Suzhou

Suzhou is known best for its gardens, pagoda, and river canals that flow from the Yangpu river. The canal forms a square moat around the town and is nicknamed the "Venice of China" or "Venice of the East".

Suzhou is located about 100km away from Shanghai and is easily accessible by train. For students studying at Fudan, the office to purchase a ticket to Suzhou can be found on Handan/Guoding Road which is just a block or 2 away from Guanghaulou.

Alternatively you can go to the Shanghai Railway Station which is just 4 stops away from People Square. If you don't like dealing with people/teller, you can use the vending machines to get your ticket, just make sure you buy the right ticket.



(1) Ticket Office (2) Inside the Train, TIP* you can rotate the chair so that the chairs in front can face you!!

TIP**: Try not to buy tickets from the place between 11.30 and 12.30 because thats when everybody is on their lunch break and lines can be pretty long.
Plan your trip in advance because tickets do sell out very quickly, espacially when public holidays are close

Travel time from Jiang Wan Stadium to the Railway station takes about 45 minutes.

Items to bring
Passport or 300yuan for bicycle deposit
Student card for discounts
Cameras!

Tour or Cycle?
Once you get off the train, you'll be greeted by dozens of of tour guides trying to push their services onto you. If you can't speak Mandarin, they'll drag you to their stall and get their laoban to speak to you in English.


Some Examples

Mao Tze Dong's cultural revolution combined with years of street sales have made these people really thick in the head and oblivious to EQ. This behaviour is even more apparent if you have caucasian travel buddies.

Though don't be quick to brush off the tour even though it looks and smells like a con because it can be pretty good value for money. Consider this for 150yuan (or 125? I can't recall) you get a van ride to 7 different locations in Suzhou and entry into all locations up until 6pm. If I am not mistaken you get commentary as well.

Alternatively, you could choose to cycle around Suzhou which can be more fun than a guided tour.

TIP**: Plenty of people sell maps, you can get it for about 2yuan, no English ones to be found though. We used to maps to help us get to Yu Yuan and Beisi Pagoda, everything else was found by random luck.

To get to the city. Don't go to cab drivers. Take a bus
Cabbies aren't very honest as one of them told us nonsense like how you need a license to ride a bicycle. He went to insist that he takes us somewhere else because the places we wanted to go to were packed despite us telling him that we don't really care and just want to be taken to the bicycle rental store. At least he was "kind" enough to tell us which bus to take.


(1) Bus stop pay 2yuan or use Metro Card (2) Bike sign (3) Buzz the guy (4) Bicycle Gang

Hop onto Bus 1 and get off at Renmin Road between the Beisi Pagoda and Silk Museum. Look out for the Bike Rental Sign as you travel along Renmin Road as you might have to backtrack a little bit as the bus stops a little ahead of the rental store.

**NOTE** Bicycle rental is 20yuan till 6pm BUT there is a deposit of 300yuan PER bike or 1 passport for all bikes. If you had not brought enough money, there is a Bank of China just opposite to the pagoda.

AGAIN Sounds, looks, and seems dodgy but we went ahead anyway because we really wanted to cycle!! (He did give us back our 300yuan without any hassle even though i broke his pedal.......)

**WARNING** if you are a bad cyclist or get nervous easily,
DO NOT CYCLE, it is not for the faint-hearted as the sheer number of cars, pedestrians, electric scooters/bicycles, motorcycles, and other bicycles can be quite frightening.

When you cycle be sure to stick to the bicycle lanes (unless you are confident),
Cycle in a single file,
Check your back when turning
Keep to the right if you are not over taking or aren't going very fast.

**BE VERY ALERT OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS,
just because the light is green it does not mean you should cross.
If in doubt, always shield yourself with a chinese biker; at least the car will hit them first.

Follow these rules and you'll find biking in Suzhou a rewarding experience .

Places we stumbled into.
Beisi Pagoda (15yuan for student 25 for non)



Yu Yuan Gardens (70yuan no discounts)



River and Canal Photos



Random Sights


(1) Stinky Tofu, really bad smell...(2) Face Clay Sculpturing (3) Steps at YuYuan (4) Porn Store LoL

Words for the day

自行车 zixingche bicycle
地图 ditu map
小心 xiao xin becareful
快点 kuai tian hurry up
下车/上车 disembark/embark car

Up coming stories,
stay tuned by clicking on FOLLOW on the right!
WORLD EXPO!!
Fake Market at Nanjing
Handy Websites
Useful Information

How to get yourself enrolled into a Course?

