Happy Republic Day!

This day, 60 years ago, we adopted the Indian Constitution which was passed in November, 1949.

Our Preamble:

WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:

JUSTICE, social, economic and political;

LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;

EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;

and to promote among them all

FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;

IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do HERE BY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.

Christmas Carolling

What is Christmas without carols? Bah humbug!
Unfortunately very few people here know what it's like to go carolling and to encourage a better understanding, we decided to do just that in the University. There were a few hiccups early on with getting permission. This had more to do with the spite of one person than the laws of the country. But thankfully, every mean man has a sensible person above him who can overrule senseless decisions. That meant, eventually, that we were okay to sing on the evening of the 23rd.
There were around 12 in total who were interested and we practiced a couple of times so that we didn't embarass ourselves in public. Some invitees couldn't make it because of reasons like a) it was too cold, b) they weren't feeling well, c) they couldn't refuse free university dinners, d) they lived too far away. Finally though, a bunch of us made it out in the cold night.
Alex was dressed up as Santa Claus, with an old red jacket and a Santa mask. We started at Xin yuan, our own dorm area, and with Oswin on the guitar, belted out some old classics. Unfortunately it was too cold for people to stay for long enough and notice. But we did get some of our friends to come down with us and there were 20 or so people altogether when we set out for Qin yuan.
To keep with the Christmas spirit, we greeted the people on the way and once we had worked out the best way to do it, people actually waved and wished us back rather than crossing to the other side of the road in fear.
Qin yuan was better because there were more people out on the square but the best was at SOGO where we thought we'd do a pre-dinner carol round by the big Christmas tree. Ending on a high note is always good and we gave them an encore of Jingle bells to thank them for their support.
Back at the dorm, we went to each floor of the boys hostel singing carols. Our success triggered a couple of rip-offs with other carol groups vying for attention, but hey, the original is always better!

The Accident

Joji Varughese, a 4th year student here, passed away in the morning of 16th October. He had been involved in an bike accident and had spent his last three weeks in the ICU of "Di er Renmin Yiyuan", a hospital in Yichang. His friend who was driving the bike, escaped with minor injuries.
His funeral took place last Saturday in India.
This was the second loss we suffered, after my friend Vivek Ram in the second year succumbed to complications from a fracture in his leg.
It's always hard when a young life is lost. Please pray.

I'm Dam'd - In A Good Way :)

The Yichang Travel Card has been a real success story. A day after I saw the Yangtze Sturgeon Research Centre, I went to the dam. And this time, I saw it! Nizar, Anoop and I did have some trouble getting there but all in all it was a pretty good trip.

I guess it is a huge blot on your travel credentials if you haven't seen the most famous place in your city. The Three Gorges Dam [SanXia DaBa - literally Three Gorges Big Dam] is the largest hydroelectric power project in the world and possibly, the only claim to fame for our humble little city of Yichang [other than our university, of course!]

Even though the weather wasn't the greatest on Saturday - rainy and foggy - our little team braved the cold and set out to conquer one of the modern wonders of technology. After my visit to the Sardar Sarovar dam last winter, I must say I appreciate dams more and I was looking forward to the trip. More importantly, I didn't want to repeat my failure the last time I tried a similar trip.

I had never really cared about the dam [before last winter] but I did want to give it a look-see as it was really famous. So, when Brad's students were looking for travel companions to the dam, I put my hand up. The students had signed us up with one of the tour groups operating in the campus for the holidays. Our little group comprising Brad, 5 Chinese students and I met one fine morning to board a bus which I presumed would take us to the dam.
It took us to the GeZhou dam, the smaller, older and almost unknown cousin of the Great Three Gorges. They told us that the rest of the journey would be on a boat, which sounded even better. We had an up-close view of the single-stage shiplock at the GeZhou in action. I had heard that the shiplock at the Three Gorges was a 5 stage one and now it sounded more than impressive.
I was a bit worried about the time though because it felt that we were already running late. But the boat soon shoved off on its pleasant trip up-river. This little tourist boat had its own in-house souvenir shop and the sweet lady running it and I, got talking on whatever topics my limited Chinese allowed [which weren't many]. We also met other people on the boat, including another one of Brad's students [no surprise there] and a group of University students who had come down from Wuhan just to see the Great dam.
It was around lunch time when we got to our next stop. Even though we were getting worried about the limited time left to see the dam, the extra scenic spot wasn't bad. It was themed around one of the great poets of ancient China and the place was pretty pleasing to the eye.
Once we were done with this stop though, our patience was beginning to wear thin. It was getting really late and we were relieved when the boat started again.

