Shadowing Practice: CHINA is NOT what we expected - FIRST 24 HOURS in Beijing 🇨🇳 - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Today we are flying to China.
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With tensions between China and the West, the lengthy visa process and the recent pandemic, China has become unknown to the outside world.
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And over the next four weeks, we will be travelling through the country and seeing what it's really like.
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We're currently in Heathrow Airport and are about to fly to Beijing, China.
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How are you feeling about flying to China?
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A little bit nervous, but very excited.
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I think now we've got through security, our visas have worked, now the excitement comes.
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We boarded the plane ready for the 10 hour flight ahead of us.
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We know China is going to be different from anywhere else we've travelled.
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With no understanding of the language and no tour guide, this will be one of our craziest travel adventures yet.
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We've got our backpacks and now it's time to try and navigate the Beijing metro system.
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Oh good luck to us.
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Luckily it's in English.
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Right let's find an ATM.
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So one of the difficulties about China is you can't always use cash.
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You've got to use these online apps.
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We're going to try and get some cash out here at the airport so that we don't mess up anything.
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I can't see ATM anywhere else.
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We might need to ask someone.
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Do you know if there's an ATM here?
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ATM?
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Oh yeah we got cash.
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Oh wow look at that.
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That's a lot of cash.
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We can pay for stuff.
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One of the first things we've seen is these panda sleeping pots.
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How cool is this?
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I kind of just want to stay in the airport, but we should probably go to our hotel.
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What's the direction we're heading?
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B1, down.
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All right, let's go.
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We have no idea how this metro system is going to work.
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Hopefully we can pay by cash or maybe use Alipay because that's one of the methods you can use to pay, and we have that sorted.
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Oh, here we go.
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Signed to the subway.
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Follow this blue thing.
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we have our ticket to the subway station where we can get off
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and go straight to our hotel we haven't been able to
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use alipay yet i don't know why it's not really working
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but because we got cash out we've just been using that and it has been working pretty well
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right line 10 we've just arrived at the station where our hotel is
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and i can smell rain in the air this is the
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first time we are going outside in china escaped the transport system
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and we are out in the open these are our first sites of beijing this is crazy it feels
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so different to anywhere else i've been even when we're in shanghai
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because if you don't know last year we actually went to shanghai
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but just for four days we did like a transit visa but this is our first proper time in
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china where we're going to be exploring the whole country
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so we have just checked into our hotel our first hotel here in china
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and it is a really nice room it's costing us about 50 pounds a night
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look what i just found i was just exploring the room
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and i have never seen this before
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but this is a fire escape hood in all our travels
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i've never seen this maybe this is a common thing in in China.
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Hopefully we don't have to use it but it looks cool.
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We're going to look for some dinner.
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We've only been walking five minutes and the only cars we've seen, the only bikes we've seen have all been electric.
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It's like we're in the future.
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Look this is an electric car.
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That's an electric car.
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I don't know if you can see but there is like 10 different cameras up there on the road.
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There is cameras everywhere here.
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It's quite intimidating because we can't look up anything think online about restaurants because everything's in Chinese,
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menus, all the prices, so we've just got to be confident and just walk into somewhere and order something random.
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I think that's our best bet.
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Yeah, we've just got to wing it.
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Right, we've seen this restaurant in here and we're just going to go for it.
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We're just going to try and eat in there.
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We have no idea what they serve or how much anything is but we're sat down.
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We're trying to read the menu and we're just looking at the pictures
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because everything's in chinese we've ordered our meal
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and they've just ordered some water
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but it's actually like boiling hot water like it's our petal i almost can't hold it
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it's very hot whoa look at
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that got some chicken rice i'm not sure what the sauce is
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but it looks so good right now we have no idea
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if we're eating this meal properly because they gave us a spoon
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but then we also have chopsticks chopsticks is the right thing for this
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but tell me about them yeah they might have just given us a spoon
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because we look very very foreign the chicken tastes
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so good doesn't it really good
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and a massive size portion as well also ordered these like
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little lamb kebab thingies i don't know they were offering them so we thought why not let's grab some
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oh they smell good really good actually are they now we
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have to pay using wechat using this qr code here
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so i'm gonna give that a go i'm on the wechat
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and i'm gonna scan this thing and let's see what
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so this is our order order has come to 84 here we go i'm gonna type in my password
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and hopefully It pays. Does that work?
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The operation requires visiting the bank's page for verifications.
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Okay, well that hasn't worked.
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That's probably my bank.
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You paid?
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Yeah.
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It worked.
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Only check.
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That's a first.
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That's going to make life in China so much easier.
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Oh yeah.
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That was a great first meal in China.
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It was a little bit stressful because we weren't sure if we were going to pay, but obviously it worked out in the end.
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Very excited for the next couple of days here in Beijing.
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Good morning guys, it is our first full day here in Beijing
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and we're going to jump straight on the metro and head right into the deep heart of the city.