While this might seem as obvious as logging onto the University website and enrolling yourself, trust me, when it comes to China, things are alot more complicated and troublesome then it appears to be.


Random Snippets of the Neighbourhood

In this post I'll guide you through what has to be done to get yourself into a language course at Fudan University starting from step 1.

Fudan Website page:



1) Go to the Fudan website download, print and fill in the application form.

2) Next thing you to do is to mail the form to them by 10th June, so that means you have to prepare your form early and send it in weeks before the deadline. Fudan University DOES NOT do any online application at all.

3) Once you have filled the form, insert a copy of your passport and USD$60 into your postage and send it to the specified address. You will also be needing to enter a chinese name, even if you are westerner. Get someone to help you write your chinese name on your form or try it out by yourself. You can use http://www.nciku.com to help you with stroke order. As for chinese names for westerners, I can't really help you sorry...... =/

4) Wait for a few weeks after that, they will send you a confirmation email to tell you that they have received the snail mail application.

5) After that it'll be a few more weeks of waiting before you finally receive a little package from them. In that package you should have



- (1) An information guideline for Foreign Students.
This will be your bible for the first week as it explains important stuff like accommodation, registration dates, medicals, visa issues.
- (2) Your Admission notice
- A map of the Uni and its surroundings
- A JW202 Form

6) Now that you have your admission notice; you can go make your visa to China. Go to the nearest visa office in the country of your residence. Once you have your visa and enough cash (about 50,000元), you are good to go to SHANGHAI!

However, your hell has only just begun, there are still many more unresolved issues, we'll start with the accommodation.

ACCOMMODATION
This will be your biggest obstacle if you can't speak mandarin!


Lesson: Never Hang Laundry and Go Shopping cause it can rain anytime....

Your most obvious first choice would be to try getting a dorm on campus because it is right in the middle of Uni and it is an opportunity to meet plenty of new students, both foreign and domestic.

You will be told on the information booklet that booking of dorms takes place within a span of 3 days starting 27 July at 9am. I logged in at 12pm on the first day and all available spots were gone! I could get onto the waiting list but there is no date or guarantee that you'll get a spot. I also believe that priority is given to students doing masters and undergraduates or students staying for more than 6 months.

Given how much demand there is for foreign student dorms, there are alternative accommodation spots dedicated to foreign students such as Tohee but it doesn't come without problems.

First of all there are no online booking facilities (or at least they didn't have it when I tried), the phone numbers work but the staff aren't very well versed in English, even though Tohee is a dedicated international student dorm!!

You're better off emailing but it can take them weeks to reply you. And when they do finally reply, which at that time was a few weeks before my trip to Shanghai, they told me that all spots were gone and that I should pursue alternative accommodation quickly. TIP: Do everything EARLY.

Here's the problem, if you had intended to go for a dorm on campus but fail to secure a spot due to the crazy demand for them, you have no choice but to hunt for your own off-campus accommodation because you are probably too late for a dedicated foreign student accommmodation apartment like Tohee.



My Place (1) Stairs with no lift (2) BedRoom (3) Sofa in Bed Room

This leaves you with a few options
1) You can pack your bags, use whatever limited mandarin you have to get a hotel, go to the cloest real estate agent office. Hopefully a staff member can talk to you in English and get yourself a place or you could be really friendly and hope to find a person who is good at mandarin and can help translate things for you.

2) You could contact a Student agent corporation like China Study Abroad, who can get you a decent apartment, travel advice, administrative advice and airport pick up at a fee of 10% of the total apartment rent.

3) You can drag your bags and turn up at the foreign student dorms and try your luck to see if anyone had cancelled out on their apartment booking, though this is pretty unlikely.



Aparments Courtesy of ChinaStudyAbroad on Da xue Road

But once you have settled all of that, it Visas, police registration, medical examinations and resident permit you have to worry about next.

VISAS
You have 2 visa options, you can opt to go for the X or F visa.

