(upbeat instrumental music)
- Hey guys, it's Courtney.
I'm teaching here in Beijing, China and I'm gonna be taking
you all along with me today.
I'm gonna show you one of my favorite spots in Beijing
and take you to my job and maybe take you out tonight
for one of my friend's art show.
So, Beijing has decided to bless us with
beautiful weather today.
The sun is shining and it's not super, super hot
and the air quality is actually really good.
I'm just walking to the subway, I live in a residential area
right on line A which also just happens to be
on the same line the Olympic park is on and it's really cool
because from my subway stop you can actually see
the Olympic towers from the 2008 Olympics.
So I'm gonna show you guys a video of that.
Whoa!
The subways are super handy, they are everywhere
and you can use your phone for your metro card.
You can just upload it to that and you can top up on it.
So I'm gonna hop on right now and I'll show you guys more
when I get in there.
So, here's the subway map.
I live here at Andelibeijie and we're gonna go here
to Shichahai and if you go down this way, this is where all
the Olympic stuff is from the 2008 Olympic.
Beijing subways are actually really nicely done.
There's usually only one platform and you just go
to either side and you can decide which side to go on,
there's lots of signs and they do have it in
the like English version and in the Chinese.
So the subways are also really cheap.
It costs about three or four kuai
no matter how long your journey is.
And three or four kuai is equivalent to like
50 cents and a little bit more maybe in USD.
Coming up at one of my favorite spots in Beijing.
This is called Gulou and gulou means the drum tower here,
and I'm gonna show you more of that because
it is so beautiful to me.
So crossing the streets in Beijing can be a little daunting,
so I'm gonna take you along with me as I try
to cross this street and hopefully it won't be so scary.
Alright, I've got a green man over there,
so I'm going for it.
Except, you still have to look for motorcycles
and running into people, but look at that drum tower,
it is amazing.
So when you walk in, there's this nice little park area
and people gather here at night and during the day.
Playing this game that I don't actually know the name of.
It's really fun.
And here is the bell tower.
And when we turn the other way
we have the amazing drum tower.
And to me, this is just an amazing piece of architecture
here that's still lasting in Beijing untouched
and I could look at it literally every day.
So, the drum and bell tower were built in the year 1200
or something and they were originally made to tell time
and to be musical instruments.
Over time, obviously, they have kind of degraded.
The drum tower originally had 27 drums,
but I think today only one still exists in good condition,
which is so sad, but they're actually doing
a really nice job of keeping this piece
of architecture preserved and beautiful.
This area's one of my favorites because it's not so much
of a heavy tourist attraction.
You won't find many foreigners here,
mostly just local Chinese.
And the area surrounding has so many beautiful shops,
and restaurants and it's so fun to come here with friends.
Lit up at night, this place is so beautiful
and there's a really good udon restaurant
around one of these corners that we go to
that has amazing homemade rice wine.
I highly recommend it.
If you're ever in Beijing, let me know,
and I will, call-
So I've just popped over here in this shade
because the sun is starting to get so hot,
but I was gonna answer a few questions that you guys
probably have about me and how I got to China,
so this is my second time in China.
I studied abroad my sophomore year of college.
I studied in Hangzhou and it was an amazing experience
and I knew that I wanted to come back
and Beijing, well China in general really,
has a great market to start off teaching.
I'm able to save about half my paycheck,
maybe even a little bit more,
but I did the first few months not saving anything
because we booked a trip to Bali just because of the way
that our vacation times fell.
I actually found my job through adventure teaching
which is a recruiting company and I love them so much
that I actually interview for them now,
so if you're thinking about teaching in China
or even South Korea, we do both,
you can definitely set up an interview or email us,
follow us on Instagram.
So I know that some people have not so good experiences
with recruiting companies for China,
my word of advice is just, you may trust your company,
but I would still look up the school
and find out as much as you can on your own,
talk to friends,
talk to people who have been there.
So I've been here in Beijing for about five months now,
and I think I'm actually gonna do some exploring for myself
and for you guys.
