It’s hard to believe that it’s already September but it does seem like things are slowly getting back to normal. We still have quite a few health and hygiene measures in place here in Beijing but some have been relaxed, notably wearing a mask. Now that nine months of 2020 has passed I can’t help but wonder, did that really happen?
Summer is gone and the weather, almost on a dime, turned cooler right at the end of August. It’ll stay pleasantly warm and cool for the next month before it’ll become sweater season. In all, this year’s summer didn’t seem as hot. Maybe I learned how to deal with it better?
Work is full on now though the National Day break is coming up at the beginning of October and it is coinciding with the Mid-Autumn Festival, too. All of which means it’ll be a longer break for everybody, yet where are we to go?
International flights are slowly returning but with heavy restrictions. Other countries I see still require self-isolation and quarantine upon arrival but travel within China itself no longer requires 14-day isolation. Hong Kong, on the other hand, still requires people to self-isolate if they’re stopping in the city.
So, where to go?
I doubt any of my international travel plans will be realized this year. You’ll recall my desire to go to Japan at the beginning of the year (I even tried studying Japanese for it) and I was thinking about returning to Canada for a brief spell. Another couple of babies are on their way so it might be good to make an appearance. I’m told that babies react best to people they’ve encountered within their first month of existence, though I’m not sure how true that is.
But travel within China is fully possible and it’s got me thinking a little bit about what I might do. One of my plans this year was to cut back on work, hit the Chinese study books a little harder, and get out and see some more of the country. Although I was hoping to venture outside of the cities a bit, I think I could at least start my journey within Beijing itself. My goal is to slowly cross off all of the things that I haven’t seen or haven’t seen in a while and do a little write up about them. And, once we start travelling more and the health restrictions are further eased, I’ll be stopping over in a few cities.
Along the way I hope to continue with my podcast and live broadcasts. I’m having fun with them and the live shows are quite a bit easier to get done quickly, which is a nice feature of them.
One idea I have is to visit quite a few museums which should complement one of the history books I have. The idea is to read up about some of the famous or unique items from Chinese history and then go see the things for myself in whatever museum it is located in. This might not be all that difficult since most of the real authentic stuff is located in the National Museum near Tiananmen Square, a place I haven’t been to in a while.
However, one other rather frightening thing I’m trying to do is make a record of my spoken Chinese. I haven’t published the first video I made but I probably will publish the subsequent videos. The idea is to track my progress in spoken Chinese over the next year as I (hopefully) complete the HSK 4 and 5 tests and begin the HSK 6 books some time next year. That’s the plan anyway. We’ll see how it goes. If the internet trolls are too mean I might just make it private thing instead.