, doing one-off jobs can be a good idea. This kind of work can include all manner of things, most common in our year was doing English language recording work (there are several companies in the U-Center and nearby Zhongguancun that run these). It has been known for Western students to find all kinds of weird jobs purely because they are/look ‘foreign’, often involving just turning up and standing in the background of events! • Average Pay: Recording work is usually 100-150 per hour • Time Commitment: Recording is usually a session of 30 mins/1 hour, event based jobs tend to be a half or full day. • Duration: NA • Where to Find: WSU Group Wechat is the best place for this.
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Internships Several students in our year have taken up internships. It can be a great way to get some experience working or keep yourself busy. Whilst this can also be a good way to practice Chinese with co-workers, it’s worth noting that many companies will be staffed by Westerners so you may not get that opportunity. • Pay: Most internships will not give you a ‘salary’ as such, but some may pay you a ‘stipend’ (expenses to cover your travel/food). It’s worth noting that most companies will require you to have a Chinese bank account that they can pay into. • Time Commitment: If you want to take up an internship during the holidays, then the time commitment will probably be 5 days a week. However, if you wish to fit one in around Beida classes (as some of us did), then you will most likely be able to only commit to 1 or 2 days a week. Finding a company that is willing to be flexible with your hours is important, as they can organise you half days so you don’t miss class. Fitting one in during the semester can be a real strain on your time (as travel can be up to an hour each way from Beida), which is also worth considering. • Duration: Internships can last from 2 months to the whole semester/holiday period, depending on where you apply. • Where to find: Internships are sometimes advertised by the WSU, but these are often for Masters students and require too much time/experience. Those in our year who did them found their internships on www.thebeijinger.com, which has helpful filters for internships and volunteering opportunities.
Beijing
Alternatively look for things outside of Beida by checking magazines such as Timeout and That's Beijing although these are likely to be classes run for ex-pats and are often in English. Since you are out here for a year it is to be recommended, once you’ve settled in, that you get involved in something in Beijing. Some people choose to teach English to children (the money is good), volunteering opportunities are quite common and internships are also out there. Quite a few people in our year managed to get internships for over the winter break, so contact a college parent for more information if you’re interested.
There are several gyms in Wudaokou, including in the 华清嘉园 compound ( which also has various classes including yoga, combat and spinning). There are various sports teams including field hockey and football that train at the Olympic Sports Training Ground. And, if you live in Wudaokou, the BLCU running track is also free to use and nearby. If you’re a keen runner look online for races in and around Beijing. For example, two of us are participating in the Conquer the Wall race on the Great Wall in May. There are also loads of great places
42 | P a g e to go running around the city – try the Summer Palace in the early morning or the Olympic Park. There are various musical groups for singers, such as the Beijing International Festival Choir, again ask around. For social playing/singing, there are weekly Open Mic nights at Lush in Wudaokou which is fun to socialise with the ex-pat community but not particularly good for your Chinese. There is however a bilingual improv comedy group which meets near Andingmen which is very good for your Chinese. There are a few large bookstores dotted around Beijing with English language books, or the Bookworm in Sanlitun has a café where you can sit and read the books. The Bookworm also holds many interesting talks about China, literature and various other topics in English, especially in March during the Bookworm Literary Festival (well worth checking out).
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Accommodation
Finding accommodation is probably the most daunting part of moving to Beijing, but if you keep your wits, patience and sense of humour about you, it’s actually not that difficult. The key is to arrive in good time (probably 2 weeks before beginning of term), to keep your nerve in negotiations with estate agents and to have a clear idea of what you are looking for, at what price before you enter their offices. Having an affordable and comfortable base from which to work on is also vital – a hostel or Beida accommodation is probably best for this. This allows you to take your time with negotiations and not end up being pressured into a bad deal. If you want to make the experience a little easier, contact one of us ASAP and we may be able to pass our flat down to you! The advantage of this is that we have already negotiated pricing with our landlords and you will be moving in to a fully furnished apartment! Free rice cooker anyone?
Student Dorm – Global Village The Global Village (中关新园) is by far the most convenient place to live, situated directly opposite the East Gate of Beida. This complex is mainly occupied by foreign students and is the official international student accommodation of Peking University. The lingua francas there are English and Chinese. Do not assume that living there will be bad for your Chinese; you are far more likely to use Chinese there than if you live with Oxford classmates in a flat. Those of us in 2016 who lived in flats found the experience isolating. Living in Global Village is a great way to meet friends and feel involved in campus life. The price for a suite consisting of two bedrooms and a shared bathroom is approximately 3000RMB per person per month. For slightly less you can share a bathroom between three, and for more you can get a private bathroom. Global Village does have some shared kitchens, but the facilities are limited. Many of us in 2016 have found living in rented flats to be a great burden. There are a range of problems such as - Appliances break a lot and landlords are usually not very helpful - Paying bills - Cockroaches - General uncleanliness - Unable to break your contract should you decide to - Unable to get back your deposit, making your rent for the year effectively one month more expensive - It is almost impossible to find a flat that is cheaper than Global Village Living in Global Village eliminates all of these problems. Class of 2016 almost unanimously wish they could have stayed in Global Village.
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Renting a flat If you choose not to live in the student dorm, finding accommodation is probably the most daunting part of moving to Beijing. The key is to arrive in good time (probably 2 weeks before beginning of term), to keep your nerve in negotiations with estate agents and to have a clear idea of what you are looking for, at what price before you enter their offices. Having an affordable and comfortable base from which to work on is also vital – a hostel or Beida accommodation is probably best for this. This allows you to take your time with negotiations and not end up being pressured into a bad deal. If you want to make the experience a little easier, contact one of us ASAP and we may be able to pass our flat down to you! The advantage of this is that we have already negotiated pricing with our landlords and you will be moving in to a fully furnished apartment! Free rice cooker anyone?
Location Undoubtedly the most obvious choice of location for Beijing students is Wudaokou, which lies at the heart of the university district and is famous for its restaurants, amenities, clubs, bars and transport connections. The most popular place to live in Wudaokou is a large apartment complex called Huáqīng jiāyuán, 华清嘉园, which is about 25 minutes’ walk from the East Gate of Beida and is situated very close to the Wudaokou metro station. To get there from Beida go out of the East Gate and walk straight up Chengfu lu 成府路 until you reach the set of pink buildings just before the metro station. Huáqīng is very convenient—it has shops and a gym—but can be a little pricier than elsewhere, although prices vary greatly from building to building. The average price paid per person per month by those who rented a flat this year was 3500rmb (or a bit more). Directly south of this complex is another one called Dōngshēngyuán 东升园, which tends to be a little cheaper and less nice. There is also 五道口嘉园: most spacious, well lit modern apartments found here. Pricier though, and situated in an ugly, stark compound without the community feel of others such as Dongsheng and Huaqing. There are also apartments further down Chengfu lu, near the former Geography University, and there are often flats available in Beijing Language University (语言大学). If you don’t like Wudaokou you can try near the southwest gate of Beida; this is closer to campus but not as convenient for public transport. Apartments are generally 2- or 3-beds (there are a few 1-bed and 4-beds but these are rare and expensive).
Rental Agencies
There are a number of rental agencies who can show you around apartments, but be prepared for stress and frustration—it’s a competitive business. Some of the agencies find it difficult to take all girl groups seriously, so if you’re getting nowhere, persevere and
45 | P a g e make them take you seriously. You may also find that the agencies try to play you off one another, as it’s likely you’ll be the only groups moving in at this time and the agencies are desperate to get the commission. Keep a good sense of the ridiculous and be prepared to store up some grin-worthy anecdotes and affectionate pet names for flats. And whatever you do, do not fall for the old ‘this amazing flat has only just become available, you should snatch it up before someone else does!’ trick like one of our classmates almost did. A lot of the flats have been empty for years. The line that ‘there are three other interested parties looking at this right now’ is obviously untrue in most cases.
