Marie in Shanghai

Dear everyone,

it´s almost time to pack my bags and return back home, but before that I still have some new stories and impresisons for you.

I really enjoyed the rest of my weekend in Beijing. On Sunday, I went to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square and also visited Pangjiayuan Flea Market. The Forbidden City was just beautiful! The entrance was very impressive, but also very crowded. Once again it came in handy that I am about a head taller than everyone else here, because otherwise it would have been more than difficult to see something. While waiting in line to purchase a ticket (which by the way was only about 2 € due to my student ID), I got to know a very nice Canadian who was traveling alone as well and we decided to spend the day together. She just returned from a 2 week teacher exchange in a closeby city and enjoyed her last few days in Beijing before returning to Canada, so we spent the day exchanging our China experiences and talking about how much we were looking forward to going home. Back to the Forbidden City: It is a maze of buildings and temples and was more than impressive. The Chinese emperors used to live there, and every building had its own function, like for example the "Hall of Earthly Tranquility", which turned out to simply be a very fancy name for the emperor´s bedroom. There were also some buildings that belonged to the emperor´s concubines and the electronic guide told their often moving and dramatic stories.

After visiting Tiananmen Square at noon, we continued to Pangjiayuan Flea Market, where you could buy lots of paintings, jewellery, clothes and other small things. I had found out about this Flea Market from a website with "secret" Beijing highlights and I can really recommend the Flea Market to anyone visiting Beijing! It was a lot of fun and offered a variety of Chinese knickknacks that are nice as souvenirs or gifts.

The Monday after, I visited the Summer Palace, where I met two friends that are currently au - pairs in Beijing. It was a wonderful day, also concerning the weather and the pollution and I really enjoyed walking around the Palace gardens and the lake in front of it. Summer Palace is built on a hill and surrounded by woods, where you can stroll along small paths and discover little bridges and temples. At the foot of the hill is a lake where you can go on dragon boat rides or just walk along the promenade.

Later that day I took the high speed train home to Shanghai and arrived there at about 9 pm. I really loved Beijing and I think I would choose it over Shanghai anytime.

Later that week I went to a KTV (karaoke place) with my whole Chinese class. I knew that Chinese are crazy about their karaoke, but what I found there exceeded my expectations. The place had small rooms that were equipped with couches, chairs and a bar and each room had its own light show system so that the visitors could pick the lighting they wanted to accompany their singing. Each room also had 3 or 4 microphones, so people could sing together and food and beverages could be ordered to the rooms. It was a really fun experience, especially since my teacher had given me a Chinese song to prepare, which I sang lateron. I still don´t know what I was singing about, but it was a nice song and I really liked it.

Last Sunday, I had another very interesting encounter with Chinese culture: a Chinese wedding. My former Chinese teacher, which I had had the first 5 weeks of my stay, got married and invited the 3 guys in my class and me to the festivities. We were seated at the bride´s and groom´s table right in front of the stage and had a great view on everything that was going on. And there were plenty of things going on...Where should I start? Maybe the ceremony. There were two ceremonies: First, a Western ceremony and then a Chinese one. During the Western ceremony, the bride wore a beautiful white wedding dress, rings were exchanged and they said vows to each other (at least that´s what I think it was, since everything was in Chinese and I didn´t understand a word).

After this, the bride changed her gown to a traditional Chinese qipao and there were some more vows. Then, the groom´s parents entered the stage and the couple thanked them for their support.

The food served at the wedding was very interesting. There was for example cow tongue and turtle soup, but nevertheless we stuck to the things we knew and had lobster, fish and vegetables.

During the dinner, the couple toasted to each table and we discovered another interesting Chinese habit: emptying glasses. After every toast, the Chinese guests would empty their glasses, no matter how full they were. Half glass of red wine? Gone within seconds. It was interesting. Overall, the whole event took about 2 hours, which is very different to a German wedding, that usually goes on until early in the morning. Nevertheless, it was a very interesting experience and another thing to cross off my bucket list ;)

Meanwhile, the period of "last times" has arrived. Today is my last day at work and next week, I will have all my classes for the last time and turn in the last essays and finals. I am slowly preparing for leaving, getting my stuff together and doing things that I haven´t crossed off my list yet. Next Thursday will be a farewell lunch, for which I was appointed as one of the hosts and then, it will be time to say goodbye.

I will give you one last update next week,

Until then,

Marie