My name is Song Liu. I am 19 years old and I am from Bejing, China. I have lived here my entire life since the day I was born. Bejing is the second largest city in China with about 21,150,000. Beijing is also our great country's capital. (Global Times). I love it here. There is so much to do and so many people to meet. Of course there is the former forbidden city that is now a museum, and the famous great wall of China but, in my free time I would prefer to go out with some of my close friends and Karaoke. Here another name for Karaoke is KTV (Seale). KTV is a really popular thing to do in Beijing on the weekends, there is a spot to test out your singing skills on seemingly every corner (Seale).  I also like to listen to music, I do enjoy some American artists but my favorite group has to be Fahrenheit (FeiLunzHei), I also like the Group NewVillager.  

                Here we speak many different languages but most people prefer standard Chinese, or Mandarin (World Factbook). My first language is Mandarin, and I also know English. Many educated people learn English here, because the United States is a huge trading partner with our country (World Factbook). Education is very important in China In fact my country has a literacy rate of 95.1% (World Factbook).

                My family and I do not practice any religion. Here in China we are officially atheists' as of 2002 (World Factbook). Originally some of the great eastern religions were practiced here like Daoism, and Buddhism (World Factbook). A small number of people I know practice Christianity or Muslim (World Factbook).      

                Here we have four season. Winter is very is very cold, windy and dry (Travel Guide). Spring is dry mild and rather warm (Travel Guide). Autumn  is crisp and short (Travel Guide). Sometimes in the fall we have slight showers, I love this. I find rain very relaxing . Lastly summer, our summers here are very hot and very humid (World Factbook). On some days the highs will reach 104 degrees Fahrenheit(World Factbook).  During the summer my family and I would spend our days at the park close to our house. During the winter most of time time is taken up with school. Sometimes on a weekend we would take the Beijing Subway, the second longest subway in the world, to my aunts house (Shixi) . I always really enjoyed these long weekend trips. 

                I am an only child. My two parents and I live in a small two bedroom apartment on the 12th floor. Many of my friends live in apartments as well. In the city there is very little space and a lot of people (World Factbook). Tall, high, apartments are a great way to maximize space. In the past extended family's would live together (Tsui). Today, in the city, this is changing (Tsui) . My parents and I live separately from my grandmother and aunts and uncles. 

                 Sometimes I wish I had an older brother or sister but that is very uncommon here if you are living in the city. I think it would be nice if I had an older sister that could teach me how to do my makeup and hair. But here in China there is a law that only allows family living in the city to have one child (Tsui) . Although I do suppose if I has a sibling my parents wouldn't have as much money to send me to school and provide for me.

                Growing up my parents put a huge importance on my schooling and my grades. I have always done well in school because I understand that in order to achieve in life you need to do well in school. I spend the majority of my day in school. When I am not in school a lot of the time I am studying.  I have friends in the United States who tell me how they spend a lot of time with their friend. I do spend some time with my friends but not as much as teens in the United States (Matsumoto and Linda ). My parents are normally fair, firm, and reasonable with me(Matsumoto and Linda ) .  When it comes to me wanting to go out instead of study. We are normally able to come to some type of comprise.

                 My life here in Beijing is great. I l have a great supportive family, and education, and a roof over my head. I really couldn't ask for anything else. 

References:

Global Times, . "Beijing Population Reaches 21 Million."Global Times. Global Times, 23 Janunary 2014. Web. 20 Feb 2014.

                Matsumoto, David, and Juang Linda. Culture & Psychology. 5. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth,Cengage Learning, 2008. Print.

                Seale, Shelley. "6 Unusualthings to do in Beijing, China."MatadorNetwork. MandorNetwork, 02 Feb 2010. Web. 20 Feb 2014.

                Shixi, . "30 subway lines to cover Beijing by 2020." China Daily. Chinadaily.com, 28 May 2010. Web. 21 Feb 2014.

                Travel Guide, . "Beijing Weather." TravelChinaGuide.com. TravelChinaGuide, n.d. Web. 21 Feb 2014.

                Tsui, Ming. "Changes in Chinese Urban Family Structure."JSTOR. National Council on Family Relations. Web. 21 Feb 2014.

                World Factbook, . "East and Southeast Asia: China." The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency, 11 Feb 2014. Web. 20 Feb 2014.