Chaozhou, Guangdong

Apologies for not posting very much these days but I've been very busy with exams and my YARP (Year Abroad Research Project). This is something I have to do for University of Southampton and counts for a seventh of my degree. I have to write 6,000 words in English and 2,000 Chinese characters as well as do my own research so it has been quite time consuming!

A couple of weekends ago we had a long weekend for Tomb Sweeping Holiday. This seemed the perfect opportunity to get out of Xiamen and visit somewhere new. We left it quite late to book tickets and were running low on money so decided to go to Chaozhou in Guangdong province, just three and a half hours away by bus. The bus cost 86元 from the Xiamen University booking office and we got the bus from HuBin Nan station in the middle of the island.

Unfortunately our journey and arrival didn't go too smoothly. After rushing down there from Xiang'an campus for our 2pm bus, we found out that it had been delayed and we would be leaving at 15:10 instead. We sat in the station playing minesweeper on my laptop to kill the time! Once we were on the bus, the journey itself went smoothly. As we neared our destination, I checked to see if my internet was still working on my phone by opening up my email as I'd never taken it to another province before. I then saw that we had an email from Ctrip saying that we needed to call them urgently about our booking which we'd made the night before. It turned out that the hotel we'd booked at couldn't accept foreigners or people from Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macau so we needed somewhere else to stay. After Alex's long conversation with them on the phone, offering us Ctrip coupons to pay the difference of a new hotel they'd found, we decided to get some food while they sorted out the new booking for us. We went to a Chaozhou cuisine restaurant and asked the waitress what she recommended...

BIG MISTAKE. We ended up with Chaozhou fried rice which was ok, but also an oyster omelette. I had food poisoning from the next morning, throughout our entire stay, return to Xiamen and for another day once we were back. 5 days in total! We ended up spending the majority of our time in our hotel room which stank of smoke as it was a "Business Hotel" i.e. where businessmen go to smoke and have fun with prostitutes! Thankfully there was a Macau film channel on the TV with the films all in English with Chinese subtitles which gave us something to do.

Anyway, after the restaurant we decided to walk the 3km to our new hotel (because we disagreed to pay a higher price for a new hotel we got one that was a long way out). The walk wasn't all that interesting as it was just a long, straight road with shops, businesses and restaurants either side. When we finally reached the hotel, the receptionist was very glad we could speak some Chinese as she'd been worrying about trying to speak English with us!

Because of my food poisoning, we only made it out to do some sightseeing on the Sunday. We got a tuk-tuk from outside our hotel to Guangji Bridge which seemed to be Chaozhou's main sight according to our online research. Towards the very end of the journey, we came across a very narrow gap before a bit of road they were doing some work on. Our driver went through the gap and onto this bit of road before the tuk-tuk got stuck and the door fell off leading to us getting out and Alex helping the guy push it. 不好意思 for the driver!

Tuk-tuk

Chaotic section of road

We got to the bridge and decided to get our picture taken by a professional photographer. As we were standing together, she told me to put my hand on my hip to look 很漂亮 (very beautiful) and her colleague edited the photo to make us whiter, the bridge darker and the sky blue.

After this we went in search of food as we hadn't eaten yet that day. I only fancied plain boiled rice as didn't think my stomach could handle that much more but that proved difficult to find. Who would have thought that finding a bowl of rice in China would be difficult? We ended up in a fast-food place a bit like KFC.

Then it was time to go on the bridge itself. Guangji Bridge is one of China's four ancient bridges. It costs 50元 to cross the bridge, 25元 for students, but it is well worth the money. I've never seen a bridge like it! It had so many different sections, the most interesting of which was the middle which was made up of boats. These boats get taken away at the end of the day to allow traffic through and we were lucky enough to be on the bridge at the time this operation was happening when we were on our way back.

On the bridge

Bridge made of boats

Taking pictures with the funny white man

Hand on hip!

Guangji Bridge

On the other side of the bridge we went to a temple built on a steep hill with lots of steps leading up to it. Unfortunately by this point I was feeling really rotten and ended up throwing up so didn't enjoy it too much!

Lots of steps

Alex inside the temple

 Overall it wasn't the best of trips but I wouldn't disuade people from going there. If you do, just avoid the seafood...

So much to organise!