The area around 华清嘉园 has a lot of rental agencies; you can just walk in, tell them what you want and they’ll immediately start taking you around flats. From the experience of 2015, 我爱我家 (WoAiWoJia) provided a poor service, HomeLink provided a slightly more professional service in general. QFang also seemed quite willing to help and comparatively honest. The shops further up Chengfu Lu are less aggressive than those placed immediately next to the subway station. Also recommended by Beida is Beijng Buddy (last year’s contact for this agency, Allen, was +86 150-1027-5766). Commission tends to be somewhere around one month’s rent, although in some cases in the past this seems to have been the landlord’s responsibility rather than the tenant’s. If you want to deal directly with the owner, there are lots of adverts in windows and on notice boards in cafés. Like the smaller no-brand rental agencies, be aware that this may give you very little security if things go pear-shaped. Also, if you know anyone in Beijing, it’s worth asking around to see if they know any private agents—these guys appear out of nowhere and seem to have access to a huge range of flats. Check www.thebeijinger.com to find people looking for housemates; you can then contact people by email or telephone. Joining Facebook groups for foreign students in Beijing is also a good idea – not only will you know about any parties that are going on, but people often advertise for flatmates there.
Choosing an apartment
When viewing apartments, have a good look around and make sure it has all the necessities such as a working shower and toilet, secure locks, air-con, working electric sockets, a TV (you can get DVD players for £10-£15) and a fridge. It’s also good to ask your landlord about internet access—they should be willing to sort it out for you for a small cost. If there’s anything that needs fixing or installing (e.g. blocked drains, dirt, air- conditioning) bring this up when viewing the flat, before you sign anything. It’s also an idea to think about what furniture you’ll need when viewing each property, as you can often negotiate this with the landlord when you are discussing rent. It’s not unheard of to manage to knock 1-2000RMB off the rent. Be aware that the flat is not likely to have been cleaned when you get it, but your landlord might be able to arrange a cleaner for you. Wudaokou supermarkets have loads of cleaning products, and some of us have hired cleaners very cheaply, so feel free to ask for contact information. A very convenient option for this is ‘三鼎来人’, a China-wide
46 | P a g e agency that has a vast and seemingly very reliable workforce of cleaners. Beijing office number: 01058520777. Look around a few places and be prepared to bargain to get the rent lower, but don’t go OTT and try to keep it friendly. You’ll probably be shown the same apartment by several agencies and this can give you bargaining leverage. It is often easier to bargain face to face with the landlord, as agents are taking a cut. Be sure to take your time in viewing flats and considering different agencies. Agents will try to make you seal the deal within a day and will be very pushy about it, so just keep your cool and say you will come back tomorrow. There are plenty of flats for rent in September, so even if the agents tell you the flat will be rented out immediately, there is no need to worry. No matter what happens, also discuss the fees you will be paying up front before you commit to ANYTHING. If the agent makes noises about paying a commission, they may be trying to rip you off (they might also be receiving their cut from the landlord—the situation on this is a little murky). It’s been known for an agent to insist on commission right up until some of our number threatened to walk out, whereupon the need for it mysteriously abated. Do not get pressured into paying obscene amounts—there will be other flats available. If you aren’t comfortable being blunt, find someone who is—it’ll save you money. Do not put your names on any forms until you have worked everything out – writing your name on a form is the equivalent of a signature in China. You will sign two contracts, one in Chinese, the other in English. In the event of a dispute, the Chinese version takes precedence. You will be asked to pay all your rent up-front (often three months’ rent plus a deposit of one month’s rent) so you should take money out from ATMs over several days to ensure you have enough, as the daily withdrawal limit is about 2000-3000RMB. Do think about drawing cash out as soon as you get to Beijing, or come with a lot of money (see also the “Money” section on the usefulness of Western Union for large transfers; this may well be the best option, assuming you have pliant family back home willing to 办 the 手续 for you). The agencies and landlords sometimes do not understand when foreign students cannot pay everything upfront within three days. Be sure to explain the withdrawal situation to them clearly if it’s a problem. Obviously, be careful about carrying large sums of money around and leaving lots of money in an insecure place. A money belt that you can wear under your clothes and padlocks and lockable bike-chains for your baggage are a good idea, especially when travelling around.
Living in an apartment
Once you have your apartment, you will get bills through your door for water and gas. You can either take these to the bank and pay them or else collect them to pay to your landlord at the end of the tenancy. If you have paid them throughout, choose a draw/shelf and use it to keep the receipts so you can prove you’ve paid. Occasionally, calls are made to the apartment to check water and gas meters. If you are asked to pay there and then, always ask for a receipt, otherwise they will send a bill through the post later. 47 | P a g e
Electricity (and gas if you live in 华清嘉园) often runs off a top-up-able card, and if you have a nice landlord, you can text him when your lights and laptop go dark and he’ll go and top up the card for you. Otherwise, you can take the card to a local bank (Bank of Beijing opposite the East Gate of Beida for gas, and for electricity the green, three-storey State Grid building opposite Zhongguancun Number Two Primary School) and put more money on it. Depending on the type of meter, you may then need to insert the card in to it for the money to be added. Air-conditioning eats money (and the environment), so it’s a good idea to remember to switch it off when you go out, for all that you want a cool house to come back to.
Cockroaches (蟑螂 zhāngláng) and mosquitoes are potential visitors. If you don’t have mosquito screens on your windows, make sure to shut them well before sunset to keep mosquitoes out. You can also buy cheap anti-mosquito, plug-in scent devices from a supermarket. Cockroaches like damp places (bathrooms) and will be attracted to any food that gets left out or any unclean surfaces. This is a true incentive for cleanliness. In general they don’t do much harm, but they do have an annoying habit of exponentially increasing in number. If you get cockroaches, tell your landlord; if you don’t receive help, you’ll find a well-stocked arsenal of cockroach poison and traps in most supermarkets, which when used en masse in a ‘shock and awe’ counter-offensive can be devastatingly effective. If you have cockroaches, turn on the lights before entering rooms at night in order to avoid crunchily unpleasant consequences. In killing cockroaches, do not squash them: they let off odours which will attract other creepy crawlies. So you should preferably poison or drown the beasties.
Approximate Accommodation Prices
To give you some idea of what to expect, here are some details for 2016. 华清嘉园(五道口) — 3 bedrooms 11,600 元 per month (3,870 元 per person):
Sutdent
东升园 （五道口）- 4 bedrooms 13500 元 per month (3375 元 per person)
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Chinese dorm Some students in the past have apparently lived in a Chinese student dorm with Chinese students. This has been passed down the years, and no one is sure anymore who actually did this. The university prohibits international students from living in the Chinese dormitories. However, other options are available such as living in dormitory-style accommodation with students and other people from outside the university. Chinese people from outside the university generally have more time and tend to be more interested in learning English—and helping you with your Chinese. The main disadvantages are inferior living conditions (some dormitories do not include air-con, mosquito nets or internet, have communal shower and toilet facilities, tend to be very small and come with house cockroaches), security issues (especially with respect to valuables) and the reduced privacy that stems from having several room-mates. With regards to privacy, however, roommates do tend to be respectful of personal space, and many people hang curtains around their bunks to help. In the words of someone who actually did it: “As it gets towards July/August the heat when sharing a room is absolutely unbearable, and landlords are usually stingy with the air-con. I had to move out after about four-and-a-half months as I nearly went mad… Oh, and the worst thing is that people will smoke in the room and genuinely not realise that it’s inconsiderate, even while you’re asleep. Apart from that it was good fun.” The money saved (rent can be as little as 300RMB a month) and more importantly the opportunities for language-learning and cultural exchange can make this option worthwhile. You have to be brave to opt for this, and self-evidently the more Chinese you know the less difficult things are initially. The best person to help you out if you’re looking for a dorm is your language partner at Beida.
