National Holidays

The National Day of the People’s Republic of China is celebrated every year on October 1. This is when whole China is travelling (inside of china)! So as we all learned in my “China for Beginners-Lesson” (if you haven’t read it yet, you should stop here and read the other post first ;)), China counts about 1.3 billion citizens… So sit back and just quickly try to imagine a small percentage of these chinese people travelling inside china during the National Holiday…

Well, that’s what we did and so we decided on leaving the country as early as possible to get out of that “gschtunck” (that’s what my father would call it in swiss german…;))

I just quickly want to mention that that was our first holiday, after only 3 weeks of class J (I think we really deserved it, didn’t we?)  Couldn’t life always be like that????

I planned on going to the Philippines during these days… Flight was booked, luggages were packed! But as it happens in asia, not everything turns out the way you planned it… My passport wasn’t ready in the morning, it rained like hell and the taifuns were on in the Philippines, wandering to Hong Kong (my departure airport).. therefore my flight was delayed for about 10 hours!!

That meant change of plans for me!

In the end I stayed in Guangzhou until the Taifun had left Hong Kong and went there (Hong Kong) afterwards for 5 days. It was my second visit to Hong Kong and I really fell in love with that city! It is clean, people there don’t look at you as if you were an unknown species, they know to speak English and you can get western food if you’re up to it!

It was a really nice trip and we got to see a lot of things! We went to Lantau Island, the Big Buddha, Victorian Peak, Museum of Art, Avenue of Stars, Ladies Market (to my female friends.. you would absolutely love to shop there!!!), Lan Kwai Fong (Clubs & Bars Area) and to several Food Streets!!!!

Although HK is very expensive I would love to work there for 1 or 2 years!

Looks like someone has a new target ;)

xoxo V

PS: I think you will absolutely understand, that the last 2 weeks of school (my schedule: MO 9:00 am until 9:35 pm / WE 1:30 pm until 7:00 pm / TH 7:00 pm until 9:35 pm) were so exhausting, that I am now glad to have another holiday of one week…. So Travel-Girl will be gone to Hunan Province (China) and be back next Wednesday! Until then beloved readers enjoy life and I’ll be back with a bunch of stories!

Food Street in Hong Kong

 Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Ladies Market

Travel Group

Hong Kong by night

Me on the Avenue of Stars

Big Buddha

I'm singing in the Rain....

When it rains in China, and it does happen quite frequently, it really RAIIIINS!!! It’s like the world is falling apart! I sort of had to think about Noah’s Ark, while walking trough knee-deep water with sneakers and jeans on…. I guess it would have been easy to find living male and  female Panda bears… but what about the other animals!!???! They say that Cantonese people eat everything (and when I say everything, I mean everything!!) that can swim, fly or has four legs except for U-Boats, airplanes and tables… (Additional Information: Did you know that some panda bears are so dumb that they don’t even know how to spawn theirselves??? Due to a documentation,  pandas need to be shown Panda-Porns so that they know how to do it… Well I thought that’s pretty important to know….!).

Anyway Melina (my swiss friend) and I had a funny time ;)

 

Rain in Guangzhou

China for beginners – facts and figures:

Population:

Over 1.3 billion citizens on a ground of approximately 9.6 million square meters…

China has 23 provinces (I am situated in the south in Guangdong Province in Guangzhou.. next to Hong Kong and the Asian Las Vegas, Macao)

China and its 23 Provinces

Capital:

Beijing

 Temple of Heaven (Beijing)

 Olympia Bird Nest (Beijing)

 Forbidden City (Beijing)

 The Great Wall (Beijing)

Official Language:

Modern Standart Mandarin (Putonghua with 4 tones), but in the south, where I am, they speak Cantonese which has 6 tones…

GDP, for my economist friends ;):

GDP (PPP) 2011 estimate  -  Total $11.316 trillion^[6] (2nd)  -  Per capita $8,394^[6] (91st)
GDP (nominal) 2011 estimate  -  Total $6.988 trillion^[6] (2nd)  -  Per capita $5,184^[6] (90th)

A graph comparing the 2011 GDPs of major economies, according to IMF data.

Religion: 
China is a country of many religions and none.  The official religion is atheism, but there are practicing Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians. Many Chinese adopt philosophies, rather than religion, such as Taoism or Confucianism.

Cuisine:

Chinese cuisine is highly diverse! I will inform you another time about the food in China or Guangzhou in specific. Pictures won’t be missing as you know me ;) So be patient!

Numbers: 

The Chinese attach good and bad omens to numbers. 

4 is an unlucky number.  When you pronounce the number 4 in Chinese it is sounds similar to the word death in Chinese.  Even elevators in China don’t have a 4^th floor (apparently we do live on this floor…); instead the floor is labeled “3A”. 8 is a lucky number.  The way the number is pronounced in Chinese sounds similar to the phrase “to get a good fortune.”  Chinese people pay extra money for phone numbers and license plates that include 8.  The more the better! 73 and 84 are regarded as bad omens for the elderly.  They are considered possible years for death or illness. Doubles are a good sign.  One would never give a single vase or candlestick to a newly married couple.  These gifts are always given as a pair.

