11may2009 - the days to come - busy and offline
monday. i am entering my last week in guangzhou, which is promising to be a busy one. meetings with carriers, handover meetings, trainings, farewell lunches, farewell dinners and the relocation over the weekend. busy will also be the start-up phase in shenzhen as i have a lot of new things to digest. also, once i moved into my new place in shenzhen, i will have to set-up the internet before i can be online again. so please expect some delays before i can update this diary again, but i will make sure that you will not miss a thing of my adventures in china. a new chapter is about to open!

01may2009 - h1n1 in hong kong
friday. what a spooky scene in wan chai that night. one mexican traveller, who came in via shanghai, turned sick and caused the whole wan chai metroplaza hotel to be put under quarantine for 7 days. so that means 300 people will now be stuck there for a while. i can understand that the hong kong authorities play this very hard. since SARS in 2003 the people are very sensitive and you can see it in their eyes. vivien and me ended up buying facial masks as well and wore them when we crossed the border back into china. well, better be safe in these big crowds. oh, only hong kong people wore them, not the mainland chinese. do they know?

30apr2009 - bremen vs. hamburg craze
thursday. after a long day of looking for apartments in shenzhen i arrived hong kong around 22:00. we had a quick dinner in sheng shui before going to vivien's family house in tsing yi. after quickly dropping my stuff i then headed to wan chai to meet up with my friends from hong kong, macau and tokyo. vivien stayed at home as she was too tired. we stayed in typhoon until 2:30 to watch werder bremen play hamburg in the 1st leg of the uefa cup semifinals. hamburg ended up winning 1:0. after the game we still took a little tour of wan chai, since our trains and ferries would not start service until 6:00. when i arrived back in tsing yi it was already 7:00 and i was officially up for 24h straight. funny to see people go to work when you just get gome from a night out on the town. and next week bremen will win 2:1 in hamburg and advance to the final anyways. haha, hamburg!

30apr2009 - shenzhen apartments
thursday. spent the whole day in shenzhen looking for apartments, which is never a pleasant thing in china. why? well, people here have no concept about renting. their request and expectations are not reasonable and they will of course overcharge me as a foreigner. on top of that, they usually have these apartment fully funished and decorated. let me put it thise way: just because they have money, doesn't mean that they are clean and that they have style. hmm, unless you like a fully mirrored living room with chandeliers. well, i don't. anyhow, we ended up finding one in dinasty court in futian. really nice estate(garden) and close to the coco park shopping mall, which has many bars and restaurants. many foreigners live there, so i will fit right in. can't wait till this move is over.

27apr2009 - sad faces
monday. that morning i had to break the news to my staff that i am leaving guangzhou to take on a new position in our shenzhen office. the result was some sad faces as well as some tears from some individual staff. i will have some emotional days ahead of me as i can already feel that this farewell will not be an easy one. it's good to know that they show this reaction, which means that i must have done something right here and that i will be missed. these are the moments when working in china is really worth it.

23apr2009 - hong kong photo shoot
thursday. that afternoon we headed to tsim sha tsui to go for a photo shooting, which we booked already quite some time ago. after vivien got into her wedding dress and had her make-up done, two photographers and a make-up artist took us to the star ferry pier and central for a night photo-shoot. we were of course the main attraction dressed as a wedding couple between hundreds of tourists at the pier. still, we had a lot of fun despite it being very exhausting, since at night you have to stand still even more and re-take many shots. anyhow, the effort will pay off when we get these amazing pictures back.

23apr2009 - promotion
thursday. it is time for me to move again. after one year and nine months in guangzhou i got promoted to the position of seafreight manager in my company's shenzhen office. of course i am happy to be promoted and to take on a new challenge, but on the other hand i am sad to leave my good team, colleagues and friends behind once more. well, no matter how hard you try, you never get used to this. still, i will have to as an expat.

18apr2009 - beautiful china!
friday. coming back from yangshuo i can clearly say that this one of the most beautiful places i have ever been to. the landscape, mountains and countryside - fantastic. the air is clean, prices are cheap, people speak english and the atmosphere is very relaxed. hmm, if my company had an office here, i would apply a job there immediately. if you haven't been, please let me highly recommend this place to you! i will come back to yangshuo for sure!

18apr2009 - moon hill
friday. on the way back we didn't overlook the moon hill and stopped there to hike up to the platform (near the whole). the final climb to the top was too dangerous due to the slippery conditions after the rain. still, one foreigner told us after climbing back down that he caught a chinese couple having sex up there. now that would have been sight. he didnt' take any pictures, but I would have. quite strange, considering that chinese couples usually do not show any affection in public such as kissing or holding hands.

18apr2009 - silver cave
saturday. we were speeding down the country roads so far that we accidentally passed the moon hill without even noticing it. ooops. anyways, after we figured that out, we continued along the road to the silver cave. this cave is even more impressive than the reed flute cave in guilin! amazing! the only thing that disturbes the atmosphere are the many chinese tourgroups. nothing against chinese, but come on, please learn how to behave. why do you need to yell, talk on your mobile phone (in the cave, funny eh?), rush and push? the atmoshphere is best enjoyed when quiet and the floor is slippery, so pushing really pissed me off. i ended up pushing back and i also yelled 'what are you pushing for b##ch?' at one lady, who repeatedly tried to squeeze by me. she for sure didn't understand what I was saying, but she knew that she was wrong and that i was mad at here. still, it is 100% sure that she didn't learn from this lesson. either way, make sure to visit this cave. don't go there by bike! it's too far!

18apr2009 - scooter ride
saturday. since our legs were aching from the long bike trip along the yulong river the day before, we decided to go 'modern' and rent a scooter for the day. we paid 120 yuan (including gas) and quickly made our way through the crazy traffic into the countryside. nobody asked for a license and of course we did not get any helmets. hmmm, well, everything turned out to be okay and the scooter and it's breaks were in good shape. i quickly got used to it and ended up using the horn more often than the breaks.

17apr2009 - making new friends
friday. on the bike trip we met a couple from the UK, with whom we shared the final stretch to the dragon bridge. the same night we met them again during the cormorant fishing before heading out for dinner together. they are currently on a round-the-world backpacking trip and came to china after 70 days in india. they were so please with china and how clean and civilized it is here compared with india. well, it all depends on the perspective, right? we had a fun time together. dan & becky, have a great trip through china. let's keep in touch!

17apr2009 - cormorant fishing
friday. that night we boarded a little boat near the yangshuo pier to watch a local fisherman go out with his cormorants. these are really amazing birds. their neck is tied so that they can cath fish, but not swallow it. so they dive for the fish and catch it before their master picks them from the water with a long stick and urges thems to spit out the fish into a basket. in this way one bird can catch up to 50kgs of fish per night. once their daily work is done, the bird gets to eat as well. very smart way of fishing despite being a little cruel.

17apr2009 - extended stay
friday. after two nights in yangshuo we were supposed to spend the last night in guilin again before flying back to guangzhou. since we already finished seeing all main attractions there and were overall not really impressed with guilin (just an average middle-size chinese city) compared with yangshuo, we decided to extend our stay in yangshuo. we simply walked into a guesthouse near west street, secured a room and called the chinese travel agent (ctrip) to cancel our guiling hotel. done! i must say, these guys from ctrip are really good and worth being a little more expensive. they can offer excellent english speaking customer service and they confirmed the cancellation via SMS to my phone within less than a minute after i hang up the phone. now that's efficient!

17apr2009 - yulong river bike tour
friday. that day we rented two bikes (for 20 yuan per day each) from a local farmer to take a tour along the yulong river. our target was originally moon hill, but since our local retreat staff suggested to go to the dragon bridge first, we changed our mind. well, what was advised as a 40min trip, turned out to be more than three hours. anyhow, it was beautiful to cruise through small villages and rice paddies surrounded by this amazing mountain scenery. we arrived back in yangshuo after several hours in desperate need for a drink and some food. on top of that, our legs and butts were killing us and we got some nice sunburn as well. ey, it was cloudy when we took off and the weather report predicted rain even. aaaah, who cares. what a nice trip!

16apr2009 - impressions of liu sanjie
thursday. any event or tourist attraction in china that costs more than 100 yuan needs to be challenged, if you ask me. in due course i was worried about paying 188 yuan a person to see the liu sanjie show in yangshuo. yes, i heard many good comments about this, but still. anyways, the director of this show is the same who arrange the opening ceremony of the beijing 2008 olympics. i forgot his name. anyways, the show is performed open-air on the river with more than 600 local actors. wow! what a show, especially since the limestone rock formations serve as a backdrop! if you ever come to yangshuo, make sure to see this. it is worth the momey and will make you have goosebumps during the show. ey, bill clinton went there as well, if that's not a good reason!

16apr2009 - yangshuo
thursday. around 1:00pm we arrived in yangshuo, which is a small, beautiful and relaxed city about 80kms south of guilin. the air is fresh and the small streets have many small shops, restaurants, bars and guesthouses. many foreigners (backpackers) stay there to relax, go rockclimbing, cycling, kayaking and teach english. the place is visited by approximately 15 million tourists each year, but still managed to keep it's charme. wherever you are in yangshou, the countryside is only 5 minutes away and leaves us breathless facing so much natural beauty. what a place!

16apr2009 - 20 yuan bill sight
thursday. the backside of the 20 yuan bill shows a li river scenery, in case you may have noticed it. we came across just that scene when are boat was getting close to yangshou. an amazing sight, of which we of course took a picture as a memory. 20 yuan is and will remain my favourite bill in china for all times.

16apr2009 - li river cruise
thursday. after a night in guilin we got up really early and were picked up to take a cruise along the li river to yangshou, which takes about 4 hours. since we are foreigners, we have to take more expensive deluxe cruise (450 yuan a person) while chinese people get away with 210 yuan a person. well, the tour guides were nice and spoke excellent english. anyhow, after the incident of last night, i didn't want to be on a boat with 100+ chinese people, no matter how much cheaper it would be. sorry, i was still pissed! the cruise was amazing and made it's way along the river which is surrounded by hundreds of limerock formations, which all have beautiful names and meanings. absolutely amazing and in the end well worth the money.

16apr2009 - no manners!
thursday. we were ripped out of our sleep at 1:00am by a chinese tour group (cantonese-speaking) that check-in at our hotel floor around that time. they were literally yelling and screaming! unf#ckingbelievable! they yelled 'oooh, how is your room', 'oooh, it has tv and dvd', 'sha sha sha, gzzz gzzz, bla bla bla' at a very loud level. f#cking inconsiderate. excuse my language, but I was so pissed! i called the reception and complained. five minutes later a lady came to our door, but she didn't try to keep the people quiet by brought us a new roll of toilet paper instead. nice, huh? sorry to say, but chinese people (well, most of them!) have no manners. it is not a matter of culture nor education! it is a matter of common sense and respect for other people!

15apr2009 - zhongshan zhonglu night market
wednesday. after so much sightseeing we were hungry and headed towards the zhongshan zhonglu night market in the centre of guilin. it was boooooooring! well, after living in china for five years, all souvenirs and gifts look the same and are nothing special anymore. especially, since they are all made in the guangzhou area, where we live. nothing special.

15apr2009 - elephant trunk hill
wednesday. after getting out from the cave we took the taxi down to the river to board a little bamboo raft (after heavy bargaining, of course) to take us onto the li river and towards the elephant trunk hill, the symbol of guilin. as the name suggests, it looks like an elephant that drinks out of the river. we are glad we had a view from the river rather than standing in large crowds on the landside, but still, nothing really special, if you ask me.

15apr2009 - reed flute cave
wednesday. where there are rocks and mountains - there are caves. therefore the next stop on the list was the reed flute cave, which gets it's name for the bambo reeds that grow in that area. it has been visited by many world leaders and is a truly magnificent sight. blue, red and green lights create and amazing atmosphere inside the cave, which is more than 7 million years old. what a sight!

15apr2009 - peak of solitary beauty
wednesday. an isoldated rock standing 300 feet tall right in the centre of guilin. how strange is that? well, from up there you have a nice view over guilin. well, guilin is not pretty itself, but the mountains surrounding it. i couldn't say it was worth to go there, but since we were taken there by the taxi lady, we didn't mind.

15apr2009 - taxi lady
wednesday. after our arrival at guilin international airport we took a taxi to the city, which is about 30km away. durin the ride, the female driver, offered to drive us around the city for five hours (all afternoon) at a total price of 30 yuan (approx. 3 euros). what? having lived in china, we would of course expect some kind of rip-off, but in this case she was serious and honest. we accepted. she drove us to the hotel for check-inn and didn't accept our money until the end of the day. she ended up taking us for lunch and several other guilin sights, where she always waited for us. we ended up paying 110 yuan (+10 yuan tip cause I am too nice), which incluced the transfer from the airport (80 yuan on the meter). what a bargain! what a nice start to our trip. gotta love china!

15apr2009 - guangxi province
wednesday. that morning we flew from guangzhou to guilin in guangxi province, which takes only about 45 minutes and is 600kms away from guangzhou. it is famous for it's natural beauty of limerock formations. it is considered as one of china's as well as the world's most beautiful places. we already planned to go on last year, but due to severe floodings in guangxi and guangdong provice, the whole area was basically under water. glad we finally made it there!

25mar2009 - china changes you!
wednesday. i was told that i lost some of my manners while living in china, which mainly refers to my attitude when dealing with local services. what happened? vivien and me took some wedding pictures recently and went some other day to select our favourite pictures before they start editing them. at that time the sales lady promised me that i could get a softcopy the next time we come to check the pictures after the editing, but before they start printing. so i showed up with a USB stick to get a softcopy, but the sales lady told me that i could not get a softcopy that night and that i would have to come back in 5 days. so i started arguing with her, then asked for her manager and finally got quite loud with her. finally, she got someone from the editing department to 'copy-paste' the pictures onto my USB stick, which took less than five minutes. finally! why do you always have to yell at people if you want something done in china? after all, she made a promise before and gave a lame excuse. i will not get such people away with this anymore. guess i have been here for too long so i know how to play their game. even she might not learn from this, but at least i got what i wanted.

22mar2009 - back as a tourist
sunday. upon my return to hong kong my resident visa had expired, wherefore i had to cross through hong kong as a tourist again. a strange feeling after more than 5 years as resident. well, what can i do? aaah, after getting married in november i shall get a dependent-visa, which means i will be able to abode in hong kong whenever i want. yeeehah!

22mar2009 - singapore impressions
sunday. to sum things up, i can say that singapore has nice party spots, beaches and food. beyond that, there is a wild mix of cultures, languages and styles. it is very clean, well, if you stay in the main tourist spots, and it seems to be a very safe place. the downside is the weather as it is all hot all year around and there is always the chance of a shower. well, it's the tropics, right? the biggest downer are the prices. well, i could afford living nicely in singapore, but china is just sooo much cheaper, giving you the chance to put more money aside for the future. we are all getting older, no? i liked it in singapore a lot, but if you ask for my honest opion, i'd still prefer to live in hong kong, no matter if it's a little bit colder and dirtier. ;)

21mar2009 - chimes
saturday. to finsih up our visit to singapore in style we all met for a dinner at chimes, which is a bar area surrounding a nicely renovated church complex in the heart of singapore and apparently a popular spot for foreigners to hang out. it just fits well into the whole style of singapore, which i suppose makes it a very nice place for foreigners to live.

21mar2009 - sentosa
saturday. that day we travelled over to sentosa island to enjoy some time on the beach. sadly it was cloudy and some thunderstorms passed over us, but still we managed to get into our bathing suits at KM8 bar and take a little swim in the sea and the pool. afterwards we walked around the most southern point of continental asia before checking out the sentosa luge. i guess if i lived in singapore, i'd probaly spend 99% of my weekends at sentosa. nice!

20mar2009 - clarke quay
friday. we were simply blown away by the nice concept that was realized in clarke quay. it's the perfect place to hang out and party. a long strees with various clubs, bars and restaurants - all covered by a free-standing roof to keep the 'daily' rain away. the only thing that could spoil the fun are the prices, but hey, how often do you get to go to singapore.

20mar2009 - bukit timah
friday. that evening we met with friends at a local 'hawker' food market in bukit timah. nice! we had some very local food such as chili crab, laksa chicken and fisk. very delicious and incrediby cheap compared with local standards. this will be just the right basis for our upcoming night on the town.

20mar2009 - burgis
friday. it is the main shopping area for locals in singapore. you can buy all kinds of cloths, decorations, accessories and so on. what sounded like fun quickly turned into a disappointment. all this stuff i have seen and is made in china anyhow. it's like a mixture of fa yuen street and the ladie's market (both in hong kong). booooooring, so let's go home and take some rest before we go out for drinks tonight!

20mar2009 - little india
friday. after visiting chinatown we headed over to little india. singapore is a small place, so you can either walk or take two stations on the subway. apart from a few jewellry shops, temples and small restaurants, little india is not really worth a visit. maybe it was the rain on that morning that spoiled my mood, but still it is not very special. beyond that, you will agree that singapore is not all that clean after visiting little india. sorry.

20mar2009 - chinatown
friday. the next morning we went to chinatown. hmm, why should i do that anyways, since i live in china? still, we went and enjoyed some street shopping, temples and nice chinese architecture. still, if you have lived in asia and especially china like me for many years, you won't find much new things. all the souvenirs and products there i have seen in guangzhou already. hehe, they are of course made in south china.

19mar2009 - singlish
thursday. in singapore they spean english, but still i can't really understand them. their accent, gramar and pronounciation is very strange, even though i heard that singaporians think they speak the best english in asia. don't think so. to make matters worse they mix it with cantonese, mandarin and malay. what a mix! anyways, still better than living in a place where almost noone speaks english. ouch!

19mar2009 - new asia bar
thursday. after dinner we headed to the new asia bar on the 72nd floor of the swissotel. nice! i simply can not get enough of such bars, desite the expensive prices for drinks. still, the view over singapore is worth it. not to mention the nice decoration, music and well-dressed people. singapore has style, that's for sure.

19mar2009 - orchard road
thursday. later that evening we visited the famous orchard road in the central district of singapore, which is something like the main and exclusive shopping street. since i can't afford to shop at fendi, prada, gucci or louis vuitton, we direcly went for dinner at the mandarin oriental hotel. had to try their famous singapore chicken rice.

