It’s 04:45 in the morning, the 19th of February. I just endured my first international flight – 10.5 hours direct from Australia to Beijing. I’m exhausted, hungry, but most importantly, extremely excited. My first adventure is about to begin.

~this post is long, feel free to skip my ramblings to look at the pretty pictures~

The Arrival

The flight from Brisbane to Beijing was long. I had two spare seats beside me, a little TV, and a healthy supply of food. Alas, a small child slept on the seats beside me, I could only figure out how to watch one strange, random movie, and the food was served just as I was finally falling asleep. Ah, first world problems. Gotta love them. But, a lovely fellow intern was on the plane with me. I didn’t have to endure these minuscule problems alone. So, not all hope was lost.

When the plane finally descended towards the ground, my butt was numb and I was keen for some fresh air. Outside, Beijing was dark, speckled with fluorescent lights. It was 04:45 in the morning, and I had just travelled from a gruelling Australian Summer. Can you imagine my disorientation when the doors opened and I was plunged into a chilling negative degree winter? Mate, it was a shock to the system. Not a bad shock, but a muchly welcomed change. I could now say hello to winter jackets and knee-high boots! Look, it’s the small things that matter.

Anyway, we sought our bags, sorted out our Visas, found the WiFi password, and set up camp in a small Starbucks while we waited for other interns to arrive. Unbeknown to us, another intern was sitting directly across from us. But, due to exhaustion and excitement, it took us all an embarrassing amount of time to realise it. When we finally realised, we shared our Australian snacks and had a little early morning picnic in the Beijing Airport. Arnott’s biscuits by the early morning fog of Beijing through the windows. No better way to start our China journey.

One by one, other interns arrived. People from the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, America, and South Africa. Stories of burning boats, city bikes being thrown in rivers, and teaching in Kyrgyzstan were discussed. After a while, a whole army of interns from all over the world had assembled in Starbucks. And who had assembled us? The lovely Immerqi team. I’ll write a blog about them later – their in-country support has been amazing!

For the Immerqi team, the day would be divided into three sections of arrivals – morning, midday, afternoon. We were the first section. With the arrival of everyone expected for the first section of the day, we set off for the Training Centre. Everyone’s bags were loaded into a bus, and we boarded the vehicle with no idea as to where we were headed. Through Beijing we dove, a bus full of varied ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds. We couldn’t be more excited.

We drove past bare trees jutting from the ground like skeleton arms. The early morning sky was grey, and the bus windows were frosted over. Everyone was in high spirits, the exhaustion of the plane trips seemingly washed away by the excitement of the day. It was between 08:00 and 09:00 when we finally arrived at the training centre.

The Training Centre

Two giant looming buildings stretched into the sky. A tall fence surrounded the complex. Locals zoomed past on scooters, motorbikes, and in mini cars and tuk tuks. We gathered our belongings from the bus and headed inside. A brief overview of our stay in the complex was discussed, and we were handed welcome bags filled with a map, mandarin guides, pens, and example contracts. We received our room keys and name tags, and headed to our rooms for the week. The dorm rooms had two areas – the bedroom, and the en suite. There was an enormous window overlooking the city, two single beds positioned against a wall, a long desk, and a heater. They were very cosy. Although, learning that toilet paper was not to be flushed, and that our shower regularly flooded the bathroom, was a bit of a shock. My roommate had yet to arrive so, I threw my stuff down, claimed my bed, and headed out to find my friends.

We quickly established our favourite shop in the area – 7-eleven.

Ah, good ol’ 7-eleven. Bored? 7-eleven. Hungry? 7-eleven. Cold? 7-eleven. It was our saviour during that first day, a sign of familiarity amidst a sea of new sights.