As with studying abroad in any foreign country, there's been plenty for me to organise here. As soon as I arrived I was taken to registration where I seemed to have to complete and sign a lot of forms, queue up for various desks, get given various documents and photocopy my passport photo page and visa page, all whilst feeling utterly exhausted and disgusting after a long journey and struggling to understand Chinese having not done anything since my exam in June. The first desk I went to was where I got my e-card. Xiamen University has a system in which every student has a card they can put money on to pay for food in the canteen, buying things in the shops and having a hot shower (we have to put the card in a machine before the shower, take it out while showering, and then put it back in so that it charges us for the amount of hot water we use). They'd somehow managed to put the wrong name on my card which caused some confusion! Instead of POSFORD I have POCINKA on my card, it's my student number though. At first I thought they'd just completely spelt my name wrong but I have since found out that this person does actually exist and that they are also a scholarship student. Maybe they have my name on their card? Maybe it would have been better if I'd given them my Chinese name but I like to change them and am now on my third one. At another desk I was given a passport-like student card which seems to be how they do them in China, my one in Nanjing last summer was similar.

POCINKA e-card and front of student card

Front of e-card with picture of the main campus (even though we're on the new one) and inside of my student card

After that I was finally allowed to go to my room, I already mentioned in a previous post how I found out who my roommate was! I was so tired that it didn't matter that there weren't any sheets on the bed or that I had to have a cold shower as I didn't have any money on my card yet, I slept soundly lying on my towel and using a hoodie as a pillow on top of my mattress still wrapped in plastic! The next day I bought sheets, a pillow and towels from the 超市（supermarket) though, you can get most of the basics there which is handy as it's on campus. I've also bought a bike (picture to follow) for about £35 including lock and basket. This campus is so big that it's almost necessary to have a bike to get around! I also got my phone and phone/internet contract that day (see last post).

Before that I got the shuttle bus to Bank of China to set up my Chinese bank account which is connected to the e-card and is the account into which my scholarship will be paid so is very important! To set it up I had to have a Chinese phone number which I got for free at the bank before I even had a Chinese phone or contract. Setting the account up was fairly easy as in China you just fill in a form and they give you the card the same day. Seeing as I'm a scholarship student I didn't bother putting much money into the account, just £2.50 which is the minimum, but am having to put more and more into it for my e-card as scholarship money's not coming through until mid October. I looked into transferring money into it from my HSBC account but they won't transfer to China. I suppose I'll just have to get a load of cash out of that and put it into my Bank of China account.

Last Tuesday I had to go to the Xiamen Quarantine Bureau to get my health examination done. This is one of the requirements for obtaining the residence visa to stay in China for more than 6 months. I had tried to get this done in the UK but doing it here turned out much easier, simpler and cheaper. We got on a bus from campus to the hospital where we had to fill in a form and provide three photos before a series of tests: blood (HIV and Syphilis), urine, blood pressure, eyesight, ECG, ultra-sound (even for males) and chest x-ray. Hilary (my room mate) and I made sure we filled the forms in quickly and were the first to go through. She'd managed to get someone to write all the different room numbers down which was really useful. The whole process probably took about an hour and then we were free to eat! We hadn't been allowed to eat anything that morning or after 9pm the night before so were quite hungry. We went to the first restaurant we could find despite the health warning on the wall! All restaurants in Xiamen have to display their hygiene rating A, B or C. So far the best I've eaten at is a B and apparently As are quite rare! I picked up my health certificate from an office in the Overseas Education College on Monday and was happy to find out that I didn't have any horrible diseases!

That guy does not look too happy but we thought the food was tasty!

My health certificate with a load of information about me including blood type, height, weight and results of all the tests

This morning I went to apply for my residence permit. A bus left from campus at 8:30am to take us to the police station. We had to bring our passport, copies of passport, visa and admission notice, health forms, accommodation form and JW202 visa form. When we arrived we were led to a room where we had to have our picture taken. They had lots of rules about how the photo should be. People with long hair had to tie it up so that the whole face could be seen, they had a box of elastic bands on the table in case people needed them, and if you were wearing a white t-shirt you had to put on a rather stylish dark purple and black striped men's shirt. After that the photographer put a sticker on our residence permit form and we had to queue up to hand all the documents in along with our passports. Residence permits take 2-3 weeks to process so I'll have to wait a while to get my passport back along with permit to stay in the country. 

I think I'm pretty much up-to-date on everything I need to do now so am quite proud of myself. Looking forward to settling into a normal routine!