19mar2009 - merlion
thursday. the merlion is the 'icon' of singapore. it was created by the tourism board and is a mixture of a lion(head) and a fish(body) or so. whatever. well, since we are tourists, it was must-see and we ticked it off our list right away. for sure we got to buy a little copy of it as a souvenir before we return home.

19mar2009 - singapore MRT
thursday. airports are nowadays outside of the city areas, wherfore you usually need to take some sort of airport-shuttle or express, which will usually costs you quite a bit. the more surprising it was when we found that singapore's changi airport is connected with the city via subway, which will only costs you about 0,80 Euros. sweet! after just 30 minutes we arrived at the city centre and started with sightseeing at the esplanade right away. singapore got off to a good start!

19mar2009 - singapore
thursday. this city has never been on the top of my travel agenda, but since now Vivien's cousin as well as my friends Bjoern, Melanie, Pasqual, Dennis and Sarah live there, it was about time for a visit. it also made sense since we could enjoy free accomodation (thanks Karen!) and incredibly cheap airfare via singapore airlines. so, let's see how singapore is like. is it really that clean and tidy?

07mar2009 - guangzhou nightlife sucks!
saturday. i convinced stefan and tjen to make their way from macau to guangzhou for a little party tour. since vivien was out of town, it sounded like to perfect scenario for a 'boy's night on the town'. it started well (with a little delay) with dinner at 1920 german restaurant followed by a quick pit-stop at my place. afterwards we hit the club babyface, the club next to it, hei hei club, honey and cocotrack. every place was overcrowded with strange creatures and flooded with way too loud techno or local hip-hop music. service sucked and it took forever to get at least one drink. man, we had some bad nights out in guanzhou before and this one wasn't any better. i surely had it with the guangzhou nightlife, well, at least with the clubs here.

28feb2009 - 5,5 years
saturday. time is flying and flying. five and a half year now for vivien and me since we got together in hong kong. well, the end is near. what? hehe, of being boy- and girlfriend, etc. our wedding is only nine months away (19.11.2009), but that means it is basically around the corner. happy anniversary!

22feb2009 - wedding rings
sunday. even though our wedding is still nine months away, we already started to arrange things. what's done is done, right? so we decided to look around for wedding rings, having already a clear picture of what we want. a plain ring for me and a plain ring with a row of diamonds of the bride. having said that, we were disappointed by store after store along nathan road in hong kong (famous for its many jewellry shops). rose gold, heart shapes, love letters and diamonds for men. terrible! finally we ended up in luk fook and told that guy what we were looking for. he was quite smart and helpful and the first set of rings he showed us matched our expectations, expect they were a white-rose gold mix. everything was right: the size, the style, but the colour. well, he offered to rework the rings right there (took 20 minutes), engraved it for free and reduced the price without me asking for it. we ended up paying much less than we expected and left the shop as happy customers. one thing checked of the list. i can tell you, weddings are a pain in the butt!

21feb2009 - BBQ in tung chung
saturday. that afternoon we had a BBQ with my friends 'brommel' and 'lorenzo' in tung chung. a perfect occasion to meet lorenz again after more than a year and wishing philipp farewell, who will move to shanghai next week. apart from the windy weather it was good to see old friends|colleagues again and to catch-up on latest events. all the best in shanghai! see you at my wedding in november 2009.

21feb2009 - yes!
saturday. the movie from Jim Carrey could not have been released at a better time. what a nice message that from everything 'bad' something 'good' arises. it matches well with the chinese word for risk, which is the same as the word for opportunity. maybe we should say 'yes' more often and embrace things that firstly seem not workable. so we can hope that something 'good' will arise from this economic crisis after all.

21feb2009 - senior citizens
saturday. i was in hong kong this weekend and behaved like a senior citizen. my girlfriend's family wanted to watch the new movie of Jim Carrey at 10:00 in the morning, which comes at an incredibly low price of approx. 4 euros. what a bargain, even though it means you have to get up early. only senior citizens do that on weekends, right? anyways, the movie was well worth it, but next weekend i will sleep long again!

20feb2009 - busy weeks
friday. not really sure why, but these weeks have been really busy, even though the cargo volumes from china have dropped significantly. less volume should mean less work, but it doesn't. well, we should be happy that we have work since many people lost their jobs in the region recently. so i guess we'll have to roll up our sleeves and get to work. no pain, no gain.

20feb2009 - inspriation
friday. in these very challenging times we tend to focus a lot on materials things and start to worry about our finances. it is hard to find confidence and inspiration. many people like to paint things black these days and rather see the glass has 'half empty' rather than 'half full'. i found inspiration through the words of a close family member, who i know will read this. he was recently diagnosed with two illnesses that will seriously impact his future life and even threaten it overall. still, he does not give up the struggle and is determined to overcome this. his words told me that there are more important things in life than money. yes, you need not forget to take care of the future, but you must also not forget about living in the present. live every day and enjoy it to the full. you may never know what tomorrow will bring. i feel truly inspired and i am determined to live my life just like it. i am still young and want to see the world, so what apart from myself should keep me from doing it. i wish you all the best for your recovery, my friend. i think of you a lot and i know that you will make it. looking forward to seeing you at my wedding in hong kong. never give up!

16feb2009 - don't worry - be happy!
monday. the economic crisis is hitting hard these days and there is bad news all around. friends lost their jobs, stocks tumble and people have their worries about the future. by accident i came across a song by bobby mcferrin, which i am sure you all know. it's called 'don't worry - be happy' and i think it is the perfect song in these troubled times. some lyrics are: in our lives we have some trouble, if you worry you'll make it double, so don't you worry, be happy. there is light at the end of the tunnel and if we are honest, there is always someone who has it worse us. so let's be happy about what we have, rather than what we don't have. no need to worry, things will get better. thanks for the song, bobby!

14feb2009 - valentine's day raclette
saturday. my mom got me a raclette set for my birthday, which we carrier all the way from germany to china when we returned in january. funny, eh? they are made in china and we buy it in germany to take it back here. it's stupid, but you really can't buy them here. anyways, we took the occasion of valentine's day to try it this set out for the first time. hmmmm, nice, but i guess i will be constapated for the next few days after all this cheese!

26jan2009 - kung hei fat choy!
monday. the year of the rat is over and the year of the ox has started. kung hei fat choy! gung xi fa cai! happy chinese new year! i spent (my sixth!) chinese new year in hong kong with vivien's family. always fun to experience local customs, food and games during this very happy and festive holiday season. oh yeah, we also have many days off from work. ;) all the best for the year of the ox, which is supposed to turn out better than the year of the rat! of course, who likes rats?

19jan2009 - ice bar
monday. one day we were asked by some foreign tourists about an ice bar (complete bar made out of ice), of which we didn't hear before, but saw something like it while driving by the shangri-la hotel in a taxi. so we did some research and went to check it out that night. truly unique, but kinda boring since we were the only ones there. well, harbin is literally dead after 9pm. the -12 degrees in the bar definetly felt better than the -26 degrees outside.

19jan2009 - where to get coffee in harbin?
monday. when you spend 10 hours a day walking around in temperatures below -10 degrees, a nice and hot coffee is always welcome. well, unlike every other 'village' china, harbin does not have a starbucks. Neither is it possible to find many tea-houses or other places to sit down, relax, refresh and most importantly warm up. in the end we found a place and endulged in some hot drinks. want to join me and open a coffee shop in harbin? we will be rich in no-time!

19jan2009 - told you 'not spicy'!
monday. deep-frozen we arrived back at the river promenade and headed for a restaurant called 'mala pot', which was recommended by a friend. the food was really nice, but no matter if you tell them to make it not spicy, your mouth will still be on fire. well, at least it warms you up.

19jan2009 - songhua river crossing
monday. afterwards we wanted to walk across the frozen river back to the city of harbin, but decided to take a horse-carriage instead. first they asked for 30 rmb a person, but after they realized that we would actually walk, the immediately reduced it to 10 rmb, which is a fair deal. haha, suckers!

19jan2009 - world of snow
monday. after seeing the tigers we went to sun island to see the 'world of snow', which was my highlight of the trip. the sculptures made from snow were simply amazing we took a zillion of photos and truly forgot about the freezing temperatures. you have come and see this.

19jan2009 - siberian tiger park
monday. harbin has a park 'to preserve' siberian tigers, which got famous since visitors are able to purchase chickens (even a cow) and have to fed live to the tigers in front of your eyes. well, we bought a chicken, but missed the actual moment when it was ripped off a jeep by the tigers. anyhow, these cats are truly impressive and worth a look, no matter the controversy.

18jan2009 - harbin ice festival
sunday. it was one of the reasons for us to come to harbin - the annual ice festival. it is hard to describe it in words, but i would use impressive, amazing, unique and breathtaking. huge structures made out of ice, lid up at night - what a sight. it makes you forget the -30
degrees (after wind chill). you must come and see this.

18jan2009 - winter games
sunsday. after lunch we headed down to the river, which is the site for all kinds of winter fun. since the temperatures are freezing for month, it is 100% save to even cross the river. you can go ice skating, sliding, snow-tubing, horse-riding and many many many other things. well, we rented snow mobiles are flew over the ice. yeeeehah! all the fun makes you almost forget that your face and hands are freezing off.

18jan2009 - jile temple
sunday. no visit to china is complete without seeing at least one temple, which we did by visiting one of the biggest and most important buddhist temple in northern china. yes, they all look the same, but it was funny to see a temple covered in snow, compared to always seeing them in warmer regions.

18jan2009 - church of st. sophia
sunday. we went to visit the biggest orthodox church in the north east, st. sophia, which was built by the russian 4th army when they arrived in harbin in 1904. an impressive building, but sad that it is not used as a church anymore, but just as a 'museum'.

17jan2009 - little moscow
saturday. harbin has a troubled history with wars and occupation by russian and japanese forces. the atmosphere and architecture is very russian, especially in the zhongyang street, where we went to have dinner is harbin's first foreign restaurant (russian), which opened in 1905. excellent food, harbin beer and a nice flair at a very cheap price. i like harbin already.

17jan2009 - harbin
saturday. we arrived harbin, the city of ice and snow, around 16:00 and were greeted by freezing temperatures at -15 degrees. the city is located in the area between north korea and russia. the winters are long and cold with an average temperature of 3 degrees throughout the year. temperatures here easily hit -30 degrees, which makes it the perfect location of an ice & snow festival, which we came to see. we, that is our friends finn, joey as well as vivien and me. well, there is not much else to see.

14jan2009 - rocha's big 28
wednesday. my old (first) guangzhou friend joe rocha III hosted a dinner that night to celebrate his 28th birthday. a fun dinner with lots of beer, chinese rice wine and guest from mexico, china, hong kong, USA, portugal, denmark, finland, india and germany at the table. gotta love living in china when you get to make more and more international
friends. cheers!

13jan2009 - german chamber of commerce
tuesday. i became a private member of the 'german chamber of commerce in china, guangzhou) that day. will spend a lot of time networking in 2009 and hope that will benefit me as well as my business activites.

09jan2009 - 90 people ktv
friday. my boss arranged an event for our whole seafreight department (90 people) to welcome the new year, and after democratic choice we ended up having a karaoke night at the music box in tianhe. yes, they do have rooms big enough to hold that many people. well, the buffet sucked, my staff can sing really well, i managed to avoid having to sing, but had to pass out 'lai sees' (red pockets with money) and play a lot of 'gambei' (bottoms up!). cheers and all the best for 2009.

05jan2009 - officially old!
monday. yes, i entered the 30+ club that day. i am officially old now. ey, no offense to those that are older than me. since my birthday was on a monday, i didn't have much chance to have a big party, but still want not spent the evening alone (of course i would at least be with my baby), so i invited some friends over for drinks.

31dec2008 - relaxed welcome to 2009
wednesday. vivien and me welcomed the new year in a very quiet and romantic way - alone at home. we enjoyed some nice food, drinks, fireworks and the couch of my parent's home (who were out for the night). we didn't miss a thing, but finally had the chance to chill out a little bit after many busy days in the past two weeks. happy new year 2009! may it be better than expected by all the experts. think positive! after all, it will be the year in which vivien and me get married, so it must be a good year. ;)

30dec2008 - evening with friends
tuesday. we met with some friends for dinner and drinks that night in the 'viertel'. first we had dinner with joris and daniela, followed by drinks with steve, leif, arne & co. a good chance again to chat and remember all those good times when we were younger, especially those nights we spent in the irish pub hegarty's (where we met that night). well, those days are gone, but even more exciting days are ahead. miss you guys!

29dec2008 - groningen
monday. vivien and me drove to groningen that day to visit our old friend lisa, who is from shanghai, studies in the UK, but spent the xmas holidays in the netherlands with her dutch boyfriend. since lisa will return to shanghai soon, her and peter face the same situation like vivien and me faced 5 years ago. truly hope for them that they will make it, just like us. love can bridge every distance.

28dec2008 - bremen tours
sunday. in return finn & joey visited us in bremen that day. i played the tour guide and we walked around the city for hours despite the freezing temperatures. well, we need to practise, since we four will head to harbin in north china for the ice festival next month. for sure it will be much colder there compared to -10 degrees in bremen that day.

27dec2008 - hamburg
saturday. we drove to hamburg that morning to meet some friends (from hong kong and singapore) and colleagues as well as to do some shopping. we walked around the city, had some snacks, drank some gluehwein, shopped around, had a nice dinner and finished the day with a walk over the famour 'reeperbahn' in st.pauli. yes, i like hamburg, even though i am not allowed to say so since i am from bremen. ;)

26dec2008 - dinner & lars' b'day party
friday. we had a nice dinner with my best friend arne and his girlfriend jenny that night. afterwards we quickly headed over to a local bar where our friend lars celebrated his 31st birthday. yes, lars, you are older than me, haha. we were actually supposed to be in kiel that night to visit my friend 'jenser', but since some of his family were sick we couldn't make it up there.

26dec2008 - monster duck
friday. another of our rituals over chrismas is taking a walk in the buergerpark and feet the ducks with left-over bread. we had fun as usual, especially since there was a monster duck. it was by faaaar bigger than your average domestiv duck and really push when it came to getting our bread. the picture on the left shows the duck trying to grab my bread, even though it looks more lile a snake.

26dec2008 - baguette
friday. since not much places are open during the second day of christmas, we decided to head out for our favourite baguette shop, which is one of the few places that is open during that day. it has gotten lile some kind of ritual for us during our stays in germany. we love this place and food so much, we actually wondered many times if we should open such a place in hong kong. hmmmm, baguette!

25dec2008 - video day
thursday. we spent that day at home with my parents, my sister and some good food. we slept long, played cards, watched tv and towards the end of the day, my dad went and got out the old 8mm video player and screen. so we spent the whole evening watching old videos when i was a kid as well as my parent's wedding video. soooo much fun! we were literally laughing till we cried. those were the days! good times! always feels good to be home on christmas!

24dec2008 - christmas
wednesday. well, what is there to say? i was of course happy to spend christmas at home in germany with vivien and my family. i love the atmosphere, even though we had no snow. good food, wine, dimmed lights, silence and being surrounde by loved-ones.

24dec2008 - lucky bird poop
wednesday. vivien and me were driving down the express way towards the city when suddenly a big white splash hit our windshield. damn, a bird shit on my car. hey, i am talking monster-shit here! i am not sure what kind of bird that was. a condor? well, bird poop must mean good luck, since i found some amazing shopping bargains that morning in the city. still, that bird better go to see a doctor!

22dec2008 - KN worldwide
tuesday. it was time for our annual KN meeting on bremen's christmas market. this time, it turned out to be truly international. bjoern s. (singapore), tjen (macau), stefan m. (macau), bjoern t. (qingdao), stefan e. (shanghai), wilken (dubai) and myself (guangzhou). we had round of round of gluehwein|feuerzangenbowle before heading to the schlachte to further quench our thirst. cheers to all my kn friends in asia and worldwide. see you in 2009!

22dec2008 - upgrade me
monday. since i miss driving so much in china, i always rent myself a car when i am on holiday in germany. this year, i originally rented a golf V, but received a mercedes b-class from sixt, which is one class higher than what i rented. at first i was happy, but since somebody must have smoked in that car, which made vivien feel rather sick, i returned it and complained. i also upgraded to winter tires and therefore that gave me a brandnew audi A4. now i am driving in style two classes higher than what i actually pay for. sweeeeet!

20dec2008 - home sweet home
saturday. after eight long months i returned back to bremen with vivien to see my family and friends. despited the cold weather in northern germany, i am still always looking forward to those moments. this year i even felt a much stronger urge to return home. living in asia for on-and-off 4,5 years now, still my heart will always be with the beautiful 'village with an airport' called bremen. :)

15nov2008 - crazy shopping in haizhou
saturday. christmas shopping is always a nuisance, but it has to be done. after finished part of it in shenzhen and hong kong last weekend, i finished things off in a crazy shopping mall near the haizhou square in guangzhou. it is a shopping mall for the wholesale of toys, decoration and gifts. you can find many cool, creative, unique and interesting things there at very reasonable prices. all under one roof, but still time-consuming and tough on your feet and bargaining skills. well, at least all shopping is done now. thank god.

09nov2008 - getting cooler
sunday. fall has arrived in south china and the temperatures have dropped to about 25 degrees or even below. wooooooh, it's not really cold, but people are already taking out their boots, scarfs and coats. well, after many years i got kinda used to it, but it still feel bestranged when i see a woman dressed like 10 degrees when it is still 25 degrees outside. anways, thank god it is getting cooler.

08nov2008 - set the date
saturday. vivien and me travelled to hong kong to meet with the catering manager of the renaissance harbourview hotel in wan chai. why? well, after months of checking many different hotels, we finally managed to find exactly what we were looking for, so we set the date and put down the deposit. we will get married in the oasis room of the hotel (overlooking the kowloon peninsula) on 19|november 2009. yes, still more than a year to go, but in hong kong you have to reserve at least one year in advance, otherwise they will all be booked. time is ticking!

05nov2008 - obama!
wednesday. i spent the more or less the whole morning (don't tell my boss) following the live-ticker on tagesschau.de to see who will be the 44th president of the USA. i was delighted that the US voted for change and made obama the first african-american president in history. a truly historic day that triggers hope for change in the heart of millions. the bush years were eight lost years! with obama, things can only get better, even though it will take time and a lot of hard work.

04nov2008 - CEO dinner
tuesday. that night i got invited to a CEO dinner hosted by the port of rotterdam at the shangri-la hotel in guangzhou. well, i am not a CEO and there were not too many present at the event either, but the shangri-la is always worth a visit. nice food, nice people, nice hotel, good red wine and interesting conversations made this a nice event. damn, i love that shangri-la hotel.