As the first day was arrival day, we had no set agenda to follow. We roamed the area surrounding the training centre, tasted the cafeteria meals provided, and explored the training centre itself while other interns continued arriving. The training centre was enormous, filled with classrooms, bathrooms, music rooms, and rooms with seemingly zero purpose. After us interns departed from the training centre, it would be filled with hundreds of boarding students. With no students and less than one-hundred interns living in the training centre during that week, several corridors looked like something out of a horror film. Eerily quiet, dark, and with ominous dripping echoing off the walls. We heard stories of drop-toilets filled with spiders, there were random hospital screens here and there, and every now and again you would find a random woman washing her clothes in the shared bathrooms. There was also a ‘forbidden’ floor that was seemingly unreachable. However, we managed to reach it.

From the outside of the building, two roof gardens are visible. It took us a few days, and a few sessions roaming the ‘forbidden’ floor, but we figured out how to access the gardens.

Step 1. Access the ‘forbidden’ floor.

Step 2. Find an ominous red-rimmed window.

Step 3. Untie the wire binding the window shut.

Step 4. Climb through the window and land on the roof garden.

Voila! No, I did not break into the roof garden. But I know someone who did, and therefore that makes me an expert on the topic. And it wasn’t illegal, just a tad out of reach for most people. Moving along…

We ate cafeteria food for dinner, meeting more interns while quickly trying to adapt our taste buds to Chinese cuisine, then headed to bed. The cafeteria meals were actually pretty good – meat, veggies, noodles, and rice. It was a good introduction to traditional Chinese cuisine.

I met my roommate that afternoon and, both exhausted, we fell asleep almost immediately.

The next day, we had a group briefing about the program, explored the surrounding areas, and went out for dinner with everyone. We visited our first Chinese McDonald’s – I had a matcha frappe (pretty good) and we explored some adorable stores.

Dinner was amazing – Peking duck, noodles, rice, and various other delicious dishes. I quickly learnt how to use chopsticks. Actually, that’s a lie. It took me a few nights to learn how to use chopsticks correctly because I was absolutely terrible. Now, you could almost say I’m average. Almost.

When dinner was over, most of the interns headed out for some karaoke. And it was the best thing ever.

The Karaoke Bar

There were about sixty/seventy interns that headed out to karaoke that night. We rocked up to a dingey looking store, and lined up out onto the street. Once inside, we took an elevator down. And when the doors opened… it was as if we had stepped into a whole other world. The walls were plated with gold, mirrors, and sparking jewels. Crystal chandeliers were suspended from the ceiling. Plush carpet lined the hallway to the karaoke rooms. 

We divided into two rooms and, after initially glancing awkwardly at each other, people began to sing. At some point, the microphone got shoved towards me. So, my roommate and I belted ABBA together. The whole night, everyone sung together, laughed together, took photos together, and got to know each other. And I discovered my love for karaoke. Yeah, it’s always the terrible singers that love karaoke. #sorrynotsorry

The rest of the week included trips into the city, Thai Chi lessons beside a frozen lake, calligraphy classes, a visit to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, a climb up the Great Wall, an expedition to a few of the Beijing Olympics sites – the Bird’s nest, and lunch at some spectacular restaurants.

Thai Chi

We woke up, ate breakfast, then braved the piercing cold for some Thai Chi lessons. The journey to reach the site of our lesson included walking through medieval styled buildings, beautiful shrubbery, and past a magnificent frozen lake. The frozen lake would be our backdrop for the occasion. Rugged up in gloves, beanies, thick coats, and boots, we met our Thai Chi instructor – a lovely elder Chinese gentleman who had been practising the art for years. He moved with effortless grace, each movement deliberate and powerful. Meanwhile, we all looked like bumbling circus acts.

The morning was beautiful, and learning Thai Chi was one of the highlights of the week. Once Thai Chi finished, we headed inside for some calligraphy lessons.

