Already one year passed since China 2007

On this day one year ago, I arrived back home in Germany after my weeks in China.
There were many chances to go back there during this one year but I let them pass cause I am more focused on my new aims in life now.

In the end I still think it was the right decision to focus on the University studies, so let's hope I won't regret this move ^^

Oh happy day :-) (again)

Last week I applied for some internship from June to September 2008 in a company located in Guangzhou China.
Only I few hours later I got the response, and: PASSED :-D
So in about 8 month I am going to have my delicious Chinese cuisine (especially cantonese dumplings ^^) back, plus some extra money :)

Wanna feel like a superstar?

So, what do you need to feel like somebody famous? Correct, a crowd. Well, here's the other question: How do get your crowd? This is a bit more complicated...
In my case it was quite easy: I was travelling through China and I am 2.10 meters (6.10feet) tall. So some people in Shanghai even asked me to take a picture with me...

China is different...

Well some might say now: "Wow brilliant title. Tell me something I don't know yet!".
But it is true. From weird washing machines to funny TVs, it IS different. But maybe you guys just take a look ^^

Almost forgotten

Hah, because of some post-china stress I almost forgot to post the link to gallery containing the last few pictures. It is not a bunch of pics like the other days but I slept over 7 hours on the flight from Shanghai Pudong to Moscow Sheremetyevo...
So here, it is:

day 15 - the way home :'-(

SIDENOTE: Alltogether I made 3032 pictures on my trip. That's a file volume of 32,3 GB because I just took RAW pictures. But even as JPEG they still have a total size of 15,7 GB.

Zai Jian China :'(

Today is a sad day... I have to return to Germany...
After 14 really nice days in the middle kindom it is now time to head back home and leave a really great time behind. I am sure, this wasn't the last time I went to China.
So, Zai jian China. I will miss your cities and your people :-(

PS: Day 14 - Shanghai Pudong, last night

Today is last day in Shanghai :'(

Too bad... I just woke up and it is a really bad feeling to know it is the last day in China... :(
Trust me, I don't wanna leave tomorrow. There are still so many nice things I would like to see.
I even had to PK the trip to Hangzhou and many other things :(
Well, maybe next time. I hope it won't take to long till my next visit to China...


PS: Here are some new picture galleries:

• Day 11 - First day in Shanghai, Shopping tour
  
• Day 12 - Tongji University, new hotel, Paulaner Brauhaus, Bund
  
• Day 13 - Jinmao tower
  

OMG Golden Week in Shanghai ;)

There are 3 weeks during the year where most people recommend not to travel to China. One is Chinese new year, another is during Labour day(May 1) and the last one is during the National day (October 1). The reason is, during these days, almost all companies are closed and their employees use this time to visit family members or travel to location like Hangzhou or Guilin. So every puplic place is very crowded during this time. To be honest: It is not soooo bad as expected.
OK, I've already been to Great Wall and Shanghai does not offer sooooo much sightseeing but more shopping and lifestyle experience. So in the end I think I can live with a crowded metro, because this is what I expected of China every day... ;)
Anyway, Shanghai is crowded everyday with or without golden week.
Today I will check out the Paulaner Hofbräuhaus in Shanghai Pudong to celebrate the German National day (German Reunification). Let's hope it will be fun :)

The first ten days - picture overview

Here's are the pictures of my China trip that I have uploaded so far:

• Day 1 - Duesseldorf Airport, Charles de Gaule, Guangzhou Hotel
  
• Day 2 - Teemall, Citic Plaza
  
• Day 3 - Baiyun Airport Guangzhou, Beijing Airport
  
• Day 4 - Tian'anmen, Houhai
  
• Day 5 - Wangfujing shopping street, Sega Game Center, Da Dong Restaurant
  
• Day 6 - Tian'anmen, Forbidden City, Liqun Restaurant
  
• Day 7 - Tiantan
  
• Day 8 - Bus trip, Great Wall, Wangfujing shopping street
  
• Day 9 - Houhai, China Post, Liqun Restaurant, Bars
  
• Day 10 - Beijing University, Shanghai Transrapid (Maglev)

Have fun ^^

Ta da :)

As promised, here are some of the picture gallery links ^^

• Day7 - Tiantan, Houhai Lake
• Day8 - Great Wall

The rest will follow later.

Zai Jian Beijing, Ni hao Shanghai

To be honest at the beginning I was a bit shocked about Beijing. Whereas Guangzhou was a positive suprise with its blinking neon lights and modern architecture, Beijing appeared suddenly so dark, boring and old-fashioned. Another reason for the first disappointment was that I lived in Guangzhou on Shamian Island in the 4* Guangdong Victory hotel, in Beijing I only had a Home Inn appartment that costed only a fifth of the first hotel.
So the first impressions combined with a 2 hours ride in a taxi to the hotel because of f****** traffic jam weren't very good.
But after a while I got used to it. Breakfast only costed 10 yuan (1Eur) and the location of only 400 meter distance to Tian'anmen plaza was faboulous.
Another hotspot of Beijing was Houhai. A beautiful lake with at least 40 different kinds of bars and restaurants. Well, today I had to leave Beijing that left a weird feeling. On the one hand sad about the nice time, which passed by so quickly and on the other hand happy to see Shanghai.