25oct2008 - junk trip
saturday. after more than a year i finally got to go on a junk-trip in hong kong again. i left my home in guangzhou at 7:00 in the morning and made it to the ifc mall in central by 10:00. not bad, huh? after getting supplies from city super, my friends, mr. bacardi and me boarded the junk and had a fun 8-hours in clearwater bay. after returning to central we finished off the evening in typhoon, before i fell asleep (little drunk) after a long day. hey scottie, how is your coffee?

18oct2008 - xian
saturday. after seeing the terracotta warrior and climbing hua shan mountain we still had to explore xian itself. you can say xian, the former ancient capital of china, 1700 km away from guanzhou, is still far behind cities like beijing, shanghai or guangzhou. it is still the old china. dark, grey and it smells like coal. bikes, small motorcycles and streetfood everywhere. still, it has many interesting places to see. the bell tower, drum tower, great mosque, the muslim quarter, city wall, temples and pagodas. not exactly the city i would like to live in, but i am glad i went to see all these displays of ancient chinese architecture, art and culture.

17oct2008 - hua shan mountain
friday. that morning we took a public bus to hua shan mountain, which is about 130 km east of xian. it is one of the five holy mountains of china and it is know to be a very dangerous one with very steep climbs. after two hours (22 yuan) we arrived at the bottom of the mountain, from which we took a cable car to 1600 m. from there we climbed about 5.000 stairs before arriving at the 2400 m high west peak. it was climbing - not hiking! what an exercise in more than 2000 m above sea level. my legs were hurting so bad on the way down already and this will remain for the next couple of days. anyways, the fresh air, the blue skies, the sun and the view made it totally worth it!

16oct2008 - terracotta army
thursday. right after arriving at the hotel in xian, we hopped on a taxi (yes, i got ripped off!) and went to qin shihuang's tomb, also know as the terracotta army. i always wanted to go there, see it and buy some warriors for my place. you could say i was almost obsesse with it and so excited when we got there. amazing! impressive! the pits, which were discovered by farmers when digging for a well in 1974, measure an area of 20.000 sqm and contain more than 8.000 warriors and horses. all of the are unique! what a display of the emperor's power. he was the first emperor of the whole china. he united china under one rule, one language and one currency. he built the great wall and this tomb as his monument. you gotta see this!

13oct2008 - my first manicure
monday. this day i had the chance to discover my feminine side by accompanying my girlfriend to the 'gorgeous nail salon' down the street. yes, it was time for my first manicure evenr. a cute chinese girl cleaned, cut and prepared nicely for about 2 euros. nice, now i know why you girls like to go there. feel like a barbie girl now, but i am sure to go again soon. get your nails done, sister!

11oct2008 - handmade
thursday. in the chen clan academy we cam across an artist who paints pictures without using a brush, but simply with the balm of his hands and by using his fingernails for the details. i found this truly amazing and wanted to buy one of his works, but couldn't find a nice size and motive that i really liked. so i asked if they could make one right there. sure! i paid cny 150.00 and he painted a guanxi river scene right in front of my eyes. soon we were surrounded by many people and 20 minutes later he was done. now that's what i call art and a nice souvenir.

11oct2008 - chen clan academy
saturday. that morning we hopped on a taxi (yes!) to do some sightseeing. we asked the driver to take us to the chen clan academy, which is one of the most famous tourist destinations in the guangzhou area. this academy, or rather temple where the chens worship their ancestors, is world famous for its unique rock-, stone- and wood-carvings as well as the buildings typical architecture. loved it. wish i could one day merge modern building elements with traditional chinese elements when i plan to build my own house.

02oct2008 - wedding planner
thursday. the next step after an engagement is the wedding itself, which requires long-term planning and preparations as well as deep pockets. why? banquet, hotel rooms, limo, rings, pictures, dresses, suits, drinks, make-up, lawyer, gifts, honeymoon and other items and can easily set you back around hkd 200.000. puuuuh, what troubles you have to go through to simply tie the knot with your loved-one? how much money do you have to spend for a simple day? well, let's see what we can come up with.

01oct2008 - golden week
wednesday. yeah, it's chinese national day, which means we are in the middle of the golden week! aaaah, five days off! no work, no sweat, no troubles. so what will i do during these few days? well, nothing! why? all chinese people have a week of and are travelling. all shopping malls and places are crowded, flights and hotel are either expensive or fully booked. so, the best option is to stay at home and relax and that's exactly what i am going to do. love the golden week.

24sep2008 - life is good
wednesday. after the meeting we went to the one-and-only 5-star hotel in jiangmen for dinner. aaaaah, that was one of those moments were you clearly enjoy life in china. a beautiful hotel, nice decoration, beautiful chinese waitresses, VIP room, tea service and the most delicious chinese food i had in a long time. where else can you get a nice 5-star hotel room for CNY 390.00 (less than 40 euros) a night! china, gotta love it!

24sep2008 - how to make a washing-machine
wednesday. that afternoon i travelled to far-away jiangmen in guandong province, which is about two hours away from guangzhou, to visit a client of mine together with a colleague from italy. after a two-hour meeting with the client, which went really well, they took us for a tour of their factory, which has an output of approximately 2000 units a day. now you know why i like this client, huh? anyhow, it was interesting to see the whole assembly line from a simple steel-coil to a final washing machine. nice and very interesting experience.

17sep2008 - german oktoberfest in guangzhou
wednesday. after a long day of management meetings the company invited us to the german oktoberfest in guangzhou. ey, i will never understand why an oktoberfest, even the one min munich, is held in september? can somebody explain this to me? anyways, i was happy to meet some friends and business-partners there, drank a lof ot german(?) tsingdao beer (i love it!) and had some nice food. all inclusive, baby! puuuh, tomorrow will be tough!

14sep2008 - mid-autumn @ hong kong
sunday. it's the season for mooncakes again - the chinese mid-autumn festival aka the lantern festival. whichever you may call it, families gather on that night to have dinner together and enjoy some mooncake. why mooncake? well, the moon is the fullest and brightest on that night, wherefore an intact egg-yolk (or more than one) is baked into a cake. it's really sweet, really have and actually not very healthy. apart from that, most foreigners really don't like it. vivien and me travelled to hong kong on that night, had a family dinner, met some friends and will go for some shopping tomorrow. yeah, monday is a public holiday in hong kong and for the first time in china! anyways, happy mooncake everybody!

09sep2008 - relaxed travels
tuesday. i was a lucky traveller that day! on my flight from istanbul to dubai i had the whole row of three seats to myself, giving me the chance to stretch out and get some good sleep before touching down in dubai. after two quick hours in dubai i boarde my plane to hong kong (via bangkok), for which i had reserved a window-seat in one of the last rows with two seats only. i was luck again, noone next to me! i got a lot of sleep again and arrived hong kong in a very relaxed way! good experience on emirates!

08sep2008 - bosphorus seafood
monday. we ended the day with some delicious seafood at a nice restaurant overlooking the bosphorus. i had some 'blue fish', some cold drinks and some nice turkish desserts. aaaah, you gotta love this about business trips. well, ilker will come to china next month and then it will be my turn to take him out. not sure if i can match this nice seafood, though!

08sep2008 - posh istanbul!
monday. my colleague gave me a little tour of istanbul (european side) before going for dinner. well, yes, we had to kill some time before the sun went down - otherwise they couldn't eat because of the ramadan. wow, i have never seen so many nice cars and yachts in one place before - not even in hong kong! well, seems that istanbul is a very posh city and you can have a lot of fun as long as you can afford it. ouch!

08sep2008 - istanbul office
monday. that morning i was picked-up by my colleague ilker from our istanbul office. finally the chance to meet many colleagues, with whom i communicate by email on a daily basis, face to face. i had some meetings, chats, lunch and headed to see a client in the afternoon. what a nice workday!

07sep2008 - sightseeing - part two
sunday. almost all my fellow HIPOs left istanbul already on saturday, wherefore i was on my own to check out istandbul. first i walked from taksim square through the sidestreets of galatasaray to the galata tower, where i enjoyed the most awesome views over the city istanbul and the bosphorus. afterwards i crossed the golden horn and walked towards the grand bazaar (knew it was closed that day!), had some starbucks and finally ended up near the blue mosque again. after strolling around for a little while i met up with my teammate alan in a local cafe to have some snacks and smoke a shisha again. oh, i like istanbul a lot!

05sep2008 - reina!
friday. to celebrate the end of our training, we all headed to the club|bar|restaurant called reina, which is the most famous hotspot in istanbul. it is situated right next to the bosphorus bridge on the european side, which creates and amazing view. it is the spot for models, millionaires and celebrities, wherefore i fit in very welll that night, hehe. what a location, what a club, what a night! check out the website of reina [click here]. wish i left the club in one of the many ferraris in the parking lot and not in a taxi. well, let's give it some time. ;)

04sep2008 - grand bazaar
thursday. after finishing the training for that day, me and two friends hopped on a taxi to check out the grand bazaar of istanbul. wow! what a place! it is an old ancient building that covers the area of approximately 55.000 sqm! that must be something like 13 football-pitches. you can buy gold, silver, leather, authentic and not so authentic souvenirs. actually, i had the impression that it must have lost a lot of its original charme over the years, even though i have never been there before. my parents visited that bazaar 25 years ago and i assume it was not focussed on tourists that much during that time. anyways, the scenery is amazing, but shopping wise you are only in the right spot if you are looking for fakes and overprices souvenirs (made in china).

03sep2008 - ataturk and music
wednesday. no, we did not have enough turkish food yet, wherefore we were take to a famous restaurant in the galatasaray district. this was not just a simple restaurant, but the place where 'ataturk', the father of all turks always used to come for dinner. he is still cherished in turkey these days and his pictures are seen all over the city. anyways, let's get back to the excellent food and the turkish music as well. while we enjoyed the dinner we were able to listen to some traditiona turkish music performed live and exclusively for us. actually, the guys didn't seem to be very motivated and were more after a tip towards the end, but the music wasn't bad and the evening good fun when some of us started to play their own music and performed some belly-dancing. ey, not me!

02sep2008 - training
tuesday. after days of sightseeing, dinners and yacht trips it was finally time to get to work. four days of project management training are ahead. i am not too worried, because mr. geek soenke came prepared with some background knowledge. i am sure this HIPO training will not be as fun as the one in the UK, but the city will make up for it and the simple fact that we should be grateful to receive such an expensive training in exotic places around the world. next year we will head for NYC as well as switzerland. sweeeeet!

01sep2008 - dinner with the board
monday. haha, we were not done with eating and networking that day. after a short break in the hotel we headed to 'tike', which is an excellent turkish restaurant in the heart of istanbul. we sat down with the regional management over dinner and had once more the chance to chat in a casual environment and to exchange ideas and experiences. wow, this really sums up a day of VIP treatment. company day, lunch at the sea, client visit and VIP dinner. during the dinner the owner of tike also gave us a presentation how he turned his private kitchen (as a hobby) into a mulit-million dollar venture. considering that he came from a technial job as an engineer, a truly inspiring story!

01sep2008 - fortune 190 client
monday. with a stomache full of kebap we went to visit a company called ... hehe, doesn't matter, but it was one out of the fortune 500's top companies. actually, they were on position 190 last year and will be ranked even higher this year. anyhow, a nice chance to listen to some experienced managers and exchange some ideas. hmmm, wonder if i will have the chance in the future to play the host for such a group of young talents.

01sep2008 - kebap at the sea
monday. after the morning in the office, where we met with some members of the board from the middle-east region, we headed down to the sea for some kebaps. the national manager took us for a nice restaurant from which you had the view as on the picture. wow, really nice - the food as well. one thing you learn here really fast: what looks like a main dish, turns out to be only an appetizer. so make sure not to each so much, otherwise you are full when the real thing arrives: a dish full of beef, chicken and lamb. wow, turkish food is nice, even though it is totally different from what i am used to from germany. anyhow, kebap is kebap and i will need a diet when i am back home in china!

01sep2008 - ramadan
monday. we arrived in istanbul just at the start of ramdan, the month where all muslims around the world fast. that means they don't east from dawn till dusk. they also don't drink (not even water!), don't smoke and don't ... aeh, have sex. yes, no pleasure of any kind allowed. after sunset they all immediately light their cigarettes and head to the restaurants for food and drinks. you can hardly get a table anywhere after eight o' clock. wow, i really admire the commitment of some people. despite istanbul being a very modern city, they still manage to retain some traditions. headscarf, no, ramadan, yes. well, some don't care at all and do whatever they like, but ey, turkey has a secular system that seperates religion from the state. who invented it? yes, mr. ataturk. must have been quite a smart man.

31aug2008 - international gift exchange
sunday. as discussed during our last module in the UK, we all brought souvenirs from our country to share with the other participants of our group. in return for my typical chinese souvenirs i got souvenirs from argentina, canada, usa, uk, switzerland, portugal, mexico, jordan, egypt, taiwan and south-africa.

31aug2008 - bosphorus yacht trip & dinner
sunday. that night we all boarded a yacht to take a cruise up the bosphorus to galatsaray island (is owned by the football club galatasaray istanbul) for dinner. we passed by many old buildings, palaces, club reina (we will go there on friday!) and the bosphorus bridge. wow, what a scenery! we then arrived at the island, where we were treated for an amazing dinner to mark the beginning of our second HIPO module and spent the rest of the evening to enjoy the atmosphere on an island between two continents. what a start!

31aug2008 - sightseeing - part one
sunday. we set off in a small group to check out some of istanbul's main tourist sights. we started at the taksim square, walked across galatasaray and the golden horn towards the hagia sophia and the blue mosque. wow, that's impressive! after spending a few hours checking out these places we sat down for some kebaps and turkish desserts. finally we headed to a cafe to enjoy some some turkish tea and smoke a shisha. what a nice way to end an exciting day. love istanbul so far!

31aug2008 - CNY rip-off
sunday. i already tried to get some turkish lira in hong kong, but my bank could not exchange any for me. so i brought chinese yuan with me in the hope that i could change them in istanbul, which turned out to be not easy at all. they wouldn't change them at the airport and said i should change them in the city. well, so far not so good. that morning i went to an exchange bureau to change 3000 yuan to turkish lira, which should get me about 500 at an exhange rate of 6:1. anyways, i put the money on the counter and the guy returned only 300 lira to me. he wanted to charge me 10:1! what a rip-off! that f###ing ###hole! that would have meant i loose about 100 euros on this kind of transaction! unbelievable! anyways, i ended up finding shop with a fair exchange rate and will use my credit card wherever i can. 10:1 compared with 6:1? i still can't believe it.

30aug2008 - istanbul!
saturday. istanbul is a city on two continents, which are connected via the bosphorus bridge. we could already see the beauty of istanbul from the taxi. the exciting history of this city manifests itself in its magnificient architecture. the city is full of life, which we could already experiences when we went out for some turkish dinner that night. the city was full of people, shops, music, bars, clubs and restaurants. wow, what a city! i already like it!

30aug2008 - pass-out after take-off
saturday. at the time when i boarded my emirates i was up 30 hours straight after not getting any sleep on the flight from hong kong to dubai, wherefore i was so happy to have a whole row on the plane from dubai to istanbul to myself. right after the start i put in my earplugs, stretched out, covered my eyes, slipped under my blanket and slept right till we approached istanbul. aaaaah, the most relaxing flight ever! welcome to istanbul!

30aug2008 - dubai international
saturday. after an eight hour flight i touched down in dubai for a 10-hour stopover. yes, 10 hours! just too little to explore the city (at 4:00 in the morning) and too much to call it a relaxed stopver. well, it seems like i was not the only person with a long stopover. when i entered the terminal, i found hundreds of people sleeping all over the terminal floor. what a sight! what a shame! i expected more of an airport in one of the richest countries in the world. i thought everything in dubai was five-star? well, i was not impressed. i spend my time strolling the duty free shops and chilling out in starbucks and the irish pub in the terminal building. four hours after my arrival i was joined by my teammate gareth from south africa. we had breakfast together and enjoyed some drinks before boarding our connecting flight to istanbul. couldn't wait to get out of dubai! haven't seen a better airport than the one in hong kong so far! ...oh, here comes the best. a guy we met in the terminal said that emirates will offer you a free hotel stay if your stopver is longer than 4 hours. they take you out from the terminal on a special visa to a hotel only five minutes away. there you can take a shower, fresh up and take a little nap. well, nobody told me, so i missed my chance. guess i need to have a serious talk with my travel agent in hong kong. well. at least it seems like i was not the only person who didn't know, considering they all slept on the terminal floor. unbelievable!

29aug2008 - drinks & off to istanbul!
friday. that night vivien and me celebrated our engagement together with some friends in wan chai. afterwards i headed (a little tipsy) with the airport express towards the airport and boarded my plane to dubai. yes, i am sad to leave vivien behind while on a business trip, but this time i don't leave her as my girlfriend but as my future wife. cheers to that! so i will now spend about 11 days in turkey for some HIPO training and some business. see you later!

28aug2008 - we are engaged!
thursday. after the dinner we headed to the terrace of the peak galleria for some privacy. why? well, i wanted to take advantage of this special day and the special place and ask the love of my life to marry me, which glady replied with 'yes'. yes, it's official! we are getting married next year. now vivien has a nice piece of jewellry on her finger and i have a large credit card bill. well, a small price to pay for taking the next step into the future with the person you love.

28aug2008 - 5 years!
thursday. people say that time flyes when you enjoy yourself, which has been exactly true for vivien and me. on this very day vivien and me are together for five years, and we celebrated with a dinner on the peak in hong kong. wow, what a long way we have come since we got together in 2003. five years together, four years living together, three years in hong kong, one year in china ... and many more to come.

24aug2008 - guitar heroes
sunday. zach came over that afternoon to sit with me through my hangover and watch the US dream team to take the gold medal in men's basketball. a really nice and close game! while winnie and vivien went to get their nails done in the same time (that took more than 2 hours and costs less than 30 yuan), zach and me babysitted miles until the fell asleep in the final minutes of the game. after the game we strapped on our wii guitars and played guitar heroes! have you ever played this? man, you really have to check out this game. the perfect game for a sunday afternoon. roch-n'-roll, baby!

