Those of you who have followed my progress, regress, frustrations and (few) victories in the class room,  will know that there have been quite a few changes in the composition of our little class over the past 3 years. Now we're back to three. My British friend Rebecca, myself and now Maiko. The most beautiful and sweet girl from Nagoya. That would be in Japan. I have to admit that before meeting Maiko, learning that we had a new Japanese classmate was initially bad news for me. And why is that?

I think I've told you that I've got my work cut out when it comes to learning Chinese characters. I just cannot seem to memorise them and when we have to read aloud from the book, I usually dread the moment where teacher Xin says "MòLì (my Chinese name) ni du ba (you read, ok)". My reading sounds something like "wo something something de shihou bu hui something something yinwei something". Recognising those little buggers is proving so difficult for me. The same cannot be said for Rebecca for she is much more studious than me and seems to have what we Danes would call a "brain of glue" to which everything sticks. Then there is Maiko. There is hardly a character that she doesn't know. And if she doesn't know the pronounciation in Chinese, she knows the meaning in English. 
Yes, Maiko has an advantage. But how big is it actually? Let's look at a few of the similarities and differences between Japanese and Chinese:

• Chinese characters are called Hanzi. They look like this: 汉字  
• They are also used in Japanese but called 漢字 kanji - but Japanese also uses other writing systems, which comprise hiragana and katakana. An example of a Japanese sentence is: 君は日本人ですか? . It means "Are you Japanese?" The same sentence looks like this in Chinese: 你是日本人人吗?
• Some words are completely the same - just pronounced in different ways. An example is 猫 which means cat. It is mao in Chinese and neko in Japanese.
• When it comes to pronunciation, the two languages have very similarities. 

Our next exam is coming up (hopefully in December or January). While I will no doubt struggle to get above the pass mark, Maiko is almost certain to get a full score. She might struggle like Rebecca and I on the listening part (no advantage of being Japanese) - but as for the multiple choice reading part and the written part, she'll do brilliantly! Ok, enough, crybaby!  Get studying!
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Post scriptum: I really like Maiko. She is in on the joke :-)

Today is Single's day in China. The holiday is referred to as Guanggun Jie (管棍节) or Singles’ Festival, though some people call it Bachelors’ Day. But it is really my old friend, the shopping Mecca Taobao/Alibaba that has earned Single's day the name it's now mostly known by - namely Double 11, or Shuang Shi’yi (双十一). Simply because it falls on 11.11 every year.

As of now, 10 pm in Beijing, Alibaba has recorded sales of (the equivalent of) 34 billion USD!  

Here are a few things you can buy for under 30 RMB (roughly 5 Euros). You still have 2 hours to do it. I'll take orders. 

The 1st of October is China's National day. It marks the founding of the People's Republic of China and this year is the PRC's 70th birthday. Every 10 years, a huge military parade takes place in along Chang'an Avenue and passes through Tiananmen square (where Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the PRC in 1949). But this year, it will be a record-breaking celebration which, according to the BBC has generated both admiration and scorn. The parade (which showcases the most advanced weaponry of the Chinese army) will have 15.000 soldiers marching alongside 580 pieces of military equipment while 160 aircrafts will fly overhead.

City in lockdown - the impact on everyday life

Organising a celebration of this caliber is no piece of cake - and the preparations have had a major impact on the lives of Beijingers. Businesses in certain areas have been forced to shut down as long as 5 weeks ahead of the celebrations, for 4 weekends in a row, rehearsals have been taking place, causing traffic chaos and restrictions. Parks as far as 20 km from Tiananmen square have been closed down, snipers have been in position for weeks and tourists staying in central Beijing have been asked not to leave their hotels for up to 24 hours while rehearsals were taking place (let alone on the day itself). Here are some good tips and travel notes by China Highlights for the tourists who have booked a trip to Beijing this week (and wish they hadn't).

