Thousand Island Lake

"You want to have an island of yourself? Come to a place called Qiandaohu (Thousand Island Lake)! This lake has more than 1000 islands (1078 smaller and bigger islands) on it. Most of the islands are covered with forests, the water is crystal clean and every day definitely more than 1000 Chinese tourists, sometimes additionally up to three foreigners per day are cruising with boats on the lake."

"You want to escape the Beijing pre-olympic hype? Don't go on planes, go an a boat near Shanghai (about four hours drive away from Shanghai). If you go on planes, you have to go through additional long-lasting security checks with dynamite and drug dogs at the airport (although a Chinese colleague travelling with me on the business trip suggested that they should actually use pigs because their nose is better than dogs' noses, but just imagine the police at the airport walking around with a pig...). Where in the past five persons were queuing for a taxi, now over 50 persons are waiting and it takes you over 35 minutes to get on a cab. "

There's of course more reasons than just that to go to Qiandaohu. I actually enjoyed the trip with my Chinese travel tour very much. Chinese travel tour meant: 11 Chinese, one Chinese tour guide (of course only speaking Chinese) and me. That's authentic travelling in China organised for me by nice Shanghai colleagues (first reply from the agency: "We don't take foreigners on the trip.", so they really had to persuade them that I do speak Chinese, that I am not dangerous etc.).

The highlights?

- the boat cruise on Qiandaohu. Climbing on top of the mountain with a Chinese family and taking photos...

- Bamboo rafting on a river nearby. Luckily we didn't have to construct the bamboo rafts on our own.

- the "laowai" warning / warning to foreign tour members (i.e. me). At noon on the first day the travel guide warned me: "Well, the hotel might not be what you expect it to be, but rather Chinese and rather basic." What a surprise! Of course for the full tour including bus from Shanghai, including all entrance fees, boat cruise, bamboo rafting, cave visit, travel guide etc. for a total price of 60 EUR (600 RMB) I was expecting a 5 star hotel with all comfort :-). But the warning was exaggerated because the hotel was actually quite ok.

- my first ice cream with green bean taste. Needless to mention that I didn't finish the ice cream, however it was difficult not to eat it up because a Chinese family on the trip had given it to me as a present.

- my first buddhist 'church service'. Afterwards the others went in small groups to see the monk in person and receive some suggestion. One Chinese friend on the tour received the recommendation to be 'generous'. So because I didn't have a sun umbrella or cap to protect myself from the sun, she gave me a new sun cap as a present. Luckily she didn't give me a sun umbrella...

That was my trip to Qiandaohu which I did last weekend from Shanghai.

Buddha in a Bunker in Shanghai

After having come back to Beijing on Tuesday noon last week, I was told that I was supposed to be going to Shanghai and Nanjing on Wednesday on a business trip again. There I staid until today night.

In Shanghai I didn't do much sightseeing anymore, I only visited Jing'an Temple. Lonely Planet writes: "Anyone familiar with the layout of Buddhist temple may be shocked at the flight of steel stairs in the main courtyard leading to what resembles a World War II German Bunker". I can only confirm: I have seen many temples in China (and Asia) so far, but this by far the most bizarre temple I have ever been to. They had buddhas in a concrete bunker there! Just have a look at the photos to have some impression yourself.

New challenges

My trip to Germany was successful: I am starting to work as a Commercial Project Manager for automotive projects from the 1st of October in Nuremberg. Bad news for you enthusiastic readers of my blog: My China blog will end then :-). Hey, but still some time to go...
Now I will start the search for a nice appartment in Nuremberg. Reservations for my guest room in Nuremberg are already possible :-).

The importance of numberplates

The main purpose of my trip to Germany was to look for a new job for the time after I return to Germany. The job interviews were mostly very positive and I shall of course inform you once it has been decided where I shall be from October onwards.

Apart from that I spent a good time thanks to many of you who I had the chance to meet again and chat with. The weather was not that much of a pleasure and reminded me much of the German saying:"April, April, der weiss nicht was er will.", just that it was not April, but July. I'm really happy to have escaped the German weather again. The first photo shows Nuremberg as an exception with good weather, the second a Frankonian piece of art, the weird 'Totholzgarten' (Dead Wood Garden).