Calligraphy 

Seated in rows of desks like tiny school children, we were each given multiple white sheets of paper, a red piece of paper, black ink and a calligraphy brush. Our instructor demonstrated how to write the symbol for ‘luck’ on the blackboard, and we all attempted to mimic his technique. There were a few failures, multiple successes, IBM spilt on the floor, ink spilt on paper, and a whole lot of laughs. As the calligraphy lessons were during the Chinese New Year celebrations, many houses in the area donned the symbol for fortune on their doors, and we were encouraged to the same if we wished. One group photo later, and our calligraphy lesson was over.

The Forbidden City

We were supposed to have mandarin lessons. However, my group and I decided to explore the Forbidden City instead. And it was incredible.  Okay, so we didn’t get inside the main attraction because we didn’t know how to book tickets. However, we did explore the gardens. They were absolutely beautiful. There was a frozen lake (spotted a cheeky cat trotting across it), paths lacing through trees, flowers, boulders, trellises, and temples. People stopped to take photos with us, and we stopped to admire the view. The outside was beautiful, and I imagine that the inside was phenomenal.

Tiananmen Square

It was our third night in Beijing when we ventured into the heart of Beijing. We found ourselves bamboozled by groups begging for photos, people thrusting their phones in our faces, and eyes staring at us from all directions. Our original goal had been to explore the Night Markets. However, a few of us got lost, miscommunication was had, and fried scorpions were eaten. Unfortunately for me, I was a part of the group that got lost. Fortunately for you, you do not have to listen to me talking about eating fried scorpions. Yet. Anyway, once we escaped the herd of frenzied photo opportunists, we searched for Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen Square is a city square in the centre of Beijing. Known for the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989, the square holds a lot of history. We went at night when the square was quiet and alight with twinkling lights. It was peaceful and cold, an evening filled with recognition of the past.

The Great Wall of China

On our last official day together, our company took us to a section of the Great Wall that was absolutely stunning. Mountains stretched into the sky, ancient stone steps twisted up the mountainside, a clear sky overlooked the scenery. We had our walking shoes, warm coats, and beanies on. When we began the ascent up the mountain, puffs of chilled air were fogging the air. When we descended, the cold had no effect on any of us anymore.

The ascent up the hundreds of steps compiling the Great Wall was gruelling. Each step was a different height, and just when you thought you’d reached the end, you realised there were still three more flights to go. The view though, was incredible. Ancient stone structure, mountains, and a magnificent sky all rolled into one. It was extraordinary. And when we finally reached the top, nothing could compare to that moment of pride, joy, and relief.

A long trek, photographs with locals and friends, and some very saw legs later, we reached the bottom. A small cafe provided relief from the cold, and a few of us treated ourselves to some delicious hot chocolates. Seriously, they tasted amazing.

Lunch, Olympics, and a 

Frozen Lake.

For lunch, Immerqi took us out to this beautiful restaurant. Outside, there were acrobatics, motorised animal cars, and excited crowds. The food was delicious – whole fish, noodles, dumplings. After the meal, we headed outside and watched the show for a bit before continuing to the Bird’s Nest. It was enormous and beautiful. We were given ten minutes to explore the place before being loaded back into the bus and driven to our next location.

Our next destination was a beautiful walk through little shops and street food stalls surrounding a vast frozen lake. We ate toffee-coated strawberries. A strange sensation at first – crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, but they tasted amazing. We tested out our extremely basic mandarin skills on shop attendants, and walked away embarrassed when we couldn’t decipher what they were saying. And we watched excited children playing with kite contraptions on the walkway. It was wonderful.

At the end of the day, we took the bus back home, chatted for a while, then fell asleep, exhausted.

Saturday marked leaving day for the people heading North. We said our farewells, promising to meet up in the future.

A few of us braved the city and explored the Silk Market – basically a whole lot of fake brands being sold super cheap. It was cool. We ate pizza for dinner. I know, pizza in China? Why? I love pizza. And it was delicious, okay? I haven’t had pizza since.

After pizza, we took the subway back to the Training Centre and I crashed early. The next day we would take a ten-hour bullet train to Guangzhou. And after that, our teaching adventure would commence.