And then it resumed its journey - downstream.
This was surprising because the dam was just a little way off - in the opposite direction! Our friends Rick and Steve found out that we were not going to the dam afterall. This wasn't the news we wanted to hear but our fellow passengers didn't seem to mind. I went and talked to the lady at the souvenir shop and that's when I learned that a trip to the dam by this tour company would have cost more than what we had payed. It seemed that the tour agent at the university had tricked us. We were just getting the trip we payed for, which, was not the trip to the dam.
Have you ever been in a situation where you were planning to go to one place and end up in a totally different one at the end of the day and someone tells you - Oops wrong bus... that's how I felt! We tried talking to the tour guides on the boat who said there was nothing they could do about it - "We can't reach the agent right now", "We can't reach our boss right now", "We can't turn back the boat, its too late in the day for a dam trip now". Our friends were feeling miserable because they were the ones who had arranged for our tickets and so it didn't seem fair to vent my frustration just yet.
What did seem to be the right time was when I found out that all the other people in the boat had also been under the impression that we were on our way to the dam; the agent had duped us all! But now that we were not, they were all sitting around dejected. Just sitting!!

Wake up people!! You've just been taken on a wild goose chase! Been cheated off your time and money!! Oh... umm... *talk**talk**take pictures**talk more*
We figured that's why some people here like to drink the nasty baijiu. They had just been cheated off a day but they didn't want to do anything about it - except get back on baijiu that night and drink to "We got ripped off - again!" You need something strong to take away your sorrows I guess...

The poor girl from Wuhan started crying because they had just spent the night in Yichang so that they wouldn't be late for the trip! This ignited some fire under the other boys with her and they found some sympathisers in the group to go and talk to the man in charge. For a minute there, I thought they might just get the boat turned around and restore some sanity. But the guy who was driving the boat just came out of the engine room, won a quick victory in the shouting match, and continued on his way.
I just could not believe all the rest of the people on the boat! I even took a picture of all of them just sitting around - it was one of the strangest and saddest sights I've ever seen. People without the will to fight for their right.


After that experience behind me, I was glad to see the dam yesterday, the whole enormity of it, and things got better when I ended the day with free pizza courtesy of Amitha, a treat for the house-warming back in India.
A wish come true and a full stomach, what more can you ask for?

October Vacations

Vacations in China are always a bit confusing. A notice which says,"...you have a holiday on Monday and the class scheduled for normal Monday will be moved to Sunday. On Monday you will follow a normal Sunday schedule. If you have class on a normal Sunday, you will have class on Monday..." isn't always very clarifying. But somehow - I'm sure after much deliberation - they managed to give us 7 straight days of vacation this October for the National day here in China. [Even if some holidays were in fact working days]

Hmm, anyway, these holidays passed without much incident. It rained a couple of days which kept us in, but we did manage a trip to Jingzhou.
We [Anoop, Nizar and I] were all set to inaugurate our Yichang tourist cards, when we learned that apparently, the cards cannot be used during the holiday season. The card lets you visit 16 places of interest around Yichang for 100 yuan, much less than the entry fee each place requires. But as it was holiday season and we couldn't use them, we checked around to see where else we could go on a day trip and decided on Jingzhou.
Jingzhou is an ancient walled city, less than two hours from Yichang. They also have a museum there, the main attraction being the almost intact remains [intact remains? umm... a well preserved 2000 year old male corpse actually] of one Mr.Sui, purported to be the best preserved soft corpse in the world according to one tourism website. The jadeware, porcelain and silk collection from the Warring States period was also quite interesting.
It was a fun, photo-and-rain-filled trip and we once again got to see wonder in the eyes of the locals when they see foreigners. Something that doesn't happen in Yichang anymore. At least not to us.

