After about 5 months I'm back home!
This is what happened the last days: Martin came to visit me and we did some sightseeing in Shanghai as well as a day trip to Hangzhou. If you are an attentive reader of my blog then you know I've already been there ;)! This time the weather was not as good but it was not as crowded as well!
Last Wednesday we had a farewell dinner in a nice rooftop bar and on Thursday I left Shanghai.
It feels very nice to be back but if course I still don't want to miss the great time I've had in China. If you have a chance to visit or travel China, go for it!
Enjoy the last pics!
再见, bye bye, and auf Wiedersehen :).
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Huang (Yellow) Shan (Mountains)
Last weekend I went to the Huang Shan mountains together with a colleague. It was amazing! These mountains are really astonishing. It's said that the movie Avatar got their ideas from these mountains. This was probably the first time the Western world copied something from China :). Anyway, even though we did a lot of climbing and hiking and I was therefore really tired on Sunday, the trip was definitely worth it.
If you are in China, don't miss the Yellow Mountains!
What's up next? I was working from Changzhou this week and will go back to Shanghai tomorrow. My brother will also arrive in Shanghai tomorrow and we'll spent the weekend together doing some sightseeing.
I hopefully post some more pics of that later, before I leave the country on June 9th.
再见 Zàijiàn!
If you are in China, don't miss the Yellow Mountains!
What's up next? I was working from Changzhou this week and will go back to Shanghai tomorrow. My brother will also arrive in Shanghai tomorrow and we'll spent the weekend together doing some sightseeing.
I hopefully post some more pics of that later, before I leave the country on June 9th.
再见 Zàijiàn!
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Three weeks full of surprises
Where are the pictures from Seoul? Wasn't there suppose to be an update in this blog every week? Well, I had some good reasons why I wasn't able to write. The last three weeks were full of surprises...negative and positive!
It all started on May 4th, three days before my planned departure to Seoul: My laptop bag was stolen during a client's dinner in Changzhou. Laptop, passport, and wallet (incl. credit cards) were gone! The guy that stole the bag was caught on camera (there is a camera in every corner of China ;), but the police was not able to find him.
Anyway, I took me two weeks to get everything organized: new Laptop, new passport, and getting access to my money again. I thought everything can be replaced but then I realized that all my pictures that I took in China were on that laptop! After one week of despair I found out that the pics were saved on a company backup (even though this backup usually doesn't allow to backup images). That really made my day!
There was another result of the theft: Since I have an emergency passport now I'll have to leave the country within 30 days. That means I'll go back home on June 9th! I'm pretty happy about this! Initially I should have stayed until the beginning of July and they wanted me to extend my stay until the end of November, but coming back in the beginning of June sounds just right. I'm quite happy to come back home!
So what's up in the remaining time? If nothing extraordinary happens I'll go to Huangshan next week to see the Yellow Mountains, which are supposed to be the most beautiful mountains in China. The weekend after, my brother Martin will visit me and I'll do my third round of sightseeing in Shanghai. I'll then leave Shanghai on June 9th and arrive back in Leipzig the next day. But just if everything goes as planned, of course :).
Below you can see some random pics from Shanghai and Changzhou, and a team event we had this weekend.
One last recommendation from my side: Backup everything, things can get lost faster than you think ;)!
It all started on May 4th, three days before my planned departure to Seoul: My laptop bag was stolen during a client's dinner in Changzhou. Laptop, passport, and wallet (incl. credit cards) were gone! The guy that stole the bag was caught on camera (there is a camera in every corner of China ;), but the police was not able to find him.
Anyway, I took me two weeks to get everything organized: new Laptop, new passport, and getting access to my money again. I thought everything can be replaced but then I realized that all my pictures that I took in China were on that laptop! After one week of despair I found out that the pics were saved on a company backup (even though this backup usually doesn't allow to backup images). That really made my day!
There was another result of the theft: Since I have an emergency passport now I'll have to leave the country within 30 days. That means I'll go back home on June 9th! I'm pretty happy about this! Initially I should have stayed until the beginning of July and they wanted me to extend my stay until the end of November, but coming back in the beginning of June sounds just right. I'm quite happy to come back home!
So what's up in the remaining time? If nothing extraordinary happens I'll go to Huangshan next week to see the Yellow Mountains, which are supposed to be the most beautiful mountains in China. The weekend after, my brother Martin will visit me and I'll do my third round of sightseeing in Shanghai. I'll then leave Shanghai on June 9th and arrive back in Leipzig the next day. But just if everything goes as planned, of course :).