No flight zone - even for pigeons

In order to ensure flight safety for the military planes on the day of the parade, a ban on recreational aerial activities is in place. This includes the release of balloons and lanterns, flying kites and drones, pet birds like pigeons. Furthermore, all flights to and from Beijing scheduled until noon today have been cancelled.

Parade day! So we can all watch, right?

You would think that such an important event is for every citizen to enjoy, right? well not exactly.  It is still not clear whether people like myself who live in high-rise buildings will be allowed to be close to the windows - or to watch from the streets. As for the crowd watching from Tiananmen Square, it has been hand-picked by the Communist Party.

Happy birthday People's Republic of China! The preparations for today have taken their toll on Beijingers - but what we get to witness is also something really cool! 国庆节快乐 - Happy National Day!

Now enjoy some pictures. The color red, flags and celebration banners are everywhere.

Reflections from a Seattle layover

For the third summer in a row, I am flying back to Beijing after two months of traveling. This year, the holidays have taken us to Europe and to the US and I realise that alas, my usual enthusiasm​ and excitement to reunite with Beijing has faded. I cannot help but to like the thought of the countdown that has already started in my mind. 10 more months and we're leaving China. I almost feel guilty about feeling this way. The strongest advocate for enjoying life and embracing China with all its quirkiness, loudness and craziness is having a liiiitle bit of a hard time right now.

I know it’s temporary. But just give me a minute to get that negativity out of my system.

I’m thinking about that moment when the plane touches down in Beijing. The air is likely to be polluted, I’ll step out of the plane switch on my phone and remember that everything is blocked in China – so I have to switch on my VPN in order to access Google, Instagram, Facebook, several news outlets – including the Hong Kong paper I write for and my own blog. Bye freedom of press – I’ve thoroughly enjoyed you the past 2 months.

After we get our luggage, we’ll get into a smelly taxi where the driver won’t help me get the suitcases into the trunk (which, by the way, will likely be full of his own junk). I’ll try to find the words again “wŏmen qu Chaoyang Gōng Yuán Xī lu 17 hao” (our address). I’ll be thinking about how I need to do some grocery shopping when we get home. Jenny Lou. One of two options where they stock western goods. One basket of the essentials such as milk, cheese and cereal will cost me a small fortune. As we approach Chaoyang Gōng Yuán Xī lu, the driver will be lost and I’ll say “xiàyīge hóng lu dēng yòu zhuăn – ránhòu zou zhuăn” (turn right at the next traffic light, then left) – at least that’s my, perhaps simplified, way of saying it.

Finally home. And the moment we step out of the taxi is when I trust that things will start to look up. Our super friendly reception staff will greet me. “Nĭ hăo Mòlì” (Mòlì is my Chinese name – it means Jasmine). We’ll take the elevator to the 7th floor and as we open the door to our apartment, our beautiful black cat Pumba will be waiting for us. 8 weeks is a really long time to be away from her. She might even be up for a little cuddle although that’s normally not her style. The apartment will be spotless, Our ayi (househelp) has taken care of that. I’ll be happy that we have a base again. After weeks of living out of a suitcase, we’ll unpack.

I’m lucky to have several friends in the building where we live. We’ve been in touch over the summer and have agreed to meet up as soon as we’re all back – and have a toast to a great (school) year and lots of fun moments together. I’ll also be rushing to see my darling friends (and Chinese class mates) Rebecca and Egle as well as my wonderful Danish friends! I’ll be anxious for it to be Thursday. Rehearsal with Jing Sing! Our a cappella group.
Next week the Cugnini family from Brussels will be arriving. They are doing a trip around China and will stay with us for a week. And our two kids who still live at home are excited about going back to school for their highschool freshman and senior years.
I’ll soon be busy. Have articles to pitch and to write. I want to work on the look of my blog (currently so boring) and I’m on the team of organizers for a big party for journalists in September where we expect over 250 people.

