China | Dominik Mayer – Products, Asia, Productivity

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.)

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.

For about a year I’ve been knowing that I would go to China. It has always been in the future. Months, weeks and now it’s only days. 10…9…

My calendar shows the next four weeks. That’s the time left, here in Germany:

I thought I’d get a student (X) visa but this is a business (F) one. So I don’t have to apply for a residence permit and can avoid the health check. But, and I hope that won’t be a problem, I have to get re-entry visas when I visit other countries. And I have to extend in order to do an internship.

In order to apply for a visa I went to the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Munich. Interesting. Waiting, talking, trying to get a copier working and finally my first encounter with a Chinese official.

I learned that I can either get a Single Entry Visa for six months or a Multiple Entry one which would only be valid for sixty days at a time. I chose the first one. When I travel to another Asian country now, I have to apply for a new Chinese visa there or I won’t be able to come back. Strange.

Having payed 180 Euro, I think I’m prepared for everything to come. Including bad food.

Finally…

A Chinese friend suggests taking salt sticks to China because – according to her – I won’t be able to eat anything else during the first weeks and they’re not available in Shanghai.

Preliminary discussion of the thesis I’ll write in China. They told me to stop the moment I think it’s getting too dangerous…

I still don’t have the admission to Tongji. According to the friendly woman, they sent them out out on Friday so I should get mine in two or three days.

Took off the harddisk. In the external case I can transfer the most important files to the laptop and take the rest with me to China. With all my things gone, my computer feels so strange now.

I don’t want to write on my semester thesis, don’t want to study for the exams, don’t want to clear out my appartment and don’t want to go to China. Although I have to admit that the images Jan and Michael took look quite good.