My new home...

in 2010-2011 (hopefully):



If all the exam go as planned, the GDUFS (Guangdong University for Foreign Studies) will be my new home next year. Until then I have to focus on my time here ;)
Wow, just 1,5 year left...
But right now I feel so wasted and there are still two exams ahead this semester. Seems like I am getting old already. But nice times are about to come. Looking already forward for the Secret of Mana sessions with Patrick. Hmm, almost seems like this is driving me forward in these days of stress.

snow in Guangzhou? - Hell NO!

Maybe some of the readers remember that I will do a big step in my life this spring: I am going to Guangzhou / China.
Because of that I listened very carefully lately when there were news about China in general and expecially about Guangzhou. So I was more than suprised when I heard that there was some snow during this week in the capital of Guangdong province...
Thanks to some students at GDUFS (guangdong university of foreign studies) I know that they have right now about 6°C, rain, rain and you already guessed right: rain + chaos at the train stations because most trains had been canceled due to the bad weather and Chinese New Year is approaching and: NO SNOW.
So take that lousy RTL news... As far as I heard/read on Xinhua there were only some snowfalls in Guangdong province but none in Guangzhou though still hard to imagine such cold weather in a city where I had about 35°C back in September last year...

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 :)

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

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 ^^

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....

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 :)

Ni hao from Beijing

I thought maybe I should say 你好 (Ni hao/Hello) from Beijing to all the people who are in Germany right now and wish to be in 中国 (China)... gaga~

PS: In case you only see squares or hieroglyphs, click here to get a picof the posting.