Asia, China

Service Culture

I saw it already quite often, whenever sitting in a restaurant or just ordering a coffee at Starbucks. But recently I had a talk with a Chinese colleague, who spent several years in Germany. And being pointed to it she confirmed my probably pretty western point of view:

It is about how to deal with service. I can remember very well that my mother tried hard to make me say “please” and “thank you” during my childhood. (Well, she actually tried to make me say “Bitte” and “Danke”, but it means the same… 😉 ) I cannot forget her pointing to the back of a public bus, which we one day happened to follow. On its left back side was a sticker. On it a car in red and a bus in green on the right side of the street at a bus stop. Attached to the bus was a big green arrow, which curved back on the street in front of the car. Meaning was clear: Please give way to busses pulling out of bus stops. And below that the word “Danke!”. Continue reading Service Culture →

Asia, China

Best of Press: Farmer banned from flying home-made plane

I am coming across funny newspaper articles every other day. Articles, which are likely meant to be serious, but shed an interesting light on China. So I think as a European at least.

And I thought, if I don’t have too much time to write articles, then let me share some with you from other sources. (Hope I don’t get into trouble copying them…)

Here’s one from today’s issue of Shanghai Daily.

The story is good for 2 reasons:

  1. The act as such: Who would do that in Europe? But it’s somehow cool!
  2. The reason given for intervention: There are many reasons stated, all of them completely obvious to me, which is one of the reasons why I never made a plane myself at home. (Hey, as a small boy I did dream of that!)Chinese might seem to need this detailed explanation, however, to understand why home-made planes need to be banned.

Farmer banned from flying home-made plane

Li Xinran

2006-07-24

THE Zhejiang provincial branch of China’s aviation industry has launched an investigation into a farmer-turned pilot, who flew his home-made plane earlier this month, Qianjiang Evening News reported yesterday. The authority said “do-it-yourself” aircrafts are banned from flying in China’s skies.

Xu Bin, the farmer-turned pilot, kicked off a 25-minute test flight in his 30,000 yuan (US$3,750) airplane in Quzhou, eastern China’s Zhejiang Province, at about 3pm on July 8.

Reaching an average height of 50 meters, Xu reportedly accomplished a series of maneuvers, including dives and sudden swerves.

Having heard of the flight via local media reports, Zhejiang aviation authorities immediately launched an investigation, and discovered that Xu did not register his flight, which breached the Aviation Law of China and several other relevant regulations. They banned Xu from making any future flights.

Home-made planes may face hidden safety problems, which are very dangerous to pilots, passengers and people in the vicinity. If the plane loses control, it may cause a terrible accident, so the government won’t allow any unapproved flights and will strictly handle the breach to protect citizens and their assets, said Wang Jian, the vice director of the flight criteria department in the Zhejiang office of the CAAC.

Xu made the 130 kilogram plane with an engine he purchased from a Website. The cockpit seats were taken from a car as well as the DIY frame and other components.

Copyright © 2001-2005 Shanghai Daily Company

Categories: Shanghai

Originally Created: 07/24/2006 04:29:00 PM

Last Edited: 07/24/2006

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? →

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