Fifth Year

I don't think I'm going to be a big fan of the new post-midnight flight timings of the Sri Lankan Airlines. On the Colombo-Bangkok leg I was watching "Ironman" and I fell asleep as soon as the final battle started. On the Bangkok-Beijing leg, I decided on the new Indiana Jones movie and again fell asleep during the final fight scenes. It's been more than a week now and I still don't know how they end!!

Other than the timings, the journey was pretty good. This time my one day Colombo transit was at the Club Hotel Dolphin, which was the best Sri Lankan transit hotel so far. I've heard that there are even better ones but this large establishment was really good. To be critical though, it could use better room-furnishing.

At first, when the plane touched down at the Beijing airport, I thought we were headed to the new, and now famous, T 3 - the largest terminal in the world to date. But to my dismay we skirted around the new one, back to the familiar old terminal. So I missed it again, maybe next time....

The bus brought us to Yichang from Beijing, on Monday, and the first good news awaiting us was that we didn't have to move anymore. The day before we left China for the summer, it was announced that we from the 2nd floor, would have to move to other rooms or perhaps go outside the university. But I'm glad the higher ups finally came to their senses and just let us be. Now the students from the 6th floor are required to shift to other rooms...

In related news:

This is the last semester of studies for us and the University wants us to remain till March. We're doing the "jian xi" at the hospital again for the first two months, and then it's back to the classroom before the final exams.

The first sunday in Yichang was good. It was great to meet old friends, get new ones and miss the ones who weren't there. Umm...? Well actually, the last part was no fun at all. None whatsoever.

The university has been changing in our absence... not too drastic, but changes there are. The new football stadium coming up behind the G-building looks like it's going to be grass! [the other two we have are synthetic turf] Can't wait to play there, but in all probability, we'd have to pay entry fees like we did in the first year for the synthetic ground in front of the library.
The food market is still not open, though work looks more than halfway through. Wish I can get back to the chaofan shops there soon. I wonder if they'll still be around for the new and improved Snack street.

Since most of the courses are 4 years long, it makes us the "senior-most" students in the University right now. [Of course there are post graduate students, but who's counting them] Guess this makes us feel more responsible.

Our seniors are taking the MCI screening test in Delhi the coming sunday. We've been hearing quite a lot of rumours on the possible outcome of this event. Hopefully, the more disturbing ones won't turn out to be true.

Anyway, this is the year we move out of the comfort zone. Hope we can all make that move comfortably.

China University Football Tournament

Three Gorges University was the host for this year's China University Football Tournament.
It was a fun few days for us as we went to every match of our University to cheer them on. The team coach was so pleased by our vociferous support that he sent up cartoons of cool drinks every game and provided us with drums and loud speakers. Every substituted player would bow and cheer us a they left the field and of course played extra well... or so we like to think anyway!
Our university team is really good and in fact were the defening Chmapions. They didn't let their supporters down either and reached the finals. For every match we had our own half-time shows with Mexican waves and lots of songs with improvised lyrics including my own rendition of "We will rock you".
For the finals we were out in full force with painted faces and printed banners proclaiming our loyal support to our university, "San da" [short for "Sanxia Daxue" the original/Chinese name of our University]

And yes we won the finals too! Our favourite defender was chosen the 'Player of the Tournament' and we got to take pictures with the Trophy... the only sad part was that it was raining and the camera was no good, so none of the pictures came out well. Oh well, who needs photos!

"Go San da; San da, Jia you!!!"

HSK

Finally I decided I had waited long enough and so enrolled to take the HSK [Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi] Chinese proficieny test, in June. We are supposed to pass HSK level 3 before we graduate. There is some kind of a scheme running among the students where you enlist the help of students who have already passed the test and now more and more students are getting through with levels 4, 5 and even 7.
But some of us decided that since we have to carry this certificate with us for a while [all our life], we'd rather do it by ourselves. So far only one Indian student from the University is reported to have passed the test on their own merit.
Anyway there were about 100 students who took the HSK on June 22 in Wuhan, the capital of our Hubei province. The test is in 4 parts - listening, grammar, reading and cloze test. The results are already out. I didn't make the grade, so the prophecy was not true. I have a good total approaching level 4, but not enough in the grammar and the cloze parts. Guess we all make our own destiny :)

