10März
2013

Another week is over

Hello everyone!

After three weeks here in Shanghai I can say that a kind of everyday life has started for me. Going to class has become a normal activity and my whole surrounding entirely feels like home now. I know which restaurants I like and where to buy supplies for class or print things out. I guess I have arrived completely now.

This weekend, our whole class went to Hangzhou, a "midsized" (only 6 million inhabitants) city about 160km from Shanghai. There, we visited West Lake, one of the most popular lakes in China, Six Harmony Pagoda and Lingyin Temple.

West Lake West Lake six harmony pagoda Lingyin Temple Lingyin Temple Lingyin Temple Lingyin Temple

We stayed at a very nice hotel in Hangzhou and I shared a room with my friend Mareike.

Mareike and I

On Saturday night, we explored the evening market, an area with stands that sell everything from clothes to jewellery and that only opens after sunset. There, I was also able to apply my newly learned Chinese skills into practice by bargaining with one of the vendors over a pair of earrings. What can I say: it worked! She lowered the price from 35 to 25 kuai which was still too expensive, but I was way too proud of myself to even care about that. Also, there were two power outages while we were on the market which left us in complete darkness and the vendors yelling at each other angrily.

Another specialty of Hangzhou is "stinky tofu". I won´t lie: it really deserves its name! You could smell it from a block away and I couldn´t even stand the smell long enough to take a picture or to even try it.

By the way, another "only in China" thing: Chinese obviously love planting lettuce instead of flowers. Pro: if you get hungry you can easily pick your own snack. Con: it looks ridiculous. Doesn´t it?

yum yum

I hope you´re enjoying my blog so far, and I´ll keep you posted on my latest experiences,

Until then all the best,

Marie