23aug2008 - some cocotracks, honey?
saturday. after our housewarming party we jumped on a taxi and headed down to the pearl river. after entering into the club called 'coco track' and leaving it again after two minutes due to the terrible techno music inside, we ended up next door in a club called 'honey'. they played some nice black music and we played some chinese drinking-dice-games until five in the morning before heading back home again. well, a pleasant guangzhou nightlife experience for a change. ey, cocotracks and honey? sounds like breakfast, no?

23aug2008 - housewarming party
saturday. vivien and me invited some friends over for a housewarming party that evening. since some of them couldn't make it to china due to visa problems, we were reduced to about 10 people only, but still had a lot of fun. vivien made some excellent food and we all worked hard on my alcohol supplies until early in the morning. the drinks were kept cold thanks to 24kgs of ice, which i had delivered that afternoon at the price of 1 yuan per kg. can you believe that? well, the party was a full success and the apartment was not trashed in the process.

22aug2008 - the world of facebook
friday. i heard all those stories about facebook in the past but never really paid attention to this networking platform in detail. well, until this very day. an old friend sent vivien and me an email through which we got the email records of many other exchange students we went to school with in hong kong during 2003-04. vivien was able to locate many of them on facebook, which got me really curious. i signed up and was immediately able to locate 20+ old friends from germany, US, france, china, netherlands, etc. wow, i was really impressed and i am hooked on it since that day. i finally arrived on facebook! no matter what people say about the risks involved, i think it is a good tool to stay in touch with old friends. see you on facebook?

22aug2008 - typhoon? where?
friday. typhoon nuri swept in from the phillippines and directly hit hong kong on that day, which let the authorities trigger 'signal number 9', the highest tyhoon warning since september 2003. that was the time when i first lived in hong kong and i can still rememebr how that felt. anyhow, nuri brought hong kong to a standstill and killed on person in the territory. well, don't mean to talk bad about this, but if you go surfing at big wave beach during a typhoon, you expose yourself to quite some risk, no? in the end the typhoon ruined my housewarming party as three friends of mine were not able to get their china visas on time with the travel agents closed due to the storm. not much was felt in guangzhou of the typhoon. damn, wish we would have gotten a day off as well.

21aug2008 - got my visa
thursday. my visa expires at the end of this month, wherefore i had to apply a new one with the local authorities. this kind of procedure can only be started one month before the expiration of the visa and take approximately two weeks, but due to the olympic games in beijing, visa applications will take longer and approvals will be more difficult. i didn't worry about getting a visa at all, but getting it in time for my business trip to turkey. if not, this would have dealt a major blow to my carreer as i would have missed the second module of my training. well, luckily i managed to get my visa and work permit exactly after three weeks and will be allowed to stay in china for another year. visa stuff - never a pleasant experience!

19aug2008 - to the gym
tuesday. facing the fact of being totally out of shape, vivien and me decided to do something about it and start hitting the gym at our new apartment complex. we hit the gym now every day to do some running and other exercises. while i have certainly seen fitness equipment in a better shape than at our gym, it is still very nice since the place is most of the time left unused. it is like having your own private gym! okay, now it's up to us and keep the momentum going and workout on a daily basis.

17aug2008 - double birthday party
sunday. we spent the afternoon at our friends' winnie & zach home to celebrate the birthday of winnie and their son miles. yes, they both have birthday on the same day, cool huh? many other babies and their parents were present, which made me realize that we have definetly grown older. soon it will be couples, babies, diapers, etc. anyhow, guess that's just the way it goes. happy birthday winnie & miles!

12aug2008 - passport pictures
tuesday. it is time to renew my china visa and apart from all the forms and documents i was asked to submit 3 passport-size pictures. i did that, but was soon contacted by the authorities to submit three new ones. why? well, they have a new procedure of how to deal with such pictures. they need to be verified by the 'entry & exit administration department of public security of guangdong province (wow!)'. so how does it work? i went to the kodak express shop near my house and they took a picture of me. a cute little chinese girls then went to a computer and started editing like crazy in adobe photoshop. damn, she was quick. first she removed some spots on my skin (thanks for that!), changed the background, cut my hair (she really did) and then adjusted the size. as the next step she loaded it into a software to check whether all requirements were met. afterwards she uploaded it onto a government website, which then stores the picture and spit out a reference number. finally, she printed the pictures and along with them i got a certificate (with reference number) to hand in to the immigration department to obtain my visa. wow, what a procedure. anyways, it took only about 10 minutes and set me back only 35 yuan (3,5 euros) for 8 officially approved pictures. did i mention i look handsome on those pictures? well, that's what vivien said.

10aug2008 - old kids on the block
sunday. do you know the boygroup 'new kids on the block'? it was founded in 1984, made a huge splash in the entertainment industry from 1988 and broke thousands of teenage-girls' hearts when the band broke up in 1994. well, the guys are back and doing a comeback! ey, these guys are not exactly new on the block anymore. the oldest one was born in 1968! he will be 40 this year! jeeeez, not enough the ruined my early teenage years by making all the girls fall in love with their jordan, jonathan, donnie, danny and joey, no, now they come back and haunt me with their music. well, they are a classic, but you can still only listen to it in the privacy of your own room or when you are totally drunk at a party. damn, their new song 'summertime' really got me a broken record in my head. thanks vivien!

10aug2008 - enjoying city life
sunday. it feels so good to live in the city again. everything is withing walking distance or can easily be reached by taxi. starbucks, 7eleven, pizza delivery, bakery, watson's, supermarket, laundry shop, bank and hairdresser are all within 5 minutes walking distance. i can walk to my office in 15 minutes, which is just as much as you can bear in this heat, but anyhow, how cool is that?

09aug2008 - custom painting
saturay. i always wanted to get a custom painting done and finally managed to do so. you may have heard of the village dafen in shenzhen, no? this village exports about 5 million oil painting per year, which are mainly copies of famous van gogh or picasso paintings. they are then sold at shops in the US, europe and all over the world. some painters for example copy van gogh's sunflowers 30 times in one day. unbelievable! my friend went there before and had a wedding picture painted in oil from a photo that he brought to the shop. through a local friend i heard of a street in guangzhou that offers similar services like the dafen. i took an old hong kong picture (taken from the peak overlooking hong kong island, the vicotria harbour and kowloon), made in b&w and edited it a little bit on my computer. then i went to a shop and asked them to paint it in 3 parts, each 1m x 1m, so the total three frames on the wall would add up to 3m x 1m. it takes about 7-10 days and set me back about 100 euros. well, for chinese standards that might be considered tooooo expensive, but i don't think i could get a custom paining with frames done in europe for any price near that. after all, it will look awesome on my living room wall and remind me of my second home, which happens to be the place where i met my girlfriend and shared many good memories throughout the past 5 years.

08|08|08 - zhungguo jiayou!
friday. the olympic fever pitch finally reached its highest point on this very day with the opening ceremony for the 29th olympic games of the modern era in beijing. china waited for 100 years since the 1908 London, when the first chinese athlete ever participated in the games. what an opening ceremony! what a show! the fireworks, footsteps, the drums, the display of martial arts, the torch, the birdnest stadium - wow! we gathered at a friends house, ordered pizza and watched the whole thing. well, some of us fell asleep. anyways, i am happy that the games have finally started. there could have been no other country but china to host the 2008 games. look at the date: 08.08.08. with the number 8 (ba) being the lucky number due to its similar pronounciation to the word fortune, this date has a strong meaning for chinese. many couples got married on this lucky day and many women planned their pregnancy to end on this very day. having lived in asia for four years now, i could feel the tension build up before the games. i am happy for the chinese people! yes, i have an political opinion on tibet, human rights and censorship, but i am gonna keep those to myself. zhungguo jiayou! (raise china!) deguo jiayou (raise germany!)

01aug2008 - one year in guangzhou
friday. time is flying and i have now been living and working on the chinese mainland for one year. everybody warned me that it would be difficult for me here to work in an office as the only foreigner, but i am glad that i can say that everything worked out just fine. life is good in china, which may be especially so because my girlfriend vivien is here with me. not speaking chinese may not affect me in my work, but in daily private life it is always good to have some native speaker with you. many things simply can be arranged here through speaking english, wherefore i am more than greatful to her that she is managing our private errands. i am confident that my second year will be just as good as the first one, maybe even better. let's see.

27jul2008 - cheater!
sunday. after having moved out all my stuff, it was time to go back to panyu one more time to handover the old house. handing over the house to the landlord was not an issue as i left everything in good condition, but sorting out the bankbook, deposit and the utilities soon became an issue. since april the china telecom had deducted 130 yuan per month for internet fees, which is impossible, since i prepaid the internet for one year. confronting him with these charges, he stated he wasn't aware of what they are for and offered to go to china telecom and clarify it. so we did that on a sunday afternoon and you can well guess for how long we had to cue up in the shop. what a waste of time, considering that he is a milionaire and could well spare the total amount of 400 yuan (40 euros). anyways, it turned out that the charges are from his other apartment and were deducted from the bankbook (his bankbook) that i was using for my house. so either he is more stupid than i thought or simply a f###ing cheater! i am just happy that things i over with!

26jul2008 - moved to tianhe
saturday. on that day i completed my move from panyu to my new apartment in tianhe, which means that i now live within 15 minutes walking distance of my office. yeah! i used santa fe relocations for my move again (the third time after moving in hong kong as well as between hong kong and guangzhou), which was not cheap, but after all very relaxed. moving in a way where you don't have to pack, carry or load anything is certainly a thing i could get used to. aaaaah, can't wait till everything is settled in the new place and i am back to a city life.

06jul2008 - snobby b#tches
sunday. our china southern flight was delayed by approximately two hours that night of which we spent 1,5 hours already sitting in our seats. after all, this was quite annoying, but turned out to be quite and interesting experience. once chinese people start complaining, you can see them yelling, screaming and sometimes even get physical. two ladies in front of us, obviously rich but still poorly dressed without style, started to talk down on the flight attendant. why is it taking so long? i want to get off the plane. i want something to drink. i want this special type of water. you don't have it? tzz tzz tzz, what kind of airline is this? what to you have at all?

06jul2008 - wrong airport
sunday. from sheshan, to which we brought our luggage already, we took a taxi directly to the shanghai hongqiao airport. this was the airport we flew into from guangzhou as well. when we wanted to check in, the lady told us that we were at the wrong airport and that our flight would depart from shanghai pudong airport. damn, my travel confirmation didn't show any such information and since we flew into hongqiao, we ... well, we left the terminal, jumped in cab and told the driver to take us to the new airport. he asked when our flight was and stated 'mei wenti' (no problem) after we told him. he put on his gloves (no kidding!), bent forward over the wheel and flew down the expressway flicking his headlighs at other cars. it was like a computer game and he was the chinese brother of michael schumacher. it think we even overtook the transrapid on the way to pudong airport. anyways, we made the 60 kms in about 35 minutes (not bad for shanghai traffice) and easily caught our flight. well, it's a pity for the 200 yuan, but the taxi ride was crazy and this is another funny story to tell about china.

06jul2008 - le meridien sheshan
sunday. to escape from the heat and to finish our shanghai trip in a very relaxing way, we all decided to take a 40-min taxi ride out of shanghai and spend the day at the le meridien in sheshan. we, 8 colleagues and friends, first enjoyed an amazing brunch buffet at the hotel before spending full six hourse in the sun and the pool. what a nice and relaxing day, which got all of us a nice suntan. aaaah, 5 star treatment for only 30 euros per day. you gotta love china!

05jul2008 - let me give you a round!
saturday. after a couple of drinks and cigars we were just about to leave the bar, when my friend ran into a friend who happens to be the 'food & beverages manager' of the hyatt. his friend could not understand why our glasses were empty, wherefore he immediately offered to give us a round. afer 5 minutes he came back with a full bottle of absolut vodka pear, a new flavour just launched in china. well, who could let such good stuff go to waste, right? so we 'peared' that stuff and left the bar quite bzzzzzzed. love shanghai!

05jul2008 - vue bar
saturday. after dinner we took a taxi down to the bund and to the hyatt hotel, which has the vue bar on the 32nd floor. from the outdoor area of the bar, which also has an open air whirlpool, you have the most incredible view over shanghai, the huangpu river, the bund and the pudong skyline. wish there would be more such open-air bars in hong kong from which you can enjoy such views, since hong kong still has the most incredible skyline views in the world. vue bar is together with bar rouge certainly one of the places to visit in shnaghai!

05jul2008 - ye olde train station
saturday. hong kong people are mainly interested in shopping and eating when they are travelling, which is simply their natural way for spending their freetime at home. lying at the beach, swimming and sunbathing are usually not on the travel agenda. anyways, in due course vivien's chinese shanghai travel guide focussed more on restaurants and shopping malls than sights, wherefore vivien was quick to find a restaurant recommendation from her book that night. even carmen and be, our hosts, have never been to that place before and were presently surprised. an old train station turned into restaurant with the charme of the shanghai 1930's and some typical shanghai cuisine. chuuuu chuuuu delicious.

05jul2008 - xintiandi II
saturday. i loved xintiandi and it's atmosphere so much that i certainly did not mind to go back there to cool down with a cocktail after some shopping at the yu yuan bazaar. you just feel like sitting at the 'schlachte' in bremen, except that you will not find that many chinese people as in xintiandi. well, after all it's a place made for foreigners and 'hip' shanghainese, so i guess that's why i like it so much.

05jul2008 - bazaar
saturday. many buildings next to the old teahouses of shanghai are presently being demolished to make room for the expansion of the yu garden bazaar. well, tourists need to have a place to buy 'authentic' souvenirs and antiques as well as other kindy utensils, right? well, i have to admit that i bought a lot of stuff there, but not without putting all my acquired bargaining skills to the test. oh my god, their bargaining is even more ridiculous than in hong kong, shenzhen or guangzhou. i hope that other tourists do not pay those prices, if you can shave off at least 70% of all prices. well, from the seller's perspective, it's worth a try to rip off a tourist, right?

05jul2008 - dumplings
saturday. you simply can't visit shanghai without enjoying some delicious shanghai-style dumplings. we managed to escape from the shanghai heat and sat down in traditional teahouse to do exactly that. not the best dumplings i ever had (those i had in taipei), but certainly a nice snack and welcome break from sightseeing in such a heat.

05jul2008 - old shanghai
saturday. around lunch time we left our well air-conditioned apartment and faced the 38 degrees heat outside while walking the yu yuan area of old shanghai. a beautiful (but crowded) area with small shops, restaurants and teahouses. beautiful to see the old chinese architecture of shanghai in contrast with the modern skyscrapers of pudong.

04jul2008 - bar rouge
friday. we headed for bar rouge, which apperently seems the place to see and to be seen in shanghai these days. well, it must be, since they get away with charging 100 yuan cover charges without giving you a free drink. by the way, a table will set you back 5000 yuan for the night. after all the money is well spent considering the amazing view over pudong and the bund. well, every view has its price, so it was well worth it.

04jul2008 - got taxi?
friday. it was a friday night in shanghai, the city that apparently has a severe taxi shortage. we tried for over one hour to get one, which seems impossible considering the fact that shanghai has more than 18.000 taxis. where have they been hiding that night? thanks taxi-guys, because of you i didn't arrive the bund in time to see all the pudong skycrapers light up in their full glory.

04jul2008 - fusion food
friday. that night we went out for sone fusion chinese food in a really crazy chinese restaurant somewhere in the backstreets of shanghai. just another proof that guangzhou is just a small provincial village compared with metropolitan shanghai. well, it doesn't take expensive fusion food to make me happy, but experiencing the style of shanghai was certainly impressive. i guess i could live here, if the style wouldn't come with such a hefty price-tag.

04jul2008 - nanjing road
friday. after the visiting the bund, vivien and me walked past the peace hotel into the nanjing road, which is the shopping street in shanghai, even china! it stretches all the way from the bund towards the west and is famous for being one of the world's busiest streets, which is damn true. shop after the shop the street streches for miles and is buzzing with people. want to buy rollerskates?

04jul2008 - the bund
friday. the bund is the main promenade near the huangpu river. it is the reason why shanghai is called the paris of the east. it has beautiful colonial-style building (well, those that have survived the communist era) that are witnesses of a time when shanghai was colonialized by the british, americans, russians and french (did i get that right? where were the germans?) anyhow, every building now flies a chinese flag and you have a nice view of the pudong skyline. you would be able to enjoy it even more, if you wouldn't constantly be disturbed by hawkers, beggers and all other kinds of suspicious people.

04jul2008 - rude shanghainese
friday. many people told me before my trip already that the shanghainese were snobby and rude, which i must confirm is very true. while shopping near the shangri-la i ran with my newly-bought trolley by accident over the foot of a local guy and immediately apologized for it. he looked at me and said: son of a b#tch! i was shocked and didn't know how to respond, simply i didn't expect this kind of reaction as i already said i was sorry. #sshole!

04jun2008 - jin mao tower
friday. afterwards we headed by taxi to the jin mao tower, which ... well, don't ask the how-highest building in the world it is, but let me ensure you: that thing is tall. it used to be the tallest in shanghai, but recently the shanghai financial centre was completed just next door, which is the biggest bottle-opener in the world (well, it looks just like one.). we took the elevator to the 88th floor from which you have an incredible view over shanghai. well, as long as the visibility is clear and there isn't too much smog. we were not so lucky that day, but it was still worth it. the skycrapers of china are simply impressive!

04jul2008 - copy copy copy
friday. no chinese city is complete without a 'copy' market. shanghai has a whole underground mall dedicated to the sale of copied trademark goods. shops full of lacoste, ralph polo lauren, boss, ray ban, gucci, louis vuitton, dior and so on. as far as the eye can see. i won't tell you if i bought something, but we certainly had some fun bargaining over there. well, in the end you always end up paying a little too much.

04jul2008 - shanghai transrapid
friday. i always wanted to take a ride on the transrapid, which is german engineering at its best, but was never build on home soil except the test-track in the emsland. so shanghai has the only one that is in full operation, which connects the eastern part of shanghai (pudong) with the new pudong international airport. it leaps over the distance of 30 kms in just seven minutes and reaches a top-speed of 431 km/h. wow! after is slows down to 200 km/h, you feel like you can open a window and pick some flowers. absolutely incredible! this experience was worth the trip to shanghai already. zoooooosh!

03jul2008 - lost heaven
thursday. in the evening we met with some more friends at a yunnan restaurant called lost heaven. excellent food and excellent drinks at reasonable prices - well, at least compared to western standards. compared to guangzhou this is much more expensive and also much much more stylish. love shanghai even more.