PS: Picturegallery upload works now. So some new pics will come soon :)

Chinese cuisine...

Well, everybody I guess, tried 'so-called' Chinese cuisine in his home country before. But believe me, this what you get in Germany, USA or elsewhere, has nothing to do with Chinese cooking.

1. a traditional Chinese meal is never served with a softdrink or any other juice, but only with tea or somem kind of drinking soup.
2. most 'Chinese' restaurants in western world are often run by Vietnamese, Mongolians or Thais, so no wonder you don't get real Chinese food.
3. Eating sweet snacks at the beginning is no problem here.
4. Some Chinese use western knife and fork but not like western people

AND:

Some stuff looks a bit weird....

New country, new cellphone

Because sending SMS home is very expensive, I bought a new (second) cellphone in China.
'My weapon of choice' was a Nokia 2630 with China Unicom SIM-card. 150Yuan (15Eur) were included and the total price was ca. 80Eur.
Nice side effect: SMS to Germany only cost 1Yuan (10 Cent) BUT it only works in Beijing... :(
So I need a new SIM when I'm heading for Shanghai tomorrow... Tamade (Shit)

PS: Of course you can switch between Chinese and English language on your cellphone ;)

Some news about Beijng

Long time no see because of 2 reasons:
1. Walking 10 hours a day make you somewhat fainted and
2. the Internet in the hotel is not as stable as in Guangzhou.
OK, but after some stress I finally arrived in Beijing on Monday evening.

UPDATE:
Seems like the hotel intern network is really a pain in the ass and some websites that usually work in China are blocked. Suprisingly koteshi.com is one of them...

Well stay tuned for some updates when I go to Shanghai on October 1st.

Guangzhou to Beijing

The day before yesterday I went from hot and sticky Guangzhou to Bejing.
The whole day started with a nightmare: I overslept :-(
So I had to pack my lugguage, take a shower and have some breakfast within 35 minutes.
"Quite" stressy ;)
During breakfast I noticed that most Chinese try to eat with fork and knife and most westerners tried chopsticks. BTW:Cantonese dumpling and Dim Sum are very delicious.
While cleaning my teeth I noticed, LG (from Korea) does not only produce electric stuff like TV, radios or microwave ovens but also toothpaste.



Well yesterday I also felt bored, so I made some business cards for iucon in English and Chinese. They weren't very expensive 250 cards with double side four color printing for only 100Yuan (8,50Eur) and the quality seems to be ok for this price.



But enough about the trip to Beijing. More news about Beijing roast duck will follow tomorrow.

And before I forget: Happy mid autumn festival :)
On this day people usually met with their families, they give little moon cakes as presents and I have to admit they really taste good^^

Happy birthday to me ;-)

Today is/was my birthday. It was a very stressy day, so I only post two links to picture galleries because it is already 2:22 AM here and in about 10 hours my flight will depart to Beijing...

BTW: Thank you for all the happy-birthday-messages ^^

Pics:

• Day 1: Flight to China + first impressions
  
• Day 2: First 'real' day walking through Guangzhou

Further descriptions will follow :)

Finally arrived in Guangzhou

After just 10 hours of flight from Paris Charles de Gaule airport to Guangzhou Baiyun International airport I am finally sitting in room and copy the last 106 pictures on my laptop while searching the internet for useful info.
BTW: Here a pic of the sleeping room of my suite ^^ It is a Japanese tatami style suite and really comfortable. Some minutes ago I had breakfast and saw MANY British people with Chinese children... I am no sure but seems like many western couples adopt children here in Guangzhou...

Another funny thing: I heard some Chinese talking with a Lao Wai (foreign person) and the Chinese advised him not to forget his jacket because todayÄs only 29°C in Guangzhou :-D
More info will come this evening, so stay tuned.

PS: Thank you for all your birthday wishes :)

Tschuess Deutschland!

Good bye friends. See you in two weeks :)

Nihao China, here I come

Tomorrow, after so many week or even months of planning, at 5:45PM my plane will lift off to bring me to China :-)
But there are still some questions: Is Koteshi China compatible AND is China Koteshi compatible?
It will be a total new experience to live in country so different from the western world not only in language but also in culture.
Another interesting thing will be the houses, restaurants etc. Because beside the cuisine I really want to know if there are most elevators only 1.8meter high and if there are no 4th floors ;)
Yeah I know typical western question, but interesting though.

