China | Dominik Mayer – Products, Asia, Productivity
China Mobile
Because you also pay when someone calls you, you’re unreachable if there’s no more money on the card. So I bought an update right away. It wasn’t that easy to tell the man what I wanted. We had no common language. As most Chinese he spoke neither English nor German and my Chinese is hardly existent. I ended up with this:
And had no idea what to do. I called 13800138000 and switched to English but I still needed a “user pin number” which I don’t have. One hour after I had started – and only due to Chinese help – I finally had 48 Yuan on the card. I’d like to know where the missing 2 Yuan went.
Linping Lu
Rainbow City 2 on Linping Road.
Kabul at its best. And a new shop in between.
Things You Find in a Muslim Cafeteria
Tongji branding on the tablet, hidden under the rice.
I Found Food
They tasted sweet, hot and not like Italian spaghetti but it was the best food I’ve gotten here so far. And that for only 15 Yuan, about 1,50 Euro. They also have pizza (38 to 48 Yuan) and free delivery. I’m pretty sure this was not the last time I ate there.
On Campus
Blankets on the campus
Walking to the cafeteria
Someone said that there would be vegetarian food at the Muslim cafeteria so we tried to find it. Without success. The thing is that you can’t just ask someone because hardly anyone speaks English and our Chinese is horrible. I finally had to take rice with vinegar and pepper things… I’ve never eaten so little since being in China. The day before yesterday I bought a whole bunch of candy but it also doesn’t taste. Ah mei.
When we left the cafeteria we found out that the Muslim one was right next to it:
Students at their mandatory basic military training. At least that’s what I was told.
Cleaning Lady
I’ve never had a cleaner. And now I’m sitting in the living room and she’s running around mopping the floor. Strange. I’m quite uncomfortable.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
Chinese Household Remedy
Waxberry against diarrhea.
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.
