Staying In Touch With Skype At The Beijing Language and Culture University

I have little doubt that Skype is going to become your best friend soon after arriving at the Beijing Language and Culture University. A bit of homesickness is to be expected and natural, but you can make the transition into Beijing life that must smoother by having a live video connection with friends and family back home.

Most of the people I met at BLCU used Skype on a regular basis and I suggest that if you haven't already got it installed on your laptop before going, you make it a top priority to do so too.

Free video calling

You don't need someone like me to tell you what Skype is. Today everyone knows its name. The beauty of it is that, unlike a few years ago, you can now stay in touch with friends and family in your home country completely free of charge.

To save yourself buying expensive international calling cards at BLCU or, even worse, making international calls from a mobile, spend some time introducing Skype to your parents if they don't already use the software. Create an account for them and show them how to use it.

Once you have it all up and running, you'll only be the click of a 'call' button away. There's really no substitute for it.

International calling

If, for some reason, you can't get hold of your friends or family on Skype directly during your time at BLCU, you can still use it to place cheap international calls.

If you're going to go this route, it might also be worth checking local deals for international calling cards and mobile sims. I know on campus there are usually a few offers to be found. Compare the prices of these types of packages against the international rates for Skype.

Some countries are cheaper to call than others and mobiles are almost always more expensive (except in a few cases such as China and Hong Kong which are pretty much as cheap as landlines).

You can add credit to your Skype account easily using a credit or debit card and then make calls as you would normally from any phone.

Not everyone knows this, but Skype also do pay-monthly plans. For example, you can subscribe to the Unlimited United States or Unlimited UK and Ireland package for €4.99/month, just as an example. This gives you unlimited landline and mobile calls to those countries. Just search your country of choice and you'll be able to see the pay-monthly options.

Also, if you decide to study at BLCU for a full year and subscribe to a 12 month Skype plan to cover you for your time there, you'll get a 15% discount upon signing up.

So these are some of the reasons I would suggest you look into Skype before heading off to China - not just for the free Skype-to-Skype service but for some of the pay services too.

If you aren't already running Skype, I hope this post has opened your eyes to how it can help keep you in touch with your friends and family during your time at BLCU. Do you have anything to add? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below and be sure to leave any questions you may have there too.

One last thing...

Access blocked websites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and more from BLCU and China with PureVPN!

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