F visa (Business/Student for 6 months Visa)
Probably the best visa to get if you plan to be there for a semester (5-6 months). This way you don't have go through the hassle of having to undergo a medical or obtaining a resident's permit all of which you have to wait long queues for when you turn up on the registration date of 30-31 August. I am on a F visa.

X visa (Student Visa)
If you intend to be a student for at least a year or more than 6 months, you will be needing an X visa, which within 30 days of entering China, requires that you get a:

Medical examination
Resident permit.

All of the above should be done within the first week of registration.


More Neighbourhood Sights

Physical Examination
Documents:
(Just bring these stuff with you all the time)
- Admission notice
- Passport and Copy
- 3 Passport photos
- Physical examination record from home country
- 500 RMB for examination or 80-500 for verification

Address:
No. 15 Jin Bang Road, Chang Ning District, Shanghai
Tel: 86-21-62688851

After that comes another waiting-fest making your temporary waiting resident permit, which is thankfully done at the foreign student dorms on Sept 8,10 and 15. I don't really know the specifics but its a long wait as everybody is trying to get their permits done all at the same time because the immigration officers are there only for a limited amount of time. You will have to surrender your passport then but they'll give it back to you on early October.


(1)Off campus Accommodation Registration form (2)Admission Notice

Residence Permit
Documents:
- Passport
- Admission Notice
- JW202 (visa application form)
- Physical Examination Record
- Introduction Letter (Provided by International Student Office)
- One Photo
- 400元
- Temporary Accommodation Registration form

If you don't feel like queuing up with the rest of the international students, you can go to the actual office and get it done there instead:
Address:
no. 1500 Minsheng Road, Pudong New District, Shanghai
Tel: 86-21-28951900

REGISTRATION
Please for your sake BRING:
PASSPORT
CREDIT CARD OR CASH (bring, lots of it make sure to have at LEAST 500 in your pocket as you'll be needing 200-300 for insurance!! When in doubt, bring cash CASH IS GOOD!)
ADDRESS YOU WILL BE RESIDING if you don't know yet just put your hotel first, it has to be in mandarin so get the hotel card and get one of the teachers to write it for you
ADMISSION NOTICE
JW202 FORM

**FAILURE TO BRING ANY OF THESE WILL RESULT IN EMBARESSING REJECTION.

Police Station


You'll be needing this

Once you are done with registration, you have to register yourself to a police station, by now you should have realized that you should just bring EVERYTHING with you just to avoid making a second trip.

Sorry I don't know the police address at the moment because I was driven there, its not very easy to find either, my suggestion would be hope into a taxi and tell him
"wo yao qu jǐngchá jú!! "

- Passport and Copy! bring plenty with you
- Admission Notice
- Off campus accommodation form
- Photos bring plenty!
- Don't think you need to JW202 form cause that is surrendered that registration but bring it if you didn't

Once you have completed ALL of these steps, you are free to go!!

ALTERNATIVELY,

If you want to avoid the whole hassle of sending your application over snail mail, figuring out how to get to WuJiaoChang without getting lost, getting everything done on your own without the help of a local driving you around, you could always go to CSA and they will pretty much get eveything done for you.

If you decide to suddenly go to China to learn mandarin but its 1 week before the deadline and snail mail won't get there in time? No Worries! Contact CSA and they'll get you a spot easily!! Need accommodation? CSA does it for you, pickup? that too, tours? that too!

The drawback is that it does come in a little pricier and they only deal in USD.
but for a hassle free mandarin learning experience, CSA is a pretty good deal.

I hope this has all come in handy! If you have any questions, leave a question in the comment section below!! And be sure to Follow my blog by clicking on the FOLLOW button on the right so that you'll know when I reply you!

再 见！！

Words for the day

Sui Bian 随便 - Up to you, casual
eg. Where do you want to go? Up to you.
你要去那里？　随便你啊！！
He dresses casually
他穿岁岁便便的衣服

zhuan 转 - Turn
zai 在 - at (you'll be using this alot)
lou 楼 - Building
gao 高 - Tall
eg. Fudan 大学的楼高高。

yao 要 want
I want to go Police Station (jǐngchá jú)
我要去警察局


A preview of the Next Post!!

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