Pitty or not, but again I did not see fabulous fireworks during the Chinese New Year festivities. Partly due to the fact that I was too lazy to travel into the city and then, after watching around, fight with thousands of people for dozens of taxis. So I stayed home also during the 2 nights, during which fireworks should be most dramatic: The actual New Year’s night (this year from Saturday, 28-Jan to Sunday, 29-Jan) and five nights later (from Wednesday to Thursday) as this is the eve of the 5. day of the New Lunar Year, on which traditionally the money man is called with a lot of explosive to attract his attention and leave some money over the year. So while we westerners try to scare away evil daemons the Chinese try to get someones attention by doing fireworks!
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
Yet again “Happy New Year” and Century Park
And yet again (also see “Happy New Cold Year”) you everywhere here or read:
Xin Nian Kuai Le! – 新年快乐!
It’s Chinese New Year today, the first day of the Year of the Dog. Continue reading Yet again “Happy New Year” and Century Park
Happy New Cold Year
Xin Nian Kuai Le – 新年快乐
New Year Happy Happy, that’s it on Chinese. Maybe I should make it
Xin Nian Kuai Le Leng – 新年快乐冷
New Year Happy Happy Cold, that’s what it really is.
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)
Dusk
Today after breakfast I once again made my skating circle around Century Park, but this time armed with my camera, to take pictures of one of the great advantage of Shanghai’s air pollution: Fantastic sunset during dusk.* Continue reading Dusk
Cruel Culture
I have to think if I want to stay in such a cruel country as China:
While looking up a totally innocent character (司), Babylon also returned another one (which it sometimes does, don’t know why): Continue reading Cruel Culture
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
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
We’ll be famous!
Taking Movies
Today, I wanted to get some things done on the laptop (like describing hiking tours or weekend trips here…), the weather was nice, so I picked one of our 2 balconies (the ‘back’ one, which is a bit larger and does not feature the washing machine), sat down with a fresh cup of cappucchino, started my laptop, and watched the streets below me. Continue reading We’ll be famous!