The 2nd Entry

The Story of You, Part 2.

Jay K.


Ep33. The 2nd Entry


[In Korea]

I am back in Beijing. I promised you guys last time that I would write an entry before I leave Korea, but I couldn’t. It’s because I didn’t do much in Korea other than resting. That was my only goal going to Korea and I successfully accomplished that goal. I saw my grandma again and hung out with some friends. For the most of the time, I tried to stay at home watching TV or reading books.

Three weeks passed quickly. It was sweet and refreshing. I told you in the last episode that I didn’t want to come back to China, but I had to. So I am here again for another five months. I didn’t want to be back because I was tired of living here. I am just being honest. It wasn’t easy adjusting to the new culture and I had many difficulties. I expected it but expecting and experiencing is actually different.

You can say I am just waning, maybe I am. I was really busy last semester and tried hard to push myself out of my comfort zone which is a good thing. It was similar to my first semester in college—it was the toughest semester in my life. I remember after that first semester when I went back home for winter break, I really didn’t want to go back to the school.



[Snow flowers]

[My grandma at the museum]

Last Sunday evening I got on the plane for Beijing. There were many Chinese on the plane and that just started to hit me that I was going back to China. Oh no! I got off at Beijing Capital Airport where I started my journey just 8 months ago. As I was passing the Chinese immigration checkpoint, I realized it was my 2nd entry to China, my 2nd Act just began.

As I was taking a cab from the airport to the school, I felt proud of myself. If you remember, I couldn’t understand a word from my cab driver when I first came to Beijing. I couldn’t tell him where I need to go so I wrote and showed to him. Now, I don’t have problem having conversation with my driver. And, everything was so familiar to me. If you come from the airport you will see lots of sign saying 3环路，4环路 (3rd Ring Road, 4th Ring Road). When I first came here, I didn’t know what they meant. I thought it was like a number of the highway like 101 highway in California. But if you live in Beijing for enough you will know what the ring roads are.

The buildings were familiar and I knew where I was going. In the summer, I didn’t know where the taxi driver was taking me to, but this time I could tell him how to get to my place. Looking at myself capable of getting around in China much better than the last time, I started to have courage to survive here once again. Yes, maybe I can do this.

On Thursday, I took another placement exam which I took before the fall semester. It wasn’t very encouraging, because the test was as hard as the last time and I felt I didn’t do any better than the last time. However, I didn’t get disappointed at that fact, because that just meant I still have a lot to learn. I knew where I would get placed into—the highest level of written and conversational Chinese class in the language school.


[One of the most famous amusement parks in Korea: Lotte World]

[I went to Big Bang (famous Korean pop group)'s concert]

To be honest, I wanted to pass out the placement exam and become a regular student of PKU which many of my other friends did. I still wanted to take some classes from the language school because I just knew that I still have so much Chinese to learn. But at the same time I wanted to take classes in my major department because that was my original goal coming to China and learning Chinese for a whole year is just too much for me.

To make a long story short, I actually achieved both. I didn’t pass out the test unfortunately—5 points short of the minimum score, but I asked the language school to allow me to enroll in the school of government, and they agreed! I think it was because my grades from the last semester were good and I told them I already audited government classes last semester. Also, my score was close enough to the passing score. Usually, if you are enrolled in other department, you are not allowed to take classes in the language school. However, I again asked the school and they also let me to take classes in the language school. Nice!

So I think the situation is pretty ideal for me, since I can freely take classes in both departments. The fact that I didn’t pass the test makes me a bit sad, but it’s fine. I felt lucky getting what I wanted but also proud of myself asking for more. I was seriously thinking about taking just Chinese classes and not even bother about taking major classes, or I was just going to take major courses and stop taking Chinese classes.


[This guy is the leader of the group called G-Dragon]






My schedule for this semester is not set yet, but I am pretty sure what I am going to take. I will take two Chinese main courses from the language school and I will take two polisci classes from the school of government: one will be “Contemporary World Politics and Economy” and the other will be “Public Policy Case Analysis”. They are regarded as relatively easy classes in the department according to my friends, but because they are all in Chinese it will be still tough for me. I am going to take two more electives, but I’m afraid it will be too many classes.

My goal is getting good grades from all of the courses including the courses from the school of government. Another goal for this semester is taking a HSK test (Chinese Standardization Test) and to get a high grade level. I guess these are my academic goals this semester.

