Photos!!!

Here some photos about China and were I live, study and the people I hang out with.

Visitors!

Still so busy, however I found some time to write another blog.
Now some days have passed since my mother and brother have left. They were in Beijing for a week some days ago and of course we did a lot of things.

They arrived on Sunday morning in Beijing and after arriving in their hotel to tried to get to my place. Of course this was not easy, because their Chinese is even worse than mine. After an hour however, they managed they find my place and see me. I asked my mother to bring some stuff, like Stroopwafels, Drop, Pindakaas. She took of course a load of stuff and actually more than I wanted. After chatting and when they meet my roommate, we went to Beida and I showed them the place where I study. After that we went with my roommate to a Korean bbq. And just as me the first few weeks, they were surprised by the price as well.

Monday they had a day for their own, since I had to be on campus whole day for my classes and assignments. Tuesday however, I was free after 12 and we decided to do something afterwards. After they finished watching the Temple of Heaven, we went to the Summer palace which is near to Beida. I heard it was a big complex, but it is really huge. You can spent their a whole day if you want to, but you will get to tired of walking. On top of the hill there, you have a nice view over Beijing.
After finished sightseeing at the Summer palace, we went to Zhongguancun to have some real Chinese food with some friends. Even though they have never eaten real Chinese food, they liked it a lot.

Wednesday was the same as Monday. I had to go to class again for whole day. Thursday and Friday I am free, so we spent those two days together.
First we went to the Lama temple and a striking thing was that everybody used the scented sticks(wierook) to pray. Literally at every spot in this complex people were praying to Buddha. and everywhere was the smell of the scented sticks, because everybody was using that. After we have seen the giant Buddha and had enough of the smell of the scented sticks we went to the Olympic stadium. Most of the things there were already broken down, but the Bird’s nest and the Swimming Cube were still there. The structure of the stadium is quite impressive and big too. But if you don’t have too much time in Beijing I think there are better things to see. However in my case it is definitely worth a visit. Everywhere are still salespeople that try to sell you their stuff for some money. Very annoying.., but luckily not as bad as in Turkey or Egypt.

Afterwards they wanted to see the fake-market, so I took them to Xidan. This was for me the first time as well. If you need to buy some cheap clothes this is one of the places to be. However 2 days ago I found the Wudaokou shopping street, which is basically next to my house.. Salespersons everywhere again and because they know you are a foreigner they charge at least 3 times the price as for local people.
After this we got hungry and I took my mother and brother to the famous Peking duck restaurant in Wangfujing and afterwards to the food market with all the insects I already told you about.

Then it was already the last day for them. I had to do some homework, so we decided to meet in the evening and go to a Chinese acrobatic show. That was quite spectacular and the acrobats did ten different acts and were quite astonishing. They went with 5 motorcycles in one big ball and someone was walking on a rope for example. However my mother took all the pictures so I can’t upload them earlier then when I’m back home again..

Sorry for the delay!

First of all sorry I haven’t wrote for such a long time, but I have to do so many assignments lately. Probably this will continue until the end of November. Then I can enjoy my free-time again.

I didn’t tell you everything about my trip in the beginning of October. Only about Shanghai, but not Guilin. Although I have uploaded the pictures already.
As soon as we arrived in Guilin, we saw the scenery and I have never seen something like that before. It is really an amazing place as you can see from my pictures. Even though I thought it would be some kind of Chinese shithole, I was surprised. It was much more developed and actually very touristic.
The first day we had a bike tour into the mountains on some shitty bicycles. However we enjoyed our tour a lot.

At night we went to a Chinese theater show. They told everything in some Chinese dialect, so nobody could understand anything of it.. It was a nice show though. They performed on a lake with the mountains on the background that were lighted.

The second day we went rock climbing. Not on some kind of wall as I was used to at home, but at a legit rock. It was more difficult than I expected. I thought it would be just as easy as on a climbing wall, however it was not. It took a lot more effort and strength than that I wanted to use, but eventually I was able to climb the rock.

After that we were starving, so we had to eat something. For the night we had arranged a cooking lesson, where we would learn and make out own local Chinese food. What I did not expected was, that I was the one with the most cooking experience.. It was fun to learn the Chinese style of cooking and get to know how to use a wok properly.

Later that night, we were able to see how the people fish in Guilin. Basically they train a group of birds. The birds will chase the fish and will eventually catch some. When the bird caught enough fish, the fisherman will take the bird towards him with a stick. Then he grabs the bird and grab his throat and does something that the bird makes throw up the fish. That is how they fish there, without any rod.

Then the final day in Guilin was already there. Before we went to the airport, we first had to go to a mud bath and a hot water spring. I do not recommend that kind of mud bath at all. It was cold and they just put sand in a cold spring and say it is a mud bath. It is good for your skin though. After that we went in the hot spring, which I can recommend! It is actually just a hot bath, but I do not have a both here, so it was a nice experience.

After that we had to go back to the airport and my holiday was officially over☹
Back in Beijing nothing really happened and life went on as it used to be, only with more homework…

I will try to upload my next blog faster than this time!!