Beijing Opera

First snow

This week we had the first snow on Monday. On Tuesday it was gone and the sun was shining again, so it was a short interlude.

Buying a new watch

My Chinese colleagues here like shopping with catalogues and ordering things. So they showed me one catalogue and asked me if I also need something.

Inside I found a nice Swatch watch at a reasonable price. So they called the company and wanted to order their orders and my watch. Unfortunately, the watch was not on stock.

So for the next try my colleagues looked for online shops selling the same watch. That's how I found out that e-business in China is quite different from e-business in Germany.

In China, the online shop didn't have any order form online nor did they provide e-mail nor phone. They just provided a mobile number with the hint: "no call, sms only". That's exactly how the colleagues got in contact with the company.

Next difference is: you do not provide payment details like bank account or credit card nor do you receive the watch automatically by mail / express / courier service.

Instead you arrange a meeting place (often the Mc Donalds or KFC around the corner). There you meet and have a look at the merchandise. If you like it, you pay cash and take the merchandise with you.

This is how you do online shopping a la China. Interesting!

Beijing Opera

Tonight we went to some old Beijing opera place. The building is called Hu Guang Guild Hall and was already built in 1805. Thus it is a very traditional opera place.

Beijing Opera is actually a misleading name. It is not an opera like the one we know in Europe, but a totally different genre. And it does not originate from Beijing, but from somewhere else in China.

The music played in Beijing Opera is weird to European ears. At first you think it is totally random and shows no feeling of rhythm at all. But later you notice that it is skillfull.

Also the singing and talking is weird. Women sing and talk with a high-pitched (German: hohe) voice. Emphasis is put on words or sentences in a strange way.

Beijing Opera includes artistic highlights like throwing swords through the air, juggling or many back saltos.

The costumes are rich and some actors wear masks.

Some more information can be found under http://www.chinapage.com/xwang/index0.html or other homepages.