The Earthquake Fund

Immediately after the earthquake, a lot of fund raising was done in the University. Red boxes were placed in many places around the University, including all the student dormitory areas.
There was a fund-raiser in Qin yuan [a dorm area] which I attended with some friends and towards the end of the programme, representatives from all the colleges came on stage with plaques displaying the amount of money each had managed to raise. The medical college too had it's donations displayed and we felt that we could have contributed to it... if we had known. As usual, we were the last ones to know about anything happening in the university unless of course we are the ones doing it ;)
I had thought of course that given the nature of the tragedy, the medical college officials didn't want to sound as if they were asking for 'outside' help if they had asked us to donate, and so I was surprised that there was an open letter by the Xin yuan gate [our dorm area] calling for donations from foreign students.
We had already been discussing about this and so we didn't lose any time putting our plans into motion. First we printed out a banner to show our support to the earthquake victims, but by the time we had collected enough money, all the donation boxes in the University were gone. So we dropped off the money at the Red Cross branch in Yichang and we hope it will make a slight difference to the plight of the people in the quake hit areas.

Trofeo de Troyanos

Whatever the reason behind a Spanish name, this was what the recently concluded cricket tournament was called.
The Trojans, after their last triumph at the final Champions Trophy [a legacy of our Senior batch], were upbeat about conducting this tournament. Quite a lot of us felt this was a bit too upbeat [especially after their rather overzealous putting down of our 'Super 7's Trophy' with a "football? who cares" tone] but they were determined to present the best tournament ever.
But of course as part of team Avengers, I was looking forward to a good tournament. As it has been the rhetoric for the past year or two, this time too we said - whether we win or lose, this will be the last tournament for team Avengers. But of course no one likes to lose and we got through the group stages for a semi-final clash with team "Malabar". Luck was against us as the first match was rained off when we were in a commanding position of 134/1 in 12 overs in the 20-20 match. The rematch [three weeks later!] came down to the last ball in which we needed 4 runs to win.... but we didn't. So we lost out on another final berth. Phoenix XI won the Trophy after a long wait but they had played really well and were the best team in the tournament, so they deserved it.
This tournament saw a couple of new teams trying their luck and they were just white-washed in every match. Two matches saw scores in excess of 300... in 20 overs! We also had a match with one of those teams but unfortunately didn't win the toss and so had to bowl first. We bowled them out in 12 overs and then won in 3.
But this was definitely the most drawn out tournament and in the later stages the organisers just fell apart. I doubt we'll ever see a second edition of this trofeo...

Fortune told?

My "Today's Fortune" on Orkut says:
"You will pass a difficult test that will make you happier"

Does this refer to the HSK [Chinese proficiency test] next Sunday? There is an old saying in Malayalam "Aana koduthalum aasha kodukkaruthu"... don't give false hope...

Olympic Torch Relay

The Olympic torch came to Yichang on 1st June. The relay was scheduled to start at 8 am from the 'Peace Park' by the Yangtze River.

Some friends and I got up at 4 am that Sunday to go and see the torch. We had been told that the roads would be blocked by 6:45 and so we wanted to make sure that we could get a good spot to watch the relay from, as early as possible. Many Chinese students from the University spent the previous night in the downtown area so they could book their spots. Fortunately, we got a taxi and so we didn't have to walk the whole distance as planned.

When we got there, we jumped right into the festive mood and bought some Olympic T-shirts, head bands and flags. We found a good place which was right across the Peace park and began our wait... and that's when the pushing started.
Already there was a sizeable crowd when we got there some time past 5... but the people just came piling on and on. Soon there was pushing, shoving and cursing among all the chanting and flag waving that was going on. As foreigners of course, we had special consideration - "These foreigners have come to see the torch in China, they should not be disturbed!"; "This is the place for the Chinese not foreigners!" Yes, special consideration from both sides.
We also got interviewed by two TV crews and many members of the press were snappy happy with their cameras. May I add that we played the celebrity part well :) In fact, a couple of days later, our faces turned up in one of the local papers.

The torch itself was just a passing moment. We saw someone [a Chinese tennis star possibly] run a bit and then hand over the flame to another guy... and the crowd around started moving in all directions.

As soon as the torch had passed we marched on to the stage where the relay had started to take pictures. It was really funny because each time we posed for pictures, lots of Chinese people wanted to take their pictures with us. It was fun and crazy and our cheeks started hurting because of all the smiling we had to do for the cameras.
Once we were done with being celebrities, we trekked back, across the Central Hospital and took the No.17 to the University.