For those interested in it, here's my little schedule:

Guangzhou 09/22 - 09/24
Beijing 09/24 - 10/01
Shanghai 10/01 - 10/06

I will try to post some pictures during the next two weeks, so stay tuned.

Some thoughts...

WOW. Yeah wow is the only word to describe my current mood. Geeks would maybe prefer to say 'WTF' or 'w00t' but I don't count myself as one so 'wow' will do it ;)
For almost a year I dream about a trip to China. Even when I was still employed at Schwing in Herne I never really thought about this idea. It was saved somewhere in my brain as a weird dream that might or might be not come true. SO I originally thought about celebrating 'New year's eve' in Shanghai or Hong Kong but I had to cancel it for some reasons.
But things have changed. I am not longer employee of the Schwing IT staff, neither I am as good paid as I was there ;-) So, I thought this trip would never come true.
Until I started a part time job and the German Autumn vacationsdate come nearer and researched for some info on the internet. Very soon I saw that booking a complete trip can cost from a range of 2000-3000€ (2700-4000$). Well, with the help of some very kind people I planned my trip for the time of the holidays.
See, from tomorrow 09/21 until 10/08 will be free for most students.
So what could be better to go there during October 1st, Chinese nationalholiday?

EVERYTHING!!! Was the quick response Shen yi gave me. 'Chinese golden week is so crowded'.

Well, let's see if she was right ;)

Time is ticking away

Wow, the day of my departure for my China trip comes nearer. Weird... when I made first plans I thought about a date in July, then I switched to August and now I am going to China on 21st September until 7th October.
I hope I am well prepared. But in about 19 days I will know better :)

FIFA Women's World Cup - China 2007

Wow, what a coincidence. Two days ago, I didn't know that from 10th September till 30th September there is the "FIFA Women's World Cup" in China, and now I already have tickets for the final :D
The price is ok (30 Euros)and I guess that's a good start for the time in Shanghai. A few days later the Paulaner Hofbraeuhaus will open the October fest and I have to find a location to celebrate the German Nationalholiday (3rd October, German Unity Day).
OK, gonna continue to study physics :(

Btw, if you guys are interested in the offical website just follow these two links:

http://www.fifa.com/womenworldcup/
http://www.emma.cn

Some infos about the daily koteshi

Hola amigos y amigas.

Some time passed since my last post and the main reasons are the newly started Spanish (Si si, finally) and Mandarin (Chinese spoken in mainland China) language courses. Don't get me wrong, I love these new courses but I have to get used to study vocabulary again :)

Beside this of course math and physics, especially electrical engineering, exams are a tough part in my life at the moment.

Right now I wait for the completion of a 3.5GB download so I thought I could spend some time for my blog again.

OK, now some bad and some good news:

Bad things first:
I won't enter the University of applied science in Dortmund this year for really f***** up reasons. Mainly because my old school sucks.
When I left the school 5 years ago, they didn't write the 'grade point average' on my report card. I didn't notice it until I tried to apply for the University during summer vacation when they didn't accept my school certificate cause the GPA was missing. Bad luck: during summer vacation no teacher at my former school was available, cause they were sitting in Nice or Mallorca...
Yeah, what a glourious day...

But quite often every bad thing, offers a new chance.

So it came that I applied to a school in Dortmund where I want to get prepared for the time as a student at the University. This means of course hard work for maths etc.
So when I went the first day to school, I saw the building of the VHS Dortmund (school for adult education program). I knew they offer courses like "how to cook" or "photography for beginners". But I also knew they offer languages courses.
If you are into it, you can learn Arabic, Spanish, Russian, English, French and many more. But most interesting was their offerings for some Chinese language courses. Because I am a student, I get a discount and only have to pay 50€ for the course :)
I applied after some time thinking immediately and took the 'advanced' course cause I learnt some basic Chinese phrases and vocabulary by Jiaqi.

Beside the language course some other event will take place soon:

I'M GOING TO CHINA!!! :D

Yeah, seems like a dream comes true. FINALLY!!!

Now add to all of the time sucking events of the last weeks/months the ongoing planning for the China trip from 21st September till 6th October and et voila: CHAOS ;)
Well, maybe the word chaos is over-the-top. I guess the word stress seems to fit in better here.

I will check up the following locations: Guangzhou (广州), Beijing (北京) and Shanghai (上海)

I received my visa last month, and booked the flight from Duesseldorf to Guangzhou (some might know it better under the name 'Canton') via Air France, the hotels for Guangzhou and Beijing and the flight home from Shanghai back to Duesseldorf via Aeroflot.
So only things missing, are the hotel in Shanghai plus the flights Guangzhou -> Beijing and Beijing -> Shanghai.

Wow, already 2:42AM...

I better quit now.