Category Archives: China

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

Asia, China

The Heavy Rains of Shanghai

I know for quite some time, even before I came here, that Shanghai has something like a “rain season”. Last year all of us Germans tried to figure out from the locals when exactly is that rain season. Rain seasons in other countries are quite predictable due to local and regional weather phenomenons. The Shanghai rain season is either unpretictable or the locals don’t care…we didn’t find out in advance but only when it started raining. Continue reading The Heavy Rains of Shanghai →

Asia, China

Sunset Sports Bar

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You might have heard that there is something like a Soccer World Championship somewhere, well, you may find hints on FIFAworldcup.com.

Recently, a bar named “Sunset Sports Bar” opened very close to my appartment. Just fall out of the south gate, turn right and there you are: A brand new bar, which tries with a couple of flags taped to the ceiling and some pretty fake cups to create something like a sports bar atmosphere. It wouldn’t work on a brand-new bar. It needs a bit of patina for that atmosphere to come up. And that old a Shanghai bar rarely becomes. Never mind, it’s a sports bar, it has beer, burgers, and large video screens, it’s just around the corner, and the staff is very friendly and understands a good bit of English. Hey man, what else could you ever want in Pudong? Continue reading Sunset Sports Bar →

Asia, China

Am I Deaf?

I am walking with a colleague through Wai Gao Qiao, that remote free trade zone at the outskirts of Shanghai where our project is located, on the way to our usual lunch location. We have to cross a large intersection, which leads directly to one of the main gates to the area, through which large trucks keep passing through. In the end, someone has to move all these freely traded goods, isn’t it? Quite a change over the centuries, given the fact that in earlier dynasties pure merchants where not well esteemed, actually had few or no rights as they were thought of not adding value as long as they would not produce any goods. But that’s long ago and not my issue. Chinese trade like hell nowadays.

Continue reading Am I Deaf? →

Asia, China

8 Treasures Rice – 八宝饭

2 days ago a Shanghainese friend gave me a deep-frozen disc, apparently made from rice. Before packing it into my backpack I also noted some colored sprinkles on it, said decently “Thank you” (or maybe Xiexie) and forgot about it for a while. We spend the day shopping. Back home I put the rice disc into the fridge. Only then, via messenger, finding out what it actually was: Continue reading 8 Treasures Rice – 八宝饭 →

Asia, China

Hiking in Yellow Mountains (黄山)

A few weeks ago already colleague organized a hiking tour in the famous Yellow Mountains. It was 2 days of hiking with the night camping in tents somewhere inbetween. So although it was not a long treck (at least compared to other hiking tours I’ve done like Monte Rosa or Kilimanjaro 😉 ) we still had to carry quite a lot of stuff. Continue reading Hiking in Yellow Mountains (黄山) →