03jul2008 - hot weather in shanghai
thursday. after five straight (!) weeks of bad weather with heavy rain and thunderstorms, vivien and me got a break and were able to enjoy the hottest weather in shanghai so far this year. temperatures were over 30 degrees and the sun was burning from the sky. well, you still don't need much sun-protection in shanghai, the smog does the job for you. ;)

03jul2008 - xintiandi
thursday. after checking in with our friends, vivien and me headed over to xintiandi, which is one of the hippest spots in town for seeing and being seen. they took an old quarter of shanghai, closed it to traffic, redid the building, opened many bars and added a starbucks - ready is you gweilo hang-out spot. i wish guangzhou and even hong kong had such a nice place where you can sit outside and enjoy drinks, coffee and nice food. shanghai, definetly a metropolis and by far more stylish than guangzhou.

03jul2008 - china southern airlines
thursday. that morning vivien and me flew to shanghai to visit our friends carmen and ben. we flew from bayun (guangzhou) international airport with china southern airlines, which is china's biggest airline and has its major hub and headquarter there. it was my first time to fly with a chinese airline and i was a little anxious of what was waiting for me after hearing so many bad stories about chinese airlines. anyways, the plane was new, the service good and the food so so. in the end you don't need much on a 2-hour flight as long as you get to your destination. shanghai, finally i get to see this city!

29jun2008 - spain was better!
sunday. i travelled all the way to hong kong to watch the euro 2008 final in my favourite wan chai bar: typhoon. many friends and colleagues gatherd to watch the game and we had a really good time until the 33th minute of the game when spain scored the only goal of the game. well, to be honest, germany got mostly lucky during the euro 2008 (expect for the games when they bet poland and portugal) while the spaniards played excellent football throughout the tournament. no need to be sad - spain was simply better! une cerveza grande por favor to drown my sorrows!

28jun2008 - qingyuan xinyinzhan hot spring
saturday. that weekend we had our annual company outing, for which we headed to some hot spring resort somewhere (don't ask me!) in guangdong province. it was supposed to be a teambuilding experience, which it was, but sometimes with a little kindergarten touch. anyhow, after working our butt off in the teambuilding, we were able to enjoy the local hot spring, which was actually really nice. after soaking for hours in various whirlpools, springs and pools together with my staff, i quickly fell asleep in my hotel room. hey, need to gather my energy for the big game tomorrow!

22jun2008 - vodka orange?
sunday. the rivalry between germany and the netherlands in terms of football is notriously well-know, wherefore i would not miss the dutch loose agaist a strong russian team. as i predicted, the oranje team would have to pack their suitcases after this game despite their strong performance in the first round. hey, you guys plaid well, but again won nothing! ha ha holland!

21jun2008 - buffet @ shangri-la
saturday. the 21st of june is not only the longest day of the year, but also my girlfriend's birthday. since we could not celebrate in yangshou (see entry below), i of course had to come up with an alternative program for that day, wherefore i took my baby out for dinner at the shangri-la hotel in guanzghou. hehe, by turning 28, vivien is now officially old as well.

20jun2008 - buhu, mr. c. ronaldo
friday. of course i got up to watch my beloved german team beat portugal in the 1/4-final of the euro 2008. everyone said that germany would loose, considering their poor performances so far, but i knew they would prove everyone wrong and beat mr. c. ronaldo and his team. germany put in a convincing performance and made it's way to the next round. buhu, buhu, the 'handsome' lady's favourite can now pack his suitcase and spend the summer at the beach instead of the pitch. go germany - all the way!

19jun2008 - they speak english
thursday. these days i had to cancel my vacation with my chinese travel agent and also had to apply a GPRS package for my iphone with china mobile. both times i had to call their hotlines and deal with their english-speaking customer service officers. wow, i was really impressed. clear english, efficient service and easy confirmations via SMS and email afterwards. well done! hey, but can you believe the picture on the left which i found on some US website. it's of course related to osama, obama and 9/11. anyways, if you american send out everyone who doesn't speak english, and next time you come to china, try to get along if you don't speak english. f###in ignorant people!

17jun2008 - messed-up sleep rhythmn
tuesday. the euro 2008 is really killing me. well, not literally, but it messes up my sleep-rhythmn. i come home from work, eat dinner, sleep at 9:00pm, wake uo at 2:45am, watch the game and sleep from 4:30am to 7:00am again before i go to work. what a mess and you always wake up 'totally groggy' and need to fight you way through the day with tons of coffee. well, the love for football. go germany!

17jun2008 - need to cancel my vacation
tuesday. it's been raining for weeks non-stop and there are major floodings in the provinces of guangdong (= expand to east) and guangxi (=expand to west). well, china is certainly battered by natural desasters this year (harsh winter, earthquake, floodings). 2008, with the luck number 8 ( 8 = ba = fortune) and the olympic games in beijing, seems not to be such a fortunate year at all. well, same accounts for me these days as i had to cancel my long-anticipated trip to guilin and yangshou. vivien and me wanted to celebrate her birthday there. in fear of floodings and landslides i called the hotel in yangshou and asked them if it was safe to go there, considering that yangshou is next to the li river. they guy said: no problem. well, that night i saw the downtown of yangshou 1,5 meters under water with ongoing evacuations. the next morning i called the travel agent and cancelled. damn! well, we'll go some other time, that's for sure.

14jun2008 - sex and the city
saturday. that night i met with my girlfriend at palace ifc (in central) to watch 'sex and the city - the movie'. i might as well admit it now: yes, i have watched all six seasons (several times) and was really looking forward to this movie, which helped to conclude the story but was so-la-la in the end. anyways, good entertainment. why do i watch this stuff, you may ask? well, to understand how the women tick. it's my secret weapon! women simply don't watch a-team, colt, knight rider, football, formula1, baywatch and airwolf, so they know nothing about us. ;)

14jun2008 - what do you know about diamonds?
saturday. how much do you know about diamonds? well, i didn't know much about them till this very day apart from the fact that they are usually very expensive. hey, but there are major factors involved that can make you stone really expensive or just as valuable as a piece of glass. it all depends on the four c's: cut, clarity, colour and carat. quite interesting stuff to look around in a jewellry shop and find out more. one thing is for sure - size doesn't matter! why did i learn so much about diamonds? well, you will see.

12jun2008 - not that bad!
thursday. a colleague from vienna (his first trip to asia!) came over that day and i picked him up from the train station that morning. he was impressed! why? well, as usual my hong kong colleagues (the local ones) told him all these nightmare stories about china (dirty, polluted, dangerous). he found guangzhou with cloudy skies (litte pollution), a clean subway, excellent facilties, excellent hotel and nice colleagues. ey, hong kong local just talk bad about china to make themselves feel better, while they have pollution in hong kong, too. on the other hand, when they talk about the olympics and the earthquake, they claim to be 'all chinese' and that their heart beats along with the ones of the chinese motherland. well, each coin has two sides, right?

09jun2008 - dragon boat day
monday. it's dragon boat day again and this time it is even a public holiday on the chinese mainland! it used to be only a public holiday in hong kong. did i tell you before what this holiday is about? no? well, a chinese politician (many dynasties ago) was upset with the government and committed suicide by drowning himself in the river. the people loved him so much they threw rice dumplings into the water to feed the fish, so they would not eat him. at the same time they rowed their boats to chase away the fish. that's why they have so many dragon boat races all over the world and chinese people enjoy these rice dumplings, which are delicious. must try it!

08jun2008 - beat the neighbors
sunday. after all the disgusting polish attacks on the german team in the polish media over the past two weeks, i was happy that germany was well able to give the answer on the pitch (we never lost to poland, ever). germany came to a deserved 2:0 win that night which i witnessed live on my couch watching cctv5. haha, while in hong kong team germany's matches are only to be seen on pay-tv, the chinese channels will broadcast all games for free. so, germany won the first match and there are five more to go. go germany!

07jun2008 - europe 2008
saturday. after a long day i was only able to watch the opening game of the euro 2008 before falling asleep on the couch. the next three weeks will be full of exciting football entertainment and i am telling you now already that germany will beat spain in the final at 2:1 and take the crown. want to bet?

07jun2008 - o sole saturday sleepy night
saturday. i guess we all had too many drinks the night before, wherefore the atmosphere over dinner at 'o sole mio' in soho was rather quiet and relaxed. we all enjoyed nice food and alcohol-free drinks before going for 'pacific coffee' afterwards. what a sight, we all left lan kwai fong already while the young party crowds were still arriving. well, we are getting older and drinking two days in a row is no longer phyisically possible. ;)

07jun2008 - shanghai tang
saturday. i particularly like to wear polo shirts in my freetime, wherefore i was intrigued when i came across some special designs of a local chinese designer label 'shanghai tang'. appartenly 'tang' translates as something like 'bitch', wherefore not only the designs of this label are special. anyways, the polos have chinese characters embroided and also have a very traditional chinese collar. make sure to check this label out!

06jun2008 - cuban dozen
friday. that night i met with some old friends and colleagues at my favourite wan chai bar: typhoon. we kicked things off at around 18:30 and ended up drinking and watching 'roland garros' until 2:00 in the morning. aaaah, always good to see old friends again and enjoy my favourite rum. apparently i had a few too many, well, but how much is too many?

06jun2008 - come to daddy
friday. lately my company paid out the bonuses for 2007, which was an excellent year, wherefore i decided to do reward myself and satisfy my urge of buying an apple iphone. aaaah, come to daddy you little overpriced man-toy. the endless waiting time has come to an end i finally have the phone of my dreams.

06jun2008 - bank troubles
friday. i took a day off to travel to hong kong and take care of some financial shit. since i don't have any income in germany anymore, but still have to pay some insurances, my bank accounts are running dry, wherefore i need to be able to make international money transfers online. sadly i had to found out that my present bank 'standard chartered' can not provide such services online, only manually at the counter. that will cost fees of about 45 each time, which is unacceptable. well, they are not the only bank in hong kong, wherefore i simply went next door to the headquarter of hsbc, where it took me less than one hour to open an intregated account for yuan, hong kong dollar, us dollar, euros as well as online transactions and stock-brokering. standard chartered, the world's most provincial bank!

01jun2008 - no more plastic bags
sunday. china uses 3 billion(!) plastic bags every day(!). can you believe this? well, it's a fact and something is now done about this. chinese supermarkets, shops and stores are no longer allowed to hand out plastic bags for free. a revolution! now you have to pay a few maos (smaller unit than the yuan) for each bag, which i am sure will encourage people to make more use of re-usable plastic bags. i like this approach, especially as we can see that something is changing in the minds of the people here. now china is even ahead of hong kong, where one day of the week this kind of rule is applied. by the way, non-compliance will result in a heavy fine of cny 10.000 for shopowners. well, that's many times more than what you get charged for spitting on the street (50 yuan!). maybe that fine should be raised as well?

31may2008 - looking looking
saturday. we have decided to move from panyu (outer parts of guangzhou) to the tianhe district, which lies in the centre of the city. why? well, our present house is really nice and the environment is very calm and relaxing, but it simply takes me too long every day to get to and from work. he, vivien doesn't have to work. another reason is that we have found many new friends in the city and would be more spontaneous to meet them to go out. so we met with an agent and looked at 11 apartments within walking distance of my office and found some really nice ones. soon our friends and us will be neighbors and life will be much more convenient. hehe, starbucks, park-n-shop and 7eleven are just around the corner. can't wait to move.

29may2008 - t-storm days
thursday. it has been raining here in guangzhou for 6 days straight. that's not enough, it hot and humid as 'hell', too. well, but that's still not enough. every day we have big thunderstorms passing through guangzhou. this again reinforces the rule that one should never leave the house in south china without an umbrella, no matter how good the weather looks. aaaah, and the forecast for next week is 5 days of showers and thunderstorms. will this never end?

28may2008 - pasta with a view
wednesday. vivien and me went out for dinner that night to celebrate 57 months together. yes, i know that it's hard to believe that someone will put up with me for such a long time, but it's a fact. we had dinner at the 'prego' italian restaurant in the westin hotel. wow, what a restaurant. nice atmosphere, delicious food, excellent service and the most awesome view from the 40th floor over the tianhe district of guangzhou. it was pasta with a view and unfortunately with a hefty price-tag for chinese standards. anyways, the view was worth it and made this a dinner to remember.

19may2008 - three days of mourning
monday. the chinese government has ordered three full days of national mourning to honor those people that were killed and affected throught the major earthquake one week ago. three minutes of silence were held this afternoon at 14:28 local time, the time when the earth shook for three minutes and brought such suffering to the people of szichuan province. all flags have been lowered throughout the country, the torch relay has been suspended and there are no enterntainment events nationwide. even the tv program has been suspended! all you can watch now is cctv, who is reporting around the clock from szichuan province. no sports, no music, no shows, no series. wow, i have never seen that before!

17may2008 - martyrs park
saturday. after visiting a temple we took the metro to visit one of guangzhou's major parks. after having visited yuexiu park before, we this time visited the martyrs park, which commemorates all those people who died in the struggle during the communist revolution. it is a vast park with a big momument (a hand holding a rifle), a museum, a lake, tombs and lots of magnolia trees, which made it smell really nice at this time of the year.

17may2008 - shunjuang temple
saturday. just nearby the dr. sun yat sen memorial are various more tourist attractions, so we decided to visit one of them - the shunjuang temple (hope i spelt i correctly). it's definetly not the first taoist temple i have seen, but is always like to visit them for their serenity, sight and smell. yes, the bruning inscents and offerings create a very special atmosphere in these old temple, so they are always worht a visit to enjoy a moment of tranquility.

17may2008 - dr. sun yat sen memorial
saturday. vivien and me decided to do some more sightseeing over the next few months and visit some more of guangzhou's various tourist attractions. we started with the sun yat sen memorial hall in the very centre of old guangzhou. dr. sun yat sen is remembered across china as a revolutionary leader, patriot and father of the modern china as we know it today. even though he is not buried here, but in beijing, the people of guangzhou built an impressive hall in the memory of the city's most famour son. a great man with truly great spirit and a beautiful hall in his memory.

12may2008 - szichuan earthquake
monday. on this afternoon the chinese province of szichuan was hit by a major earthquake (7.8 on the richter scale). the shocks were even felt in shanghai, beijing and some other major cities more than 2000 km away from epicenter. even people in hong kong felt it, but i must say that i did not feel a thing here in guangzhou. the chinese media is broadcasting openly around the clock from the region showing premier wen jiabao visiting the worst-struck areas. this is a surprise as usually such desasters are not broadcasted as uncensored as this one. the premier walks around the devestated cities and admits that it is even worse than expected. he looks helpless. he calls for help and you can see that he is close to tears. same as the people here. the tradegy goes beyond all imagination. in some areas 80% of the houses are destroyed. people need to sleep and seem medical attention on the streets. there is no water, gas or electricity. it's raining heavily. 15.000 people have been certified dead so far, but there is still ten-thousands under the ruble and more than 100.000 people missing. the death toll is expect to rise steeply. i am happy that all my friends and colleagues are fine, but i am deeply sad and moved, same as my fellow colleagues and local friends. we quickly gathered money within my company and donated it to the guangdong red cross. almost 500 million yuan were raised within a day and there are long queues in front of blood donation stations. i wish and hope the unity of the chinese people, which i experience here, will help overcome this desaster soon. it's a sad day for china and i fear the news will even get worse.

09may2008 - from heaven sent
friday. i had dinner with an ocean carrier that night at a restaurant near the citic plaza in tianhe. after we were finished with the dinner, it had started to rain heavily outside. i tried to get a cab for more than half-an-hour in front of the restaurant before i started to walk around to seek one. it was impossible. after a while i stopped near a shopping mall and seekend cover under the roof at the entrace, where already 10-20 people were waiting. suddenly a taxi pulls up and a lady with her baby gets in. the door closes and the taxi drives right by me. as i looked into the taxi, ey, wasn't that my friend zach? i pulled out my mobile and it already rang. it was zach. did you just wait for taxi? did you just drive by in a taxi? zach and winnie stopped the taxi at the next corner, i jumped in, we dropped them off and the taxi took me home afterwards. what are the chances in this city on a rainy friday night? they were truly from heaven sent.

07may2008 - the olympic fire in guangzhou
wednesday. after visits to hong kong, macau and hainan island the olympic torch relay arrived in guangzhou and was greatet by millions of people on the streets. as the route went right by our office, my staff and me went outside to have a look at the torch. we were surrounded by thousands of people dressed in red waiving chinese and olympic flags. what a scene and what an experience. many people starred at me as like they have never seen a gweilo before. i was basically the main attraction as the torch could not be seen. why? well, there was too many people so that the torch had to be carried inside a van for the last stretch before the tianhe sports center. anyways, the atmosphere was excellent and it is truly interesting to see how proud and ethusiastic these people are. oh yeah, nobody tried to put out the flame. well, i guess that person would not have survived such an attempt. after all the street were clogged with people and it took me hours to get home.

02may2008 - the torch has arrived in china
friday. the olympic torch relay took on it's first leg on chinese soil after travelling 19 countries all over the world. the central government is happy as they don't have to fear protest within their own country. i wonder why? well, usually i can quite well relate to the relay and the olympic games no matter where they are held, but this time it's different. the tibet conflict really spoiled my interest in the 2008 olympic games and everything related to it. actually, there were protest in hong kong on the strees today, but when the hong kong news talked about it, the chinese government pulled the plug and put a commercial announcement on top of it. this censorship is really getting on my nerves! what's the point? most people do not understand english, can not listen to those hong kong news, and those critical minds that want to keep themselves informed will do so anyways through blogs or foreign websites. well, as long as this does not affect me, let them censor whatever they want. one day the people will wake up, but i will certainly stay out of it. next week i will be able to see the torch from my office window as it comes through guangzhou.

24apr2008 - there is hope for china!
thursday. we often consider the chinese to be undiciplined and sometimes dirty, which is often based on obervations, but i get the feeling that there is hope for this civilzation. why? well, when i flew from europe to hong kong in the past, the chinse people jumped up immediately after the touch down to get their luggae from the overhead storage. it always happened and it saw it many times. recently, flying between europe and asia two times in the past four months, i never saw it again. the people have changed! you see, there is hope.