Homestay Homestays are possible but fairly difficult to find. You’ll have to organise it yourself, so if you have your heart set on living with a family, try to set it up before you go. “Connections” (关系) are important to the Chinese—mention to your Chinese friends in Oxford that you’re looking for a homestay near Beida and you might just end up with a friend of a friend of a friend of theirs! There are plenty of benefits—a true immersion in Chinese
49 | P a g e culture, greater opportunity for language development and the potential for lifelong friendship. There are, however, also some potential problems to think about: if you don’t get along with the family it can be hard to extract yourself from the arrangement; Chinese families may be strict about curfews and rules; and you may find yourself a long way from your classmates and therefore slightly isolated. You could potentially opt for staying in a family for half the year and live on the Beida campus for the other. Talking to some of the Cambridge students who have been living with Chinese families, it appears it is very tough in that there is no place for escape or a break from the constant Chinese environment. Moreover, you might end up being the unpaid English teacher of your host’s children, neighbours, and other relatives. The one student in class of 2016 who did a homestay said it somewhat restricted their freedom, and it was difficult to balance doing what they wanted and a sense of obligation to the family. However, they also said they were glad they had done it, it was a different experience and helped improve their confidence in spoken Chinese.
Registration at the police station
Once you have found a place, you need to register with the police station to gain a temporary residence permits within 24 hours of moving in. This is not only a legal necessity but also required if you need to claim anything on insurance or change your visa. Your landlord should take you through this process and foot the bill. Don’t panic if you've left it over a day before registering; they have no idea when you’ve moved in. Some agencies seem to have a running scam with the local police office: they offer to escort you to the station to sort out your residence permit, which they suggest requires 2000 元 fee. Firmly refuse their help and do it yourself: it is very straightforward, and in our experience entirely free when arranged without the ‘help’ of the estate agents. Don’t be persuaded into not registering with the police in order to save on rent. Although it’s highly unlikely you will be discovered, if there are difficulties such as theft of belongings, which requires insurance documentation from the police, you will run into problems and could be heavily fined. Do not be surprised if your landlords asks for your passport—(s)he generally wants to make sure you are under the correct visa permits. Make sure to have photocopies of your passport to give to your landlord and to keep for yourself when you hand your passport over to your university coordinator to change your visa to a temporary residency permit
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Communications
Internet (& VPN)
To set up wifi in your apartment, ask your landlord. They will send over some technicians to install or connect your router. The average price for a 12-month internet contract is about 1500RMB. Internet connection is particularly slow in 华清嘉园, since it seems to have its own internal, more highly monitored network. However, connection in 五道口嘉 园 can be lightning-quick, and 东升园 also seems to have a better quality of connection. Other options for internet include: • Cafes and restaurants, the majority of which have free wifi. Bridge is a popular destination for students, but other cafes in Wudaokou include Bunny Drop, Sculpting in Time, and June’s Garden Café. Beida also has a café on campus, called Paradiso. • Internet cafes (网吧). These are scattered around Beida and Wudaokou. Internet cafes generally charge 2RMB per hour and require you to leave a deposit from which the amount you spend is deducted. Foreigners are often asked to produce passport identification. • You have to pay for Beida internet, although you can access Wikipedia and Google sites for free without a VPN. To get full access, it’s 50RMB a month. • You can also use the Beida library computers, although finding a free one might be tricky. Go to the library and go to the card desk to register (it’s 10RMB, though if you want to borrow books you also pay a 500RMB deposit). You will also need a passport photo. Once you have a library card you can use the internet in the library. Simply hand your card over to the internet desk, write your name in the logbook, and the librarian will give you a number for a computer you can use. The library also costs 2RMB per hour but doesn’t require a deposit, although it seems to get blocked faster than most other places. If you want access to Facebook, Youtube or any other blocked website, you must set up a VPN before leaving for China. You can either check out private options like ExpressVPN or VyprVPN, which are about £6 a month, or you can use the free Oxford VPN. For the Oxford VPN, go to http://help.it.ox.ac.uk/network/vpn/index for more information on sorting it out. It uses your Eduroam login information, and is fairly quick and easy to set up. You may need the following information to set up VPN on iPods/Linux: IPSec gateway: vpn.ox.ac.uk IPSec ID: oxford
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IPSec secret: osiris Username: (your Oxford username) Password: (your remote access password, aka the one you use for eduroam)
Phoning
For in-country calls, get a Chinese phone or SIM. If you’re not confident in your speaking ability, landlords/estate agents/language partners are perfectly willing to text or Wechat you instead. Your mobile from home will work with a Chinese SIM if it’s unlocked. Wudaokou is full of phone shops, which offer student contracts. You will need your passport to get a contract. Some of us paid just over 500RMB upfront for a 12 month contract and have had no problems, but others have had problems with prices going up over the course of the year and having to switch to a new contract, about 360RMB for 4 months. It should work out to about 50RMB a month. Make sure you’re clear on the details of your phone contract when you sign up! You can also get SIM cards and top up vouchers (充值卡 chōngzhíkǎ ) here, cheapest at newspaper stands — but make sure you know which network you’re on, generally China Unicom (“中国联通” liántōng) or China Mobile (“中国移动” yídòng ). Top up cards are about 30RMB. To phone abroad, Skype is your best option—in addition to the free Skype-to-Skype calls, you can buy credit on it to call real phones, which is reasonably cheap.
Post
The post in China is secure and generally, though not universally, reliable. Packages will get to you if your address in pinyin is on it, but your best bet is to type up your address in Chinese and pinyin so that your family can print out a label and stick it on. There is a post office on the Beida campus, on the main shopping street between the Subway and the bank. The main Wudaokou post office is east of the tube station, just before the intersection with 学院路. It’s a large building with a big green ‘China Post’ sign. You will need your passport to post anything. If you miss a delivery of a parcel, the deliveryman will sometimes leave it outside your door, give you a call or leave it with the porter. Alternatively, the postman might leave a white slip on your door and you will have to take this, and your passport, to the Wudaokou post office. Their international parcels office is around the right side of the main building, up a short flight of stairs and down a corridor. The Chinese can be very particular about what can be posted and how. For example, they often require only paper to be posted in envelopes; if anything besides paper gets put in
52 | P a g e and they find out, the post office staff will often give you a box or jiffy bag to repackage it with. As for posting parcels, the pricing system is near unintelligible. It is probably easiest to take things along to the post office and see what they charge. Take the parcel unwrapped, or buy packaging from the post office, because they need to check the contents before it can be posted. On a side note, anyone interested in stamps should go along to the Beijing National Post and Postage Stamp Museum to check out its ‘abundant and fine postal antiquities’: http://www.cyzypm.com/
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Transport
Bike
Although Beijing traffic looks like the stuff of nightmares, it is really fun to cycle—though it starts to get boring by the hundredth time a bus is hurtling headlong towards you, its speakers blaring out the phrase “Be careful of your safety” in grimly amusing irony. You can usually get a new bike for about 200 – 300RMB, making them a cost-efficient and time-efficient way of shuttling between Beida and home. A row of good bike shops can be found if you head towards Qinghua from the East Gate of Beida. From here, the cheapest new bike with a basket, lock and helmet included will cost about 200RMB (after some hefty bargaining). If you’re looking to buy a fancier, ‘mid-high-end’ Flying Pigeon, that same deal will cost about 350 RMB. The bike shops here do tend to pump up tires for free and will give you low cost repairs. A tire replacement costs around 25 RMB. You can also add a backseat for the grand sum of 20 RMB. Alternatively, there are many bike repairmen in Beida that are able to do practically anything to a bike quickly and often, strangely, for free. Bicycle thieves are rife so do treat yourself to a good lock. You might want to get a bicycle in the first week, so that you can run your errands whilst settling in.
Travelcard
You can buy these at any metro station, or at any of the designated kiosks. The system is called 一卡通, and works just like an Oyster card. You pay a 20RMB deposit on it, which you can get back when you leave, and top it up whenever you like. It’s valid for buses and the metro. It is advised that you do get one of these at some point while in Beijing – while it is by no means essential, it does make travelling a lot easier.
Subway
The metro/subway/underground/地铁 in Beijing is unfortunately not as cheap as it was in 2014, though it’s still nothing compared to London. It now uses a distance-based fare system, apart from the Airport Express, which has a fixed price. For all other lines, the starting fare is 3 RMB. From Wudaokou station (yellow line 13), a trip to Tuanjie Hu 团结 湖 (to get to the infamous Sanlitun) will cost you 5 RMB, and takes about 45 minutes.