ADVICE FOR ANYONE GOING TO STUDY IN CHINA: Bring plenty of passport photos with you, they seem to want them for everything. I've used 7 so far!

China preparations: Travel vaccinations and airport pickup

After getting nowhere with getting my health check done in the UK, I decided that, after being made to re-register at the GP I was at for 10 years before Southampton, I may as well look into getting some travel vaccines done. Although I've travelled to China before, I've never bothered with any vaccinations. The Confucius Institute suggested we got them done before the trip at Easter but as everything was so last-minute, there simply wasn't time. 

I filled in a travel form stating where it was I was going and how long for and handed it to the receptionist. She told me that the nurse would look at the form, work out which jabs I needed and that they would phone me to organise and appointment for the travel clinic which takes place every Friday. I waited and waited but never received a phonecall, I realised this on the Friday before we were going to France and knew that I'd need to ring up and enquire to see if I could get an appointment for the Friday when we were back as it was the only Friday I was available due to leaving on Friday the 13th! I spoke to a receptionist on the phone and agreed on an appointment time for Friday 6th. She told me that I would need Hepatitis A (free on the NHS), Hepatitis B (£37.50) and Malaria tablets (she didn't know how much they would cost).

I went off to France and didn't think much more about it until my return. I drove to Marple Bridge for my appointment (I've got car insurance on one of my parents' cars for a week which means I've turned into my brothers' taxi service!) and went straight through to the nurse's room. She asked me if I'd had any travel vaccinations before to which I responded that I didn't think so and I certainly hadn't had any in the last few years. She then turned to her computer and was surprised to see that there were absolutely no records about me on the system! She thought it was particularly strange seeing how long I'd been there before but she simply didn't have any information. The nurse told me that she simply couldn't administer any vaccinations without my records and asked for details of my previous GP, the University Health Service in Southampton, so that she would be able to phone them and get the information she required. Seems like my records have got lost somewhere between the two! 

We then chatted for a bit about what vaccinations I would actually need. Recommended for all travellers to China is Hepatitis A. Other vaccines are offered to higher risk people (I come under that heading as I'm going to be there for a long period of time) include Hepatitis B, Typhoid and Malaria tablets. We decided that if I were to have any of those it would be Hepatitis B as the risk of Typhoid and Malaria is considerably lower as well as there being a shortage of the Typhoid vaccine. However, Hepatitis B is a course of three injections, £37.50 per injection, and it wouldn't be possible for me to get it done with the limited time I have before I leave. The conclusion of our discussion was that if she could get hold of Southampton and find out about my details, she would give me the Hepatitis A vaccine later that day.

I went off to pick my brother up from school and phoned the GP when I got home to see if the nurse had left a message for me as she said she was going to do. The receptionist I spoke to this time told me that she'd managed to speak to University Health Service and that the vaccine was going ahead. I brought Ethan with me in the car as there wouldn't be time to return home before taking him to his swimming lesson, and went back to the GP. Ethan wandered around Marple Bridge and sat around in the waiting area while I had it done. The nurse asked me if I was ok with needles and wasn't going to faint on her (yes, don't worry) and the injection went smoothly. She then gave me an information sheet about the vaccine and asked that I waited 10-15 minutes before leaving the surgery. The sheet gave information about the virus, the vaccine and the side effects that are "relatively uncommon" and "last no more than a day or two". It seems that I am unlucky as on Friday my arm was hurting and I felt a bit queasy. Now the queasiness had gone but the pain's still there! Hopefully it'll go soon. If I get a booster in 12 months time it'll last for 20 years so it's probably worth having. My mum got out my baby book with my baby vaccinations in later that evening and we found out that I'd had Hepatitis B as a baby in Hong Kong so maybe I'll still have some protection from it anyway?

On Wednesday I emailed Xiamen University to request airport pickup, following my mum's advice. After three flights and waiting around inbetween, I probably will be very tired and not wishing to deal with a taxi driver who could potentially not understand me, take me to the wrong place, charge me extra or just refuse to take me to the new campus as it's not in the main town. When I went to Nanjing last summer we weren't offered a similar service so it was a good thing I'd got someone on the plane to write the address out in Chinese characters for me and had plenty of money for a taxi. The taxi driver chatted away in Chinese for most of the hour-long journey and at the time my level of Chinese was so basic that I didn't even know how to say "I don't understand!". He seemed to give me a bit of a tour of Nanjing before taking me to the university hotel as well, the taxi I got to the airport on the way back was quite significantly cheaper! I filled in a form stating my name and flight details and attached it to an email, immediately receiving an automated response that it would be replied to within 3 working days. Thankfully I got a response and the driver should be waiting for me when I arrive on Saturday.

