Preparations coming to a close…trying Tibet

My last days in Shanghai are slowly passing by. The last Chinese lession is done by running over my travel plans and teaching me place names and other useful vocabulary for on-the-road-use. I will miss the lessons… I ordered my flight ticket to QingDao (Sunday noon with China Eastern), which appeared to be an e-ticket, though I wanted to have a paper ticket. Well, is said to work great, so I don’t worry. I also have a reservation for a Youth Hostel in QingDao. Continue reading Preparations coming to a close…trying Tibet

Cultural Revolution

I was dropping by my local FamilyMart store for some cool drink in the upcoming Shanghai heat, queued up in front of the cash registers to wait for my turn, and was surely passed by some local Chinese with a small bottle and 3 Yuan in his hands, trying to short-cut me and being served first, holding his bottle to the shop assistant for scanning. Well…I am so used to it by now that I didn’t bother much. I was only thinking if I could collect enough Chinese words to give that guy some kind of address to think about on his way… I couldn’t come up with anything.

Continue reading Cultural Revolution

CDMA modem: Truely wireless with China Unicom

Today I finally bought a CDMA card. WLAN is great, but you require a WiFi hotspot, which can be cumbersome to chase if you are on travel. With CDMA, a mobile phone technology, you can dial into the internet whenever and wherever you want! China Unicom offers CDMA services in China for quite some while and is said to have the world’s largest CDMA network, including alliances with other country’s telecommunication providers. Not sure if that allows me to roam into other countries, probably not, and at the moment I am quite happy that it works for China. Continue reading CDMA modem: Truely wireless with China Unicom

Helping a Chinese in Shanghai

I’ve always been waiting for a chance to help a Chinese, just because so many Chinese had helped me here already with various matters, especially when it comes to reading and writing Chinese. But…I didn’t expect to get this chance in Shanghai and due to my English skills. Sitting outside at a Starbcks cafe, being approached by a Chinese usually means that they want to sell watches, handbags, or DVDs to you. So I am often very reserved talking to these guys. Continue reading Helping a Chinese in Shanghai

Haier W18: Sound and WLAN under Windows, Debian Etch, and Ubuntu Hardy Heron

I reported already that I had bought a Haier W18 notebook, a Chinese make, with which I am very happy. I have installed both Windows XP and Debian Linux Etch. Both installations presented the same two challenges: WLAN and Sound. All other hardware (this includes the wired LAN) has been identified correctly and did not require special treatment to work properly.
Continue reading Haier W18: Sound and WLAN under Windows, Debian Etch, and Ubuntu Hardy Heron

Germany Interlude

The fly-back started off so great…but continued quite disappointing. I had my last project fly-back, paid by my company, thus, Business Class, on 27-APR. The first time with China Eastern, which I in the beginning had some concerns with. But a word of a colleague proved true: They aren’t so long in the long haul business, their planes are brand-new. And so it was: Very comfortable and relaxing.

Arrived in Germany an hour late, but no issue, was still 6am. The sun started to raise into a cloud-less sky, the weather promised to become as great and hot as reported over weeks in the news. I made a very very good decision: I threw my suitcases into a corner of the room, briefly checked my racing bike, which I had not moved for 2.5 years, filled up some air into the tires, loaded 2 bottles with water, changed into some biking wear and off I went: At 7:30 I was cycling out of Frankfurt. Not much traffic yet, fairly chilly. But fresh clear air you never get in Shanghai. As soon as I left Frankfurt behind me I enjoyed nature pure, even saw rare birds (I believe one was a buzzard, another right beside the street was definitely a pheasant). I was pleased to note that my bike ran as smooth as ever and that I was still able to do 50km in a good 2 hours. πŸ˜‰ Continue reading Germany Interlude

Shanghai hen leng

Shanghai hΔ›n lΔ›ng!

Today was my first day of Chinese lessons! Well…at least of my second attempt to learn Chinese in class. This time with a lot moe motivation, a lot more time (3 mornings per week, 2.5 hours each), a lot better teacher and a lot more costly… πŸ˜‰ But it’s definitely worth the money as I think I can already judge after the first day. Certainly, I can’t tell if all teachers are that good, but if you need a professional language school in Shanghai (or Guangzhou as I just figure it when linking the web site), give iMandarin a try…OK, enough advertisment for them πŸ˜‰ Continue reading Shanghai hen leng