24apr2008 - the canton fair is (again) in town
thursday. the canton fair is back in town (2nd time this year) and guangzhou get flooded with foreigners from all over the world. big business for hotels, restaurants, bars, taxi drivers and night clubs, too. all prices good up by 15% while rents for hotel rooms go up by 300-400%. you can get a table reserved anywhere and all the seats at starbucks are taken, too. the fair - love it and hate it.

23apr2008 - the truth about business travel
wednesday. many people envy those that have to travel on business. in their minds its all hotel suites, dinners, lunches, light meetings and drinks. well, let me tell you the truth. if you travel 6 cities in 7 days, all you see is offices, meeting rooms, small hotel rooms, breakfast halls, train stations, trains, taxis, planes and airports. before you go on the trip you have to plan it, arrange it and prepare yourself for it. once you are on the trip you fall behind on your emails and loose track of your daily business. when you are back, you need to catch up on your emails, write a report, recover from jetlag and claim back all the money you spent on that trip. business trips, it's not all gold that shines!

22apr2008 - bremen & hamburg
tuesday. the first two days of the week i spent visiting my colleagues in bremen and hamburg to discuss some business. good to finally put a face to all the names i communicate with all the time in my daily work. if you ask me, two of the most beautiful cities in the world. always good to breathe some hanseatic air.

20apr2008 - family day
sunday. my syster came over that day and we had a plain good old family with a lunch at a restaurant near my parents' home. nothing goes over family and friends and as i am not home that often, it is always a very special time. will be back for christmas, i promise.

19apr2008 - rocking bremen!
saturday. i of course alerted my local party crew of my arrival well ahead of time, so everything was arranged for a fun night in bremen. we started at 6pm at the infamous schlachte (my former living room) and conculded the night ... aeh, morning ... at my favourite club modernes around 4am. good to be back home and party with your friends. this certainly was the whip cream on top of my business trip!

18apr2008 - home sweet home
friday. aaaah, i was more than happy to arrive at hamburg that night, even though i was two hours late and just made it to pick-up my rental car before they closed thei counter. i jumped into my gold V and cruised down the autobahn to bremen in a record time! well, no traffic at that time. what a joy to drive again! so i arrived bremen well after midnight tired but happy. home sweet home!

18apr2008 - british midlands
friday. that day i had to fly from leeds (yes, they have an airport) to london. i booked a ticket with british midlands (bmi) as british airways (ba) does not fly there. well, the schedule looked okay and the fare was very cheap, so i did it. originally i had 2,5 hours to switch from bmi (terminal 1) to ba (terminal 5) at london heathrow, but after i arrived at my gate 30 minutes before departure with no aircraft in sight, i knew that there would be a major delay. we departed from leeds one hour late, leaving me with 90 minutes to pick my luggage and interchange between terminals. i just made it in time (thank god i had checked-in online and printed my boarding passes) and had to learn that my next flight to hamburg was two hours delayed. the next time anyone goes to the uk and finds a train or plane that runs on schedule, consider yourself the luckiest person in the world. i will never use ba again (well, only if i really have to)!

17apr2008 - no litterbins anywhere!
thursday. on the train i bought a red bull and a sandwich, which is not particularly worth mentioning but this story got really special in end. as i wanted to leave the train in leeds, i decided to take my rubbish with me and dispose into a litterbin on the platform. just like a good citizen. well, i couldn't find any litterbin (americans call those trashcans). i walked around for a few minutes with the rubbish in my hand before going to an information stand. i asked the guy where the bins were. he told me they we all removed for security reasons after the bomb attacks on the london public transport system. so you can not find any litterbins in non-secured areas of train stations, airports, ferry terminals and bus depots.

17apr2008 - manchester & leeds
thursday. after a half day in the office i was off to see a client of mine in manchester before heading on towards leeds. wow, i am really deep in england now. there i could really feel the rivalry between manchester united and liverpool fc. my liverpool colleagues of course support their local team, but certainly would not put any scarf or sticker in their car. it would simply end up being scratched or even destroyed. guys, don't take the football so serious. yes, i don't like the hamburger sv, but they are not worth to worry or argue about. take it easy!

16apr2008 - they speak chinese in liverpool?
wednesday. next stop was liverpool and i liked it. the train station is beautiful, the city's building as full of history and the promenade along the waterside is also worth a visit. i even like their football club, but one thing i didn't lile is their local british accent. i didn't understand a word the lady at the hotel reception said to me! it felt just like in china. damn, she could have at least tried to speak a little clearer, since it was obvious that i was not a local.

14apr2008 - the cock inn?
monday. that evening i had dinner with my colleague at a really nice local restaurant. the food, service and the cider was really really nice, but the name of the place was rather ... well, what can i say? the cock in? no thank, you.

14apr2008 - king of my castle
monday. having seen many semi-decent hotels in london, i was pleasantly surprised when i arrived in birmingham and was taken by my colleague to the new hall hotel, which is an old mansion or should i rather say castle? well, the buidling is simply astonishing, but the interiour is really not my taste. i like it to look like a castle on the outside, but it should be modern on the inside. anyways, the hotel was awesome and i felt like the king of my castle. well, it's indeed very british over here.

12apr2008 - walking expensive london
saturday. that day i had some leisure time and decided to explore london a little bit despite the cool and rainy weather. it's my third time in london and i quite know my way around the major tourist sites already. i went from oxford circus to picadilly circus, on to covent garden and chinatown and finally ended up at tottenham court. walking is for free in london, but that's about it. even a simple coffee or sandwich will cost you a fortune. london, a nice place for sightseeing, but i will keep my money with me until i am back in hong kong.

11apr2008 - gaucho picadilly
friday. to conclude the training we all went out to dinner at an argentinian steak house near the picadilly circus in london called 'gauch picadilly'. matching the location, this was truly an excellent restaurant. totall stylish and also with excellent food and service. hehe, they had havana club! well, we had a fun evening before we all head back to our homes all over the world, but we didn't make it into the london nightlife as everyone was simply beat due to the week of training. the whole nice came at a price as everyone had to pay around 60 pounds for the dinner. that is equal to about 90 euros! wow, london is certainly expensive. in china i could take my whole 35 staff out for dinner for the same money!

11apr2008 - 3 nights in 3 hotels
friday. after the training i will not stay for three nights in london. as the secretary from our london office messed up my reservations, i will get to spend three nights in three different hotels. aaargh. there was simply no possibility to extend either stay in one of the hotels due to the london marathon. well, at least i can now compare the different breakfast menus in the london area.

11apr2008 - what an experience!
friday. as there are future groups to come and take part in this training, we all had to pledge not to pass on any details about the training to others, wherefore i can not write about this or post any particular pictures. anways, those of my fellow colleagues who went there will well agree with me that this was an excellent experience. we did do many unique and exciting things, you won't even believe it. for those that are still due to go there, don't worry and simply look forward to it. well, make sure you bring some warm cloth though!

07apr2008 - east down centre
monday. in the late afternoon we arrived at east down centre, which is located in a 16th century barn literally in the middle of nowhere. a beautiful view from the farm over endless green hills with sheep, cattle and not a house or person in sight. the 18 acres of land surrounding the farm will be our playground for the next 5 days. as we have no email or mobile signal here (well, a little) we are pretty much isolated and can really focus on the training. finally i get to breathe some fresh air again as it is not that common in china.

07apr2008 - off to exeter!
monday. after a quick lunch at the headquarter we headed to reading and took a train to exeter st. davids, which is about 2 hours away from london at the very south-west corner of england. it would have been a nice journey, but the train was packed and the brisith rail operators did of course mess up our reservations. man, this does not even happen in china!

07apr2008 - meeting the board
monday. that morning we went to our regional headquarter in london uxbridge to meet with the regional board for some exchange of information and networking. basically an excellent opportunity to listen to some 'big guys' and their values, statements and the way they run their business. this program is really turning interesting.

06apr2008 - the international ostrich
sunday. that night we headed from the hotel to a local pub for dinner, which was called something with 'ostrich' in its name. anyways, the cool thing about it was that i finally got to meet my fellow 'high potentials' from all over the world. they came from poland, south africa, switzerland, uk, usa, canada, mexico, portugal, egypt, jordan and taiwan. always fun to be around people from other countries and cultures to exchange different views and ideas. i really think the next week is gonna be fun. are there ostriches living in the uk?

06apr2008 - british april weather
sunday. i was shocked when i looked out the window just two hours after my arrival - 1,5 inches of snow had fallen within two hours! oh my god, i was about to go into a one-week outdoor training in this kind of weather? help me god, i will certaily catch pneumonia and die a terrible 1.000.000 deaths during my business trip the week therafter. well, the british weather was certainly living up to its reputation.

06apr2008 - breakfast?
sunday. after arriving at the sheraton heathrow hotel at 6am i was luckily already able to check in. after a quick showe and finding myself unable to sleep due to jetlag, i decided to go for breakfast. as my room only included the breakfast for the next morning, i would have to pay extra for it, so i asked for the price at the reception. it would cost 16.85 pounds! at first i declined, but soon i figured that i was on a business trip and would be able to claim it back from the company. so i went for it and enjoyed a nice breakfast before spending the rest of the day watching german television in my hotel room. a good but expensive start to my trip!

06apr2008 - 'super' terminal 5
sunday. that morning i arrived at british airway's new terminal 5 at heathrow airport. this new 'super' terminal, which is the pride of ba as well as heathrow airport, made major headlines as around 30.000 pieces of luggage were lost during the first week of operation. it caused a major emberassment to an airline that already has quite a reputation for loosing luggage. they had to issue a public appology and even ask the italians for help to sort and distribute the lost baggage. anyways, i got lucky and my suitcase arrived safe and sound that morning and i quickly hopped on my bus to the hotel.

05apr2008 - shorts in trouble
saturday. it was a warm and humid day with temperatures around 25 degrees when i boarded my plane in hong kong that day, wherefore i only wore shorts and a sweat-jacket after having checked the temperature in london to be around 15-17 degrees. well, the weather report must have been totally wrong. when the captain held his speech before take-off, he mentioned the expected temperature in london upon arrival would be around the freezing point! what? all i know is that if my luggage gets lost i would be in real trouble.

04apr2008 - karaoke
friday. after the dinner i went with some local friends for karaoke. let me tell you that much - i hated it. why? well, i simply can't sing and i hate to hear my own voice over the speakers. even though they have a wide range of english titles and the atmosphere is really stylish (in your own seperate karaoke room), i think i will never go for karaoke again unless i am heavily drunk and i am not asked to pay any of it.

04apr2008 - ivo turns 3
friday. my friend ivo celebrated his third anniversary of living in guangzhou that night at an excellent japanese. all people sit around a table and you have a private chef to prepare the food on a hot stainless-steel platform in front of you. nice! at the same time you have free flow of japanse beer. even nicer! what cost you a fortune in europe, will just set you back around 15 euros per person. not bad, huh. you gotta love china on those nights. happy anniversary ivo!

29mar2008 - rush hour 3
saturday. later that night i watched rush hour 3, which ended up in a big confusion. i love the rush hour series, so i guess i would have remembered watching the third part, right? well, after a few scenes vivien said that we watched this before, but i wasn't 100% sure. in the end she was right as i recalled the scene at the eiffel tower or chris tucker dancing while directing traffic. so what did we learn here? well, if you watch a movie for a second time and you can remember it, the movie must not be good at all. as this is the fact for rush hour 3, i will keep watching the first two ones and hope that there will not he a fourth one. jackie, you are getting old, man!

29mar2008 - grillin' burgers
saturday. since we had some excellent burgers (from metro) last week, we decided to grill some more on that day and invite some local friends over to our house. grillmaster 'do-you-smell-something-burning-soenke' made everyone happy and full that evening. forget mc donalds or the burger queen, my burgers are the best.

29mar2008 - foshan dog market
saturday. that afternoon we went with some friends to foshan to visit a local dog market. vivien and me actually just went a long to have a look and in the end we were really sadened by the scene, even though we had seen some local dog markets before. you can actually buy a puppy for 30 yuan at a wholesale prive, which is about 3 euros. can you believe that? they will be sold on for about 50 yuan in the city later. nobody will care if one dies as they will get back the loss by simply selling two other ones. there were hundreds cramped into little cages. well, business is business for them.

28mar2008 - monopoly & pizza
friday. as we are officially getting older, i might as well admit that we met for some pizza and monopoly at my friend zach's house that evening. i don't know why, but currently we play at lot of monopoly, so maybe the process of getting older has accelerated? well, time is flying, so you better and enjoy the pizza while its still hot.

25mar2008 - my baby the chef
tuesday. my baby 'chef' has acquired some astonishing cooking skills. beyond chinese, italian and german food she now masters some basic mexican food as well. why did i mention this on my diary? well, just in case you want to point out to me on my next trip to germany that i have put on some weight, please complain to vivien as her cooking is simply to good to resist. not only the cooking, if you know what i mean.

24mar2008 - no easter in china
monday. people, especially colleagues from europe, always wished me a happy easter these days, which i must admit i began to find kind-of annoying. why? well, in china, unless you are reminded by overseas friends, you will not realize that easter is coming up since it is not celebrated, or should i rather say popular. christmas is considered trendy in china, but easter, even though it's the highest christian holiday, did not make it onto the calendar. well, guess a big fat foreigner is more easy to market than a bunny. ey, maybe that's the reason why the playboy magazine is not legal in china? i don't think so. wish you all some big eggs, hehe.

23mar2008 - chicken in the middle of nowhere
sunday. after the dog show we went with some neigbors of ours by car to a really remote place in the middle of nowhere. actually, it is only 10 minutes away from our estate, but trapped between a hill and a highway, only being accessible by a small dirt road. after we got there we found a really simple chinese restaurant (not really clean, but hey) where we had the most fresh and delicious chicken ever. unbelievable! you got to love china for its food and you always have to remember: never judge a restaurant by its location!

23mar2008 - clifford dog show
sunday. our friends let their golden retriever participate in a local dogshow at the clifford estates (just 10 minutes from my house), wherefore we decided to go there and have a look at this event. it became clear the chinese people have really gotten into dogs (not what you think) and that there has a huge industry developed around it. i fell in love with a three-month old rottweiler puppy (on the left), but having made the tough decision after the death of max to never keep a dog in this environment again, quickly had to get him out of my mind. i still love dogs and one day i will get myself a rottweiler, no matter what!

22mar2008 - bbq vs. rain
saturday. apart from 20 degrees and mild winds the weather forecasted predicted a 99% possibility of rain with about 25-40l per sqm throughout the day - and they were right. anyways, we wouldn't let that spoil our fun by officially opening the bbq season at my house that day. around 10 local friends came over to enjoy some nice foods and drinks, making this a full success despite the bad weather. so, the season is open and hopefully we will have better weather at future bbqs.

21mar2008 - metro!
friday. i needed a good place where i could buy all the necessary stuff for my bbq season opening the next day, wherefore i was happy to get the hint that there is a metro market not far away (10 minutes by taxi = 20 yuan) from my office. so vivien and me went there in the afternoon, opened an account (business card + foreign passport = account) and started shopping around. wow, what an excellent alternative to park-n-shop and jusco. lots of western products (drinks, sauces, snack), the nice meat section and good prices made this our new favourite shopping place for groceries in guangzhou. love metro in germany - love it here, too!

16mar2008 - 1920@19:20
sunday. ivo, shirley, kim, mandy, gerrad, vivien and me met at 19:20 at the 1920 restaurant in guangzhou for dinner that evening. well, vivien and me were on time while ivo & co rather made it 19:40 @ 1920. anyways, i simply love this german restaurant and i a getting the feeling that i have almost tried all the food on the menu. looking for good german food in china, check out 1920 german restaurant at the pearl river promenade near the haizhou square. lecker!

15mar2008 - mgm grand
saturday. macau's newest attraction is the mgm grand casino. we went there after we realized that the bellini lounge at the venetion casino is no longer the place to be. it was totally empty. where was everybody? well, they were at the lion's bar in the mgm grand enjoying good drinks and an excellent live band. so while all the asian people in the casino gambled their money away at the tables, we invested our money in liquid gold - bacardi gold to be exact, until 5 in the morning. nice casio, the place to be in macau - so you should check it out!

15mar2008 - iceblock ahead!
saturday. the fraco-canadian singer celine dion was the star of the night at the venetian casino that night. she gave a concert and i would like to clarify that I DID NOT GO THERE! damn i wish she would have been on the titanic on that very day when she hit that big block. jack, there's a boat. jack! while she sang 'my heart will go on', we drank on. anyways, tjen ... i don't believe you actually went there. glugg glugg glugg

15mar2008 - simon in town
saturday. my good old friend simon came over from germany to hong kong for a business trip. sad enough that he had to arrive on the weekend already, wherefore we had to celebrate his return in macau. of course i didn't want to miss that event, so i took the bus from guangzhiu to zhuhai and headed into macau. good to see you again, my friend. next time it will be germany again. stefan, thanks for letting me stay over your shabby apartment overlooking the whole city, haha.

08mar2008 - pimp stripes
saturday. got me a new suit from my tailor that has some really nice pimp stripes. that's what they are called, no? anyways, the statement on the left is clear, so make sure to be spotted in the club wearing pinstripes and having a cigar in your mouth. this is how we do in guangzhou!

08mar2008 - shop till you drop
saturday. ha, as i was already there for business, i of course spent the whole weekend in hong kong to do some major shopping. after returning a watch i went to the tailor to pick up my a suit and some shirts before shopping in mong kok and tsim sha tsui for boots, shirts, sweatshirts and shorts. this proves again - hong kong is a shopping paradise, especially for shopping monsters like vivien and me.

07mar2008 - spicy fingers
friday. that day i had to travel to hong kong to visit a client in kwun tong. after the meeting i headed to our wan chai office to go online and work on the emails in my flooded inbox. after work i headed for a bar called spicy fingers (the former chinatown) for some snack and drinks. good to be back home in hong kong to see old colleagues and friends. make sure you wash your hands!

06mar2008 - viva bavaria
thursday. a bavaria business delegation found its way to guangzhou that day, wherefore i was invited by the german general consulate to a bavarian dinner reception (with bavarian food as well as a real bavarian band in 'lederhosen') at the shangri la hotel. hehe, of course i arranged my schedule to fit this event. i just love the shangri la hotel. it has good food, excellent service and a really nice atmosphere. oh yeah, i also did some business and networking that evening. prosit!