It really was a good day and I'm keen to go see another torch relay!

The Central Hospital Cutural Fest

The "First International Cultural Fest" was organised last week in the Central Hospital, Yichang. The Chinese title was a more accurate "First Get-together of Teachers and International Students of the Central Hospital", plus it also had the 'welcome Olympics' somewhere in there.
This was actually the brain-child of our Dr.Fang Qing, the Head of the Teaching department in the Hospital. He wanted a combination of the cultural programmes we have in the University, our organisational skills displayed in the Super 7's Trophy and the involvement of teachers and students as in the farewell party organised by our Seniors for the doctors. And of course, we had to do all of this by ourselves. Though the constant butting-in of scores of leaders who had their own ideas on how to do things didn't help very much, all the Chinese people on our side [i.e. the non-leaders] worked with us and got things running smoothly.
I was part of the compairing team along with other Indian, Chinese and Nepali students. Having written the English introduction for the programme, my only regret was that I could not elaborate on the 'One World One Dream' slogan of the Olmpics that - "we all share One Dream; a dream of individual freedom and international brotherhood" because my Chinese co-announcer jumped the gun and I was left stranded just as I was opening my mouth to speak.
After two whole days of trying to figure out things do say, rehearsals, stopping the 'leaders' from cancelling too many items and trying to make sense of all the directions, we finally managed to stage a wonderful programme. There were a few songs, dances and a drama and the last song was a group performance by all the teaching doctors who had attended the programme.
The main idea of the evening was to increase the student-teacher interaction in the hospital and I really hope it works out that way.

Earthquake

Yesterday the quake hit Sichuan, a couple of provinces to our west but it was so powerful that we felt it here too. But thankfully nothing was damaged. My biggest fear of course would be the destruction of the Three Gorges Dam... that would just mean we'd all be trying to swim for safety...
For the latest news we have to rely on the Internet and the only English language TV channel available here, CCTV 9. The last news broadcast I heard at 7:00 put the number of dead at 9200 and rising. Unfortunately, thunderstorms are impeding the rescue work.

Last night when the number was still pegged at 107, a university representative was walking around in our dorm talking to students.

Students: How many people died?
Representative: I don't know, do you?
S: You don't know?? CCTV 9 said 107...
R: oh ok. Did you contact any of your friends in other provinces?
S: No, did you?
R: No.
S: Why? Don't you have any friends?
R: ...yes I do.
S: So what are you doing here?
R: Just making sure you are okay... The university is maybe going to take some protective measures.
S: Like what..??
R: Maybe give some advice....?

I really don't want to debate on the way distribution of information is handled here and I do think there is quite a bit of the quake being shown on TV mixed with all the reassuring images of troop mobilization and emergency rescue work. But next time they send someone to talk to us, they better send someone who knows what he's talking about.

Super 7's Trophy finals

It was a very hot afternoon when we, the Hurricanes, played our opponents 'Real Madrid', in the finals of the first 7's tournament held among the overseas students in CTGU.
The pre-game poll was in our favour, with 66% saying that we would win, but unfortunately we didn't. Luck was not on our side as we lost 2-1 in the tightly fought contest. It was rather sad because we had put in a lot of work to ensure that the tournament ran smoothly.

The Deputy Director of the Medical College and the HOD, Teaching dept. Central Hospital were among the chief guests in the finals and so this event did make it to the University news website. But it said that we had conducted it as a part of welcoming the Olympics.
I don't have anything against the Olympics, but this tournament certainly didn't have anything to do with it.

Farewell '03

After 4 years in Yichang, the first batch of Overseas students of the Medical college are now back home. We gave them a farewell party and it did bring back old memories even though I was not that close to the 2003 batch.

Our senior batch had completed their first year in another University in China and then moved to CTGU when we arrived. The old hostel, the welcome party, AEC, our first day in suits, the meetings, the first cricket tournament, the first snow... they are all so fresh in my memory.

Well now that they are all back in India, we are waiting to see what they will do. They are the first batch to complete this course in our University and are among the first to pass out from China after this new Overseas programme was introduced. In effect, they are like the lab rats in this little experiment of ours.
Let's hope they pass the test!