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Getting to Tiananmen from Wudaokou will also cost 5 RMB and takes around 40 minutes. The metro is all in all a very convenient way to travel, and can get you to pretty much all the places you’ll want to go for a very decent price. You can avoid the Beijing traffic, and stations and trains alike are generally very clean and air-conditioned. But be warned, during peak hours, you not only will not get a seat, but you will also get uncomfortably intimate with a lot of sweaty people. It’s a marvel how many people can cram into a single carriage, and still be too preoccupied with their iPhones to notice. There’s a map at the back of this guide—it’s slightly out of date, but the changes are very minor. There are also many good (free) apps available that can solve all your travel queries. Gaode Ditu 高德地图 is recommended, and of course Baidu Maps 百度地图.
Bus
The buses are extremely cheap, though they can take a long time if you’re making a long trip across town. Have a look at the bus timetables on Chengfu Lu 成府路 and around Beida to see where they can take you. There are buses that go to the Summer Palace, Xiangshan 香山 (the hills outside Beijing), Qianmen 前门 (bottom of Tiananmen Square, not far from the Forbidden City), BLCU and many more. They usually cost 1 or 2 RMB. Fares are displayed quite clearly on the bus, and you can also ask the conductor if there is one. You can pay by swiping your travelcard, or with cash, though beware that some buses don’t give change. When using your travelcard, you may have to swipe the card twice, once when you get on, and once when you get off – don’t worry, there are clear signs reminding you to do this. From Wudaokou to Beida, you should take route 549 or 307, which both cost 1 RMB for a single journey. Get on at the bus stop by Zaogao Wang 枣糕王 (a short way past Lotus, walking in the direction of the metro station) on Chengfu Lu 成府路, and get off at Zhongguan Yuan 中关园, which is pretty much right outside the Southeast Gate of Beida. The bus journey itself takes about 10 minutes, and the buses come every 5 – 10 minutes.
Taxi
Taxis in China are pretty cheap. Like other big cosmopolitan cities, Beijing taxis are a bit more expensive, with the starting fare at 13 RMB. You can generally get across the city for about 60 – 80 RMB. If there are a few of you, it works out to be really cheap. Aside from the standard ‘Where are you from?’, expect some groovy questions like ‘Do you like Alex Ferguson?’ and ‘How much is a car in the UK?’. When getting a taxi at night-time, don’t wave your hand; instead keep your arm straight and look as sober as you can, as that is exactly the kind of client taxi drivers are looking for. You’ll be surprised at how many taxi drivers don’t take you just because you’re a foreigner and they think you’re probably drunk.
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An important note to be aware of is to make sure you get an officially licensed taxi. They usually have a yellow base and a green/blue top. Car models vary, but the main ones are Hyundai Elantra, Volkswagen Jetta/Sonata, and Citroen AC. They should all have their taxi licence on display on the dashboard in front of the passenger seat, which contains a photo of the driver, his driver number, and the taxi company on it. If you take a taxi without this, it is probably an illegal one. You are likely to get ripped off, even if it has a meter, either by being taken the long way round or because their meter has been tampered with. Make sure the drivers use their meters (ask them to 打表)—this isn’t usually a problem. It is also a good idea to ask for the receipt （发票）at the end of the journey, in case something is left in the taxi and you need to locate it.
Long Distance Buses
Long distance buses between cities are sometimes quicker and easier to get tickets for than the trains. The sleeper buses are no joke when the road looks more like a sandpit than a road and you may end up sleeping rather too close for comfort with total strangers. But for daytime journeys, or if the route takes you on a nice bit of sealed highway, they can be great. You can also see a bit more of the countryside than from the train. A couple of long distance bus stations to note are at Xizhimen 西直门 (a subway stop at one end of line 13), and at Liuliqiao 六里桥 (on subway line 9). When buying long distance bus tickets, it’s wise to go to the bus station a few days in advance.
Train
The train is by far the most popular method of travel for long distance journeys. There are a variety of ticket options depending on your budget and your needs. The following are the ticket types available from cheapest to most expensive:
Standing （无座）: the most hardcore option; you basically stand wherever you can, so do bring a small stool and beware that you may be surrounded by smokers
Hard Seat （硬座）: the best value, and most popular option for journeys less than 10 hours; you have a seat for the duration of the journey
Hard Sleeper （硬卧）: best value for money for long, overnight travel; six beds to a compartment, no door. The beds are all clean and comfortable, with a pillow and duvet provided. There are 3 bunks: top, middle and bottom. The top gives you more privacy and is the cheapest but it’s too close to the ceiling to sit up and pretty claustrophobic. The bottom one is big enough for you (and your friends) to sit on during the day but is less private and also the most expensive. If you’re travelling in twos getting one upper and one lower can be a nice compromise
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Soft Sleeper （软卧）: costs a lot more than a hard sleeper; 4 beds to a compartment and a door between the compartment and the corridor Ticket fares do not increase or decrease during on/off-peak seasons, and there are no discounted tickets available. Prices vary depending on destination of course, but the pricing for each type of ticket is relative to each other. To give you an idea, here are rough prices for a single journey from Beijing to Xi’an, which is about 15 hours:
Standing （无座）: 150 RMB
Hard Seat （硬座）: 150 RMB
Hard Sleeper （硬卧）: 270 RMB
Soft Sleeper （软卧）: 420 RMB
For many destinations, there is the additional option of the high-speed 高铁, for which tickets are quite easy to purchase. You can get a 2nd-class seat to Guangzhou the day before departure during the off-peak season, and it costs around 800 RMB. It’s a much more comfortable form of travel, with spacious and comfy seats and a food carriage. The 高铁 is about twice the speed as the sleeper train, but also about twice the price. So if you need to get somewhere fast, but don’t want to travel by plane, this is a good option. A good place to buy train tickets is at Beida, in the Shaoyuan ticket office (bottom floor, down the hallway on the right when you enter the main entrance of Shaoyuan). At designated ticket offices, a handling fee of 5 RMB per ticket is added. If you buy your tickets directly from a train station, though, there is no such charge. However, there can be long queues and are not the most convenient places to get to, so a nearby ticket office is still recommended. Look out for 火车票 signs. You will need your passport to purchase tickets, and you will also need your passports to travel. Only single journey tickets can be bought, and they go on sale about 18 days ahead of the travel date (but this can vary, so just check regularly). This may mean that you need to make another trip a few days after to buy your returning tickets. For ticket refunds, you can get back at least 80% of the original ticket price any time before the time of departure, but you have to go to a train station to do this, and show passport ID that matches the ticket. A perhaps more convenient way to purchase tickets is online. Ctrip.com is highly recommended. Online sites allow you to reserve tickets up to about 2 months in advance, so you don’t have to panic about tickets a week before the trip. This also means that it could allow you to buy tickets for both the outward and inward journeys at the same time. The procedure is that you place an order with the website (you will need passport details), and as soon as the tickets are released, they will automatically purchase them for you, then they send you an email confirming that the tickets have been obtained. After that, you have to go to a train station with passport ID to collect them any time before the start of your journey. If you are planning to travel during a busy period, and are worried about not being able to get your tickets, this is by far the best way to do it. Whenever there is a national holiday, it becomes extremely hard to get good tickets for popular destinations,
57 | P a g e even if you go to the ticket office on the day tickets become available. However, purchasing online does mean higher handling charges. If you're doing a round trip hoping to take in lots of places in a limited space of time, try not to cut it too fine with the timing. You might not be able to travel on the days you want, so leave a few days spare to cope with delays.
Plane
Though generally still more expensive than the train, internal flights are getting cheaper. When purchased in advance, some tickets can be cheaper than the 高铁 and even the soft sleeper. Flying can also save you a lot of travel time, and is on the whole more comfortable, with meals provided. For example, Beijing to Chengdu is 27 hours on the train, but the flight is only a few hours. Also, bear in mind that you may not be able to go directly between two places on the train.
