Asia, China

Pool II and Intersection Warden

Pool Addendum

Today, above mentioned workers took care of the other half of the pool. And it seems that they learned their lesson: Again the night before some ice grew on the water’s surface. Not as much as before, but something. And they started their activities in the part of the pool which was hit by the sun first. No smashing of ice, no heaving of buckets, they could start with their mops and cleaning machines nearly right away! Some light at the end of the tunnel…
Continue reading Pool II and Intersection Warden →

Asia, China

About Taxis on Chinese, Fools, and Book Stores

I got up late today, some when in the middle of the day, as I worked late on an Update Notification mechanism for Sonux.net, soon to be released, but not yet ready… I saw bright sun shine and thought that I ought to have to go to down town again, where I haven’t been for quite some time.

Taxi I

As our Chinese teacher keeps insisting that we have to practice our Chinese a bit more in real life I decided to try my Chinese on taxi drivers today. I wrote down a couple of terms and street names (as so often, just writing it down helps remembering the phrases), ordered a taxi at the reception (that still in English) and were perfectly able to tell the taxi driver in a complete Chinese sentence that I want to go to People’s Square (“Wo you qu Ren Min Guangchang”, if anybody cares to try it himself). He repeated, I confirmed, and 20 minutes later I was there. Continue reading About Taxis on Chinese, Fools, and Book Stores →

Asia, China

Cleaning a Pool

Cheap Work Again

Today again another example of too cheap working resources…

Between our project site and the next building there is a pool with fountains. Its a very shallow one, just 10 centimetres in depth, tiled in light blue. But it covers a large rectangular area: About 100 meters long, 30 meters wide. It is cut into squares of about 10 meters width by the white bars, on which the fountain pipes sit. The beauty of that installation is arguable, but not our topic today. Continue reading Cleaning a Pool →

Asia, China

January

January 2005 nearly passed. And I thought that should not happen without a note here. That obviously proves, that my time available for updates is limited. I decided to do more web-log-like comments, i.e. less comprehensive reports about specific events like visits to far-away cities. I still have some 100+ pictures to review and place here. Beijing is still incomplete, Hong Kong and Bangkok still completely missing. That will take time…

But more brief comments about day-to-day life. As I’m here for work purposes some 80%+ of my time is project work, about which I won’t disclose details on a public web site. But still, there are a couple of small things, observations, which might be of interest. Continue reading January →

Asia, China

Beijing in 1 Day II: Beihai Park

Beijing in 1 Day II: Beihai Park

Note: All pictures starting with “br_” or “don_”, are again published by courtesy of Britta or Don respectively, xiexie nimen!

After exiting Forbidden City we decided to visit Beihai Park, only a 10 minutes walk away. Its most famous attraction is the White Pagoda, situated atop a small island within a lake, which again is surrounded by the park. Continue reading Beijing in 1 Day II: Beihai Park →

Asia, China

Beijing in 1 Day I: Forbidden City

Beijing in 1 Day I: Forbidden City

Note: All pictures starting with “br_” or “don_”, are again published by courtesy of Britta or Don respectively, xiexie nimen!

OK, imagine, for whatever weid reason you have exactly 1 day to spend in Beijing. What would you do? OK, let’s start with arriving: It’s just a two hour flight from Shanghai. We got on one served by China Air for about 50 EUR one way. Sitting in a comfortable 747, full, but lots of space even in the economomy class, friendly service, a warm snack, that’s kind of travelling… Continue reading Beijing in 1 Day I: Forbidden City →

Asia, China

Sightseeing III: Streets, Markets, Gardens

Shanghai Sightseeing III: Streets, Markets, Gardens

And here’s a collection of other areas we visited in Shanghai.

Streets

br_041023_333

br_041023_333: One of the many often-mentioned Art Deco buildings scattered between Old Town and Hungpu districts. And one of the nicer ones. I must admit that this cold grey kind of implementing Art Deco did not touch my soul. Days later I was explained and shown that Art Deco could also materialize itself in modern glass buildings and does have the capability to look nice. Continue reading Sightseeing III: Streets, Markets, Gardens →

Asian Past