因为五月一号是劳动节，在中国五月一号到五号是个公共假期。在这个月的博客我来写一写我五一假期过得怎么样。
我本来打算跟女朋到友去承德旅游。为了离开北京我先向我的大学北航申请了离京批准，结果我的学院院长说为了安全起见还是不要离京，所以我没法去，只能待在北京。虽然我有点儿失望还离不开北京，但是五一假期还是过得挺愉快。
假期第一天下午我和我女朋友到一个啤酒酒吧去了。这个酒吧挺有意思叫大跃，位于南锣鼓巷附近的豆角胡同。我很喜欢这个酒吧因为可以坐在外面，享受胡同的老北京氛围。我们约了另外一对儿跨国情侣一起去了酒吧，所以我们有很多共鸣的话题。那天我们聊的很开心，大跃的啤酒也很好喝。
第二天我待在了家里，因为那天特别热，一整天都不想出门。那天我为了练习中餐厨艺第一次试着做了红烧肉，而且做成功了，味道很地道，这让我感到很满足。第三天我继续在家里待着放松，那天我看了我的中文小说，晚上去了一个石板烤肉饭馆吃晚饭，是一家南城老字号，这家饭馆曾经上过北京电视台的美食频道，烤肉特别好吃。
第四天我跟一大批中国朋友们相约到香山爬山去了。跟我上次去香山不同，这次我们没有在香山公园里玩儿，而是通过香山的野路爬了山。在野路里，人很少，风景很美，而且感到很自由。我们在香山爬上爬下大概5个小时，和中国朋友们出去玩儿对我提高口语有很大的帮助，我们玩儿得很开心。那时在香山开满了槐花，闻起来很香，一些朋友在山上摘了槐花回去做饭，听说槐花炒鸡蛋和槐花面都很好吃。那天晚上回来后我又在家里做了中餐，做的是麻婆豆腐和黑椒牛柳，也都比较成功，我觉得我的中餐厨艺水平又提高了很多。
第五天是假期最后的一天，因为前一天爬山很累，那天没精力出去玩儿，又在家里休息了，同时写了 我的中文课作业。在学习一段时间以后有五天的假期，实在是太棒了。我期待可以利用我在中国的剩下的时间进一步提高我的中文水平，同时可以感受更多中国文化。
Labour Day Holiday, China
May 1st is international Labour Day and in China there is a public holiday from May 1st to May 5th to celebrate it. For this month’s blog I’ll outline how I spent the holiday.
I had originally planned to travel to a nearby city called Chengde with my girlfriend Sargai. In order to leave Beijing, I first had to apply for my university’s permission (this has been their policy since the Covid-19 pandemic began). The university rejected my request as they believe it is still not safe to travel, so I had no choice but to stay in Beijing. Although I was pretty disappointed, the holiday was still a lot of fun.
On the first day in the afternoon I went to a bar with Sargai. The bar is called Great Leap, it’s a very nice bar located in the Dou Jiao hutong in Nan Luo GuXiang, which one of a small number of old neighbourhoods (hutongs) in Beijing made up of traditional Beijing houses. I really like this bar because it has outdoor seating where you can enjoy the old Beijing atmosphere. We were with another international couple, so we had a lot of common topics to talk about. We had a great afternoon drinking excellent beer.
It was very hot on the second day, such that I didn’t want to leave the house and spent the whole day indoors. In the evening I practiced my Chinese cooking, making red braised pork, which was a success as it tasted quite authentic. On the third day I also stayed at home and read a novel. In the evening I went out to a barbecue restaurant. The restaurant is a Nancheng “lao zi hao” (roughly meaning time honoured brand), famous for making an appearance on tv some time ago. The food was delicious.
On the fourth day I went hiking in the Fragrant Hills with a group of friends. Unlike last time I went to the Fragrant Hills, this time we didn’t walk in the national park, instead taking a ‘wild path’ outside of the park. On this path there were very few people and the views were beautiful. We walked for around five hours in total, it was great fun and a great opportunity to practice my spoken language with Chinese friends. Some friends were picking the flowers of the Chinese Scholartree (also known as the Japanese pagoda tree), which they were going to cook with eggs or noodles. That evening I again cooked Chinese cuisine, this time I tried Mapo Dofu and fried beef with black pepper sauce; my Chinese cooking improved greatly over this holiday.
I spent the last day at home relaxing and reading. It was great to have a holiday and a break from Chinese lessons and homework. I only have half a term left now of my course so hope to continue improving my understanding of the language and culture.