Ctrip: http://www.ctrip.com is highly recommended. They sell domestic and international flights, often at highly discounted rates. The website is very clearly laid-out, and there is a comprehensive FAQ section. It is standard procedure that domestic flights are not sold as a return deal, so you have to select single journeys, meaning you have a lot of flexibility when planning your trip. For domestic flights, you pay by card or PayPal, and the use of an overseas card incurs a 3% service charge. This website is most recommended because it generally offers the cheapest deals, and you do not have to collect tickets beforehand for domestic flights; simply go to the check-in desk with your passport (you don’t even need your confirmation email) to get your boarding pass before departure time. It is advised that you do this about 2 hours beforehand. E-long: http://www.elong.com is also highly recommended. Similar to Ctrip, E-long offers greatly discounted flights to both domestic and international destinations. However, prices tend to be slightly more expensive and there is no FAQ section. When you book tickets with E-long, you also have to pay online, and you are required to print off your e- ticket beforehand. China Highlights: http://www.chinahighlights.com/china-flights/ is also tried and tested. They will email you with confirmation details and you’ll end up with a sheet to print off. Though it doesn’t look much like a ticket, don’t panic: the airport will wave you through. If you run into trouble, the customer service is really good.
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Around Beijing
The easiest way to navigate Beijing is to picture it as a series of concentric rings. Beijing has six ring roads (with a seventh one on the way), the innermost of which is the second ring road 二环路 which encircles an area roughly equivalent to central Beijing— the old city. There is no first ring road; instead the boundary of Tiananmen 天安门 square and the Forbidden City 故宫 forms the innermost of these rings. Within this system of rings, Beijing is laid out like a grid. Almost all roads and streets in Beijing go north-south or east-west, so if you’re keen on exploring the city, a compass can actually be pretty useful. The 北大 campus and五道口areas lie between the fourth and fifth ring roads, in the 海淀 district to the north-west of Tiananmen. 五道口 has a huge student and international population, a large number of bars, clubs, and boutiques, and cafes and restaurants offering all manner of cuisine (see relevant sections of this guide).
To the south of the 北大 campus, just across the fourth ring road is the 中关村 area, which offers bigger buildings with more shops and restaurants in a shinier setting: skyscrapers, shopping malls, a few cinemas and a humongous and cheap electronics market.
Within the 二环路, to the north of 天安门 and the 故宫 are the hutongs 胡同: the home of grassroots Beijingers and grassroots Beijing culture. Most of the hutongs in this area remain residential and are therefore a perfect place to get away from the crowds, go for a stroll or get a meal. Some hutong areas like Nanluoguxiang 南罗鼓巷 and Houhai 后海 have been renovated with trendy bars and boutiques. On the south side of 天安门 are the 前门 and 王府井 areas: big pedestrianised shopping streets where you’ll find department stores, more restaurants (!), a reconstruction of an old Chinese town and some flea markets. The Chaoyang 朝阳district in East Beijing is perhaps the most glitzy cosmopolitan part of the city, with the CBD (Central Business District) and Sanlitun 三里屯. The CBD has the biggest, shiniest and most interesting buildings (if you’re into that), whilst Sanlitun has the biggest, shiniest and most expensive bars and clubs. In the West of the city the Beijing World Art Museum is worth a visit (they often have very good temporary exhibitions on). The building itself, known as the China Millennium Monument to commemorate China´s entrance into the 21st century, sticks literally out in the otherwise rather uninteresting West part of the city. Copies of Time Out, That’s Beijing and City Weekend come out on Thursdays, are in most western coffee shops and are a really good way to find out about stuff going on in the week, although don’t expect to find anything groundbreaking or genuinely niche.
Some recommendations:
The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square are the obvious places to visit. If it takes your
59 | P a g e fancy, you can go and see dead Mao or visit one of the nearby museums.
Go down to Jiugulou (旧鼓楼) area for interesting bars and restaurants, Dali and anything on Nanluoguxiang (南罗鼓巷), especially the cosy Sandglass Cafe with its delicious mulled wine around Christmas. Also look out for shops selling postcards with retro pictures. You can also find nice cafes on Guloudongdajie (combine it with a visit to the Drum and Bell Towers), try Cafe Zarah or Miss Muesli for breakfast.
Wudaoying (五道营), near the Lama Temple is another popular Hutong, littered with bars, vegetarian restaurants, coffee shops and a Xiaomaibu specialising in bread and cheese. If you fancy looking at or buying a traditional Chinese or Western instrument for a reasonable price, head to 新街口 or Pinganli 平安里. You can also find music lessons there as well as repairs.
Sanlitun (三里屯) has lots of lively ex-pat bars and clubs with dangerously cheap drinks and large screens for watching sport. Sanlitun is home to both the cheap and grimy bar street, as well as a number of slightly harder to find sophisticated bars and clubs. Also try the expat restaurant Mokka Bros (smoothies there are superb!) in Nali Patio. Beijing has many lovely parks including the old and new Summer Palaces (颐和园 Yíhéyuán，圆明园 Yuánmíngyuán) and the Fragrant Hills (Xiāngshān), which have a cable car to get you up the mountains. All of these are near Beida.
Jingshan Park has beautiful views of the Forbidden City and, indeed, across all of Beijing (you can see the surrounding mountains on a good day) and Beihai Park is full of attractions (in winter you can ice skate on the lake).
Ritan park is much smaller and quieter (and cheaper). More locals go here; if you're interested in martial arts, some pretty eminent teachers work here, and you can see people doing taiji.
Chaoyang Park is a great place to hangout in the summer—with a fake beach, monkey-zip wires, an amusement park and pedalo boats to keep you occupied.
Zizhuyuan (Purple Bamboo Park) is another great place to go and is a bit of a quieter destination compared to Chaoyang, plus it’s free entry. There are lots of interesting temples. Favourites include the White Cloud Temple, Temple of Heaven, the Lama Temple (雍和宫 Yōnghégōng) and the nearby Confucius Temple. Also highly recommended is Prince Gong’s Palace (unbelievably big mansion of Pu Yi’s father with a nice garden near Houhai).
798艺术区 is an art district in Chaoyang. It can be a little hard to find, so look it up on the net before venturing forth. It’s a complex of old warehouses (some of which still bear communist slogans on the walls) now acting as galleries and workshops. Exhibition openings are often advertised and discussed on the Beijinger and Time Out. The Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art hosts very good temporary exhibitions of Chinese newcomer artists. Head afterwards to The Factory for a healthy lunch (on Sundays they often offer a buffet for 100RMB) or a coffee at the @Cafe.
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Just a little further to the northeast than 798 is the Caochangdi Art Village (草场地艺术 村), where Ai Weiwei chose to set up his studio.
Songjiazhuang (宋家庄), in the southeast of the city is also home to a number of contemporary art galleries.
Acrobatic shows can be seen at Chaoyang Theatre, tickets are relatively cheap. Swan Lake at the Beijing Dance Academy was also worth a visit (trips to both were organised by Beida).
Panjiayuan (潘家园) is an antiques market aimed at tourists, but definitely worth a visit and full of good finds – including one art deco polo-shaped brushed-brass wine vessel.
The Red Gate Gallery is situated in a surviving fort at the corner of a restored part of the old city wall. Worth a visit as Beijing’s first modern art gallery, as well as being home to a permanent photo exhibition of old Beijing and its gates and walls. Nearby, the Ancient Observatory, originally built during the Ming Dynasty, sits atop another section of wall. Simatai 司马台 and Xiangshuihu 响水湖 are but two (of many) less busy sections of the Great Wall that can be reached easily in a day with the help of a good driver. Mr Ren (任 师傅) is a very conscientious and reasonably priced driver, who can be reached at: 136 1119 9390 (as of April 2016). Other drivers advertise on the Beijinger and Timeout.
One recommendation for a clear, free day would be to enter the Forbidden City in the early afternoon, spend some time exploring it and then exit via the North Gate. Cross the road and enter the adjacent Jingshan Park (if you can tie this in with sunset, even better). From there you’ll be able to see ancient Drum Tower to the north, where you should start to wander down–detouring to explore the hutongs to the east and west – and aim to arrive in the Guloudongdajie/ Nanluoguxiang area for dinner.
Beijing is also a good place to pick up some work experience—don’t expect to be paid though. In the past people have worked at the China Britain Business Council, Time Out, Beijing Kids magazine, art galleries and law firms. Teaching English provides some welcome pocket money—don't settle for anything less than 150RMB/hour, you should aim for 200+RMB.
