Jianghu :: 2.0

I know I promised the full report on my experience at the Yiquan Academy, but I want to be rested and calm when I write that to ensure that I’m fair - and events outside the scope of this blog mean I’ve had no opportunity yet. It’ll come ASAP.

On a semi-related note, it looks like I’ll be moving; same job, just living in a new place. I’ll be leaving the university district, and moving into the old city - Jishuitan, literally across the road from the lakes. This is my favourite part of Beijing, so yay for that. It will mean a daily commute of an hour or so, as compared to three minutes, but that’s tolerable, particularly in exchange for a bit more independence! I’ll be signing the contract and putting down the contract for the new place tomorrow, and moving in after I get back from Singapore at the end of the month.

… but it made me laugh:

Well, after the alarm of yesterday, I went back to the embassy to try and clarify the situation. I was there just after 8am; they open at 9, but I was determined to be early this time! There were only a dozen or so people there before me, so I got served pretty quickly when they did open.

I think that the woman I dealt with yesterday must have been in a really bad mood or something. The young lady I spoke to today couldn’t have been more helpful. Yes, there is a form; I could get a copy from the reception desk. The examination could only be done at Singapore General Hospital. It would be ready for collection in the middle of next week, which would mean coming to apply for the visa on Thursday - the day before I fly - and paying a bit extra for same-day processing… She told that when I did come back, I should come straight to her window, no need to take a ticket and wait! Oh, and the scanned copies of the documents would be fine, no problem at all. (Although, having spoken to the university yesterday, the originals are already on their way with Fedex).

She even suggested that it might be easier for me if I just go to Beijing on a tourist visa, and get it converted to a working visa after I get there - and get the medical check done there as well. Perhaps this is what the university meant…

Still, I’m not really keen on assuming that would go smoothly - the last thing I would want is to be stuck in China unable to work because of some problem…. Plus, when it comes to medical issues, I want to be sure I can communicate fluently with the doctor (not that I anticipate any problem, but still…) So, I headed straight to SGH (which is just around the corner from my apartment) and got the checkup done there and then. It’ll be ready next Wednesday, and maybe sooner.

Relief… what a pity I got someone so unhelpful yesterday!

Hehehe, I was on the MRT last night, on my way to the lesson with Master Zhou, and I noticed a guy wearing a t-shirt from the Hong Kong chain Baleno. On the front of the shirt? “Jianghu”, in hanyu pinyin and Chinese calligraphy!

Baleno has branches here in Singapore; I reckon that come the weekend,  I’ll get to one of them and see if they have any left in stock!

OK, this is the new incarnation of Jianghu. Sadly, the old one isn’t accessible from China, so I can’t stick with it.

There are a number of differences between running a blog on Wordpress.com and running a self-hosted Wordpress installation. Plus, for some reason, my hosting service is running an older version. This all means that things will take a while to settle down here - expect to see lots of oddities and seemingly random changes!