But most of all, I’ll be busy enjoying the last year in China. New trips, new experiences, a new process of discovering where we go next and who knows – that Chinese exam I said I’d take.

I’m smiling now.

“Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.”
Chinese Proverb

Apologies in advance, dear reader. Here I go again. Another "ups and downs of learning Chinese" post. But this time, I have an important decision to announce.

But first, let's have a look at my Chinese studies "history".

I had my first lesson in February of 2016. 2 months after I arrived in China. At the time, learning Chinese was my most important project. I had the time, I'm passionate about languages, I like a challenge, I had classmates and last but not least, I was keen to be "integrated" into the Chinese community.

Despite changing schools, then teacher and classmates, l maintained the enthusiasm the first year. I was eager to learn and would actually find pleasure in doing my homework.

I ended up with the most wonderful teacher and my new classmates meant (and still mean) everything to me. We were all on a roll. We shared the passion and had fun inside as well as outside the classroom.

All good things must come to an end

Yes, it sound a bit dramatic but I suppose I somehow knew that it wouldn't last. I got busy with other things. Got a part-time job, started to do more and more freelance writing and every time I took on something new, Chinese became much less of a priority for me. As a result, I failed my last exam about a year ago (HSK 3 exam). Last summer, our beloved classmate Elisabete moved to Indonesia, Egle decided to stop and there has have been lots of changes in the group. This has caused some instability - but that instability is not to blame for my current demotivation. I have simply gotten lazy, sloppy and too busy with other things.

There are 6 HSK levels in total and I'm currently studying level 4. I hope to do the exam in August or September and last week, I told my dear teacher Xin that I will be stopping after level 4. That was not part of the plan. I naïvely thought that reaching (and finishing) level 6 was feasible within the 4 1/2 years we'll have in China altogether. Reaching level 6 WOULD have been possible IF I had chosen to study full-time at the university (or at least 4-5 hours per day). I started off with 4 hours per week, then 9 and now I'm back to 6. Xin told me "HSK 四级真的不错“ (HSK 4 is not bad at all) - and she fully supported my decision to stop after the summer.

What do you know after 3 years?

I think the easiest way of telling you where HSK 4 gets you is by telling you what I can do - and what I can't - in Chinese:

Talk to taxi drivers and give directions: yes
Introduce myself and tell people where I come from, how long I've been in China: yes
Talk to our house help: yes
Get the essence of a radio programme (understanding roughly every 9-10 words): yes
Watch a movie in Chinese: no
Participate in a conversation about something that goes beyond small-talk: no
Interview sources in Chinese: no

Depressing innit? I mean three years.

On the other hand, I believe in always looking on the bright side of things. Had I not given it a try, my level would have been zero. I would have saved myself a lot of frustrations but also missed out on a lot of fun - and lifelong friendships! I would have relied on always having an English speaking person around me when trying to communicate - or gotten my translation app out every single day. I could beat myself up for letting go of something that was so important to me - but as you know
冰冻三尺，非一日之寒 “Three feet of ice is not the result of one cold day.” (Rome wasn't built in a day) - and what I've learnt from the past 3 years, is that Mandarin is an incredibly difficult language and it requires so much dedication and patience to become a fluent speaker. But trying to grasp it has been rewarding enough for me. I intend to spend this last year in China practising as much as possible with the man in the street.

Time is ticking. I have set myself the goal to visit all of China’s provinces before we leave China in the summer of 2020. Any excuse is goof and in the case of Jiangsu province , it was a marathon that brought me there - as a spectator that is!
 
Jiangsu province is located in Eastern China, roughly 130 kilometers from Shanghai - and the city of Wuxi lies on the northern shore of Taihu lake while the northern part of the city lies right by the Yangze River. 
 
My husband had signed up for his third Wuxi Marathon but I decided to leave for Wuxi one day before him in order to have more time to explore the city. When I told a friend about my plan, he laughed and said “explore Wuxi – well maybe there’s a culture street or something but I would’t get my expectations up”. He was somehow right – but still, I believe that a city, in many cases, is what you make of it. 
 
