Tag Archives: Shanghai

Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou

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I’m sorry I didn’t write for so long, but for I can’t easily upload to my blog and I was really busy I didn’t found the time to write. But its really a good sign, I had a good time in Shanghai after my hard start!

Unfortunately I still can’t upload any pictures. The chinese use a great App similar to WhatsApp but with even more features. You can for example share photos there and video chat. The video chat is working better with a bad connection than Skype! If any of you guys like to check it out and have a look at my pictures, just download the english version of WeChat and look for my WeChat ID Yezariael. I would be pleased to see any of you guys there!

Its soon end of the month and I already packed for my transfer to Beijing. Its similar when I packed last month. I just got used to Shanghai and the life here and now I have to move again. Maybe one month is too short planned after all! After my sickness and some starting problems I had a real nice stay in Shanghai. First I still felt a little lost for I didn’t know anybody again in the new city and my chinese friend from Switzerland visiting Shanghai unfortunately didn’t have much time to hang out for she had to work a lot, the poor thing! But the one night we went to a real Shanghainese restaurant will be unforgettable for me! We tried a lot of traditional Shanghainese dishes that evening. Shanghainese like their food sweet, so everything tastes a little sweet. Even the meat or the fish! I think this is really special!Shanghai really is a very big, modern and international city! You can see many foreigners here, so I don’t feel so misplaced and actually it feels pretty familiar although it has the very typical signs of chinese south culture like people driving on small and very old vehicles loaded so full that the things are over their head. I always found that funny!But there are really too many people here! But someone told me its even worse in Beijing! The subway is so full in the morning that you have to squeeze in somehow, no air to breathe left and you surely can’t fall even if you can’t grap anything, so don’t worry about that! If anyone of you guys has to use the S12 from Winterthur to Zurich every day, forget it, in comparison its like the S12 would be empty! I wouldn’t believed it but there is a park in Shanghai that is even more crowded! My teacher told me about and she told me that there are more people than in the subway even on work days. I really didn’t believe it and had to see for myself. But yes, at Gucun park on a Tuesday afternoon there are more people than in the subway! I have no idea how people can still enjoy the park like this for I couldn’t and left soon again.Also some chinese girls tried to get me into a teahouse. This is a well known trick fortunately described on wikitravel to get tourists into a teahouse and leave them with an exorbitant bill! They did this really clever, I nearly fall from them. They asked me to take a photo of them first and offered to take one of me. Then the one girl said she is a local and the other one her friend visiting. She will show her an ancient tea ceremony and if I would like I could join them. I said I wanted to go to Yuyuan garden, but she told me its closed over lunch time, which wasn’t true. For I was feeling really lonely that time and they were so nice I really wanted to go but then reminded myself of what was written on wikitravel. Later I saw them still hanging out on the same spot in front of the subways station trying to get other tourists, so I knew I was write about not joining them. But Yuyuan garden is very beautiful! My teacher then told me that there are many more gardens in Suzhou, really ancient, big and beautiful ones.So on one weekend I managed to book a trip both to Suzhou and Hangzhou, two cities nearby Shanghai and worth the trip! I’m now getting better in buying train tickets and I really like chinese trains for they are very on time, I would even say on the minute! Suzhou is a wonderful city! I arrived in the afternoon and unfortunately my mobile internet didn’t work so first I went completely wrong and then it was almost too late to visit anything. I somehow thought I could manage to visit three cities on the weekend and that a afternoon would be enough for Suzhou for it is very nearby to Shanghai. But my teacher already told me to stay overnight, for it is worth it. Unfortunately I didn’t go back to my place after the lesson but directly on the train for my place is really far away from the subway station. Like this I didn’t bring anything for staying overnight. I visited one garden and was so pleased I called a hostel recommended on wikitravel and reserved a bed. Then I went to the famous street where all the tourists linger. A very beautiful spot with small rivers and old buildings. I found the hostel very quick, a small one, charming, nice people and met a chinese girl who once worked at Suzhou and just came back for a visit. I could accompagny her and for it was a very warm and beautiful night we took a walk through the city and to the wall. I enjoyed this very much! I even tried chicken feet, but I didn’t like it so much. All the chinese keep telling me that this is so yummy but I just don’t like to pull out the bones so much and I still think its kind of weird to eat the chickens feet.Chinese are really very nice! The girl invited me for some snacks, I always feel a little uncomfortable, but she insisted. Chinese girls always link arms with each other, this seems very normal and any I got to know did also so to me. For as I am a Swiss and used to keep the distance to other people I first found this a little strange but actually its really nice and charming and they all do that.I left early the next morning leaving some money in the cats jar. The hostel had a lot of cats and a jar to give money for buying food for them. The hostel really was very cute! And next to one of those small rivers really close to that one street! I visited three more gardens but when it started to rain in the afternoon and got really cold I went back to Shanghai.

