Day 2 at Beijing * 16th May 2016 – Official start of the Tsinghua School of Economics and Management Summer Program in Economics and Finance
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In short, the summer school course was a 2-week programme solely arranged by Tsinghua University. All relevant activities and classes were organised by them, starting from as early as 9am up to about 5pm every day. So, every morning, accompanied by some of my friends and course mates of UCL who attended the summer course with me, we would take about at least 15 minutes of walking from the accommodation where we were located by our University to walk to Tsinghua's campus.
The first day was really exciting and the feelings that I had on the first day were still deeply engraved inside my head until today. I was so anxious and excited at the same time.. Couldn't recall exactly when was the last time I felt something like that, being in a foreign country by myself and experiencing a university campus life. Honestly, the opportunity I had in meeting new friends from a different culture background and upbringing, coupled with the time given in getting to know most of my course mates from UCL at a closer capacity certainly made my summer school experience a worthwhile one. I don't know why, but I believe that making it to Tsinghua University's summer programme instead of going for the Fashion Management summer school course that I wanted so badly organised by HEC Paris was a great decision after all. If I had a chance to decide again, I would still go for Beijing's.
Enough said, I'll let most of the pictures do the talking for now :)
E N J O Y!
I was so surprised at how far the School of Economics and Management building were located... For a starter like me, I would have thought the building would just be like about 1-2 minutes walk from the entrance of the University Campus, like UCL's. However, as you can easily see from the picture above, the university is completely none like what you get from city campus in the UK, especially London. Everything is really far from one another... That's what they call, a campus life. & the best part during my summer school experience was, Beijing was somehow pollution-free (not entirely) but at least we got clear blue skies greeting us every day instead of the sandy and bad air.. All thanks to the heavy rain brought two days ago before our arrival :D
I have no idea what building is that in the above picture... But all I can say is that everything here is MASSIVE. Be it the building, field, plants or whatever, you can definitely not see them back in the UK...
As soon as we arrived, we had to register. Voilà, LOOK! It was so sweet of Tsinghua's representatives to greet us with such lovely souvenirs..
Shortly after our briefing and introductory session in the morning, we had to gather near the field area located next to our SEM building for a photoshoot. How sweet of them.. Haha, everything seemed to be arranged perfectly, with no time wasted at all. That's how the Chinese way of doing things ;) The above picture is not entirely ALL students from the course, but it's ALL of the UCL students who participated in the summer school programme, which was a mixture of Route A and B students from the MSc Management programme.
It was so cool that one of our friends, Chanont, brought his 360º camera with him... It was actually my first time seeing something like that!
The above picture shows the exact number of students across different universities who participated in the summer school programme. As you can see, it is indeed quite a small number of students who participated in the programme. Therefore, this summer school programme is somewhat different from those you usually see out there as Tsinghua university is quite selective with the type of university students who are eligible in joining their course. So, I would say, being sponsored by UCL in participating such programme is definitely something I will always be grateful of, heh.
Funny faces of everyone as requested by our organiser, Ms Mao, who is seated next to me in the picture above :p
After our mini photoshoot session, we were told that we would be touring the campus area and it was informed that the entire tour will take up to at least an hour or so... According to them, it was almost impossible to cover the WHOLE campus in such a short time, hence, we were only brought to see sites that are considered as main attractions of the university. In the picture above, the building is known to be a place for students to watch movie. It is like a mini theatre..
This picture shows one of the famous site at Tsinghua campus. According to our tour guide, he said this monument used to be the size of Tsinghua university, before it actually expanded further in the past.
This known to be one of the first classrooms in Tsinghua University, if I'm not wrong. Haha.
This ancient Chinese looking setting was initially a house for one of the ministers during olden days, back before this area was developed into a university. At present, it is now being used as one of the office areas for the staff members of Tsinghua and a place for them to organise meetings.
A mandatory tourist shot in front of the entrance of the ancient looking building :)
Couldn't get enough of taking pictures of the pond.. It reminds me so much of being in a kampung area, but not in a city actually. Haha.
At night itself, Yan Hong, my college friend from Concord who was studying her Masters at Tsinghua for a Law degree, brought me out for dinner at Sanlitun (三里屯) area, at this restaurant famous for Pecking duck – Duck de Chine (全鸭季).. I would highly recommend this restaurant to those of you who are visiting Beijing. It is really a different experience dining at a place for Pecking duck. The service, ambience and everything was perfect. And not to forget, reservations are highly recommended as this place tend to get really packed even on weekdays! Apart from that, our meeting after so long was really fruitful.. Can't remember when was the last time we actually met.. If I'm not wrong, it was about 2 or 3 years ago. How funny time really flies when you are actually not taking account of it..
Our vegetarian dish as an appetiser :)
One of the signature dishes if you're in Beijing.. Underneath this fried layer, it consists of dumplings, which is the same thing as Gyoza's.
Fish in a claypot..
Fresh cabbage cooked with shiitake mushrooms..
The chef with our whole pecking duck. One thing that you have to remember when dining at this restaurant in future is that this is the only restaurant that doesn't allow you to go for a half pecking duck even though it's only two people dining.. You have to go for the whole pecking duck no matter what. However, I wouldn't deny the fact that the pecking duck tasted SO SOOOO good... I wish they had something like this back in KL or even London!
Our pecking duck with the signature sauce of the restaurant and the steam sesame bun. Apparently, it is only in Beijing that you will be served the usual conventional thin layer of wrap to be eaten with the pecking duck, at the same time, with this sesame bun mantao. It felt so nice having to finally eat pecking duck again at Beijing itself after so many years!
After dinner, the both of us were so full... I can't believe that the two of us actually ordered so much. Haha. Anyway, Yan Hong brought me to the shopping mall around Sanlitun, which had a huge UNIQLO shop outside. It was so interesting to see how much Beijing has changed and how much it has grown into a developed city that did not use to look anything like that when I visited it 8 years ago. After our tour around, she brought me to the Godiva cafe in the shopping mall to have some desserts.. Knowing me.. How can I ever say no to desserts even after our heavy dinner meal? Heh. The picture above shows a white chocolate cheesecake and berries along with sorbet..
This huge thing here served with dry ice known to be one of the signature choice of desserts at Godiva. Can't believe, we ordered such big portion for just the two of us. Haha.
Sorry.. Couldn't help it.. A picture of myself with one of the desserts that we ordered that night :p
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To sum everything up for that day, I would say, brace yourself with the heavy traffic in Beijing... Getting around Beijing could be really a pain in the a*s at times as it is SO crazy that you actually could get stuck in traffic for at least up to 2 hours, for example, just travelling from Tsinghua University area to the City Centre (Sanlitun) for a nice meal or night out with your friends. That's why, my advice would be, never leave during rush hour.. It is best to avoid getting into a cab or travel by car at anytime between 5.30 to 6pm at all cause.
Not only that, getting back to Zone 4 near the Tsinghua University area from Sanlitun around 11pm at night could also be a problem as all cabs are usually pre-booked by this 滴滴行车 app company, which is similar to Uber but it is born and bred in Beijing. Therefore, please do not have high hopes of just catching a cab by raising up your hand on the busy streets of Beijing during the day or night, as the chances of you getting a cab is merely close to 0%m which is totally contradicting to the situation back in the UK, especially London.
I am very certain of this because I have experienced that almost each time during my two weeks of stay in Beijing.. And our last resort would always be using the app to book a cab instead. Hence, it is highly recommended that you travel with a friend who knows how to converse in Mandarin and read Mandarin because you definitely require that in order to use the app efficiently in booking a cab.
That's all for now and be sure to check-in again for my next post on Beijing!
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