Friday
 
I landed in Wuxi on a chilly March morning and immediately regretted not having checked the weather forecast and hence assuming that it would be nice and warm. I checked into my hotel (strategically chosen due to its vicinity to the finish line of the Marathon) and there was nothing to do there so I pretty much dropped off my bags in the room and decided to take a taxi to the city centre. In the meantime, however, the hotel reception told me that there was an “ancient town” only 500 meters away. I certainly couldn’t miss out on that so after a brisk 10-minute walk, I found myself in the middle of the “ancient town” of Xuntang. With all signs being in Chinese and no guidebook at hand, I gave up on trying to find out if there was anything authentic about this place – or whether it had just been built for tourists. But it was cute and quaint – and took about 15 minutes to visit.
 
Being in China, I made use of our fabulous Didi App (similar to Uber) and got a car to the city centre. A friend had recommended to get off at the luxurious Nikko hotel and get walk around the area of (mostly western) restaurant and to the culture street on the opposite side of the hotel. Here it was. The culture street. Something every respectable Chinese has. New and old mixed together, new that pretends to be old, old that is actually old but you’re not quite sure – and of course snacks and souvenirs galore.
 
I only arrived in the city centre at 3 pm so almost all the restaurants were closed – and of all the places I could choose to go, I decided to go to a small mall with a Carrefour supermarket inside. Simply because I was cold and wanted to buy a sweater. I got a bit of take-away food from Carrefour and went back to the hotel.

Saturday
 
I woke up bright and early to welcome my husband who landed with the first flight from Beijing. First stop today was the exhibition centre across the street from the hotel. The centre was transformed into a buzzing Marathon-fair and the atmosphere was incredible. Wuxi Marathon is, in fact one of the most important and most well-organized road marathons in China with roughly xx participants. After having picked up the bib number and browsed the vendor stalls at the exhibition centre, we walked up to the little “old village” again. We then took at taxi to a lakeside spot called Taihu Tou and after a stroll by the lake, we went back to the city centre for another stroll in the Culture Street – but this time we discovered the beautiful parallel street which was really quaint and actually old! And that was not the only positive discovery of the day. We realized that, behind hotel Nikko, there was a huge, live street food market which was packed with people. It made Beijing’s Wanfujing Snack Street look like a joke! Despite the wide array of delicious street food, we opted for a very non-chinese sit-down dinner at the Mamma Mia Pizzeria. Hands down the best pizza I’ve ever had in China (though I was probably biased since I hadn’t had bread or pizza in 3 months due to my Keto diet). 

Sunday
 
Race day for Francesco. I got up late and went to the finish line at around 11 am. As always, the atmosphere at the finish line was amazing and one could hear hundreds of people shouting Jia you, jia you (add oil) from miles away to encourage the runners. 
 
We had planned to go and see the giant Buddha at Ling Shan that afternoon but after the race, neither of us was really in the mood for sightseeing so we checked out and chilled at the hotel lobby until it was time to go to the airport.
 
Wuxi was actually a nice place to visit though hardly on my must-see China list. My project is about visiting the Provinces of China and Wuxi is clearly only one city in Jiangsu province. But if go and visit the famous water town of Suzhou at some stage, can we make it count please? 

It's hard to believe but we have already been in China over 3 years. I remember that smoggy, freezing December day in 2015 when we arrived as if it were yesterday. And here we are - looking towards our "life after China" already.

The decision

The decision has been made. It was a tough one - but we have chosen not to apply for an extension of my husband's contract in China which ends in the summer of 2020.
There were many things to be taken into consideration - such as the timing of the kids' education, finances, me being on leave from my job - and of course how we feel about living in Beijing.

But despite some amazing opportunities here, a wonderful lifestyle and our lovely, lovely friends, it all came down to being ready for a new chapter. We're not ready yet - but we reckon we will be by the summer of 2020. By then, we'll have been in China 4 1/2 years.