01mar2008 - fiesta mexicana
saturday. my friends joe and oswaldo, both mexicans, invited vivien and me over to their apartment in tianhe to celebrate a fiesta mexicana that night. totally around 50-60 people showed up (portugese, americans, dutch, mexicans, germans, japanese, chinese, french, columbians, etc.) to enjoy drinks and mexican food (but rex gildo wasn't there!). vivien and me met some nice people that night and made many new friends, which are more reasons to move back to the city. well, let's see where we will move after this summer. hossa hossa hossa

29feb2008 - getting a license
friday. one thing i really miss over here is driving. yes, the chinese traffic is madness, but that's nothing i couldn't adapt to, right? so i decided to get a chinese driving license. what do i need to do? well, as i hold a german driving licesne, i merely have to take an exam for 100 out of 1315 questions, of which i need to answer at least 90% correct to pass the test. frankly speaking, i don't think that most of the people in china ever took that test, considering the way they drive. anyways, i'm gonna start studying and soon i will make the chinese streets really unsafe. you chinese have seen nothing yet!

29feb2008 - business travel in april
friday. i got good news this week with my travel planning completed and approved by my superiours. in april i will fly to the uk for one week of training followed by vivist to our offices in london, birmingham, liverpool and leeds. and here comes the best, as a special bonus i have to add visits to our offices in bremen and hamburg. ooooh, i really have to go and i have to spend the weekend in bremen also? aaaah, that's too bad. hehe, looking forward to see you all in bremen this april, even though it means i have to leave my girlfriend behind all alone in china. :(

28feb2008 - the ugly truth
thursday. i have always enjoyed living in china and i have always put aside the manners of the chinese as cultural differences, but there are these days when you are just waiting for someone to give you a reason to rip their head off. i know i can't generalize it for all chinese, especially since i have local friends and colleagues here, but many chinese people are dirty, inconsiderate and have no manners. things you can observe here every day: they eat with their mouth open, they spit, they always talk loud on their mobile (everywhere!) and they cut in line. well, cultural difference or not, everyone just cares about themselves and for sure the truth is sometimes ugly!

28feb2008 - 4,5 years with vivien
thursday. 4,5 years and still counting. yes, it's unbelievable that a girl would be willing to stay with me for that long, right? haha, we are still strong and we celebrated that night at oggi's italian restaurant with some salad, soup, lasagne and gnocci. wow, time is flying!

23feb2008 - shopping in hong kong
saturday. vivien, joe and me travlled to hong kong that morning to do some serious shopping. while joe and me went to the tailor and shopped around in tsim sha tsui for shirts, ties, some adidas gear and shoes, vivien met her mom in tsing yi and they went for their own shopping in tsue wan. in the end we all met up at nomad's mongolian grill for some dinner before heading back to guangzhou via shenzhen. we just caught the last train back that night and arrived home around midnight. i realized that now we have the freedom back to stay away from home as long as we want, but the sadness of not having our dog around is still much stronger.

23feb2008 - chinese hospitals
saturday. since rabies can well turn fatal for humans, even if not bitten by the dog directly, vivien and me wanted to be better safe and sorry and went to the hospital that morning to get a vaccination against rabies. wow, am i happy that i just need a simple vaccination and not a complicated surgery! that hospital in panyu, if you can call it that, really made you aware of the fact that china is in some respects still many many years behind. well, there are really good hospitals around and i will make sure to go there in case i really need professional help. hope that day never comes in china.

22feb2008 - had to put max to sleep
friday. we discussed with the doctor for a long time about the chances of saving our max from dying of rabies. he stated that they were slim, but there would remain a slight chance. that day we saw him still quite active running around the hospital room, but he already showed some classical symptoms of rabies such as excessive tearflow, edema around the eyers, paralysis and some nervouse movements. the classical agression and foam in front of the mouth was not yet there, but heavy-hearded we still had to make a hard decision and put max to sleep that night. we wanted to save him from this struggle and all the pain, so we stood by his side in tears and watched the doctor inject our boy with something that quickly ended his life within less than a minute. i will never forget this scene and never forget the sound of his last barking before his heart stopped. the grief and sadness is very strong, but the will to keep a dog in the future is much stronger, even though we will not try again in china. we have agreed that this is not the environment to keep dog, even though we have a big house in the suburbs. the next weeks will be tough and max will be missed a lot. i can't believe this happened to us.

21feb2008 - rabies!
thursday. we got max back from the hospital two days ago. during the time he was there we visited him every night and we could really see some progress, but after he was released he still was not very active and on that day refused to eat again. we went back to the hospital and the doctor did some further testing - rabies! wow, that's some serious stuff. i wasn't fully aware of the danger as germany is almost rabies-free, but this basically means a death sentence to all mamals infected if the pet/person is not vaccinated or immediately receives post-treatment.

18feb2008 - spit attack
monday. chinese people are notorious spitters. i have seen men, kids, women and even old ladies to that. they do it everywhere and it has been a miracle that i haven' been hit by one of their spitballs since i came to china 7 months ago, but this day one lady almost got me. she was walking in front of me, suddenly swerved, bent over a little and ... paaah! as i was just about to walk past her, the spitball just missed me by an inch or so. don't know what i would have done if she hit me. you chinese people (well, not all of them) are disgusting!

17feb2008 - sick as a dog
sunday. max almost didn't eat anything for the past few days and has some diarrhea, wherefore we took him to the pet-hospital last night to have a doctor look at him. he found him underweight and with some serious desease (i don't know the exact name or its translation) and we had to leave him there for four days to get him treated. it is quite heartbreaking to leave you dog in a hospital like that, but we certainly couldn't help him out at home. please make him better!

11feb2008 - hong kong celeb sex scandal
monday. now here comes a funny story. hong kong is shaken up by a major sex scandal over the past few weeks. what happened? well, there is a local celebrity guy called edison chen, who earns his millions with singing, acting and ... aeh rapping. well, he thinks that he is a cool rapper, but for example when he appeared as a warm-up artist at a kanye west concert (which i went to) in hong kong, people simple yelled 'who the f#ck are you?' and 'get the f#ck of the stage'. anyways, back to the scandal. so this edison has sex with a total of seven girls, of which all are celebrities as well. so far, no scandal. he took pictures of these girls masturbating as well performing oral pleasures on his best friend. so far, no scandal as long as the pictures stay private. well, they didn't. a while ago edison's laptop broke down and he took it to a 'trustworthy' computer shop to have it fixed. one of the technicians spent some time to browse his hard disc, locate these pics (almost 400 of them), copy them and post them on a server in cyprus, where the whole world can see them. booooom, now that's a scandal. how stupid can one person be? the guy who posted the pics on the web got arrested and edison chen now has a lot of explaining to do. the girls, well they are now basically f#cked in a second way. one is the member of a very famous teenie group called twins, which is particularly popular with younger kids. now her clean image is ruined (to say the least) and hong kong disneyland has already cancelled one of the group's concerts. the other one, is (was) about to get married to a very rich guy in hong kong, but now the wedding has been postponed indefinetly after the pictures went public. another one is married already, but her husband is pissed (i don't know whether it was cheating or not) and she is slightly embarassed. edison chen himself has contracts with pepsi and levi's, and i am sure that these companies will not like his new image as a stupid-horny rapper and hobby photographer. haha, well done edison! ey, i made sure my photos with beyonce, shakira and angelina jolie are well stored away and protected.

10feb2008 - oggi
sunday. zach, winnie, vivien and me went out for dinner that night at an italian restaurant in tianhe called oggi. aaaaah, forgot to mention their cute baby called miles, who is now six months old. it always makes me wonder, and i am not the only one, how the children of vivien and me might look like as mixed babies are supposed to always be the most beautiful ones. well, miles definetly is a cute one with light hair, dark eyes and huge eyes. hmm, let's see what the future has in store. oh, by the way, the picutre on the left comes up when you type oggi into google. as far as i can tell it's sophia loren (wow!), but no clue what oggi has to do with it. maybe somebody can send me the answer by email, couldn't find it on wikipedia.

08feb2008 - they are good at fireworks!
friday. it is know that counterfeit products ("fakes") are mainly produced in china and that chinese companies like to ignore international intellectual property rights. regarding this topic, i remember i had a conversation with a friend on this topic, where he asked 'what products chinese people would actually invent themselves and what they are good at? well, it's cooking and definetly fireworks! i went to the designated fireworks area (in major cities such as guangzhou fireworks are not allowed, but i live outside the city limits) in my estate and experienced this chinsese art in a very close way. damn, i never experienced fireworks so close and so loud. aaah, and one more thing, chinese are also good at cooking.

07feb2008 - happy chinese new year!
thursday. kung hei fat choi (well, i should rather say mandarin: gung xi fa cai) and a happy chinese new year of the rat to everyone out there. i spent the day with my girlfriend's family in tsuen wan to enjoy some vegetarian lunch, some gambling and most importantly: lay see, which are the red pockets filled with money that are given from married people to those who are not. the money is supposed to be lucky and shall bring the receiver good furtune during the new year. ha, i got plenty of it this year. after all, i am not stranger to all those chinese festivities anymore as it is my fifth chinse new year. i have seen the year of the goat, year of the monkey, year of the rooster, year of the dog, year of the pig and now the year of the rat. even though a rat might not be considered a nice zodiac in the western world, children born in the year of the rat are supposed to be clever and shall never be hungry. well, every zodiac has its good treats.

06feb2008 - off to hong kong
wednesday. it's that time of the year when all chinese people travel home to visit the families - chinese lunar new year holidays. therefore my girlfriend and me went off to hong kong to visit her family and (hehe) do some shopping of course. i went a little too far and bought a suit, 5 shirts, a printer and a parfum. well, i simply can not get those things here in china at a reasonable price as luxury items are imposed with heavy taxes. besides, who wants to buy a printer that only shows a chinese menu and buttons, while the ones on sale in hong kong have english ones. after shopping it was time to have the traditional dinner at the evening of the old chinese new year, where everyone eats lots of meat as traditionally on the first day of the chinse new year people will not eat any meat or fish. beyond that, people will not cut their hair, wash their hair or buy shoes. why? the chinese pronounciations of those activities are similar to those that stand for bad fortune. well, i like those little special things of the chinese traditions, but i did wash my hair that day. but i didn't shave, so does that equal out?

05feb2008 - relaxed workdays
tuesday. after weeks of hard work the peak season has just passed us and most companies such as factories, warehouses, trading companies and trucking companies are already an vacation. the result: a relaxed workday with only a few emails, few telephone calls and almost no troubles at all. in the end i was able to let my staff off 1,5 hours early to prepare for the festivities. holidays are coming! kung hei fat choi!

03feb2008 - dog shower
sunday. max, our little puppy had never taken a shower before in his life. it sounds quite disgusting considering the fact that he is almost three months old now, but he still smells very decent. anyways, it was time for his first one and it went better than expected. well, he didn't really enjoy it (see picture on the left), but we got trough it quite smoothly and now he is free of flees, his fur is shiny and he smells a lot like oranges.

01feb2008 - massage
monday. that evening me and some management colleagues went for a spa/massage in the zhujang newtown district (the new high-class business district) of guangzhou. the place had the most awesome decorations and lots of bmws, mercedes, range rovers and ferraris parked in front of it. wow! it's really like in rush hour 2. you come in, you get changed, you take a shower, sit in the whirlpool, have a scrub, have some fruit, have some buffet, relax in a big chair, watch tv, surf the web, have a foot massage, have a full 90 minutes massage, relax again, drink some juice, have a beer, have a smoke (if you like) - all included. you can spend the whole night, if you like and it will set you back only around 30 euros. ey, that's expensive for china! anyways, this place is nice - gotta love china!

28jan2008 - china travel mayhem
monday. before the chinese new year about 180.000.000 people travel by rail to return and visit their families all over the china. they are mainly migrant workers, who work in the rich provinces like guangdong, and this is their only chance to see their families during the year. as recently heavy snowfall hit the provinces of hubei and hunan, most train services have been suspended due to snow/ice storms (the worst in 50 years) having caused power failures on the main train routes. as a result around 500.000 (!) people are stuck in front of the train station in guangzhou. the number is expected to rise to more than 600.000 people as train services remain suspended for the rest of the week and the china rail company having stopped to sell tickets till the chinese new year. these people are basically camping in front of the trains station in this rainy weather at temperatures around 5 degrees. they are desperate, have no place to stay or simply don’t want to go home. the government has dispatched around 10.000 military police to keep the situation under control. prices of cup noodles have gone up 40% and the use of public toilets costs now 1 yuan, which eats into the budget of those workers carrying money and presents home for their families. i even received a text message from the china rail company that nobody is supposed to come to the train station until further notice. what a mess.

27jan2008 - got me a wii
sunday. since i played wii with arne back around christmas time in germany, i wanted to have one as well. it is just such a cool and unique concept that you have to move in front of the the tv and thereby control the movement of your character. this is especially fun with wii sports, such as tennis, boxing, bowling, basesball and gold. so that afternoon we went to buy one somewhere in the middle of guangzhou. i paid around 2500.00 yuan including two full sets of controllers and 27(!) games. well, each game will cost you about 5 yuan.

25jan2008 - it's freezing cold
friday. china is experiencing the coldest winter in half a decade - that's 50 years! guangdong province also feels the chill from the north, even though it's still not cold enough for snow. anyways, we have around 5 degrees here at night and it has been raining for days. yes, 5 degrees might not sound too bad, but the houses are not so well isolated and there is no heating. i wonder how long i can keep up without a heater. grrrr.

24jan2008 - the rat is coming
thursday. the chinese lunar new year is just around the corner, which keeps my staff and me very very busy. all factories will soon close and they are trying hard to push all the cargo out before the holiday. as a result vessels are overbooked, no equipments is available, feeder ports are congested and trucking companies don't have enough drivers and trucks to keep up with demand. as a result, everybody is rushing and pushing, which makes everyone work overtime. i basically am online for 18 hours a day and my inbox is constantly flooded with emails. everything is important, urgent and simply can't wait. well, the year of the rats is coming, and firstly it will start with a long holiday. yeah.

23jan2008 - max, no!
wednesday. the sentence you will hear the most around my house is: max, no! why? well, this little golden retriever puppy is constantly up to something naughty. it's either kidnapping slippers and socks, biting all kinds of things or simply leaving a little wet souvenir in the living room. well, he's still a baby and apart from those little things really cute and entertaining. no way you can be mad and something that looks at you like this.

17jan2008 - fed up with this
thursday. i had to travel from guangzhou to shenzhen and back that day, and as my schedule was not 100% fixed, i was not able to arrange my tickets in advance. as a result, i had to fight my way through the stations, find the correct ticket counters and arrange the tickets by myself. well, in the end i managed to arrange everything without major problems, but on the way home in the taxi i realy had enough of this. nobody speaks english! so i am not complaining, but i am sick of the fact that i am not being able to speak mandarin (putonghua). i really need to start learning it. i am thinking of hiring a private teacher for four hours a week to speed up the learning. damn, i am really fed up with ... myself.

07jan2008 - meet max
monday. i have always wanted to have a dog, but during my childhood i never received one from my parents. anyways, no harm done. since then i always did not have enought time (studies) and space (apartments in hong kong) to keep one, which changed when i moved to china. now i live in a big house with a garden and all my neigbours keep dogs. i made friends with a local guy who owns a pet shop nearby and lives just 50 meters down the street, who helped me find a dog. that monday we got our 'max' (english pronounciation please!), who is a two-month old golden retriever. he is really cute, playful ... but in the end nothing but trouble. aaaa, never mind. i love dogs!

06jan2008 - cats in guangzhou
sunday. zach, winnie, joe, zeva, vivien and me went to see a performance of the world-famouse cats musical right here in guangzhou. it was performed by some australian academy of performing arts (or something) and really nice to watch, despite me having some difficulties to understand their bloody australian accent. anyways, my fourth major musical after starlight express, miss saigon and phantom of the opera. memories, nana na nana na na, hmm hmm hmm ... and so on. i would say: old but classic! amazing dancing!

06jan2008 - fake 100 renminbi
sunday. the biggest denotation of the chinese currency is the 100 rmb note, which equals to about 10 euros. why ist that? well, there is a lot of fake money in circulation, wherefore every shop clerk and/or taxi driver will check every bill that is higher than 20 rmb. i thought that was always quite silly, until this very day when a waitress at a local restaurant refused to accept my 100 rmb note. and yes, they got me! somehow i received a fake 100 rmb note. it was a good fake with even a silver lining and watermark, but if you check the texture of the paper carefully, it is clear that this one was a fake. so what to do? pass it on to the next stupid person? no, i will keep it as a souvenir and put in a frame. next time i will be more careful.

05jan2008 - getting close to 30
sunday. the years as a teenager are long gone and those as a 'twen' are coming to an end soon. i just turned 29 and next year i will complete three decades. thanks everyone for their emails, calls and best wishes for this upcoming year. i'll make sure we will celebrate that special birthday with a big bang. yeah, next year i will be 29a. cheers! (by the way, the guys in the picture is by 104 years old. scary!)

31dec2007 - new year's in hong kong
monday. we returned to hong kong on 30dec and spent the new years in hong kong with some friends from shanghai and qingdao. i luckily managed to organize a table at bulldog's bar in wan chai for us to welcome the new year. so we welcomed the new year with a lot of drinks, good food and champagne. happy new year 2008 to everyone! as eight is the lucky number in the chinese culture, this year promises to become a good one.

28dec2007 - our lifes have changed
friday. in the afternoon we met gerrit and nina at the 'bar & cafe celona' (hey, what a word game: bar-celona). we spend the whole afteroon in a good chat and finally realized that our lifes have changed quite a bit. we used to be students always looking for the next party and now we are pilots, lawyers and enigneers thinking about getting married, a baby, a dog and or buying a house. well, it is good to know that our lifes change and that good friends will stay good friends, no matter how far you live apart.

28dec2007 - knipp at the ratskeller
friday. last time vivien visited me in bremen (in may 2005) she complained that i didn't introduce her to some original bremen-style food. well, then i will make up for it this time. most people will think of 'knipp' as one of bremen's traditional foods. don't ask we what it is made of, but it tastes really good and it is really fat. there is no better place to eat this dish than the bremer ratskeller, which is one of the world's most famous wine cellars in the world. it is situation in the cellar of the bremen town hall and it holds more than 1000 different wines from all over the world. it doesn't get more traditional bremen-style as that.