On sunday I took a train to Hangzhou. It is a little more far away than Suzhou. Suzhou is half an hour and Hangzhou about an hour. I woked up so early I could easily take a train. The place to visit in Hangzhou is Xihu lake. A very beautiful spot! Also pretty crowded but still bearable. I walked around the whole lake but had to walk back on one side for I took a wrong way which would had led through a military zone I wasn’t allowed to pass. But the military told me very nice and asked where I’m from. It also started to rain heavily in the afternoon so I had to take shelter for some time but still managed to finish my walk around the lake. The whole took me about 5 hours. Then I visited a culture street but with the heavy rain this was really no fun anymore so I went for dinner and back to Shanghai after that. 

For my trip to Suzhou I didn’t book the ticket back before which was no problem at all. I could easily get a ticket back on the next day. For my trip to Hanzhou I luckily booked the ticket back for there were also some trains fully booked already on the morning. So its always wise to book your return ticket if you want to return at a specific time.

My chinese got really a lot better this month thanks to my great teacher. I understand now a lot better and more and can also speak better. I noticed on a dinner with my landlady. She had a friend for visit and they cooked together. Also an other friend came for dinner and I could join them. They all talked chinese in pretty normal speed and I understood pretty much, so I was very happy about that and enjoyed the dinner a lot! My landlady also took me to one of her Yoga lessons. It was a little different from what I know but I recognized most of the figures but I really couldn’t understand the teacher. The lesson was great but I had hell of sore muscles the other day for I didn’t do any Yoga this year!

Now I can even order chinese food in restaurants without pictures on the menu for I can read some of the chinese dishes and also know some of them. I can order noodles with beef, as soup or fried and this is also my favorite food. There are always some chinese cooking on the street, you can get a lot of snacks and I really love those little street cooks! First I was a bit afraid of buying food from them for I wasn’t sure if it would be clean or good, but the chinese also eat it and where many chinese eat it can’t be bad after all. In Suzhou there are many snacks and I tried out several of them. I really like the traditional chinese food! On my subway station there is a small car selling Baozi. A big kind of dumpling with either meet or vegetable filling. This is my usual breakfast and you can also get soup or soy milk with it if you want to. I really love warm soy milk! The guys selling it are always nice and smiling, they are my sunshine on the morning! I really hope I have something similar in Beijing!Of course I also went to Huangpu river and the bund. I wouldn’t have missed seeing the bund at night, its very beautiful! Of course a lot of tourists there! I heard even german speaking several times and spoke once with a group of germans. And you should go to Tian zi Fang if you are in Shanghai, its a very nice place with many stores and handicraft things, the best place to buy some presents for your relatives! 

On my last week here I even managed to see one of the chinese girls again I met at the hostel in Guangzhou. Actually the other one wanted to give me the tour in Suzhou, but unfortunately on Sunday and for I really hadn’t any clothes with me and just bought a toothbrush and paste and I also wanted to go to Hangzhou on Sunday I told her I couldn’t. But would have been very nice of course if she could’ve given me the tour! The first girl lived in Shanghai but I wasn’t sure about that and didn’t contact her, stupid me! She contacted me this week and we went out for dinner together, it was a great night, I enjoyed very much talking to her. It was as we would know each other for years! And I really enjoy any time I get some company for I’m on my own most of the time!

I also bought some books my teacher recommended to me in this last week for I really love books and want to start reading chinese novels although my chinese still isn’t good enough for that. But I wouldn’t be able to buy chinese books so easily again. I sent the books, my sleeping bag and some clothes with a parcel to Beijing today for I don’t have that heavy luggage and will send it to Switzerland from Beijing when I bought all the presents. My teacher and my landlord helped me with that. Now I already packed and will go on for some more travelling on the weekend and then arrive on monday in Beijing. I’m really very curious about the city! And I hope my WLAN there is much better then here for I can’t really skype well with the people from home or update my blog proper! So hopefully write to you again from Beijing! Take care until then!