Warm wishes for your future '03!!

Super 7's Trophy

Our first year in CTGU will be remembered for many things and among them, the tournaments will surely find a place. We had two cricket tournaments and one football tournament. That's when the Hurricanes football team was formed. The credit for putting up our team should really go to Vivek Ram. He is no longer with us but the team is still here.
Anyway, there have been two other football tournaments over the years but they were never completed. A friend and I have been thinking of holding a tournament for a while [almost a year now] and here we are finally. Our football team, the Hurricanes, are in the middle of organising a 7-a-side football tournament. We've got 7 teams divided into 2 pools and after two weekends, it's time for the semi-finals.
We did pretty well with our games, drawing the first one against the tournament favourites and beating a weak opponent in the second. I must say I can see a realistic chance of winning but with just 50 minutes of football in a match, anything can happen.
Of course we also have to do all the organising. We've been printing out articles and results for two weeks now and the success of our "Spot the Ball" contest has been most satisfying... but now we've got to spend more money to buy prizes for all those contest winners...

Back to the Hospital

Finally I'm done with my exams for the semester. All my 'teacher' friends, including my mother and my sister, have told me what a headache exams are for them and that they would rather go back to being students at exam time because in hindsight that was so much easier. But still, everytime I take an exam I think of the evil teachers who make us do it. I can almost see them sitting in their little corners, rubbing their hands in pure delight and with an evil grin on their faces, waiting impatiently to see what effect this torture has on the poor students.

But now that the exams are done, I'm on amicable terms with my teachers again. I don't believe in carrying grudges.
My football team, the Hurricanes, is organising a 7-a-side football tournament. It's called the 'Super 7's Trophy' for want of a better name and right now it's keeping me busy. The last two football tournaments organised among the overseas students here, met with premature endings and so our main aim is to see this tournament through to completion. Of course, we would also like to win the Trophy but it doesn't look very easy right now.

Back on the studeis side, our clinical practice for this semester has started again. Once again I'll be in Yichang shi Zhong xin Yi yuan [Central Hospital of Yichang]. This time we have 14 weeks in the hospital and this week we are in Hepatology. We change departments every week and this semester we have some new departments as compared to the last one. Yesterday during the morning rounds, our teaching doctor asked us if we had been to his department last year. When we answered in the affirmative, he asked, "Then why have you come back this year?" I just shrugged.

Rulebook Test

It's been a while since I last blogged... just been a bit busy, but hopefully things should improve soon.
This is just an update. The Rulebook test on March 31st was an open book multiple choice test. And some students still wanted to copy answers from others...

The New Rulebook

At 6:00 pm last friday, we had yet another one of the "Foreign students - FAO" meetings.

The main purpose of this meeting was the distribution of the new Official Handbook for the Foreign Students. The book is actually called "Implementation Measures on Punishment on International Student Violated Disciplines of China Three Gorges University (Trial version)"

I guess one of the first things our "leaders" at the university did after the infamous "Nov 4th incident" was to sit together and draft out a new rulebook so that they could be prepared to counter everything that might occur in the future. It is not strange for the Chinese to have rules for everything; that's how the country works. And it looks like they've done a pretty good job.

They have thought of almost everything...
"Violations of Chinese national and local laws and regulations..." Article Eight
"The international students who were engaged in trouble-making or a fistfight" including "those who didn't hit peopple, but used insulting words...", "those who hit people but didn't hurt others", "those who hit people and caused slight injuries", "those who hit people and caused serious injuries", "those who plotted...", "those who beated others with tools", "those who provided others with tools", "those who beat others for revenge".... Article Ten
"Those who missed classes..." Article Eleven
"Those who obliterated, or tore up the proclamations such as announcements, notices and notifications...", "Those who viciously dialed emergency numbers..." Article Sixteen
"Those who didn't sleep in their dormitory at night for five times..." Article Twenty-three

Oh and did I mention that we have to take a test based on this book? The rules will come into effect from April 1st (according to Article Forty-three) and to make sure that we are all aware of what we are getting into, we have to take the test on March 31st. They have already announced cash prizes for the top ten scores. Not to worry if you can't make it the first time though; there will be retests for which we have to pay 50 yuan, and they have promised to increase the fees for every subsequent retest until everyone passes the exam.