Shanghai

An amazing view of Shanghai

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Moving house

Chinese have a sense for pragmatic solutions... Why rent a truck and arrange friends to move houses if you can pack everything on your bike?

 

Construction

Yes, China is growing, yes it goes fast and yes, typically it grows in big steps. While in Europe building a new track to a train station is typically discussed for ages, changed several times and more often than not delayed in execution, China takes a different approach. For the new high speed train network not only complete new train stations are built but the entire city around the new train station is erected. The bottom picture is taken from the middle of the top picture, looking to the right side...

 

白酒 - Baijiu

白酒 -  Baijiu, literally translated as white alcohol, is the famous Chinese liquor. It comes in many sizes and qualities. The picture below shows a 5 liter bottle for 5 USD (!) but you can also spend 100 USD for 0.5 liter if you go for a famous brand.
At least to me, the taste is all very similar (and not very good...)

 

"Bai fu mei"

In daily language people in China often replace girl with "bai fu mei" and boy with "gao fu shuai". These Chinese names represent the ideal characteristics in the Chinese mind
- bai fu mei (girl)
bai = white (farmers work outdoor and therefore have tanned skin, as people want to show that they are not farmers they try to have white skin - this results in using umbrellas against the sun etc)
fu = money (meaning is rich)
mei = pretty

- gao fu shuai (boy)
gao = tall
fu = money (as above)
shuai = handsome
 

Who would fake a lion? A Chinese Zoo...

Fake lion

Beijing in a song

Beijing in a song

Diapers

It is not very common to use diapers in China. Personally I still have some doubts about the practical use of this system...
While in Europe we tend to bring extra clothes for the child in case they get wet, you might want to bring an extra shirt for the parents in China...

 

Soccer game & discipline

Watching a soccer game in Beijing has it's side attraction, the police which appears in vast numbers. The entire first row of the stadium is full of police and around the stadium you have highly disciplined groups of police which won't move at all. I didn't count the ratio of spectators to police but could be an even split...

 

Beijing

Great view of Beijing (made from the top of the TV tower in the west of town)

Fake?

Some people say you can buy fake things in China... Here the proof, that there is no such thing - only original Gia(e)nt bikes...

Quality

The quality of my bike, respectively the lack therefore, keeps surprising me. In Europe I owned 3 bikes with an average life span of 7 years. Once a year I would have to fix a flat tyre but nothing else.
My Chinese bike is soon a year old and I had to replace most parts at least once already - this pedal is already number three...
Having to replace parts is one thing but even better is the reaction of the mechanic who does all the repairs and who also sold me the bike. There is no feeling of having sold poor quality. His explanations are excellent. "You have used it for more than a month so you should replace this or that". "I think you push too hard for the pedal (how could the pedal be poor quality, it has to be the rider)". "You should not use the break too often" ...

Beijing Zoo

It can be difficult to see the animals...

 

Customer service

Don't get me wrong, I really like China and Chinese people but one thing I still haven't understood is customer service, respectively the lack of it.
Morning 7 o'clock in a coffee at the airport, busy with people who want to get their caffeine before boarding a flight. There are 3 people "working in service" - a lot for such a small place. The challenge is just that all three of them gather at the bar and seem to have a good chat while having their backs towards the customers. It requires significant noise to get their attention and then they look completly suprised that you would like to get service...

Truly international...

Do you know an airport lounge catering for Pakistan International Airelines (PIA), Air Koryo (North Korea), Iran Air, Aeroflot...? It must be interesting to see the North Korean, Irani and Pakistani people discussing with the Delta customers in this lounge. Beijing aiport is truly international.

How to eat?

Well, sometimes you ask yourself how to eat dishes you get served (no, I didn't order this myself)

Dinner drinking choice

Drinking is an essential part of any business dinner in China. It is less about enjoying a "good glass of wine" but much more about establishing interpersonal ties. Therefore nobody ever takes a sip by himself. It is always eye contact with somebody, a toast to thank for the cooperation or the like, and then "gambe" - bottoms up, no matter whether it is the traditional baijou, beer (typically warm) or red wine - yes red wine bottoms up...

Driver licence

Anybody who went through Beijing traffic wonders how do they learn to drive in this environment?
Recently I had the unique hotel window view on a driving practice area. It was amazing to see the cars rolling with about 5km/h throu these curves with no other cars around them. Must say real conditions are perfectly rebuilt here - the ideal preparation for Beijing traffic... (no wonder they drive like this)

Global cheese...

Recently in a western 5 star hotel in China. I really hope they did not spend a lot to import this kind of "global cheese"...

Seeing a Dr in China

Well, I didn't expect a Chinese traditional medicine treatment in German but this setup was a bit special.
Dr only spoke Chinese but had a translator - to Russian...
Another translator then did Russian - English...
Remembering the old game where you let a word pass trough a group of people I wonder what I really had and how much was lost in translation...

Latern festival

Recently we celebrated the latern festival (end of CN NY holiday) by eating sweet dumplings and enjoying fireworks. For the latter it is all about as much and as noisy as possible (while not obeying any safety rules). Within my compound they burn "tons" of it. Consequence - a fire broke out in a neighbouring building. While the fire brigade was here they fired more fireworks...

Chinese new year "holidays"

Similar to Europe, China has a week of holidays around the new year celebration (Europe in December, China in February).

"Un-similar" to Europe, the Chinese holiday isn't really a holiday as the days off have to be compensated on the following weekend, which is declared as official working days...
Enjoying my Sunday morning coffee before heading to work

Are Chinese people different?

A good way for me to better understand Chinese people is to observe them outside their home country. Sometimes I really get the impression that they are different...
On a recent trip to Sri Lanka it was interesting to see to reaction to straying dogs on a beach. While all western people without exception chased the dogs away, the Chinese - who typically don't keep pets and definitively not a dog which is rather on the plate then in the living room - were deeply impressed and took tons of pictures.
It somehow reminded me of India where locals are very relaxed about the cows at the beach while foreigners take pictures of them...

Chinese noodles - self made

There are many ways to make Chinese noodles. One thing they all have in common is that they're delicious!

Dried meat

In smaller places "long noses" are still greeted all the time on the road - sometimes feels a bit like being an animal in the zoo (ok they typically don't feed you...).
Many of these places also maintain old traditions such as local dishes. Recently I had the chance to visit Anhui province where it is common to dry meat outdoors. While this is nothing special it is interesting to see that every pole, cable, washing line and the like is used to hang any piece of meat.

Air quality

Recently there was no need to check the PM 2.5 measurement of the US embassy. The air was that bad that is was easily recognizable by eye, lung, nose,...

Snow in Beijing

Beijing is very dry in winter, meaning there is hardly any snow. If there is snow, it's chaos. Cars have no winter tyres and there is no proper road cleaning - except some manual as below. In short, you better stay home.

Coffee?

Beijing airport 06.00 - flight delayed which is nothing special. More special is the fact that at this time of the day it is very easy to find noodles etc but almost impossible to find coffee - sorry, we only start the machine at 07.00...