It still hasn't quite sunk in that this is happening, this time next week I'll have been there for more than 24 hours!

China preparations: Foreigner health examination

I'd known for some time that I would have to have a series of tests done in order to gain my residence permit in my first 30 days of entering China. Any foreigner there for more than a few months needs to get this, it's like a kind of visa, and the health test is compulsory, whether you do it in your home country or once you arrive in China.

Last summer, when taking part in the Nanjing summer programme, I remember Elliott, a student starting his year abroad, having to go to and from the hospital for these various tests without much of an idea what was going on. I decided that I didn't really like the idea of that and would try to get them done in the UK where I trust the health system a bit more and can understand the language! My friend Izzy had had to do it to even apply for her scholarship (different scholarship to mine) and it had cost her £230 which didn't seem too bad considering what the test involves. She did it back in Southampton and it had taken about 3 weeks to get all the tests done and receive the results. 

As part of the information I got from Xiamen University through the post, I needed to either get the tests done in the UK by printing off the "PHYSICAL EXAMNATION RECORD FOR FORERGNER" form, getting it all filled in and bringing it along to the registration as well as the test reports to submit. However, there would still be a 60RMB (roughly £6) charge for verifying the records. Knowing that Izzy had done it all through her GP in Southampton, I went along to my local GP on Thursday morning to enquire. 

I had no idea how hard it would be. Firstly, I was no longer registered there as I was registered in Southampton instead, so I would have to re-register and wait for at least 2 weeks for my records to come through so that they could fill in some of the parts of the form. I agreed and filled in the forms, alcohol questionnaire and all, to register again at the GP I'd been going to since the age of 8. The receptionists wanted to ask the doctors about what to do with the form so I left it with them. 

My form probably provided the entertainment for the day! It's a two-page grid in English and Chinese requiring basic information such as name, sex, date of birth, address, nationality etc. along with a photo. It wants to know your blood type, height, weight and blood pressure which all seems fair enough. However, it goes on to ask if you've had any of a list of diseases including typhus fever, poliomyelitis and typhoid and paratyphoid fever as well as eight others, the majority of which I've never heard of. The next question is similar to do with "disease or disorders endangering the public order and security". This list include toxicomania, mental confusion and three forms of psychosis: manic, paranoid and hallucinatory. Then comes a series of boxes with one word in them: development, nourishment, neck, vision, corrected vision, eyes, ears, nose,... etc. Not really sure what the doctor's supposed to put in those, would a simple "OK" do? The next page is for the tests including chest x-ray, ECG and blood tests for HIV and syphilis. Finally the doctor needs to sign to say that cholera, yellow fever, plague, leprosy, AIDS, psychosis, venereal disease and opening lung tuberculosis were not found during the examination. Seems very thorough considering I'm not going to be there that long!

Anyway, I got a phonecall back from the receptionist later in the day to tell me what the doctors had said. Bad news. Apparently they would be able to fill in about half of the form (once the records from Southampton had been transferred) but that I would have to get the x-ray, ECG and blood tests privately, they couldn't refer me for it like Izzy's GP had done. I looked into getting it done at a local private hospital but it would have cost about £600 so really wasn't worth it! I told the receptionist on the phone about how my friend had got it done in Southampton and she genuinely suggested to me that I go down there to get it done. Ridiculous. 

It seems now that my only real option is to get it done once I arrive in China. From the information Xiamen have given me, it looks fairly organised. It's going to cost 550RMB (about £57) to get it done over there at the Entry-exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau. I will have to go along on the 17th September with my passport, 4 photos (what is their obsession with photos? I already have to take 10 to the registration and they're going to take another one of me for my e-card) and the money. I'm not allowed to eat or drink anything before in the morning before the blood test. 

Hopefully everything will be fine, it does sound quite organised! It would have been nice to get it done and out of the way before I went though.

Here are some photos of what I hoped would be my only visit to a Chinese hospital in Nanjing last summer. Taken by my friend, Jean. 

Hospital toilets, nice and hygienic!

Room we waited in while my friend has a CT scan

It's a long story...