Category Archives: China

China, mainland and others (Tibet, Hongkong, Macau…)

Asia, China

Century Park

Another advantage of the new appartment is the close location to Shanghai’s largest park, Century Park. I skate around it if I’m up for some long-distance skating. And this weekend we eventually visited it.

Most parts of the park are grouped around a large lake in the middle. There are also other small creeks throughout the park, so that–typically Chinese–there is lot’s of water around. A design I still very much like. On most of these waters it is possible to go by hired boat. Continue reading Century Park →

Asia, China

Appartment Ding Xiang Lu / Cooking

Appartent Ding Xiang Lu

As I had introduced my first appartment in “Royal Garden” (RG), I should also describe our new one. Other than the one in RG, this here is privately organized, no longer by the company. The story behind that is long and has mostly to do with the fact, that RG was pretty much far away from everything. Some people wanted to get closer to the project site (those, who have weekly or bi-weekly flybacks to their families), a few others wanted to get closer to the city (those with 4 flybacks per year). I was one of them who wanted to live closer to the city to have a better chance to get in there on the weekends. In the end, 4 people arranged for 2 appartments, which they shared. So I now share our appartment with a colleague. It was actually him who did all the research work and visited the appartments as I was on training and flyback during this time. When I came back to Shanghai the new appartment was already rented and my old one (with all my stuff still in!) handed over to the next colleague. Many thanks, Don did a great job! Continue reading Appartment Ding Xiang Lu / Cooking →

Asia, China

Xiamen – 3. Day: Botanical Garden

For today, I had planned to pay the Botanical Garden a visit and then go on through the neighbouring mountains, maybe down to Nanputuo Temple. Well, it turned out that the Botanical Garden was less Botanical and less Garden after all, but more like park. I spend a good 4 hours there and didn’t see everything. But as I got up late and wanted to be back early to catch the flight, it made up my day.

It was worth it, definitely. It has an AAAA rating for some good reason. Continue reading Xiamen – 3. Day: Botanical Garden →

Asia, China

Xiamen – 2. Day: Gulangyu Island

Western Breadkfast Buffet

….hm, that’s something I haven’t enjoyed for quite some time. OK, the masochists amongst us could certainly still go with rice soup, fried noodles, dumplings and the like. But the enjoyers went for omelet, müsli, baked ham and beans, juices (unfortunately not fresh), fruits and the like. And the coffee was actually drinkable.
Tomorrow again!
Continue reading Xiamen – 2. Day: Gulangyu Island →

Asia, China

Xiamen – 1. Day: Promenades and Parks

Before we start with Xiamen, a nice small city at Chinas south-east coast, let’s revisit today’s China Daily, an 8-page-only edition due to Chinas national holiday week. Just because it’s fun to sit in a four-star western-style hotel in a by far not overcrowded good-looking hotel bar, with actually really good live music, be looked after by very attentive staff, enjoying cool Tsingtao, and reading:

    Sites overflowing with holiday visitors…”The torrent of people is 10 times what it normally is”….56,100 people visited the Forbidden City on Saturday, exceeding its maximum capacity by 12 per cent…huge cowds of tourists have also put the nations’s transport system to the test…the three subway stops near TianAnMen Square were closed…due to overcrowding.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, come to Xiamen! There is lots of empty space! You’re not alone, but you’ll find deserted areas if you have need for them! Continue reading Xiamen – 1. Day: Promenades and Parks →

Asia, China

Grammar

“Du” vs. “Dich”

A real life chat log of today:

[13:33] Birger: 今日暑天

[13:37] Friend: wowowow

[15:40] Friend: ich mag kochen 😀

[15:52] Friend: dich mag nicht chicken feet

[15:52] Friend: 😉

[15:59] Birger: 🙂

[16:01] Birger: Unfortunately, our Grammar is more complex…without good reason, as I apparently understood you well. But correct would be:

“Du magst Hühner-Füße nicht.” oder, besser, “Du magst keine Hühner-Füße.”

