This is for you from Crystal in Beijing.
Hi!
My name is Crystal Zhou (my Chinese name is Zhou Xi) and I am 25 years old.
I am from a Anshan in North East China. There is a big mountain park not far away with the biggest Jade Buddha in the world.
In the winter the weather is very cold, minus 26 degrees at night. You can go to the Snow and Ice festival. All the buildings are made out of snow and you can skate on the lake and ski. You can go to the water caves, and it is warmer in the caves than outside.
My father worked in a bank and my mother worked in an office in a big company, but now they are retired. I have no brothers or sisters. My grandmother lived with us. She looked after me since I was a very little baby.
I had to learn all the characters of the Chinese language when I was little, and there are about 5000 of them. It was very hard but it taught me to have a very good memory.
I learned English in primary school, but we didn't have much chance to speak it because our teachers were Chinese and we were shy. We didn't know many foreign people to talk to.
We started classes at 7.40 in the morning and I shared my dorm with 3 other girls. We had to study so many subjects like history and math and Chinese and do a lot of homework and exams.
We usually eat Chinese food with lots of rice and noodles but my favourite thing is to go to Pizza Hut or Starbucks with my friends or with my boyfriend.
Sometimes we eat Mongolian hotpot in special restaurants and we cook our food in a boiling pot on the table.
I like watching movies on my computer and I like to go shopping for fashion clothes.
I went to university in the UK and studied Hotel and Tourism Management.
Now I work is a big hotel in Beijing and we are preparing for the Olympics next year. I hope some of my UK friends will be able to visit me and see our beautiful country.
My ambition is to