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Food
Beijing is a melting pot of regional cuisines. Whether you feel like trying the capital’s eponymous 北京烤鸭 or sampling other areas’ signature dishes (陕西’s biangbiang 面, 重庆’s 小面, 等等) – Beijing is a great place. The food scene also features a rich variety of foreign restaurants. Experimenting is key, as the options are virtually inexhaustible, and there's always a new restaurant waiting to be discovered. Try to keep an open mind, and don't be afraid of making mistakes; occasionally, you'll order something you're unsure about, and it may turn out to be a particularly acquired taste, but keep trying, and you'll quickly get the hang of Chinese menus. The best advice I can give is to try everything – you’re here for a year, make the most of it. As mentioned in the Health section, do not drink the tap water unless you’ve boiled it first. Hot water is the norm in China (cold water is deemed unhealthy in Chinese medicinal practices), so restaurants and water dispensers alike usually provide safe, freshly-boiled water.
Vegetarianism and veganism are not too much of a problem. 吃素 is ‘to be a vegetarian’, and 我不吃肉 seems to work equally as well. If you don’t feel up to reading a potentially- overwhelming menu, you can always ask 有什么素的？which usually does the trick. Many restaurants are happy to alter dishes (to some extent) to remove meat garnishes, such as mince in mapo dofu or bean dishes, and will even remove non-vegan components like egg from dishes like fried rice if you ask nicely enough. However, always remain alert if you want to avoid accidentally eating meat. Similarly, food allergies prove not to be too much of an issue, as long as you remain vigilant and always ask. Like vegetarianism, many places will remove nuts from a dish if they're purely garnish, but when they're integral, such as in gongbao jiding, or when the oil itself is ground nut based, it's safer to just avoid them. It’s possible to get food poisoning if you’re not careful. The vast majority of restaurants are fine, but be aware that some street stalls or small places selling Western-style fast food may not cook things properly. Keep an open mind, and accept the fact you’ll probably get food poisoning at least once. Always avoid bloody meat if possible, as it is not usually a component in Chinese cuisine, and signs of blood usually mean it's undercooked. Also remember to properly reheat any food that you bring home in doggy bags, as not doing so can result in serious repercussions.
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Food apps
大众点评 – This is a fantastic app for looking up where to eat. It’s Chinese, and so is essentially local recommendations. It gives you the top rated dishes in a place, the location, and the ability to book without speaking to a human (sometimes). It’s also useful for when you’re travelling, and not sure where the safest place to eat is.
下厨房 – This is a recipe app. It tells you the ingredients in a dish, useful if you’re vegetarian or have a peanut allergy.
饿了么／百度外卖／美团外卖– These are food delivery apps, 饿了么 is probably our class favourite. You will need to sign up, order, and then in 30-60 minutes, it’ll arrive. There is usually either a delivery charge, or a minimum-spend, so the most economical way to order is with some friends. Also worth checking out is the WeChat discounts – if you get WeChat pay, you can end up paying as little as 10RMB for a meal, and often get free delivery.
Eating in Beida
Here is some information about the larger canteens. There are plenty of smaller ones which you can have fun exploring if you want something different. As with everything in Beijing, the canteens are liable to change what they serve at short notice. The first three are quite close to each other and are near all the other shops and canteens. The last one is further to the east. Other canteens can be found scattered around the campus, including one well over a kilometre to the northwest if you are feeling particularly adventurous. The key is to look around and try lots of different canteens! There is something for everyone. Canteens do also change their menus with the seasons. They can get very crowded at 12.00 and 1700, when all the classes are let out, so if you can’t face the crowds then the food street also has some tasty alternatives.
艺园- It serves almost anything, from noodles to fruit. None of it is fixed, so you can pick and choose whatever you feel like. The prices are pretty good too. For any vegetarians/vegans, this place has a window dedicated solely to 素菜 so you don’t have to worry about cross-contamination.
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学一- Like 艺园, but with a slightly larger variety of food and a slightly better seating situation, which can make it a better choice at the 12.00 rush. 学一 also serves vegetarian and vegan food.
农园-This is by far the largest canteen, and also one of the most crowded. It has the widest range of food on its two floors, including dishes grouped by region as well as food type. The food here tends to be slightly more expensive than other canteens.
Eating breakfast at 北大 is worth it. Not all the canteens do it, but do try a couple different ones. It is extremely cheap, delicious, and can brighten a morning with an 8am lesson.
勺园- This canteen serves up 大包子，粥，油条 and a number of vegetables. Open from 6.30 to 8.00.
松林– This canteen is mostly 小包子, with a few types of 粥. It has an outdoor seating area, which is nice if the weather is clear. It’s open from 7-2, so you could come here for lunch too.
面餐厅– The noodle canteen’s 包子 aren’t the best, but it has a slightly different sort of breakfast offering, including 豆腐脑, 馄饨 and 豆沙馅饼. It’s worth a visit to try some more unusual breakfast dishes.
Eating in Wudaokou
Restaurants are absolutely everywhere, with a massive range in quality and price, so it's best to try out as much as you can to find places you really like. For more ideas, check things like Lonely Planet, 大众点评, Time Out, or just go looking - you're bound to find somewhere new, affordable, and delicious. You should always take a peek in the local 家 常菜 places, they tend to be great and very affordable.
The simple request to 打包 turns any restaurant into a takeaway, so if you're pressed for time, or would simply prefer to eat at home, most places will happily package your order for you while you wait, or even provide a delivery service.
Chinese Food
零度空间 - This Taiwanese restaurant can be a little more expensive, but has a wonderful range of food, including the fabulous 塔香茄子. It also offers elaborate Hong Kong style
64 | P a g e desserts, (for a more healthy dessert option, the nearby fro-yo shop is a cheap and delicious way to satisfy your sweet tooth.)
麻辣诱惑- for a pricey sample of everything Chongqing has to offer, this restaurant on the roof of the U-Centre provides a tempting opportunity. There's not much in the way of mild food, so only go if you're a fan of sweating! BLCU Muslim Canteen– This place is not particularly vegetarian friendly, being mostly famous for lamb on sticks. It’s also got very nice nang (Hui Muslim bread) and yoghurt.
老车记-- Fifth floor of the U-Centre, a 麻辣香锅 place which is much pricier than the version on campus, but has some very special options like chicken cutlet and king prawns.
港仔驿栈- up on the 5th floor of the U-Centre, this Cantonese style restaurant is your best bet for an easy dim-sum hit. It's cheap, does quick takeaway, and has a great range of mild, Hong Kong and Guangdong inspired dishes.
There is a baozi stand next to Wudaokou station (north side) which does 包子, 粥, 豆浆 and sometimes 粽子.
Other Asian Food
Isshin - this Japanese place just past Tous Les Jours bakery has a fantastic array of Japanese foods, from sushi to noodle soups. The sushi can be a little pricey, but the fish is fresh and delicious. Sushi Express - for a cheaper, less atmospheric sushi experience, this Yo-Sushi style conveyor restaurant is on the ground floor of Lotus. Ganges- found on the top floor of the U-Centre, this Indian restaurant is staffed by friendly, English-speaking waiters and holds numerous awards for its outstanding curry selection. Eating here can be inexpensive if you're frugal, but rice, naan, curry and beer can add up quickly – and it’s well worth it. Khan Baba- Take the first right after the U-Center and walk for about 200 metres. It serves South Asian food, and has a 50RMB buffet at lunchtime. Very good for vegetarians and vegans. It also has a branch in 三里屯. Seoul 798– Rice cake cheese Hotpot is the speciality, and come with a friend because you have to order at least two portions. This place is very popular, and the dish is less strange than it sounds.
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Salang Bang– A very nice Korean restaurant in the tower block which holds Tous les Jours. Korean Food Court- there's a cluster of Korean restaurants opposite the U-Center, to the left of Wudaokou Cinema, providing a variety of Korean dishes at affordable prices. Korean BBQ is easy to find in this area, as is bibimbap – which a little restaurant on the left of this alley does particularly well.
