Beijing 2007-2008

First 18 years of my life:

- I was born in Hangzhou, a wonderful city located at Zhejiang Province, southeast of China. I am the only child of the family and I always feel blessed to have such loving parents. Hangzhou is only one hour and half drive from Shanghai, unlike the people in Shanghai, Hangzhou locals are less snobbish and more hospitable. The city has its famous westlake and mountains around it, great food and pretty girls(wink wink). I spent the first 18 years of my life in Hangzhou, went through 6 years of primary school at Wensan primary school and 6 years at Xue Jun highschool. I wasnt a nerd even tho all the schools I attended back home are the top ones in my province. I recall the time back then, inevitablely, I was part of the Chinese education system's students pipelining, trying hard to meet the "good student AAA" standard, but I knew that was just temporary. It will come to an end.

2002-2006:

-Finally I graduated from highschool and went throught the nightmareish Chinese uni entrance exam, the only chance Chinese students have to be able to go to an ideal university regardless of your average performance in the past 18 years in school. The exam was held on June 7,8 and 9. Those black labelled dates. urgggg..Most of my highschool classmates did well enough to go to any school in China, but most of them decided to stay in Hangzhou. I was one of the 8 or 9 went to another city and the Beijing is the second furthest to Hangzhou among those cities.

-Haha, four years in Beijing, what a long story. I was a good student, not in a traditional sense. I didnt miss some courses once but some I only attended the first and the last, those courses dont really worth attending anyway, such as boring "Three representatives" course teaches you the annual updated party chapters. It is all about note and memorization. In junior year, I was "corrupted" by a bunch of foreign exchange students in my uni and got to know bar/party culture. In senior year, I worked as a freelance tourguide and got to know some travelling families. It was wonderful experiences getting to know people from another country and I became fancinated about travelling.

-I decided to go to grad school in another country. University of British Columbia jounalism school accepted me. I chose journalism partly because of the wide travel journalists are able to do, also because I like writing, talking to people and the sense of justice I think I can bring to my world.

-Before I went to Canada, I did my first travel abroad, a 5 week long back packing west europe trip. It was a surprise for my parents, even for my self. As a Chinese citizen, single girl with no job and little money. People like me wouldnt even bother to apply the visa to Europe because it is doomed to fail, sadly. I went to Shanghai embassy 5 times, handed in all the documents that the check list asked me to prepare, bank account balance, friend invitation, parents' infomation, my degree certification, insurance, flight tickets..ect..Then they informed me there were still some doc I needed to prepare that was not on the check list. I mean what the f%#..then why did you call that a check list?..anyway..after 5 times, they accepted my application, and all I needed to do was waiting.

-and...I got the visa, the visa to Canada really helped, I mean, C'mon, if Canada accepted me, why would Spain refuse? So I booked the flight ticket at the last minute, bought the europass, got my student card.

-I got to know couchsurfing at the first time. I thought it was a new sports when I first heard it. I was looking for a travel buddy on lonely planet forum and someone replied and asked if I new this CS thing. Our plans didnt match but I really thank..hmm..Steve for this great information. I signed up immediately and got replies from 10 cities that I planned to go. All together 14 hosts, guys and girls, they are who made my trip amazing. (Italy, Germany, Spain and France)

2006-2007:
-Vancouver, school was ok, it sucked in fall and winter in van anyway, on winter vacation, I went to east Canada with one of my Chinese classmates Annie, someone became my best friend in Van, we couchsurfed again, I totally converted her to be a crazy fan for cs as well. We watched hockey in a bar with some white dudes, we ate salmon and drank wine at some French Canadian's house, we hitchhiked on transcanada highway while it was snowing like crazy and got some pity rides pretty fast, we had real poutine, we went to Christmas eve mass in a big church..good times..

2007 summer:
-Rockies mountain trip, I went to the rockies with Greg, a friend of mine who I first met on couchsurfing and became friends. He visited me again in vancouver and we went on this trip together, Tofino first, then rent a car to Banff, Jasper and Yoho. We did back country hiking and camping, met deers and mooses, saw the columbia glacier. Being in nature purified me.

2007-2008:
-I decided to take a year off UBC j school and came back to China. I got an internship at the UNDP China office as a communcation assistant. It has been almost three months since I first started. My supervisor Miss Zhang is a wonderful woman, met a few nice people to hang out all the time, like Seb. We had a big plan for 2008 in the undp office and I am learning everyday about campaign and practice my basic news writing skills. I went to Chengdu with Ryan during christmas and climbed the Mt.Emei which is over 3800 meters.

It is only 3 weeks before Chinese new year, I will go back home for the first time in the past two years, it kinda feels like a trip for me but I know something wont change along the time, and I will keep it posted and share it every one.