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.
How to Recharge
The student ID in Munich has an RFID with which I can pay in the cafeterias. The Tongji one too. If I want to recharge my card in Munich I go to one of several machines, put the money in the slot, hold the card against the sensor and wait.
If I want to recharge the card in Shanghai I need to get a form, fill it in, wait and pay at the counter:
Golden Shield on Vacation?
Since yesterday I can reach the German Wikipedia without VPN and now the English one is also “unprotected”.
Shared Aversion
Webware’s Rafe Needleman shares my aversion to some facebook apps. Let’s hope they’ll vanish somehow.
Educational Video
I was asked to give a little presentation at the Deutschkolleg. Didn’t know that they wanted to record it. Well, now “München in Bildern - Eindrücke der bayerischen Landeshauptstadt” may be used in some classes.
According to teachers many Chinese learn their presentations by heart instead of speaking freely. The video should give a good example. I hope it will.
Sweet-and-Sour Sauce
Again at the Uyghur restaurant next to the campus. A paper with the German translations of some dishes helped us to order but our Chinese was good enough to ask if the things contained meat or not. It was the first time that I’ve seen sweet-and-sour sauce in China. On the left, with the green eggplants.
Not So Golden Town
Chinese friends don’t accept that there are greasy fingerprints on the inner side of the glass.
And they know that the white things that taste a bit like onions are lilies.
Century Park
You have to pay 10 Yuan (about 1 Euro) to get into Shanghai’s largest park and can’t walk around in the evening because it closes at 6 pm.
From the Park to the Towers
On the way back from Century Park to the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum (the building on the left). The picture shows the opposite direction of the stairs to the Century Park entrance. It was taken from the same point.
My kite
Atherosclerosis, Bombing and the Heat of Iraq
The menu of a restaurant at Cloud Nine Shopping Mall:
See also: The Chinglish Files
(Thanks to Karl for the link.)
Huangpu Night
I was taking a picture of this truck that had destroyed Ouwen’s jacket when one of the workers asked me to take a picture of them.
Dodo Club
That one is an insider.
Questions About Giant Pandas
We were looking for flashcards but couldn’t find any. The Chinese don’t seem to know them. And on our first day all the shops had closed at 6 pm, even the Foreign Language Bookstore where we wanted to get preprinted ones. But I found something else in another bookstore:
Did you know that Giant Pandas usually don’t feel carsick?