No lucky start in Shanghai so far

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I didn’t blog for a long time for I couldn’t make any connection to my blog since I arrived in Shanghai. Unfortunately the Wifi at my place is really bad I can also hardly skype with my friends from home, so I’m pretty cut off. Today I managed to publish from my mobile phone over the mobile connection. That’s actually not what I was hoping for but better than nothing. Unfortunately I cannot upload much with that connection either so I can’t show you any pictures right now, I hope you understand that.First it actually was a good start in the new city or seemed at least to be. I already knew that it was still pretty cold in Shanghai and I sent my sleeping bag with a courier to Shanghai so it arrived even before me. Unfortunately because of Chinese New Year the courier just started to work and didn’t want to transport my heater for they were afraid it could break and they didn’t have any wrapping material at the moment. Therefore I sent my heater on the slow trail by the chinese post. I had some nice and warm last days in Shenzhen in company of my teacher and some of here friends. She invited me in her home which was great honour for me and we climbed a small mountain together with her friends. I still would say that it was a hill, but it was a little bit taller than the one I climbed in Guangzhou. At the end of the month I was pretty said to leave, for I finally managed to get around somehow and I really enjoyed the weather! Especially to say goodbye to my teacher was pretty hard for we spent a lot time together, saw each other every day and became really good friends!Nevertheless I had to pack my bags and take my flight to Shanghai where someone from the school should pick me up. I left pretty early to the airport, ate lunch there and checked in in time. I also had absolutely no problem with my big overweight for I booked another 10 kilo on the phone with help of a chinese friend before and so I was pretty satisfied sitting in the waiting hall. And sitting. And sitting. The plane was delayed and no one could tell us for how long. I wrote a message to my contact that the plane was delayed just the moment when they called us. I wrote another message for I thought, we would just leave now, but unfortunately this was false alarm. They just gave us some snack for we had to wait even longer. I tried to send another message, but this didn’t work anymore and I was pretty sure that I had no money left on the SIM card. But I absolutely needed to contact the person again! I run through the airport looking for a shop to recharge the SIM and found one, but a chinese credit card was neede, which I didn’t had. Luckily they could provide me one and I could pay cash. Problem solved. The plane still didn’t arrive, that’s what happens when you book your flight with a cheap airline! 1,5 hours later the plane finally showed up and left pretty quick the ground. I sat in the first row, I never sat there before! It was a pretty nice and quick flight, about 2 hours and we also got dinner. During the flight I read about Shanghai and learned my vocabulary. A guy from staff had to present a lot of things you could buy and do some gymnastics at the end of the flight with us.When landed I already had a message from my contact, that he was all in red today and a little fat. I thought it was very funny that he introduced himself as fat. As I suspected he wasn’t really fat but maybe not so thin as the majority of the chinese people. He was big, really all in red and had a huge smile! I was actually pretty glad that he was so big for he handled my overweight luggage very easily through the subway. The subway was pretty full and he warned me that on normal days you couldn’t even fall down or breathe in the subway, because there were so many people squeezing in! I took it on the light shoulder and replied that like this I could at least get my free hugs a day. He was surprised that there was a person even more optimistic than him. Actually I don’t think I’m really such an optimistic person! He really seemed to think that there were too many people in the city. For he was a local he was surely right about that and I was a little concerned for I had to use the subway every day and the subway is still the only thing I can use without problems!We had to change the subway line and for that we had to leave the subway and walk a good way to the other line. I wasn’t used to that from Shenzhen or Guangzhou where you could always switch lines within the subway and didn’t have to walk over ground. Also there were many stairs and my poor contact carried my luggage up and down. I’m not sure if I would have done that so easily! At the end we took a taxi from the station to my host but the driver didn’t know the address! Luckily my contact could call my host and she told him the direction so the driver could find the place. It was already getting dark when I arrived my new place to stay for this month. The lady was already waiting for us, a woman about my age, she seemed very nice, had cooked dinner for me and showed me my room. I was happy I could eat the dumplings and I liked my room at once for I finally I had something like a wardrobe! It was actually a wardrobe out of cotton, we normally use similar on the attic to store away clothes. I had a big desk with many drawers, but a small bed. She told me she gave me the room where one could learn better. The other room had a bigger bed but only a very small desk and was better to sleep than to learn in. For the first time I could really take all my stuff out of my luggage and put it into the wardrobe and the drawers of the desk. That felt good and I felt like arriving much better. Also the air condition had a heating function and the room was already pretty warm when I arrived. My sleeping bag also arrived before me so I wouldn’t have a big problem for the night. My landlady already spoke chinese with me but she could also speak very well English and seemed be willing to talk with me. My chinese friend from Switzerland would come to Shanghai soon and also another contact from school promised me to show me around in the city. So I thought this month everything would be better!

