Sichuan province is in the middle of China, west from Shanghai, and is famous in China for its good and spicy food, the traditional tea-houses, the nice landscape and beautiful girls. I went there last week together with Georg, Min and Mark, a friend of Georg and Min from France, who also studied at our university in Shanghai. We started last Tuesday (two days before the national festival in the 1st of March) and came on back Sunday night. By train it would probably take about 40 hours to get there, but we took the airplane, which took only about 3 hours.
Map of Sichuan: Read the rest of this entry » »
Zhejiang province has not only it’s famous capital Hangzhou, but also some other beautiful places, that are not so famous. This province is the southern neighbouring province of Shanghai, also at the southern east-coast of China. During the recent weeks I have been to there twice, the first time to Hangzhou with Mark (Ma Fei) and a friend of him, the second time to Xi Kou and Qian Tong with my two beautiful guests from Germany, Jamy (a Chinese friend) and two of her friends.
浙江省不但有有名县会杭州，而且有别的漂亮的地方。 这个省在上海的南边，也在中国的东南方。上几个兴起我到浙江去了两次。第一次跟马飞，他一个朋友一起去杭州，第二次和我德国客人”喝了那“ (Helena 
)，美图 (Methu ^^), 周喆和她两个朋友一起去溪口，后前童。 Read the rest of this entry » »
Fulfilling a special request of a very good friend, here finally is something to see and listen to from the Incubus concert in Shanghai on 13. March 2008 
Read the rest of this entry » »
Today we took a tour to the harbour of Shanghai at the east-coast. We took the bus over a very long bridge (one of the longest in the world) and landed on a (almost) lonely island, being surrounded by fog and rain, only having ourselves. Although the weather was really bad, I especially enjoyed the melancholic, lonely atmosphere. So I suggest you just relax and imagine being at this place when looking at the pictures (that’s why most have numbers instead of titles).
Since some questions about Tae-Kwon-Do (chinese name 跆拳道) came up, I would like to give a short overview about this sport while also educating myself about it.
A good source of information I found today is www.barrel.net
“Taekwondo (also written as “tae kwon do”, “taekwon-do” or “t’aegwondo”) is a modern martial art from Korea that is characterised by its fast, high and spinning kicks.”
Since I have seen the weatherforecast for Germany and also heard Germans talking about freezing temperatures there, I would like to tease you with some pictures of the awaking nature in Shanghai, where spring slowly begins now. I think we have more than 20 degrees when the sun is shining
This post is going to be a summary of what I would have written and posted, if I had more time.
Currently I have my professional courses and additionally take language courses. This means, that every Monday and Friday I get up at 6:00 to get the bus to the Xuhui campus in downtown for my Chinese courses. On Tuesday, maybe Wednesday (depends on my other courses) and Friday I also have Chinese courses in the afternoon which makes about 15-18 hours Chinese each week. In addition I meet friends (Bian Qian Wei a.k.a. David, Luo Qi, recently also Wang Yu Cheng who I met in the bus to Xuhui) to talk Chinese with them, ask them for help about my homework or professional vocabulary (I use for the Chinese lecture “Commercial Bank Management”).
Since two weeks I also help two Chinese students preparing for their DAF test, which is a test about German language skills, hopefully allowing them to study in Germany (TU Berlin). We just talk in German, correct their homework together or listen to music of Clueso (I showed them the song “Chicago” last time) Read the rest of this entry » »
I know I was so slow that by now this is the weekend before the last weekend. But nonetheless I had some pictures to show you
After playing football on Saturday, I met with David to go to IKEA. I bought a lamp to have more comfortable light in my room and some furniture for the bathroom to store things in, because everything there laid around on the floor before. David bought a clock that he wanted to customize at home. The IKEA store looked very similar to the ones I have seen in Germany, including a restaurant for eating Swedish dishes like Köttbullar (meatballs). Even most of the articles kept their Swedish names, beside Chinese
This is where we then got the articles we wanted to buy (also looks much like in Germany):
This post has nothing to do with China or my impressions here. I would like to present you two songs released in the context of the current presidential elections in the USA. It is more like a small interlude of my thoughts and the things that I encounter. Although I do not quite share the enthusiasm for the USA and its patriotism, I do like the emotional aspect of these two songs (and of the historical references I associate with these feelings, like speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.). Feel free to write down your own opinion about this in the comments!
Yes We Can
This song is performed by musicians Will.i.am (mainly known through the Black Eyed Peas), John Legend, Common, and others. This is a mixture of a simple guitar tune, speeches of the democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and many people with different voices, some singing, some speaking. All parts of Barack Obama are taken from his speech in South Carolina. Read the rest of this entry » »
The last weekend was quite eventful. On Friday I was invited to dinner, on Saturday I played football in the morning, went shopping to IKEA and sung in a Karaoke-Bar. On Sunday I gave private German lessons and played Badminton.
The dinner on Friday took place at home of friends of David. We cooked so many different dishes (I gave my best to help cooking ) and were six persons altogether eating them. Read the rest of this entry » »