Study Abroad in Beijing, China

A Day in the Life of Rachael Freeman, IES Abroad Student in Beijing, China

Rachael Freeman studied abroad with IES Abroad in Beijing in the Fall of 2011. She is is from the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois and attended school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She majored in Molecular and Cellular Biology and enjoys crafting.

Morning: I would wake up at 6:30 to be on time for classes that started at 8:00 AM. I would get ready and grab some food from the kitchen in my home-stay and then walk about 1 block to wait at the bus. My host family didn't wake up as early as I did so I didn't usually see them in the morning. I waited for the bus usually for about 10-15 minutes and once I got on it was a 20 minute ride to school.

Rachael and some friends in Beijing, China

The ride wasn't far but traffic was usually pretty bad and it usually took longer than it should've. I could take 2 different buses and both dropped off right in front of the campus where my classes were. All of the morning classes were Chinese classes. Once in school we would begin at 8:00 and the first thing was to take a vocabulary quiz with about 25 other students. That lasted for about 15 minutes, after which the teacher would go over the important points of the day's lessons while choosing students at random to answer questions about the text. That lasted for about 35 minutes and after we would have a 15 minute break.

The next class would have only 6 students and one teacher who would review the grammar points and call on students at random to make example sentences. That class was 50 minutes long and after it we would have a 10 minute break. The next class was a group activity that usually involved writing a piece of text based on the vocab and grammar from the day's lesson. That also lasted 50 minutes. After that there would be a 5 minute break and classes would be reduced to 3 or fewer students for the discussion class. The teacher would ask each of the students complex questions to facilitate a discussion. That lasted 25 minutes. Chinese classes ended by 11:50.

Afternoon: I would walk across to the east side of campus to meet my Chinese tutor. She and I would usually just speak to each other in Chinese the same way I would with a friend in English. This really helped develop my conversation skills. We would meet for an hour and after I would return to the west side of campus and attend an "Area Studies" course. I took Chinese Government & Politics as well as Calligraphy. These classes would usually run from either 2:00-3:30 or from 3:00-5:00.

Evening: I would leave the campus around 5:00 PM and take the 20 minute bus ride home. I would hang out with my host dad and brother for about an hour until my host mom got home and we ate dinner. We usually ate around 7:00 and that lasted till 8:00. After dinner I would go to my room to study for the rest of the night.

Rachael and friends enjoying their time in Beijing

Highlights: The highlight was meeting my tutor, whose name was Cao Yanfei. She became one of my best friends and I still talk to her all the time. The highlight of my overall experience was the 2-week trip that IES arranged for us to take. We traveled all around the Northeast of China and I saw many things that I would not have seen if I was in China as a tourist. One example being an overnight stay in a traditional mongolian yurt on the grasslands. I also bonded really closely with the 2 accompanying teachers and the other students in my group.

Read more about the IES Abroad Program in Beijing

A Day in the Life of Alex Wiggins, a Student in Beijing with China Study Abroad

Alex is currently studying abroad with China Study Abroad (CSA) at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. He chose to go to Beijing to learn Chinese from scratch after finishing his undergraduate degree. His interest in the language and culture, along with the potential challenge and added benefits of knowing Mandarin for his future, made it an experience he could not pass up!

The first thing I noticed about Beijing was just how big it felt - there is a surprising amount of open space, many of the roads are 6-8 lanes wide and it's at least a 10 minute walk between blocks. This means that you'll probably need a bicycle to get around (thankfully CSA helped me to buy one before the school term started).

It's a typical school day in the Autumn Semester at Tsinghua University. Since I have afternoon classes, I can get up at around 8:30 to get ready before cycling to the CSA office in Wudaokou to meet my tutor. Driving on the streets of Beijing can best be described as 'creative', using the traffic lights as mere suggestions. However, I got the feel of it very quickly and there are separate cycle lanes on most of the roads so it's not really that dangerous. On route to the office I stop to buy a breakfast wrap from a street vendor - it's a bit like a Chinese style savory pancake and you can choose from the various fillings. It's a lot more appetizing than the stinky tofu on sale in the area...

During my private tutoring from 10:00 to 12:00, we review previous lessons, preview the lessons that will be covered in class later, and spend the rest of the time just talking in Mandarin. For lunch I go to one of the many Western cafés in Wudaokou. Then I brave the weather to cycle to the north-eastern part of Tsinghua for classes. The weather in Beijing is typically very dry, but it does get cold and windy with the occasional sandstorm in the winter. I have two classes each day (13:00-14:40 and 15:00-16:40), with a short break mid-class as well as the longer break between classes, where I go to the supermarket in the basement to buy some snacks. After class a few of my classmates and I go together to one of Tsinghua's many (Chinese) cafeterias, and I have a chicken dish, some dumplings and some mantou (Chinese steamed bread) as an early dinner.

Then it's my final short cycle-ride of the day back to my apartment to try to get my homework done - it typically takes an hour or two to do properly and consolidate the work from classes. After enough studying, I head out back to Wudaokou to meet other CSA students and enjoy the rest of the evening. Since it's a Wednesday, there's a pub quiz at the 24-hour bar-restaurant on the corner where we head first, while having a few drinks and pub food. After the quiz (which we fail to do well enough to win any prizes), we have a couple more drinks before heading to one of the local clubs. There is a very international feel to these clubs since there is really nothing Chinese about them except for the people inside. That, and you are allowed to smoke inside. By around 2am it's starting to quiet down so we call it a night, but not before getting some street food (imagine a barbecue with tasty meat skewers, set up in the open on the side of the road, with the smell being carried in the smoke of the open flames). Getting home by around 2:30, there's time for 6 hours of sleep before doing it all again tomorrow.

My semester in Beijing was very enjoyable but also surprisingly busy, with maybe even less free time than I had at university. I've learnt a lot of Chinese and met people from all over the world. I would go back to Beijing but now that I've learnt some Chinese I would try to interact more with locals, particularly with those who don't speak (much) English, to help further my Mandarin and learn more about Chinese culture.

Read more about the China Study Abroad Program at Tsinghua University