So I thought …

So I hoped, but that wasn’t really the case. I went to school for the first two days. I had again private lessons for they didn’t find enough people on my level, but less private hours than in Shenzhen, I have no idea why, maybe they miscalculated the time in Shenzhen and I had too much lessons then, I don’t know. The calculation they made in Shanghai, seemed right, I just didn’t understand, why it was different than before. The building of the school was very close and warm and had great toilets so I liked it from first sight, but unfortunately we couldn’t stay there for they had too much students at the moment. Too much students, but still none on my level for my group lesson, hmm. Maybe that was when it started. They wanted us to have lessons at my place, but my place was very far from the subway station, the room to small for lessons and the living room as cold as a fridge so I really didn’t want to have lessons there. They proposed another location, but now I have to switch subway lines in between and like this I loose a lot of time.My new teacher is very different from my last one and I needed to adapt to the new teaching style. She mostly teached beginners before as she told me. But actually I was pretty happy about the slow tempo so I could review everything again that I learned and going really deep into prononciation and how to build the sentences. So I think this will help me to get on. But after my very friendly last teacher where we got so close it seemed sure to be another type of relation with much more distance, that was at least how it felt for me at the start for we kept addressing each other very formal and I was calling her teacher, which is actually normal for a teacher pupil relation. Its just different from before, thats why I was a bit sad at the beginning. The real misery started in the night to the third day, two o’clock in the morning. The day and especially the evening was actually really good. I was feeling so comfortable at my new place I put on my jogging shoes and went out for a run. It wasn’t even so cold on that day, about 13 degrees and I run pretty far, about 9 km in an hour. That was actually pretty good for I hadn’t been on a run for the last three months! It was also very close to my normal pace so I was very happy after that. I warmed up some noodles the landlady left for me in the fridge and took a shower. This time the shower is separate in the bathroom as I’m used to which is much better than in Shenzhen, but unfortunately it takes a lot time before there’s warm water and the water isn’t really very warm. So it’s more like taking a warm shower with not much water in a fridge!But I had got my own towel and some food so it seemed like I didn’t have to buy everything on my own this month. I skyped home and was in a real good mood and like this I went to bed pretty late about midnight. Two hours later I woke up with severe sickness, pain in the stomach and I’m pretty sure I had high fever for I was freezing so much inside my sleeping bag with three blankets on top that I put on a second trouser, a second sweater and even my winter coat! I stayed awake until the morning and wrote my teacher that I wouldn’t make it to the lesson for I was sick. After that I could finally sleep and slept the whole day. I was to weak to eat, drink or stay on my feet so I simply stayed in my bed and slept whereas it felt more like being in a coma. My teacher wrote me she would accompagny me to the hospital if necessary but I was afraid I was too weak to go anywhere. I was also to afraid of fanting in the icy living room, so I didn’t tell my landlady for I didn’t know when she was around. The second night I sweated some of the fever out but still felt not good at all so I stayed home another day and another day. My teacher was concerned about me and brought me some chinese medicine and breakfast on the second day. I was very happy about that for I really didn’t made it anywhere. I still couldn’t tell my landlady and had a little bad feeling about that she might wonder why my teacher brings me the pills. I’m sure she wondered a little, but after my teacher visited me, she cooked me some food. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to eat anything but the baozi my teacher brought me. I just ate noodles for the next days I cooked myself and some porridge the landlady cooked for me. The one time I tried to eat something else my stomach hurt again and I felt immediately sick again.On saturday, the fourth day of my illness, I went outside for a little walk and bought some basic things like shower gel. I felt like an old lady and walked even slower than the people from the south of china (they really walk very slowly!). And I was exhausted very fast. Right now its much better, I also went to school again, but I still don’t feel all right now. My stomach still hurts and today I suddenly felt sick again after eating a sandwich, so I don’t think I fully recovered. I also had some strange rash and got pretty paranoid if there are any bed bugs now. At least I didn’t see any bugs or cockroaches, but bed bugs are too small to see and for most bugs it’s just too cold right now, but in my room it’s actually pretty warm. This first week in Shanghai was really no good start! I didn’t see anything so far and I didn’t go anywhere on the weekend for I was still too weak and on Sunday it was rainy all day. But luckily I missed the very cold days. All the days I was ill it was very cold, about 4 to 6 degrees. Yesterday I went to school again and after school I visited Yuyuan garden, a very ancient place, very beautiful! Today it was again very cold with 6 degrees but it should finally get better now and on the next weekend it should have about 15 degrees. I’m looking very forward to that! So today I didn’t want to go far, so I went for a little shopping but wasn’t in the mood of buying anything. After that I visited the library and a street with very nice buildings were there are many bars so I might go there one night again. I wanted to visit a street with many book shops when I felt sick again and returned to my place.But my chinese friend arrived now and invites me for dinner tomorrow to a famous place for Shanghai food. I really hope I can eat some of it without getting sick again!My contact from school didn’t call me so far. First she told me that we could meet on sunday but I didn’t hear anything from her again, so I’m still exploring everything on my own and still feeling pretty lonely.I’m just hoping for warmer days and that my chinese friend has more than a little time for me so we can explore some nearby places together on the weekend.