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Just got our metro tickets.
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One of the issues we've had with the metro is we always have to go to the person
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because when we use the machines it asks for ID and we don't have Chinese ID obviously.
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So if you are a foreigner you have to go to the person most of the time.
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One of the crazy things about the metro here is
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that there's safety metro officers in almost every carriage here in Beijing
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and there was some guy sitting on the floor
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and he clicked record on his little camera thing and then recorded him and said something to him.
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I don't know if it was get up but it really was quite a weird circumstance, I don't know why but yeah there's a lot of safety officers everywhere.
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We've just arrived at our first spot and there is a lot of people around.
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It is a Saturday but it seems so busy.
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We don't really know where we're going.
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We're just following all these crowds in this direction and hopefully it'll take us somewhere.
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Cool.
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This signpost is not really helpful for us.
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It's something left and something right. Which way?
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Left.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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This is so cool it's so big this is what you always see
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when you think of beijing this is the thing
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which always pops up this is the temple of heaven everyone
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in china loves all the photos look at them there's just a line everyone's having photos taken for their instagrams
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or whatever the chinese equivalent is i guess okay this is
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quite overwhelming right now there is just there's just people everywhere
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and we are probably there must be some other foreigners here
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but we haven't seen any yet
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that was quite nice we were just talking to you guys
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and then this lady comes up
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and offers to take a photo for us completely in chinese obviously
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so we didn't understand anything but really friendly i've just seen something
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so cool these kids have like ice lollies
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but they are in the shape of the temple
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and i want to get one of those oh yeah i'm gonna find one Chocolate.
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Do you know what you have to eat with mango?
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Chocolate.
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Yeah.
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Mango.
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So look at this, it's a Temple of Heaven ice cream.
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A chocolate one.
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And what have you got?
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I've got a mango.
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Look how cool this is!
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The detail on this ice cream is absolutely incredible.
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Not only is it a really cool ice cream, it actually tastes so good.
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Yeah.
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This is a good tempest.
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We're getting a photo with this guy.
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He wants a little tripod shot with us.
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I want to try that one.
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Thank you.
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Ah, si si.
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We probably should have expected it, but there was so many people inside that temple.
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Kind of part of the atmosphere here, isn't it?
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Let's jump on the tube and head to our next spot.
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No idea what this means, warm tips.
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Does that mean hot tips, like travel tips?
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this noodles look
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so good i don't know what we're going to mix in
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maybe some of this into there give it a little go
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It doesn't look that good but I think we've got to be brave and just mix it into the bowl of noodles.
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Yeah we've got to go for it.
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I have no idea what this is.
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No. We just saw a guy with these noodles and we were like yeah that looks good let's get them.
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I'm so bad with chopsticks at the moment because it's been a while since we've used them.
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so right now we're in the grounds very close to the Tiananmen Square
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which is a very important part of Beijing and China
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and right here you can see this massive building in front of us looks crazy
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I think through these gates and into here is how you get into the square
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but this area is very highly guarded with loads of police
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so there we just got asked for our passports and I think
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that means we can actually go in the square now I'm not sure it seems really odd
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because it looks like this is the old way to get into this area
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but right now it seems closed like you can't go inside
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so we read online since 2021 you actually have to make a reservation to go into Tiananmen Square
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but it is completely quiet around there so we don't think
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that it's open today we're not really sure maybe someone on
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here can actually tell us why the amount of police checkpoints
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and police in this area is crazy and they have these big police buses I don't know what they are but
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they're pretty cool.
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After that attempt to try and get into Tinaman Square we are now on this busy
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touristy walking street so I think in this area we can try some little bits and yeah see what we see.
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What is going on in here?
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This shop just feels so random look at all these ducks just wobbling on the wall
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and then all sorts of random little treats, milk bottles, I don't even know what it is but it's just random stuff.
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A little gun here, it is Madame Tussauds but in Beijing
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so there's probably a load of people we have no idea
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what they are who they are Audrey Hepburn all right we know her
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so we're gonna try and order a DD
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and a DD is basically like an uber in China
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so I'm just trying to order it now I'm not sure
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it's gonna work this is actually the first time we've used
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it okay someone we've we've got someone we've been taking photos and he should be here
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people on a bus like a tour bus we're just taking photos outside the coach
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or bus you gotta love it in china there's a traffic light
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which is counting down from 10 and and 10 9 8 7 you see
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that and that i'm guessing is when the traffic light is going to be green
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that is mental that's crazy so the traffic lights must be attached to the app
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or maybe like the government
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or something i don't know everything is connected in china i have never seen anything like
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that that is pretty crazy this might be him yeah yeah we're in the dd
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that was pretty easy to to be honest wasn't it?
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How much was it?
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I think it was only 13 won.
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Bye bye.
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So we have just arrived at Jing Shang Park, which is one of the viewpoint areas in the city.
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Wow this is cool look up there.
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It's pretty.