Losing Face:
The Chinese are keen not to “lose face,” or be shown in a negative light especially in public.  If they do not know an answer they will laugh to cover their embarrassment or lie. 

If you want to know something specific, just tell me and I’ll do my best to get the information…

House-Hunting tailor maid:

Meghann (from the US,30, married to a man of the US-Marine) and I (Louise a 24 year old French girl and Tilla a 23 year old girl were arriving later) had decided to search for an apartment together. By other international students we were given a business cards of a good agency who would help us to find a suitable apartment. Peter, a “chinglish” speaking guy (Chinglish refers to spoken or written English language that is influenced by the Chinese language.) took his time to find out about our needs and showed us some apartments. We only had to look at five apartments but I can assure you that it was everything but fun! When we had looked at the first 3 apartments we were close to tears and I was almost booking my flight back to Switzerland… I might sound like a spoiled brat, but maybe you’ll understand me after looking at the pictures... (I somehow couldn't upload all of them... they'll follow soon!)

 We call it squatty potty.... 

Anyhow it seems like my prayers during lunch were answered and the waiting rewarded! In the afternoon Peter showed us two really nice flats and that’s the one we’ve finally decided on!

 my biiiiig room!

 my bathroom... well I share it with the french girl!

 and finally the marvellous view out of my bedroom!!! Love it sooo much!

The Golden Rules of China

I kind of love that one... We got it from our teacher..

„Oh China“!! My first week in a different world...

Monday morning we arrived at the international office of our University to get trough the whole registration process so that we could apply for a multiple entry visa as a second step. The plan was pretty easy : Finish everything within a day or two and then apply for the visa and start to search for an apartment. Well, I obviously forgot in what hell of city or country I am in...I forgot that this is China… yeah China (INFO : China can be compared to africa when it comes to puntuallity and bureaucracy. The only difference is that in africa you can solve a lot of problems with money).. So the process was tiring, annoying, frustrating….. But i knew what i was going for when I applied to that Chinese University and begged them to accept me ;)

So to make it short: If you want to to finish registration and get the multiple entry visa you just need to collect a lot, and I mean a lot, red stamps! Chinese loooooove red stamps! How to do that? First you will go place A and then to place B. When you arrive at place B they will tell you that you first have to go to place D for the sooo called special stamp! After D you go back to place B… There they’ll tell you it’s lunch time (well I should have known that….). So that means you have to come back again.. And the game goes on like that! Ohhhh and I forgot to mention that every place uses those tiny little papers with a number on it, so that you know how long you have to wait until it’s your turn (not a good idea… I actually could have killed someone when I once got a number like 457 and the next number called was only 187….grrrrrr*%ç4”*°§)

Anyway I don’t want to bore you with that kind of stories because there is more to tell ;)

The Beginning…

My journey was good! I mean I had frozen yoghurt with fresh looking beeries on my stop over in Dubai!! That’s a BIIIIIG plus! No, seriously it was a long long journey! It took me almost 24 hours from door to door. But I made the right decision choosing Emirates… European(-ass)-sized seats, working Televisions from the 20th century, no fried noodles for breakfast and no living chickens in cages in the overhead bin. I mean I wouldn’t, never ever, accuse any Airline in the world to  be like that, not even a Chinese one… nooooo, never!!!! The reason i choose Emirates was just because their planes are really comfortable and their flights cheap…. and I mean their slogan is: «Be good to yourself. Fly Emirates », so I was almost forced to fly with them!! It clearly had nothing to do with their Luggage Policy that allows passengers to carry on 30 kilos of luggage… That needs to be clarified!

So I finally arrived at Guangzhou Airport (Yes, the city most of you have never heard of really has its own airport… I was surprised too!) and suddenly realized that I was actually in China. „Oh China!!“ (Info: You‘ll find yourself reading this expression very often in my Blog…) Guangzhou has a population of almost 13 Mio. and I kind of meet a decent part of its inhabitants in front of the airport, all waiting for a cab. Well after „only“ 1 hour and 30 minutes i eventually got into a cab that drove me to my hotel (it took another 60 minutes to get there..) where my friend was staying. And so I spent the next three nights in this „cozy“  hotel … No 3 stars hotel, maybe even no 2 stars…. Well, maybe none.. but I mean what do I want more? We had a room with two beeds (each at least 1.60 meters long), a television, a „bathroom“ (I will talk about the sanitary facilities in China later… I am thinking about giving it its own heading in my blog..) and condoms!!

Welcome to my Blog about China

Dear beloved family, dear beloved friends

I was finally able to get my mind together and write some of my experiences down and I plan on releasing short stories at least once a week! So try to visit my Blog as often as possible for a little laugh or culture shock ;) (If you want that I write about something in specific, do not hesitate to tell me! I’ll be pleased to fulfil your desire…)

You may ask yourself why I wrote my Blog in English.. The reason why everything is and will be written in english is just to train my English writing skills! So please be kind  and forgive me about the mass of spelling mistakes and “not-making-sense-at-all”-sentences!
I hope you will enjoy my Blog!

PS: I miss you all and really look forward to hug every single one of you at the end of February!

Xoxo V