[16:02] Birger: Ill-thinking people could, based on “dich”, interpret it the other way round: “Chicken feet do not like you” 😉

[16:15] Friend: u mean dich mag nicht chicken feet=Chicken feet do not like you?

[17:01] Birger: I mean: Can be interpreted as such. It’s not a correct sentence.

[17:01] Birger: But the form “dich” is used to express, TO WHOM something happens (so-called accusative case).

[17:01] Birger: While “du” is used to express, WHO DOES something.

[17:02] Birger: (nominative case)

[17:04] Birger: The Chinese language regulates that (to my knowledge) mostly with the position in the sentence:

Wo xihuan Chicken-feet [“du” case]

or

Chicken-feet xihuan Wo [“dich” case]

Wow, that’s Birger-grammar

[17:04] Birger: 😉

[17:06] Birger: Well, I just noticed I left out a few bu’s (不) here…

[17:07] Birger: And should have replaced wo with ni….well, I still need to practice Chinese a bit…

[17:07] Birger:

Ni bu xihuan Chicken-feet [“du” case]

Chicken-feet bu xihuan ni [“dich” case]

[17:09] Friend: Ich mag dich gramma

[17:10] Friend: Du gramma sounds interesting

[17:12] Friend: oh, should i replace mag with magst?

[17:22] Birger: No, was correct:

“Ich mag”

“Du magst”

“Er/sie/es mag”

“Wir mögen”

“Ihr mögt”

“Sie mögen”

🙂

But “Deine Grammatik”, instead of “Du Grammar” 😉

[17:23] Birger: Ah, maybe I got what you thought wrong….

[17:23] Friend: german magst complicated lauguage

[17:24] Birger: You can say:

“Ich mag dich.”

“Du magst mich”

But

“Ich mag deine Grammatik”

[17:25] Birger: German IS a complicated language when you come from Chinese and English.

It’s simple if you come from, hm, Latin, Russian, or some other easter European languages

[17:26] Friend: ok, can’t change that

[17:26] Friend: but ich mag german, du magst chinese?

[17:26] Birger: genau!

[17:28] Friend: but i am not sure whether german mag mir, or chinese magst dir 😉

[17:29] Birger: well, me neither…

[17:30] Friend: hehe

Added 10-Oct: Ja/Nein

[17:51] Friend: ich bin serious!!

[17:52] Birger: Du meinst das ernst?

[17:54] Friend: genau!

[17:55] Friend: ich meine

[17:55] Birger: That’s again a very Chinese way of saying ‘Yes’. 😉

[17:56] Friend: warrum?

[18:01] Birger: Chinese sentence structure (sorry don’t get that in Chinese now that quicky):

question: 你去上海吗? Ni qu Shanghai ma?

Anwer: 我去! Wo qu!

English:

Q: You’re going to Shanghai?

A: Yes. […I will go]

german the same:

Q: Du gehst nach Shanghai?

A: Ja. […ich werde gehen]

We answer primaril with Ja/Nein. The additional part […I will go] is optional.

Chinese, however, usually repeats the verb like you just did.

[18:02] Friend: got it

[18:03] Birger: We westerners struggle quite a bit with the fact that the Chinese language has no simple “Yes” or “No”! 😉

[18:03] Friend: ahh??!!

[18:06] Birger: Probably closest comes 是 / 不是. But it would be the wrong answer above:

question: 你去上海吗? Ni qu Shanghai ma?

answer: 是! Shi!

(according to my books that’s wrong, or at least unexpected)

Categories: Shanghai

Originally Created: 09/19/2005 12:39:54 PM
Last Edited: 10/10/2005

Asia, China

Skater’s Paradise

1 Comment

No news since we got a new pope…and the news about him diminshed a bit. That’s mostly due to too much work, my usual complain (I mean, the few updates here, not the popes sinking into the no-news-corner). However, the bit of spare time that’s still left I rather like to spend somewhere outside the appartment (which, by the way, is a new one, I hope I can write about that one soon) than in front of my laptop. I did experience some really nice weekends, which I would have to report about here, even lots of new pictures, but you know… Continue reading Skater’s Paradise →