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It looks like an oriental Chinese garden.
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Except it's probably just a garden because we're in China.
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Yeah.
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Look up there Joel.
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Oh wow.
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That's what I'm saying.
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Look how cool that is.
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We've got to try and get up there.
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That looks quite high almost almost yeah it does i think
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that's where the viewpoint of the city will be not bad
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this is only 22p each we have not reached the top yet
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but we've got our first little viewpoint
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and i think in the distance is the 10th tallest building in the world
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and it is
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so much higher than anything else now we're a bit later
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in the day i've actually realized it looks like there's a little bit more of smold around
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if you watched our video a year ago of shanghai it's such a high-rise city there
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but beijing has such a different feel it feels a lot
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more historical a lot more gardens a lot more like lower buildings apart from that one which is obviously ridiculously tall
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very good we have reached the top of Jing Shang Park the viewpoint here whoa that looks so cool
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Oh my gosh.
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It's so nice all throughout this park.
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They've got this music playing in the background and it's so calming.
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And the views over the city are just so...
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Sounds like I'm in Disney.
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The views over the city are so beautiful.
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Definitely worth coming up to just to get a perspective of this huge city.
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Because it just seems to go on forever.
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We've spent quite a bit of time outside today.
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So I think we're gonna head back to the hotel before we go and have dinner tonight, which I'm very much looking forward to
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So this evening we are going to a restaurant to have something
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which is a speciality here in Beijing So the funny thing is
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when you think of Chinese food It's very different here in China compared to back home the British Chinese food, which is very different But this speciality is actually quite famous.
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Wow, it looks busy here
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One of the things we didn't mention is we've just arrived in one of the most popular restaurants in Beijing
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so we have what looks like an hour or so wait but we don't really know.
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We can't read it what she's written.
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And the rest of it's in Chinese so we're just going to wait and see how long it is.
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So after two and a half hours of waiting we have finally sat down
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and honestly it feels very fancy more fancier than I think we've done in quite a while.
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We have ordered half the cooking duck which is famous here in Beijing
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and you probably had it at the takeaway before like the crispy duck wraps
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but I think this is gonna be next level.
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Because this is also supposed to be Michelin style hopefully.
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We don't actually know that but we've also got these beautiful noodles as a side. Is it actually?
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Right let's taste this thing.
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Wow that's like a really deep flavour isn't it?
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Yeah it is.
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And there's like a nice level of spice in there.
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It's not too much but it's like flavourful.
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Well that was quite an eventful meal wasn't it?
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It very, very was.
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Well we are back from dinner now and I'm a little bit shocked
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that we waited 2 hours 20 minutes just for some duck.
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I don't think I've ever done that in my life.
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Yes, it was very good, but worth that long away, I'm not too sure.
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But if you are in Beijing, obviously you've got to try the pecking duck because it is very tasty.
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Personally, it was a little bit too fatty for my taste.
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There wasn't enough duck meat there, but it was still tasted pretty good.
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It was a little bit of a shock first day, learning how to use WeChat, the subway, all that kind of stuff.
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Anyway, guys thank you so much watching this video we will see you in the next one
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Who Will Love This Video for English Practice?
This video is perfect for intermediate English learners aiming to boost real-world speaking skills. If you struggle with understanding casual travel dialogue, navigating new situations, or practicing "on-the-go" language, this is your match! The speakers share raw, unscripted reactions—like nervous excitement, confusion, and joy—making it ideal for learning how to express authentic emotions in English. It’s also great for anyone prepping for travel, as it focuses on practical tasks: asking for help, using public transit, and ordering food.
Words & Idioms to Add to Your Toolkit
- "Wing it": To do something without preparation. Example: "We didn’t know the menu, so we had to wing it."
- "Intimidating": Making you feel nervous or small. Example: "The busy streets felt intimidating at first."
- "Jump straight into": To start something immediately. Example: "We’re going to jump straight into exploring Beijing."
- "Overwhelming": Too much to handle at once. Example: "The crowds at the temple were overwhelming but exciting."
How to Nail the Accent & Flow with Shadowing
To improve English pronunciation and fluency, try the shadowing technique with this video! Here’s how: Play a short clip (5-10 seconds), pause, and repeat it immediately, mimicking the speakers’ tone, speed, and stress. Notice how they say "oh wow" with excitement or "I think" with a rising intonation when unsure—these details make your speech sound human. Focus on words like "metro" (stress on the first syllable: ME-tro) and "intimidating" (in-TIM-i-da-ting) to avoid common mispronunciations. The casual pace of the dialogue is perfect for shadow speak practice—you’ll learn to keep up with real conversations, not just textbook scripts. By shadowing daily, you’ll build confidence in your speaking and sound more like a native in no time!
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | we've just been using · We've only been walking · we've been taking |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has become · have worked · we've travelled |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | Park, which is · one which is · food, which is |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | must be attached · is connected · was still tasted |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.