I’ve done my 2nd entry and only one exit is left for me—that will be in June or July. Whether I wanted or not, I came back and it is up to me how this semester will turn out.

One day adventure in Shenyang

The Story of You, Part 2.

Jay K.


[The frozen train window]

Ep32. One day adventure in Shenyang

As I told you guys in the previous episode, the last destination of my winter trip was Dandong, but now let’s rewind a bit and let me talk about Shenyang. I was originally going to only visit Ha’erbin, Dandong, and Tumen. The main purpose of the trip was visiting the Sino-North Korea border cities and to think about N. Korea and S. Korea relationship. However, because there is no direct train from Tumen to Dandong, I had to stop over at Shenyang, a transport hub as well as the provincial capital of Liaoning province.

Taking an overnight train from Tumen, I got to Shenyang around 8am and my train to Dandong was leaving at 5pm, thus I had a whole day to explore the city. Even though it wasn’t a part of my original plan, I decided to enjoy a day tour in Shenyang.

Having a breakfast at Yoshinoya near the train station, I first went to see Mao’s statue located at the center of the downtown. You know I love this kind of things: Mao, communism, and so on. Mao was magnificently standing amid the bursting metropolitan. After taking pictures around the statue, I moved on to the imperial palace of Shenyang. The palace was very similar to that of Beijing—Forbidden City, but much smaller and simpler with some Manchu features. It took less than an hour to see the whole palace. I ate lunch at food court inside of the department near the place. It was delicious! I found that place in my lonely planet, my one and only tour guide.


[The Mao statue]

[Imperial Palace in Shenyang]

After having lunch, I took a bus to the North Tomb, burial place of Huang Taiji, the founder of the Qing dynasty. The tomb set in the middle of Beiling Park. The park was very disappointing. There was nothing except pine trees and snow, however it was very peaceful. There were local people enjoying the winter park. The day was almost over when I was walking out of the park. I took a bus again back to the station where I started the day in the morning.

I really enjoyed the day in Shenyang. I didn’t expect much from Shenyang and didn’t get much in the end in terms of tourist sights. However, it was nice to be a stranger and wondering the city for a day. It was like an adventure. I took buses to every place. Sometimes I was lost and sometimes I was proud of myself finding ways to the destinations. I was completely dependent on my lonely planet. I was a complete stranger, but at the same time I was like just another local person; taking crowded buses, eating at the department store and so on.

From Ha’erbin to Tumen, from Tumen to Shenyang and Shenyang to Dandong, I wrote pretty much about everything I witnessed during the trip. Now I need to finish my journal of the winter trip. Quick statistics: I visited 4 cities and 3 provinces in 8 days. I took trains for 55 hours in total. I slept 3 nights on train out of 7 nights; it was rough. I spent almost 300 USD for the whole trip.






What are the differences between my winter trip and the summer one? Of course the biggest difference is the length of the trip. The winter trip was much shorter. I didn’t stay at hostels during the trip, so I made fewer friends than during the summer trip.

I was much more like a local during the winter trip than when I was travelling during the summer. I took a Chinese book and read on trains, thus, no local person doubted that I was one of them until I spoke a word. I was also very used to the train system in China, so didn’t get lost or anything. I knew what to expect. I was also more used to the bus system so I hardly used taxi. Sometimes I was proud of myself being more like a local, but I also realized I still need to work on my Chinese. If I spoke more than a sentence, local people realized I was a foreigner—some people thought I was a Korean minority. Many people thought my Chinese was too poor to be a local but too good to be a foreigner.

[At Beiling park]

What did I learn from this eight days-long winter trip? I achieved what I wanted to achieve. Planning this trip, I wanted to have alone time and wanted to think about the unification of two Koreas. I also saw beautiful ice sculptures in Ha’erbin. To tell the truth, I was sick of travelling when I was on the trip. I was tired of crowded buses, uncomfortable train seats, and freezing weather. I wanted to give up sometimes. I wanted to forget everything and just go back to Beijing and rest.

However, ending this journal, I don’t regret anything—the trip was fun and meaningful like any other trip in my life. Although I had fun during the winter trip, I don’t think I am going to have another trip in China. For the moment, I am tired of travelling—I think I said this after the summer trip too. I am sure you guys are also tired of reading my travel journals.

The trip is over. The journal about that trip is also over. However, my journey isn’t over yet. I am going back to China in a week. I will try to write one entry about Korea and the rest of my winter break before I leave here. I honestly don’t want to go back to China.

[Back to Beijing]