Life in China | Dominik Mayer – Products, Asia, Productivity
In 2008 and 2009 I spent 1.5 years studying Chinese at Tongji University in Shanghai. This is my way to China, these are my experiences in Shanghai.
I arrive in China on page 15.
Old Woman
Looking for a room, I visited the apartment of an old woman today. I could rent a room for 1500 Yuan and use bathrooms, kitchen, living room with her and another person that might move in. The good thing: She doesn’t speak either German or English so I’d be forced to learn Chinese. And she asked if I could cook and when I said not Chinese food, she said she could. The apartment also looks very nice and the price is good. But what if someone wants to visit me or I come home late?
Please Sign Here
In order to take the extensive language course at the International School I had to resign at the School of Economics and Management. It’s not possible to be enrolled in both without paying extra.
Today I got my Chinese books and had to sign with my Chinese name: 马德. The first one means “horse”, the second one “kindness”, “morality” or “virtue” and is also used for German things: 德国 = Germany, 德国人 = German (person), …
I could only write the first sign so they painted both and I tried to imitate them. To make sure it’s readable they repeated “德” in brackets…
Out of Kabul
First time in another part of Shanghai. No debris, dirt and construction sites. Instead: Nice streets with trees, little houses and great clubs. We’ve been to four of them.
Don't Call Me
I just learned that I have to pay when someone calls me because the costs are shared. (The headline is just a joke, calls are very cheap here.)
Hongkou
Old Chinese houses. I think they’ll tear them down to build more compounds. At least that’s what a model in Rainbow City 2 suggests.
The view from my window. You can see the Oriental Pearl Tower and the Word Financial Center in Pudong.
The Mall of Rainbow City 2.
Tongji Daxue
Construction site in front of Tongji University. The main entrance is on the left side. The tower in the background is the newest building on campus. Jan wrote about it some time ago.
The International School in the shabbiest building around. We didn’t even find it at first because the sign says something like “gas building”.
Another image you might not find on the Tongji website.
I don’t get the purpose of this building. What is a “National Demonstration Center for Teaching and Learning”? They also have a “Basic Teaching Experimental Building” whatever this might be.
Cats… They’re everywhere.
First Day of School
We only sang pinyin and my Korean classmates repeated every single Chinese syllable the teacher said. Even when it was in the middle of a sentence. I don’t know if they understood the teacher at all as their English is not the best. Too bad, we could hardly talk.
Chinese Household Remedy
Waxberry against diarrhea.
Learning German
Here’s a text from a German exam in China. It explains why Germans like women with darker skin while Chinese prefere those with a lighter tone.
But my favorite is still this dialog from a textbook:
A: Hello, Mr. Muller. B: Hello, Mrs. Krug. A: How are you? B: Good, thank you. A: Really? B: Yes, everything’s ok. A: Really? B: Yes, I am very well. A: Aha. B: Wonderful. A: Aaah. B: Yes, life is so beautiful.
Cloud Nine Shopping Mall
The first time I’ve been to a Sushi bar. I found out that I’m not that much of a Sushi fan.
Hard Mattress
I think I start to feel the consequences. Or why does my right elbow hurt as well as my right jaw?
Uniforms
They seem to like uniforms here. For me, they all look the same, a bit unreal, like carnival and it’s hard to say if the person in the uniform is a policeman, a parking lot attendant or the member of a private security company. Yesterday we tried to register at the local police station which was very hard to find because it looks like that:
On my way home from school I went through the old Chinese streets when a ranting man walked towards me. One minute later I think I saw the reason for his anger: A truck and a digger that seemed to tear down one of the old houses or clear away the debris. There was so much police around. Twenty persons or more. And a crowd of Chinese people watching. One of them made some signs with his hands as if he wanted me to take a picture. The others looked at me as if I was very welcome and they were eager to find out what I’d do. I thought why not, stepped back a bit and took this picture before a policeman made me leave:
Downtown Shanghai
At first I thought this would be a mixture of a razor with an mp3 player though it looks more like a vacuum cleaner on this picture:
A Chinese friend told me it definitely is a razor but I still don’t get it.
A chopsticks shop
Lanterns on Nanjing Road
Unfortunately we didn’t eat there. But thanks to my Chinese friend I finally got something without meat, fish, …:
It looks very typical. They also serve these things at school.
This is another, sour one.
And one with meat. But even the none vegeterians didn’t like it.
The soya egg. I learned that it’s impolite to spear something with the chopsticks but I still have no idea how to eat the egg otherwise.
Pudong at Night
I’ve never been a fan of the Oriental Pearl Tower on all those Shanghai postcards but standing under the gigantic spheres is an experience. I think I’ll go up to the viewpoint one day. By now, I really like the thing. The lights on the spheres change their color. Pretty awesome.
“Little animals”. The show was closed so we’ll try again another day.
The Bund was not illuminated but you can see a boat with a large screen. According to others it’s driving up and down the river all the time.
Pudong seen from the riverside. You can see the World Financial Center in the background.
Prohibitions and Oriental Pearl Tower.
In the Middle
A friend and I met at the metro station Zhongtan Road, half the way for both of us, and walked through a compound near Suzhou Creek.
This could also be a shot of Paris.
The facility only had one normal toilet which the old lady unlocked for me. The rest were squat ones.
We chose this restaurant and Nanx ordered the food via cellphone. Even though I painted animals and fish I didn’t manage to tell them that we wanted something vegetarian.