Western Food
Fast-food- Look out for Chinese specialities, like KFC’s mala burger, to sample a unique take on Western fast-food. Bridge Café- This 24-hour café provides a wide range of Western foods, including all-day breakfasts, pizza, pasta, salads, and cake. There's free Wifi, and it's quite easy to rack up points and earn yourself a 15% discount card. Lush - This bar serves some of the best burgers in Wudaokou, with lunch deals and cocktails in the evening. It also has an open mic night, where you can bag yourself some free beer. Eatalia- For a special occasion, or simply a little indulgence, this restaurant makes some of the best pizza and pasta in Wudaokou. The prices are equivalent to those in the West, and the food is authentic. Ricci Cafe– Slightly more expensive than the average place, but it has very good food, wifi and Teapigs tea.
Zarah Cafe – this is near the 雍和宫 hutongs, and has a rule of “no shouting 服务员”, as well as supporting people with Down’s Syndrome by employing them. Moka Bros –Good, slightly more expensive food, and nice if you’re fancying something fresh.
Beijing Roast Duck
Beijing’s most famous dish, roast duck, is something you should definitely try at least once. Dadong- there are three branches of this classic Chinese restaurant in Beijing, and they're all always busy, so book in advance. Meals usually reach about 200RMB per person, but it’s well worth it. Duck de Chine- both branches of this modern French-Chinese fusion restaurant offer outstanding duck with a hefty price tag. It's common to reserve a duck while booking a table in order to not be disappointed during busy times.
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For somewhere less expensive and closer to Wudaokou, your language partner will be more than happy to help you find an appropriate restaurant, such as Quanjude.
Street Food
Street stalls provide convenient, cheap, and tasty snacks. Some of our favourites are below.
包子 – 1.5-2RMB each, baozi are delicious little steamed bread-like bun that come with a wide array of fillings, and are available from many places. There's a very popular place just past Chaoshifa on the way to Beida (天津包子).
串儿 - These kebabs come in various forms, some simply skewered sausages and other Xinjiang inspired ones consisting of alternating pieces of lamb meat and fat, rolled in cumin. Especially in the summer, 串吧 pop up everywhere at night time.
煎饼/手抓饼 - are egg pancakes that are fried on hobs lugged around on the back of bicycles, often filled with vegetables, meat and chilli. They make a great on-the-go breakfast, and come in innumerable varieties, so be sure to try different kinds to get a proper impression of this common snack.
油条 - another common breakfast snack, these dough sticks go nicely with a cup of warm soy milk.
冰糖葫芦 - the sweet version of 串儿, these skewers consist of a fruit (usually hawthorn berries) stacked and then coated in caramel. Vendors pop up everywhere in summer, but there's a permanent stall in Beida opposite the noodle canteen.
奶茶 - served cold in the summer and hot in winter, Taiwan’s famous ‘bubble tea’ is becoming more and more popular as a snack beverage in Beijing. There are numerous outlets along Chengfu Lu and in the U-Centre, so be sure to try this drink, often served in a sealed cup with tapioca balls at the bottom.
Vegetarianism and Veganism
First it is necessary to point out that no matter how hard you try, unless you are cooking for yourself or are eating at a specifically Vegetarian or Vegan restaurant, you can never be 100% sure that what you are eating contains no meat/eggs/dairy products – most annoying is the 肉末 which is frequently added to vegetarian dishes as a garnish. Chinese kitchens and canteens are notorious for cross-contamination and it is not unusual to find a rogue piece of meat in a dish which you have ordered a hundred times
67 | P a g e and deemed ‘safe’. (For those with allergies, be aware that the same can be said of many things. Especially peanuts…) Once you have accepted China’s wok-sharing, cross- contaminating ways, it is actually very easy to find vegetarian and vegan dishes at your average Chinese restaurant. There is a very good completely vegetarian restaurant in Wudaokou called Tian Chu Miao Xiang. There is also a vegetarian buffet restaurant near 北大 called 静莲斋。 Ordering Malatang and MalaXiangguo are also good ways to avoid meat/dairy/eggs since you choose what goes in it. Khan Baba/Ganges also have quite a lot of veggie/vegan options.
Cooking at Home
If you live in a flat, you'll probably have access to a kitchen, which more than likely will already be equipped with crockery and cooking utensils. Should you need (or want) to buy your own, local supermarkets can provide most of the basics, and a little further afield, IKEA is a great place for buying crockery in bulk. Woks, rice cookers, and even electric ovens can be purchased from supermarkets for a fraction of their Western prices. As for ingredients, supermarkets provide everything you'll need. If you want to cook Western food, the supermarket beneath the U-Centre imports lots of foreign food products (which command quite a substantial premium), and the D-Mart near the Korean restaurants has a fantastic range of imported goods. If you're after fresh ingredients, little market stalls pop up around Wudaokou or in the hutongs all the time, where you can get your hands on fresh fruit and vegetables at cheap prices. Cooking Chinese food for yourself provides a great talking point when making Chinese friends, and will undoubtedly improve your Chinese (or, at least, your ability to order food in restaurants). If you have specific dietary requirements, it's very easy to control what you eat by cooking for yourself, and you can regulate your consumption of the infamous ‘gutter oil’. English cookbooks such as Fuchsia Dunlop’s Every Grain of Rice can introduce you to Chinese cooking techniques and provide an index of essential Chinese food terms. Chinese cookbooks, can easily be picked up in most book stops, and will do your Chinese a world of good. If you're serious about your food, enrolling in cooking classes (Hutong Cuisine Cooking School is affordable, friendly, and very high quality), where you'll learn how to delight your classmates with Chinese feasts.
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Nightlife
Bars and Clubs
The nightlife scene is fairly fast-evolving, so keep your ear to the ground for new places to go — guides such as Time Out and The Beijinger can be helpful for this and are available free in many of the cafes around Wudaokou. In general, you will find a range of places very different in style — some are much more expensive than others, but things can be done cheaply. Clubbing in Beijing can be quite a surreal experience and, unsurprisingly, it isn’t very much like Oxford, but there’s definite fun to be had. Something that will immediately strike you as weird is the fact that as a foreigner you will get into the vast majority of clubs for free. This feels a bit ridiculous, if not wrong, but don't look a gift horse in the mouth as normal club entry really isn’t that cheap. Another noticeable difference in club culture and design is the amount of tables, some often centimetres away from the dance floor and pre-booked with food and drink, which makes the distinction between a club and bar a bit arbitrary at times. A word of warning to those who like dancing in clubs: you’ll be lucky to find more than a timid sway from most Chinese people, so you might have to be a trailblazer and go it alone to start things off.
五道口: Keeping it local
Steps: the default bar of Wudaokou for many. Always full of foreigners. There’s a wide range of drinks and beers, and the food is reasonably nice. The music is loud and indiscriminate, so go to the back room if you plan on talking.
Helen’s: slightly further down Caijingdonglu than Steps et al. Staff are generally very nice and its arrangement is more open and laid-back. Choice and quality of drinks isn’t stunning, so it's best described as reliable and good for conversation.
Global: a modern feeling club, underground between Tous Les Jours and KFC. The drinks are good but more expensive than Propaganda and Sensation. The dance floor is rarely inhabited but the music is often better than other clubs in the area.
Propaganda and Sensation: two clubs which are uncannily similar (their layout is literally the same) and twenty feet apart on Caijingdonglu. In my experience Sensation is usually the fuller, but both are worth a look in a given night. Expect to get a discount card which makes a night out ridiculously cheap. Both have ladies’ nights on Thursdays. The dancing is sweaty (if you’re lucky) and better than most places. Sensation is prone to try and keep things tame on the dance floor and one 69 | P a g e of the many lurking guards will tell you to turn things down if you get a too exciting for Chinese tastes. I’m bitter.
Red House: this bar opposite the cinema complex on Wangzhuanglu is dirt cheap and pleasantly dilapidated. Mostly a foreigners’ haunt. Quite surprisingly, it does a really good pizza as it has a pizza oven, but they’re not in the same tier of cheapness as the drinks.
La Bamba: a bar just above Propaganda. Does drink deals — the earlier you go the cheaper (50p tequila shots anyone?). A good place to start off a night out. Often very full and always noisy.
