Asia | Dominik Mayer – Products, Asia, Productivity

Pudong at Night

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

“Little animals”. The show was closed so we’ll try again another day.

Pudong at night

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 at night

Pudong seen from the riverside. You can see the World Financial Center in the background.

Pudong at night

Prohibitions and Oriental Pearl Tower.

Downtown Shanghai

Razor Ad

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:

Razor Ad

A Chinese friend told me it definitely is a razor but I still don’t get it.

Nanjing Road

Nanjing Road

Nanjing Road

A chopsticks shop

Police at Nanjing Road
Police at Nanjing Road
Nanjing Road
Nanjing Road
Nanjing Road
Lanterns on Nanjing Road

Lanterns on Nanjing Road

Vegetarian restaurant on Nanjing Road

Unfortunately we didn’t eat there. But thanks to my Chinese friend I finally got something without meat, fish, …:

Chinese noodles with vegetables

It looks very typical. They also serve these things at school.

Chinese noodles, sour

This is another, sour one.

Chinese noodles with egg and meat

And one with meat. But even the none vegeterians didn’t like it.

The soya egg

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.

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:

Police Station in Hongkou

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:

Crowd in Hongkou

Cloud Nine Shopping Mall

Cloud Nine Shopping Mall
Cloud Nine Shopping Mall
Sushi

The first time I’ve been to a Sushi bar. I found out that I’m not that much of a Sushi fan.

Sushi
Hand Dryer
Hand Dryer

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.

German exam
German exam

But my favorite is still this dialog from a textbook:

Learning German

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.

Chinese Household Remedy

Waxberry

Waxberry against diarrhea.

First Day of School

Learning Pinyin

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.

Tongji Daxue

Construction site in front of Tongji University

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.

International School of Tongji University

The International School in the shabbiest building around. We didn’t even find it at first because the sign says something like “gas building”.

Tongji University

Another image you might not find on the Tongji website.

Tongji University

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.

Tongji University
Tongji University
Tongji University
Tongji University

Cats… They’re everywhere.

Tongji University
Tongji University

Hongkou

Hongkou district

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.

Hongkou district
Bamboo
View from Rainbow City 2

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

The Mall of Rainbow City 2.

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.)

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.

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…

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?

For the Record

I’m still alive but very sick. Details of the trip to Shanghai will follow.

Twenty Kilograms

It’s a joke, and not a very good one. I don’t know how I should bring the most needed stuff if I am only allowed to take twenty kilograms. Why on earth did I decide to go to China? Why couldn’t I just stay here, keep the apartment, enjoy the semester break, …? Next week the lecture period will start at Tongji. The fun continues.