Back in Beijiing I didn't recognize Beijing. It was an 'olympized' version of the Beijing I was used to live in. On the Airport Expressway only two lanes are for 'normal people' now, the third lane is reserved for the Olympics, probably for the sports people and organizers? And there were cameras every now and then. My taxi driver drove quietly and slowly without the usual horn and zigzag - take over - manoeuvres.

In work my colleagues confirmed what I had already read in the German newspapers: Cars with even and uneven numberplates take turns in being allowed to drive. However, clever Chinese who can afford two cars already know how to solve this challenge. A colleague of mine and her husband possess two cars. Both of them had even numberplate numbers. Last week the husband got himself a new numberplate with an uneven number. Thus every day one of their cars can be used. But most Chinese cannot afford two cars, so the roads were still astonishingly empty. Dream of olympisation???

Coming home again

Yes, I am in Germany again. This time to look internally for a new job. The timing is not really perfect given the fact that my company currently wants to cut many thousand jobs in Germany.
So far everything was nice, except for the weather on the weekend (rain, rain, rain). I was able to meet my old department in Germany, had some job interviews already and spent the weekend with my boyfriend. Currently I am in a nice Eastern German town with the the "first internet hairdresser". I just wonder: how can one cut hair via the internet? Unfortunately I don't have time to try it out because I go back to Southern Germany tomorrow.

Pig Home's Corner

Pig Home's Corner is a watertown about two hours by car from Shanghai. Its Chinese name is Zhujiajiao, one of the many Chinese 'zhu' means pig, but not the one of the watertown, 'jia' means home, house and 'jiao' means corner. So even though the first part in reality doesn't mean pig, it was easier to remember it like that. At the same time of my business trip, a Chinese colleague-friend from Beijing was also in Shanghai for a training. So we decided to do an out-of-town trip together and the wife of a university colleague of hers, who lives in Shanghai, joined us with her daughter.

That was fun! Zhujiajiao was a good choice because there were hardly any tourists there and I would say it equals or is even more beautiful than other watertowns around Shanghai.

The trip didn't start that well. The Shanghai friend picked us up from our hotel, but she didn't know the way to the highway so she stopped next to a policemen and wanted to ask him the way, but before she could say a word, he told her she was not allowed to stop / drive here and imposed her a fine. A Shanghai women with hot temper of course doesn't accept that, but starts arguing. Ten minutes of shouting later, we drove on and she still had to pay the 100 kuai fine. From that on we didn't ask policemen for the way anymore.

In Zhujiajiao we strolled around the anicent town with its beautiful bridges, took many photos, shopped some things including each one of us a Chinese style hairpin in a different colour so we all pinned up our hair in the same ancient Chinese style. We also visited a tea house where Apple (that was the English name of the daughter) played the 古琴 / Guqin for us, a Chinese style zither. Last but not least a boat trip around was a perfect end to our visit of the Pig Home's Corner.

Hot in Shanghai

Shanghai again. I had to go there on a business trip as consultant to our joint ventures there together with an external consultant.

The difference to my last visits? Now it's summer in Shanghai! Which means: around 37 degree celsius and extremely humid air (75% humidity)! Basically spending time outside was not really a pleasure.

That's why I didn't visit much outside, but mainly inside. I saw my first acrobatic show of the Shanghai Acrobatics Troupe. It was quite amazing how flexible human bodies can be and often I just thought: "Ouch! This must hurt!", but the acrobatics still managed to smile. Second indoor visit: The Shanghai Ocean Aquarium with the world's longest underwater tunnel (155 m) -some fish were very nice, others looked scary although they were harmless and again others looked harmful and just were that. Third visit: an area called Xitiandi in the former French concession with a Shikumen museum. Xitiandi in one word: boring. Why? Rebuilt French style houses, international restaurants, foreigners there: more than 50% and the Chinese seem to mainly visit the place where the Communist Party held its first national congress or to have a look at 'laowai's' / foreigners. The Shikumen musuem in one word: xing. Why? Shikumen is a unique architectural style in Shanghai like the Hutongs in Beijing and it's interesting to see how people used to live in Shanghai some time ago.