LTL Beihai

I stayed for 6 weeks in Beihai starting around HSK2-3.

About Beihai:
In January is the quietest period, the weather can get cold and stormy, with intermittent warm sunny days. The city is around 1 million people, with various small towns and old streets glued together with high rise districts. The food here is not spicy, with heavy seafood influences, although you can also find northern cuisines as well as some western restaurants.

The high speed train to nanning makes travelling around guangxi and further very convenient, and we were able to take sleeper trains from there all the way to Chongqing for a weekend able to be back in class by Monday morning.

The School:
The location is a little strange, at the top floor of a shopping centre, although that made it very convenient place to get coffee or food afterwards, and it is very central. Yang's teaching is very consistent, and she helped iron out the flaws in my mostly self taught chinese. When I arrived my vocabulary was reasonable but my grammar, listening and speaking were all quite awful. Within a few weeks I felt i had improved markedly, which made day to day life easier haha.

Savannah is the school coordinator, and she organised weekly+ events and hangouts with both locals and other students. Some of my favourite moments of my time in China were when we travelled to nearby towns for a local bbq or festival that I would never have found out about alone. It was moments like those that kept me engaged and wanting to learn the language.