Below you can see some random pics from Shanghai and Changzhou, and a team event we had this weekend.
One last recommendation from my side: Backup everything, things can get lost faster than you think ;)!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Shanghai, Beijing and Hangzhou!
Finally some time to write about what has happened during the last two weeks: Before and after the Formula One Race Thea and me did mainly sightseeing in Shanghai. We saw the famous Nanjing Road, visited the Shanghai museum and the Shanghai Exhibition Center, saw the Pudong side with the tall skyscrapers, went to a tiny part of the old Shanghai called Qibao and went to the beautiful Yuyuan Garden.
After three more days of Shanghai we took the overnight train to Beijing. After a 10 hour ride we arrived in the capital of China. We stayed at the Happy Dragon Hostel, which was really cozy with a nice bar, where we got to know quite a lot of people from all over the world. The first day we visited the Forbidden City, the Tienanmen Square and the Temple of Heaven Park. The second day we visited the Summer Palace, which is incredible! Beautiful landscape and a lot of old temples! On the third day we saw a part of the Chinese wall, which was probably the best part of our trip! It's hard to believe how huge that wall is and we only saw a little part of it! On the last day we saw the Lama temple and the Olympia Park.
After one last relaxing day one week ago Thea had to leave and I had to go back to work.
This weekend was a long weekend. Because the May Holiday was a Sunday we got another free day today! They should start doing that in Germany ;).
Anyway I went to Hangzhou on a day trip yesterday and it was...too crowded!! I've read in many travel guides that you should not travel on a Chinese holiday but this was the worst I've ever seen! The lake in Hangzhou itself is really beautiful but with 100,000 to 200,000 people around it, it simply doesn't feel as nice.
The rest of the week I'll be in Changzhou for work and the coming weekend I'll fly out to Seoul to (hopefully) get the right visa this time.
Enjoy the pics and stay tuned :).
Hangzhou:
Beijing:
Shanghai:
After three more days of Shanghai we took the overnight train to Beijing. After a 10 hour ride we arrived in the capital of China. We stayed at the Happy Dragon Hostel, which was really cozy with a nice bar, where we got to know quite a lot of people from all over the world. The first day we visited the Forbidden City, the Tienanmen Square and the Temple of Heaven Park. The second day we visited the Summer Palace, which is incredible! Beautiful landscape and a lot of old temples! On the third day we saw a part of the Chinese wall, which was probably the best part of our trip! It's hard to believe how huge that wall is and we only saw a little part of it! On the last day we saw the Lama temple and the Olympia Park.
After one last relaxing day one week ago Thea had to leave and I had to go back to work.
This weekend was a long weekend. Because the May Holiday was a Sunday we got another free day today! They should start doing that in Germany ;).
Anyway I went to Hangzhou on a day trip yesterday and it was...too crowded!! I've read in many travel guides that you should not travel on a Chinese holiday but this was the worst I've ever seen! The lake in Hangzhou itself is really beautiful but with 100,000 to 200,000 people around it, it simply doesn't feel as nice.
The rest of the week I'll be in Changzhou for work and the coming weekend I'll fly out to Seoul to (hopefully) get the right visa this time.
Enjoy the pics and stay tuned :).
Hangzhou:
Beijing:
Shanghai:
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Formula One Race Shanghai
Thea arrived on Thursday night and I already had the chance to show her a lot of Shanghai. We went to the Bund and the Old Town on Friday and went to the Shanghai Museum and the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition (which shows you a model of the future Shanghai in 2020) on Saturday.
Sunday we had the great chance to see the Formula One Race at the Shanghai International Circuit. It was really cool and a lot more exciting than an F1 race on TV. As you might know Vettel didn't win, but after being first in the first two races of the season the second place wasn't too bad. You can see some pics below.
Today we went to Qibao, a part of Shanghai where you can see some old buildings of Shanghai and to the Yu Yuan garden, which was quite nice.
Tomorrow we are going to climb the 3rd highest building in the world - the Shanghai World Financial Center (492 m)...well OK maybe the elevator is going to help us with that ;).
Wednesday evening we are going to start our trip to Beijing with an overnight train. We are going to arrive there on Thursday morning and leave by plane on Sunday night.
It's definitely going to be an exciting week!
Enjoy your week, wherever you are!
Sunday we had the great chance to see the Formula One Race at the Shanghai International Circuit. It was really cool and a lot more exciting than an F1 race on TV. As you might know Vettel didn't win, but after being first in the first two races of the season the second place wasn't too bad. You can see some pics below.