Windows: a bar made up mostly of foreigners. It’s behind the U-Centre, so real commitment is required for those living on the wrong side of the tracks. Grimy and smoke filled - if it were underground the aesthetic would be complete. The dance floor is often the entire floor-space and is used with admirable gusto.
Wu Club: located under the U-Center, just past Wudaokou station. The drinks are slightly more expensive than Propaganda and Sensation but it has various special nights, most noteworthy being an all you can drink beer night which you can get in for free as a foreigner (a loop-hole that’ll probably be closed).
Escaping Wudaokou
后海 Hòuhǎi, 鼓楼 Gǔlǒu and南锣鼓巷 Nánluógǔxiàng, what we refer to as ‘the hutongs’, are all fantastic to wander around to find bars with character.
Houhai district has multiple bars lined up along its two lakes, and it gets especially buzzing with Chinese tourists and Chinese looking for some fun on Saturday evenings. The sheer size and activity of the place is surreal at times and you’ll be offered prostitutes by every other person. Prices listed on the menus can be rather expensive, but promoters outside will often offer some sort of deal, and they can also often be bartered down—the lowest we saw was 10RMB for a beer and 15RMB for a cocktail, but settle for whatever you’re happy to pay. Try the small and grimy Huxley’s for 12 shots for 100RMB.
On Nanluoguxiang, Salud is a great setting for a cosy night out in a smoky Cuban vibe. Go for the tucked-away 69 if you’re looking for some live music in a tiny grunge café (9 p.m. Friday to Sunday) and events such as a “Beatles Revival”. For a low-key, edgy dance floor to let yourself loose, hit Dada. Also loved is Lantern for its “pared down house setup” and the readiness of people to dance there. Right on Guloudonglu is Amilal which is good for “relaxed/cerebral/romantic hutong evenings.”
Four Corners is a nice bar with a restaurant upstairs and drinks downstairs. The food is really good but advertised as Vietnamese, while in practice being more French than anything else. 70 | P a g e
Near Beixinqiao (between Donzhimen and Gulou), Más is a small cozy bar with a Cuban feel - fairly ‘authentic’ tapas (fish/pork tacos, etc), a great choice of slightly pricy cocktails (40-55RMB), but they also offer cheap house wine by the glass (30RMB).
Modernista is near Andingmen and serves great, if expensive, 50RMB+ cocktails. Its art deco aesthetic is quite successfully done and offers an interesting alternative to other nights out. You’ll often find live music, arty foreigners and even life drawing classes. The attached restaurant, however, is not recommended.
For those who are more hardcore or want to try out something different: Capital Spirits (nearby Beixinqiao station too) is a little bit hard to find, but is the only place that specialises in all the different types of baijiu from all over China. There is a ‘starter pack’ for 40RMB of baijiu from Sichuan, Guilin, and some other places. Interesting experience, friendly staff. Listed in NY Times as one of the 100 must-check-out bars in Beijing.
Beijing has quite a good live music scene - from punk rock to blues and jazz to experimental techno on most nights.
Gulou area is considered the best - MAO Livehouse on Guloudajie is a popular venue, recent performances included Ratatat, for instance.
For live music and grunge rock (but also indie/pop-rock/ambient/alternative), YugongYishan is a great venue (it holds around 600 people) with an amazing sound system in the heart of Dongcheng district. Entry is usually 100RMB, but they have a healthy mix of Beijing-based and foreign bands, great atmosphere, and you can usually buy tickets on the door. Beers are 30RMB.
East Shore Jazz Cafe (Qianhai Nanyanlu, west of the post office on Dianmen Waidajie) was opened by “legendary” jazzman Liu Yuan. Liu Yuan’s own quartet performs there, as well as a multitude of other host bands.
The 三里屯 Sānlǐtún district is full of bars and clubs. Some tried and tested include:
Adam’s: The oldest gay bar in Beijing now has two iterations on Sanlitunjie itself, which is confusing and possibly only temporary. The newly opened branch (nearer Gongrenbeilu) is worth a visit. It’s quite small and pleasantly low key. Often has good live music catering to a more “cultured gay” audience so expect songs in French etc. Cocktails are nice but on the expensive side.
Blu bar: just a few floors below Kokomo, this is a popular choice for moving on, as things tend to really get going a little later on at around 12 or 1. Drum and bass, house and minimal tech music provide what could be a welcome break from the cheese that can otherwise seem overly prevalent.
Kokomo bar: with roof terrace—this gets seriously popular in the warmer months and for good reason. It’s a great place to enjoy a relaxed drink on a warm evening, and there’s even occasional live music. Located in TongLi Studios.
Smugglers: located just off the main bar street, next to the fish & chip shop. A small, pub-
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Q bar: located on the top floor of the Eastern Inn Hotel towards the south end of Sanlitun Nanlu, this is another bar with a good rooftop terrace and 2-for-1 martinis on a Wednesday.
Mix and Vics: these two clubs are located opposite each other and are rumoured to maintain a fierce rivalry. Vics is the more Western of the two, generally reckoned to be a good place for a dance; Mix is frequented by more local Chinese, and also has more authentically ineffective air conditioning. They are situated near the Worker’s Stadium and get a mention in the Lonely Planet, so have a look for them.
Destination: the definitive gay bar of Beijing is also next to the Worker’s Stadium. It’s worth visiting on a Friday or Saturday when the place is packed and the dancing excellent. There’s a strong showing of local men but very few girls to be found. People are certainly there for a reason, though, so prepare to bat away hopefuls on the dance floor if you’re not in the right mood/orientation. Entry is around 60RMB on a normal night and you’ll very likely actually have to pay for once.
Funky: around the corner from destination is this smaller and more laid back gay bar accessible only by lift. Fewer people than destination means much less dancing, so could be used as a less formal alternative to Adam’s. Drinks are fine but expensive at 50RMB+
Migas: located in Nali Patio, Migas is a more sophisticated destination compared to a lot of the other bars in Sanlitun, this place is complete with its own roof terrace (with pods— but you do have to pay for these), which is great in the summer. Drinks don’t come cheap.
Tairyo’s: all you can eat and all you can drink Teppanyaki. Good alcohol and amazing food and a great start to a night in Sanlitun. Perhaps avoid shellfish as food poisoning has happened.
Fubar: a great little bar in Workers Stadium, where they serve cocktails out of buddhas, and shots out of penis glasses. The mixologist there is great, and drinks are very creative but also expensive.
Beer
Great Leap Brewery (3: one in Sanlitun, one on Nanluoguxiang, and one in Liangmaqiao). Quite expensive (Oxford prices), however some great craft ales.
Heaven Supermarket: a much beloved pub within a supermarket. This is in Sanlitun and has an outrageously large variety, at very reasonable prices.
京A in Sanlitun is another good craft ale style place much like Great Leap.
Other
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秀吧 Xiu bar: beautifully decorated, with soft lights and an outdoor roof terrace with water features (less tacky than it sounds), this stylish spot is located on the sixth floor of the Park Hyatt hotel. Drinks aren’t cheap, but Thursday is ladies’ night with vodka mixers free at the bar from 10pm to 1am. Live music adds to the atmosphere, though it can be of variable quality, and there is also a small dance floor. The queue can be nightmarish, so arriving pre-11pm is advisable.
Don’t forget the cute little hutong off Āndìngmén 安定门, called wudaoying with its rows of cool cafés owned by young Chinese entrepreneurs (offering cupcakes and the likes), as well as a fantastic variety of restaurants (from Greek to Vietnamese), vintage shops and School, a renowned live music bar (a bit more on the hard-rock side)! Connecting to the Lama temple, the interesting combination of modernity, authentic Beijing architecture, and Tibetan-inspired cafés should not fail to charm you.
Another word of advice is… If you want cheap alcohol and a fun environment, pick any relatively busy small Chinese restaurant, and go sit there, buy a load of beers, and get drunk with random Chinese people. They are often the most fun nights.
KTV Another must-try in Beijing is卡啦OK!
Lion King KTV bar is inside the same building as the Tous les Jours bakery in 五道口. One of the cheapest, with a good song selection.
Melody is further into the centre of town, rather expensive but very swish inside.
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一路顺风
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