Travel
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Living in/travelling to Beijing
Can anyone give me information or advice on living in Beijing, China?
DH and I might have an opportunity there and I would like some info from people who have been, even just on vacation.
What attractions would you recommend?
How friendly are the locals?
How difficult is it to get around using public tranpo?
Did you find that most people spoke English?
Has anyone gone through the process of learning Mandarin or Cantonese?
**I also posted on the Internation Nesties board but everyone seems to have jumped ship over to Proboards.
Re: Living in/travelling to Beijing
Here's a blog by someone that used to be on the Nest that lived there in 2010:
http://notjustanotherblondeinbeijing.blogspot.ca/
What attractions would you recommend?
http://www.tripadvisor.com/GoListDetail-i17565-An_Unofficial_Travel_Guide_to_Beijing.html
How friendly are the locals?
Do you speak Mandarin? If not, then it's kind of a moot point because you really can't communicate much. They don't hate foreigners, if that's what you're asking. But I wouldn't expect to make too many local friends. You'll be living in a different socio-economic bracket than most of the locals, and you'll probably have an easier time meeting ex-pats, considering the well-developed ex-pat community. If you count old China hands as locals, they're a mixed bag. Some can be a bit aloof and skeptical of newcomers, but others are friendly and helpful. Especially when you have common interests.
How difficult is it to get around using public tranpo?
Much better since the Olympics I've heard. Unless you're considering living in the gated suburb communities, in which case you'll probably need a car (and potentially a driver). Within 4th ring, public transportation will cover you pretty well, and taxis are cheap.
Did you find that most people spoke English?
Our company's corporate language is English, so all of my colleagues spoke English as part of the job prerequisites. Outside of work, no. People in the ex-pat-targeted markets speak a bit, but most taxi drivers spoke none, and the people working in the local restaurants and shops didn't speak any. I found that drawing pictures was a pretty good solution when all else failed.
Has anyone gone through the process of learning Mandarin or Cantonese?
The company gave us the Pimsleur CDs to self-study, which helped because I could try my best to match their pronunciation, and it taught me the all important art of asking for a bottle of beer. Once we got to Beijing we had an hour each week of private tutoring. We were working through a text book, but I found it most helpful to start each session with a targeted discussion of words we needed to know during daily life (e.g. "Turn left at the next traffic light" or "Please use more pressure on my shoulders. They are very tense."). My Mandarin always sucked, but at least I could get my point across most of the time, and a lot of people were eager to try to understand since there was no other option to communicate. I had an easier time with the written language than a lot of people, because I have a Japanese minor. Even though I'm unfamiliar with the simplified characters, there are similarities, and I knew the basics of stroke counts and stroke orders already.
So why don't you ask over there?In Beijing you will have practically zero need for Cantonese. I took Mandarin lessons before I moved, but my pronunciation for ???????apparently sounded more like ???????to all of my Chinese colleagues.
And bring lots of deodorant.
I can't believe it's been 7 years since I first moved there, but if you're interested, here are my blog posts from the beginning of my stint in BJ:
http://blog.megdesk.com/category/china/page/6/
I've visited.
Attractions - the usual tourist ones, and also spend some time in the hutongs, ie the little authentic chinese alleyways.
Locals - if you can't speak chinese you might be in trouble. also if you have certain medical issues you might want to find out about valid reputable doctors there. a lot of traiditonal chinese medicine is practiced but if you dont understand or cant communicate then its difficult.