Today we went to Qibao, a part of Shanghai where you can see some old buildings of Shanghai and to the Yu Yuan garden, which was quite nice.
Tomorrow we are going to climb the 3rd highest building in the world - the Shanghai World Financial Center (492 m)...well OK maybe the elevator is going to help us with that ;).
Wednesday evening we are going to start our trip to Beijing with an overnight train. We are going to arrive there on Thursday morning and leave by plane on Sunday night.
It's definitely going to be an exciting week!
Enjoy your week, wherever you are!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Hong Kong!
Hong Kong is really cool! I think I like it a lot better than Shanghai, mainly because people are more open, there is a lot more parks and nature and the city is not as huge as Shanghai.
On Monday, after arriving in our funny hostel rooms (my room was about 4 square meters) we mainly visited the northern part of Hong Kong (Kowloon) and on Tuesday we saw the southern part (Hong Kong island), including the Victoria Peak, where you can have a beautiful view of Hong Kong.
As you might see, it was quite cloudy but it could have been worse. The only downside was that the weather was a lot better on Wednesday and Thursday where I had to work...
Anyway, we had a great time in Hong Kong and I highly recommend it to anyone who has a chance to go there.
Oh by the way the reason I actually went to Hong Kong, getting my visa extension didn't exactly work out as expected. As a result I'll have to leave China again within the next 30 days. I'll probably go to South Korea since it's not so far.
This week I'll work until Thursday and will be on vacation from Friday April 15th until Monday April 25th. Thea will come on Thursday night and we'll have 10 days to spend together including a trip to Bejing the week after this week. I'm really looking forward to this and will of course post some pics later.
Have a great Sunday!
On Monday, after arriving in our funny hostel rooms (my room was about 4 square meters) we mainly visited the northern part of Hong Kong (Kowloon) and on Tuesday we saw the southern part (Hong Kong island), including the Victoria Peak, where you can have a beautiful view of Hong Kong.
As you might see, it was quite cloudy but it could have been worse. The only downside was that the weather was a lot better on Wednesday and Thursday where I had to work...
Anyway, we had a great time in Hong Kong and I highly recommend it to anyone who has a chance to go there.
Oh by the way the reason I actually went to Hong Kong, getting my visa extension didn't exactly work out as expected. As a result I'll have to leave China again within the next 30 days. I'll probably go to South Korea since it's not so far.
This week I'll work until Thursday and will be on vacation from Friday April 15th until Monday April 25th. Thea will come on Thursday night and we'll have 10 days to spend together including a trip to Bejing the week after this week. I'm really looking forward to this and will of course post some pics later.
Have a great Sunday!
Sunday, April 3, 2011
From Sightseeing to Medical Checkup
This week was quite busy. We stayed in Changzhou until Friday and had another day of work in Shanghai yesterday. Today I packed all my stuff for Hong Kong and was hoping I could show you some funny videos that I've shot. But I didn't find time to edit the videos so you will just have to wait for that until later.
So what's going on in Hong Kong? I'm basically going there to extend my current visa. Hong Kong is not part of the mainland China and therefore considered "abroad" even though it belongs to Greater China.
Since we have a national holiday tomorrow and on Tuesday I'll basically spend the next two days sightseeing in Hong Kong. A colleague and her friend will also join me. Wednesday and Thursday when the authorities are open in Hong Kong I'll apply for my work visa and also work during these days. I'll fly back on Thursday night.
On Friday I'll have my medical checkup at a Chinese hospital...of course they want to make sure that I'm healthy enough to work in China ;)...anyway I think this will be a pretty interesting week and will definitely show you some pics later!
Enjoy your Sunday and have a nice week!
So what's going on in Hong Kong? I'm basically going there to extend my current visa. Hong Kong is not part of the mainland China and therefore considered "abroad" even though it belongs to Greater China.
Since we have a national holiday tomorrow and on Tuesday I'll basically spend the next two days sightseeing in Hong Kong. A colleague and her friend will also join me. Wednesday and Thursday when the authorities are open in Hong Kong I'll apply for my work visa and also work during these days. I'll fly back on Thursday night.
On Friday I'll have my medical checkup at a Chinese hospital...of course they want to make sure that I'm healthy enough to work in China ;)...anyway I think this will be a pretty interesting week and will definitely show you some pics later!
Enjoy your Sunday and have a nice week!
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