The future 

I've always said that I love the unknown. We still don't know what will happen next but we know this much: There will be opportunities for my husband (and for myself) to apply for other EU delegations around the world and we'll certainly apply. Should it not work out, then we go back to Brussels. But we won't know for sure until early 2020. 

The bucket list

My project for the next 16 months is all about China. I would like to enjoy life as much as I can in China. I want my life to be full of China, over the top-China, trying-to-crack-the-code-to-learning-mandarin-China, cultural China, historical China and not least the traveler's China. In other words, I don't want to look back at this experience thinking "I wish I had..."

I have a crazy project of traveling to all 30 something provinces in China before we move - and so far I've only visited around 10 of them. To be frank, I don't know if it's realistic and I certainly don't want to stress about it - but boy would it be cool. I will post more about my project over the next few weeks. 

Thank you for your support dear readers and followers! I just had a look at the site statistics and I'm ever so grateful! I promise to post more regularly! 

Hugs 
Lise

I’m not a huge fan of new year’s resolutions because I can’t keep them anyway – but I know that this year I have to make an effort when it comes to studying Chinese. The number of hours I physically spend in the classroom every week (currently 9) is not the issue. But reviewing, doing all my homework and memorising the characters need to start happening.
 
Class mates
 
It’s been a year full of changes. There were 4 of us for about a year, then Amanda joined. Then Elisabete moved to Indonesia and Amanda moved to the States. Then Jesper Joined, Nadine stopped, DaXie moved up to level 5, Egle took a break and Henrique went onto study in Germany. There are only 3 of us left in class now. Jesper, Rebecca and I. Of the 3, I am by far the least studious and the most distracted by other activities. As a result of my poor preparation, I failed the last exam (HSK 3).

Where are we at?
 
We follow the HSK system. "The Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (汉语水平考试 translated as the Chinese Proficiency Test or the Chinese Standard Exam, is the standardized test of Standard Chinese language proficiency of China for non-native speakers such as foreign students and overseas Chinese". There are 6 levels in total and and we’re about halfway through level 4 – meaning that we’re likely to take the Level 4 exam this summer if everything goes well. On this level, pinyin is a thing of the past and we only read characters. When it comes to spoken Chinese, there are some days where I feel I’m not able to say anything and some days where I’m quite proud of the progress we've made. I’m able to get by in Beijing. I can speak to our Ayi (housekeeper) – and when I can’t, we use WeChat translate. I can introduce myself and say how long I’ve been in China, why we’re here and so on – and I can explain to taxi drivers where I need to go and ask for directions. However, when it comes to “deeper” conversations, I simply don’t have the necessary vocabulary yet. And I don’t practise enough! 
 
Hopes for the future
 
I’ve been in China 3 years now and I came here with the intention of making learning Chinese one of my top priorities. If it hadn't been for my amazing classmates and our wonderful teacher Xin, I would most likely have given up ages ago. I hope 2019 will be the year where I give myself a kick up the backside and dedicate more time to learning Chinese. I am a linguist after all. 加油！

On Sunday we woke up to thick, polluted air. The app showed an Air Quality Index of 217 - which is in the "very unhealthy" category. My son and his friend had signed up for a 10 K run in Chaoyang park right where we live and I was wrong in assuming that the race would be cancelled due to smog.

As we entered Chaoyang park at 7 am, it was buzzing with life just like every morning. Elderly people flying their kites, doing tai qi, playing ping-pong, dancing - and hundreds of runners were making their way to the start line. 

I have written about how pollution generally doesn't affect people's daily lives in Beijing. Going on as if it were the most beautiful day is very common. And probably very heathy for the mental sanity of Beijingers. At the same time. studies show that physical activity generally outweighs the harm of bad air pollution and I hope to write more about that soon. Apologies for this very short post. More coming up very soon - promise ;-)