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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.
Proste
A really nice event. I think we’ll go there again next week. All the Chinese spoke German and they even mixed Spezi, ice chocolate and Apfelschorle for us.
Run for Your Life
The first dogs I’ve seen so far. No one was chasing them. Anyway, they better be careful.
German Textbooks
A Chinese friend wants to learn German. I’ll help her and so I spent about an hour looking for a good textbook. Most of them teach German that might be spoken in China but certainly not in Germany.
I finally found two good ones and chose the latter because it also features a workbook and another one for listening comprehension.
No Chicken After Ten (Not That I'd Eat It)
KFC closes at 10 pm. Very strange.
Dangerous Tea?
Tea that you get for free at most restaurants (if they don’t serve hot water). I’m still unsure whether it’s bottled or tap water. The tea makes it hard to taste the chlorine but I often think they just cook the tap water. That might kill bacteria but not remove the chemicals.
It’s also not so easy to drink only the fluid not the tealeaves. A Chinese friend suggested to blow on the surface. Works. Kind of.
Shanghai East International Medical Center
My troubling joints led me to Shanghai East International Medical Center in Pudong. I felt been well looked after although I had thought they’d x-ray or do a sonography. According to the doctor the problems might be caused by a virus and should vanish at most six weeks after they began. Let’s hope so.
I don’t know what Tongji has to do with the hospital.
The Shanghai East International Medical Center is only one section of a much larger hospital.
You Know?
you know Chinese are the most clever in Asian
Now I do.
Pudong New Area
Shanghai Stock Exchange (It’s not a magic world just an imperfect stitched image.)
Construction site of the World Financial Center
Jin Mao Tower
Ask a question and you’ll get an answer. That’s how it works here. Many answers are wrong. This time I was sent to the 18th and 24th floor. The right one was the 31st…
Every tower should have one.
Without Glasses
Yesterday I forgot my glasses at home. The last time this had happened in driving school. I said we better get them but the instructor thought it’d be alright.
One Zero
I thought the button said 300 RMB (about 30 Euro) but then I realized that I had just ordered the payout of the tenfold amount. Pressing cancel couldn’t stop it anymore and I can’t pay it in again. Not good.
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Erwin, Lost in Translation
Check out the new blog of my classmate Erwin (or Ouwen, 欧文).
E-Mart Buses in Feihong Road
No idea what they’re for. That has been the first time they’ve been there. I only knew that Wumei, another supermarket chain, has these kind of buses.
Half a Pizza
The restaurant pretended to be Italian but seemed to have mixed up several countries. The music was as french as the pictures on the wall and the pizza seemed American.
Rainy day outside.
Very good banana shake.
Eating half of the pizza took me 45 minutes. I could have eaten more but stopped due to the ongoing pain in my jaw.
The restaurant was a bit more expensive and the take-away box looks alike.
Wumei
It’s not possible to take a pizza into Wumei. They put it in a locker and you get a ticket like this one.
I’m not the heaviest person on the planet but this scale is definitely wrong.
Not a plastic bag.
Schnaps with 50 % by volume…
“Fresh”, alive.
The first things I bought for my new room.
They like (red) stamps here. It was the first time I’ve gotten one on leaving a supermarket.
German Conversation Class
Two Chinese girls wanted to take me along but the teacher said he’ll only speak Chinese. They think he might have been afraid his German wasn’t as good as mine. ;-)