I have yet to go to the Ho Hai Lake
and that's around here somewhere so I'm off
and I will bring you guys along with me.
So as soon as I turn my video off some man came up to me
and said hello and tried to take a picture with me
which is one thing that Chinese people do that gets
on my nerves.
They love to take pictures with foreigners
and post it to their we chat and show all their friends,
but I think it's ridiculous.
- [Courtney] Eating the most delicious food
at this Shinjion Place.
That's my coworker Jenn.
Hi Jenn.
Oh my gosh, look at that.
Okay, Jenn, I've had a lot of questions asking
how much we needed to start off so how much did you bring
and what did you think about it?
- So I brought about 500 pounds which I've been told
is the equivalent of about 800 USD.
So that probably would've lasted me but
so I definitely did have to take out maybe a couple hundred
pounds more than that so I guess I would highly recommend
about 1,000 U.S. dollars maybe or 700 pounds.
However, we were lucky and we had a situation where
our company actually put themselves in the application
for the first few weeks.
So the only kind of costs that we had really starting up
was to buy a SIM card for a phone that we already had.
Bedding that we paid for, other than that
we were in training for about two or three weeks
so we were quite busy.
We were eating locally in that area,
we hadn't discovered any western restaurants at this point
and I think that that's had a massive impact on our spending
and especially now that I have found my western goodies.
But it's all about the kind of person you are,
the type of spender you are,
so Courtney, she did manage to make that 800 USD last
until our first paycheck,
but just consider that if you aren't having ...
Your company isn't setting you up with an apartment
and you have to find it yourself
there will be significant start up costs
such as your agencies fees,
maybe you'll be paying a few months rent up front
so I think the best way would be to try
and have your company try and deal with that for you
and pay your combination and that is very common in China.
- So I got a question asking what five things
I wish I had known before I came to China.
And honestly I don't think really anything
because I have studied the language,
I knew a lot about the culture,
I studied abroad,
so nothing really, so I'm going to move this question.
- So the main thing that I really wish I had known
before I moved to China was how little English
actually people speak in a city like Beijing.
And I did not think that this was going to be a problem,
but yeah, I've kind of had a lot of situations
where I feel like I would have gotten a better deal
or just had more of an opportunity
if I had spoken the language.
I did do a lot of learning, about three months
of kinda app Chinese language before I came
but I honestly just wish that I had learned more
because the doors that open for you if you do speak Chinese
it's just crazy the amount of doors that will open
and situations that would be so much easier
if you do learn the language.
All the apps where you have to read Chinese,
everything is done on apps in Beijing
and if you don't read the characters it can be
a real big problem.
I always have to go to a Chinese colleague to help me out
just to order basic things online,
so that was the main thing I really wish
I had studied more before I came, is the language.
The second main thing is what I would have packed.
So I would have packed so much less clothing
because you can buy it out here
and I would have taken way more pharmaceuticals,
skin care products, everything that is from my home country
because it's very hard to find those things.
so things like paracetamol or your cold or flu medicine,
all of the brands that you're used to.
There's so many pharmacies here and you're not going
to be in trouble if you don't have them
but I just felt, personally better with all of the brands
that I knew I was comfortable with.
Same goes for dry foods,
so I really like cooked risotto and I really like couscous,
flavored couscous and these are the two things that
I really can't find here,
or they're just very very expensive,
so just dry foods like that,
things that you think you may not be able to find
and you can research that online before.
- So I'm just walking home now.
We actually didn't have class 'cause we're switching
from summer schedule to back to our normal term.
I left a little too late.
I don't think I'll make it to the art show,
so I need to go to responsible things
like wash some clothes and plan my lessons for tomorrow
'cause we start back regular classes tomorrow
which is so exciting.
So I'm back home and I normally opt to cook my own dinners
just because I find that Chinese food is not the healthiest
and the portion sizes are quite large sometimes
so maybe overeating,
so I usually cook dinner or lunch at home.
Alright guys, I'm logging off now 'cause it's my bedtime.
Send me anymore questions that you have about Beijing
or teaching in China and follow me on Instagram.
Hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did.
(upbeat music)