27dec2007 - mad shopping
thursday. the shops are back open and we headed out for some mad shopping. we went to real, werder bremen fanshop, deichmann, h&m, ansons, finke, saturn, orsay, vodafone and many other shops before coming home all tired and exhausted. it was a really tough day as the city was packed with people wanting to return unwanted gifts or simply spend the money they received for christmas.

26dec2007 - the 'burger' day
wednesday. as almost everything is still closed and my parents went out to a birthday party, i decided to have a burger day. first we went to burger king (well, they don't have it in guangzhou!) for lunch and to the buergerpark in the afternoon, where we fed the ducks with some old bread. well, the spelling is not the same, but the pronounciation, so this was our burger day! in the evening we made up for the burger food with some mexican food together with joris and daniela. ooooh, to much to eat in germany. need to go on a diet when i am back in china.

26dec2007 - booooooring!
wednesday. it's the second day of christmas and still all the shops are closed. there is nothing to do and you really start to get bored. it is always nice to have some time to relax, but christmas eve and the day after are enough. how am i supposed to shop and boost the german economy? aaaah, sometimes i wish germany was a little more like hong kong.

25dec2007 - santa brought arne a wii
tuesday. my best friend arne received a nintendo wii from santa and we went over to his apartment to check it out. we played tennis, bowling, baseballl and boxing and we had a lot of fun. sure, the graphics are not as advanced as on the playstation, but the fact that you have to really move the controller and engage in the game is awesome. i am seriously thinking about getting one and you should check it out sometime. i am sure it will get you hooked as well.

25dec2007 - family day
tuesday. vivien and me spent the day (after a long sleep) with my family to have a nice christmas lunch and visit my aunt in the afternoon. the rest of the afternoon we spent playing cards (rififi) with my partents and my sister. gotta love christmas.

24dec2007 - christmas eve
monday. while christmas eve is the time for shopping and roaming the streets in hong kong, it is a very calm and relaxed time in germany. people will pick-up their relatives and head home to have dinner together. the streets are dark and empty, all shops are closed, the cars are parked in the driveways and the christmas trees are lid in every living room. people will eat, exchange gifts and sit together to enjoy a few calm moments in today's busy world. sadly it was not a white christmas, but you still catch this special atmosphere and you are happy being able to spend it with your love ones. merry christmas!

24dec2007 - visiting lifesavers
monday. after visiting my godfather and godmother in weyhe (near my parent's home) we stopped by to visit my old colleagues from the german red cross in the same area. i took the opportunity to show vivien my former workplace with it's cars and equipment. as she is a nurse she is familiar with all these things, but she has never seen them built into a car.

23dec2007 - a walk at the sea
sunday. the next morning, before heading back to bremen, we all went to the sea near kiel to enjoy some fresh but very cold winter sea air. you can really feel the difference to the air quality in hong kong and china - no doubt. i am lucky that i managed to move out from the city and that i now live in the suburbs of guangzhou, but still there is no comparison. at least it can be seen in china that people focus more on the environment. i am confident that china will make it's way and that they will cherish their natural treasures and protect them. well, but i will make sure to take a look at them within the next two years, just in case.

22dec2007 - visiting jenser in kiel
saturday. joris, daniela, vivien and me headed to kiel in the very north of germany to visit my old classmate and friend 'jenser' (jan klein). i haven't seen him since graduation in early 2006 and his son (at that time still very little) is now already two years old. as jan is a real hsv fan, we bought the perfect gift for his little son in form of werder bremen t-shirt. the little boy, not being aware of what he was wearing, immediately fell in love with that green shirt and would not want to take it off anymore. in the evening we had raclette and drank lots of russian vodak (that jenser brought from his business trips to russia), beck's beer and cuban rum. always good to see and meet old friends again.

21dec2007 - the fast meter
frisday. after having a few 'gluehwein' and a few bacardi-cokes i certainly was not able to drive anymore, wherefore vivien and me took a taxi home to my parent's house. we jumped on a taxi and i was suddenly reminded that a taxi in germany is not really a mean of public transport that people take on a daily basis. the meter was running so fast that i really felt uncomfortable to sit in the back and see my money fade away. in the end we paid about 15 euros for a ten minute ride. in guangzhou i would have paid about 10% of that. taxi - only for rich people in germany, so not for me!

21dec2007 - from bremen with luv
friday. we kind of held a hong kong reunion that night at the 'schlachte' in bremen with bjoern, tjen, simon, bianka, and stamson (all hong kong friends) being present to down some beers at the luv bar & restaurant. beyond that also some other KN bremen staff were in attendance to finish of the night in a correct manner. ouch, gluehwein, feuerzangenbowle and some drinks, tomorrow will be tough. cheers, from bremen with luv!

21dec2007 - christmas market
friday. we met with some old hong kong friends (simon, bianka, tjen, stefan, bjoern) at the christmas market in bremen to down some traditional 'gluehwein' (hot red wine) and 'feuerzangenbowle' (hot alcoholic drink with lots of suger) as well as to eat some 'schmalzkuchen' (little dough puffs), 'kartoffelpuffer' (fried potato cakes) and 'gebrante mandeln' (roasted almonds). Hmmm, gotta love all these traditional german christmas snacks and treats. a nice evening in a truly great atmosphere on the market square of bremen and the right temperature of -4 degrees. well, there is no better excuse to drink hot alcoholic beverages than cold cold cold bremen weather. cheers!

21dec2007 - they are cheaper here now?!
friday. vivien and me hit the city that morning for some shopping. yeah, we can basically get everything we want in china or at least in hong kong, but there are always some things that are only available at home in germany. anyways, girls will always find an excuse to shop, right? one thing really surprised me that day when shopping from some german movies at saturn in bremen. an original dvd costs around 10 euros, which is more or less the same price than in hong kong. some tv series (on dvd) are even cheaper. can you believe that?

20dec2007 - vivien's first snow
thursday. when we lef the restaurant that evening the temperature was around -4 degrees and it slightly started to snow. vivien had of course seen snow on tv and in movies, but she never saw it actually falling right before her eyes. it is always a very special atmosphere and it really gets you in the mood for christmas. sadly the wheather forecast predicts a green christmas this year, well, let's hope for the best.

20dec2007 - meeting friends
thursday. that evening vivien and me went to a local american bar to have some dinner and drinks with arne, leif and stefan, some long-time close friends of mine. the place as packed, the service sucked, the food was great and the night came to an early end as the jetlag really hit me that evening. well, all my friends had to work the next day so we all went home as we were sure to meet againg sometime again during the next 10 days.

20dec2007 - need for speed
thursday. after finally arriving in hamburg i couldn't wait to pick up my rental car from sixt directly at the airport. a nice vw golf V! i rented it via my company and i added a navigation system on my reservation, but i didn't ask for winter tires as they were 13 euros (!) per day extra. what a rip-off, right? well, they only had my car with a navigation system and winter tires, so i got them for free as i didn't ask for them. haha, got you guys! anyways, the streets were dry and so i put the pedal to the metal and cruised over to bremen. aaaah, i miss driving, but in china it is simply too crazy and therefore too stressful.

20dec2007 - always british airways!
thursday. when i first used british airways to fly from europe to hong kong and back, i always had good experiences, but that has changed recently. on all my recent flights i had to deal with cancelled connections, not-functioning entertainment system, bad food, delays and lost luggage. this time we arrived in london heathrow and had to wait additional 30 minutes for our flight to hamburg as boarding was delayed. once we got on the plane, we had to wait for another hour until they finished de-icing the plane. once we finally were pushed from the gate, the lady in the row in front of us had a 'seizure' and as a result the plane had to return to the gate and discharge the lady as well as her luggage, which took another hour. yes, it's not all their fault as they can not influence such things, but they could have at least offered us a cup of coffee or a glass of water while we were sitting in the plane for two hours before takeoff. unless i really have to, i will never use them again. grrrrr.

19dec2007 - germany, we are coming!
wednesday. christmas is coming, wherefore my girlfriend vivien and me will fly to germany to celebrate the season in bremen, germany. i can't wait to see all my family and friends again and enjoy a relaxed and winterly time at home. to everyone of you, no matter where you are - merry christmas and a happy new year! i myself will return from germany on 29/dec before returning to china on 2/jan after welcoming the new year in hong kong. again, have a happy season with your loved ones and a good year 2008.

15dec2007 - kn guangzhou annual dinner
saturday. my company held their 2007 guangzhou annual dinner at the phoenix city hotel in zhengcheng, which is about 45 minutes away from the city of guangzhou. it was a joint dinner for our guangzhou branch office and our document center, which came to a total of 250 participants + guests. the theme was 'olympic games 2008' (what a surprise!) and the staff were asked to join a competiton on stage from which they can win some prices. if you think you as a manger can get around performing on stage - you are damn wrong. the more you make a fool out of yourself - the better. these events are totally different from those in europe - more casual, more silly and less stiff. well, i performed on stage as james bond aka 007 and i assume from now on all my staff will call be 'bond'. you ask what james bond has to do with the olympic games? well, i don't know, but he can shoot and we all had a lot of fun. in the end it was more annual drinks than annual dinner (as the food sucked!), but who cares. ey, i even won cny 800.00 in the lucky draw - better than nothing.

12dec2007 - the year 2007 in review
wednesday. 2007 was a good year for china's economy - especially for sout china. the GDP of the guangdong province rose by around 14.7 % and is now bigger than the one of taiwan, which makes them very proud here. how do i know all this? well, i attended a panel discussion organized by the german chamber of commerce at the shangri-la hotel. afterwards it was followed by a dinner at the shangri-la's italian restaurant, where zach and me enjoyed some 'mo-jeee-tos'. we order them as correctly pronounce as 'mo-cheee-tos', but the waitress corrected us that it is called 'mo-jeee-to'. well, anyways, thanks for the free spanish lesson and simply get us the drinks. cheers, let's have an even better 2008.

10dec2007 - 'parents in law'
monday. my girlfriend's parents and her grandmother came to guangzhou that day to 'inspect' the living situation of their daughter, which i kidnapped and took with me to china in september. i wined and dined them and we took them to our house afterwards. they were really impressed and 'approved' of it, hehe. of course, compared to hong kong you can live much bigger, better and cheaper in china. in hong kong i paid around 16.000 hkd for 80 square meters, while in china i have 160 square meters plus garden and pay ... haha, not gonna tell you, but it's less than in hong kong. tomorrow is hot pot time, yummy!

10dec2007 - absolut disco
monday. lately i have gotten to like the swedish brand of absolut vodka more and more, which hit it's peak when i fell in love with the design of their latest special edition christmas vodka bottle - absolut disco. (see the picture on the left) what a cool design is that, huh? well, i couldn't find it in any supermarket around guangzhou, wherefore i could not resist and bought it at a circle-K convenience mart near my office, even though it might be a little more expensive there. everybody looked at me funny when i bought the bottle, guess the reason must have been that i bought it during my lunch break. ooops.

08dec2007 - children begging
saturday. i guess in every country and city you can find people begging on the street for your change, but in china this has gotten to a really bad and somehow heartbreaking extend. women with a whole army of little children (not necessarly all her their own children) will be around the bar areas near the garden hotel and send the little ones to beg for money from you. these cute kids will follow you around for long time and sometimes even pull you or hug your leg. they don't speak english but they know how to say 'hello', 'please' and 'money'. what are you supposed to do? it's sad to see, but you also know that this is organized and that the women will collect the cash. you also know that they get beaten if they are not successful. it breaks my heart to see this and deep inside i want to give some money, but you simply can not support this kind of behaviour. not everyone in china profits from the economic upswing and it is a cold world out there.

08dec2007 - don't mess with tracksuits
saturday. guangzhou nightlife is rather different from what we are used to in germany. it has big clubs, loud techno music, hookers, pimps, vip tables, seperate rooms and some people have their own private army of bodyguards. we went to a club called 'the cellar' and one of my local friends (big mexican guy) made a little joke about three bold-headed chinese guys in the exact same adidas-tracksuits. well, these guys didn't think it was funny so they started pushing him, pulled him out of the club and started beating him up really good. suddenly there was about 5 guys on him until a chinese guys in a suit called it off and send the three tracksuits into a cab. police was around as well, but they didn't do anything. i guess my friend got lucky, as he is a foreigner, otherwise it could have ended worse. i guess if a foreigner gets seriously hurt, this will become a political issue and the police would ask too many questions, which made these guys stop. anyways, i suppose that they were triads and my friend learnt that there are some people you better not mess with!

08dec2007 - kn south china cup 2007
saturday. my company held a friendly football tournament at the tianhe sports centre in guangzhou that afternoon. two teams from hong kong, one from our document center and one team from my office battled it out to become the south china champion 2007. as expected the two hong kong team came up on top with the document centre coming in third place. anyways, teambuidling and cultural exchange were the main purposes, so everyone is a winner. afterwards we all headed for a big dinner at a nearby restaurants before me and my gweilo friends (tjen, stefan, walter and justin) from the hong kong team headed out to hit the guangzhou nightlife. read more!

04dec2007 - no understatement
tuesday. every day i pass the sight on the left on my way to work and back and i can't wait for the day the construction is completed in 2009/10. when this baby is finished, it will be the highest tv tower in the world with a height of around 610 meters. it is simply unbelievable, just like it's design. the design is very light with a wide base, a narrow middle part and a top that is wide again. at the same time the whole tower is twisted in itself. it will be an incredible landmark of guangzhou right next to the pearl river and a symbol of proud for the people of guangdong. well, certainly not a symbol of understatement, but hey, why not?

04dec2007 - chinese driving
tuesay. as driving yourself is hong kong is a luxury, expensive and after all not too useful with such a developed public transport system in place, i was quite excited to move to china and being able to simply buy a cheap car and cruise around. well, things turned out different. yes, they drive on the right side of the road like in germany, but that's about all these two country's driving styles have in common. the picture on the left shows really well the daily traffic situation and the reasons why i will keep using my driver as well as the local taxis to get around town. these taxi drivers are crazy and simply do not follow any rule at all while using the horn more often than their brakes. man, often i see some rich chinese businessman (believe me, there is a lot of rich peopel here!) with his porsche in the morning rush hour fighting his way through the masses of cars and i get the feeling that i would be too scared of getting into an accident. hmm, not that i own a porsche, but who knows when?

03dec2007 - i want the iphone!
monday. i am not too much of a jealous person, but some of my colleagues really got me this time. three of my colleagues have bough a hacked version of the iphone in a local hong kong shop and are not proud owners of this incredible gadget. well, there have been some bad words and good comments about this baby, but i am simply amazed by it's features and the design. yes, i am an apple addict. anyways, hope it will come out next year in china with the proper connection package so that i can actually use all the functions to their full extend, otherwise i will stick with my nokia, which shall do it until that very day the iphone comes to china. so unfair, it's only produced one hour away in shenzhen, but i can't have one. iphone, we haven't met yet, but i already miss you. :(

03nov2007 - members only
monday. that evening my company held their annual expatriates (foreign staff) christmas dinner, which this place took place at the pacific club in tsim sha tsui. it name does not only suggest it is a club - it is actually one and you need to be a member in order to get pass the security guards. well, our national manager is a member and he did an excellent job to arrange this event. excellent food, drinks and the view (see the picture on the left) made this a night to remember. it's early, but merry christmas everyone!

03dec2007 - xmas shopping
monday. hong kong is the capital of the country called shopping, so it was a good opportunity to finalize my xmas shopping arrangements before i head to germany in around two weeks. ey, have you done your shopping yet? wel, you got three weeks left, haha.

03dec2007 - money laundring?
monday. i decided to get some chinese yuan out of the country to hong kong and also ordered some euros at my local hong kong bank. so i made all the orders by phone last week and showed up in their wan chai branch that afternoon to change some yuan to hong kong dollar and later to euros. well, the lady at the counter looked a little strange when a gweilo like me showed up with a big stash of 20.000 yuan in 100 yuan bills (the biggest denotation they have here). i really looked like some mobster carrying tons of foreign dirty cash in order to have it laundried in hong kong. well, let me ensure you, it was all legal and i got away with it. hehe.

03dec2007 - back to hong kong
monday. the expatriate christmas dinner was the main reasons for me to head back to hong kong that afternoon, but i still took the opportunity to do some shopping and run some personal errands. for the next day i scheduled a meeting with an important client of mine in order to make get the most out of this trip. i have a good life in china, but it still feels good to come back to hong kong once in a while. this town simply got something to it that is hard to describe in words - you must experience it. i think people either love it or hate it, in between there is not much room. never heard someone say they found hong kong "okay". well, hong kong, i'm still loving it.

01dec2007 - die nummer 1 im norden
saturday. bremen and hamburg always compete for the title 'the number 1 in the north' within the german bundesliga. hamburg still thinks, based on their glory for the 1980's, that they are number 1, which is ridiculous and can be proven to be incorrect. in the past 10 years werder finished 7 times in front of hamburg, won the double in 2004 and participated in the champions league four times in a row - hamburg won nothing and played the champions league only twice. get real you losers and admit it - the number one in the north is werder bremen. not that we had to prove it, but we did so on this weekend defeating hamburg 2:1. buhuuuuu, stop crying and get used to be the number 2, suckers!

30nov2007 - heroes
friday. weekday nights are perfect to watch some tv series on dvd such as 'sex and the city', 'sopranos', 'desperate housewives' and 'heroes'. i came across this series on pearl tv and found the first seasons (10 dvds) for about 5 euros in a local dvd shop. ey, that must be an official and legal copy, right? well, that series got me hooked and i seriously recommend you check it out. not that i am a hero myself, but somedays i get this strange feeling and i can do all kinds of special things. pssst, it's a secret, but i can make bubbles under water.

29nov2007 - happy hour
thursday. my friends zach, joe and me hit the town that night to enjoy some after work happy hour at the hill bar as well as the paddy field bar, which are all located around the old business district around the garden hotel. beer is cheap and only costs around cny 13 (1,3 euros) per pint - gotta love prices china! well, next time i better have dinner first and beer afterwards, not the other way around. cheers, mates!

28nov2007 - got real!
wednesday. my beloved sv werder bremen defeated real madrid that night and therefore retains a chance of advancing to the next round in the champions leageu if the win their next match against olympiakos piraeus. well, this would not be so important mentioning as werder has beat such opponents before, but this time they had to get along with 7 main players missing, which included the goal keeper as well as the best midfielder in the world - diego. so watch out europe, if we can compensate that, we can beat anyone and win anything at anytime. ole ole!

28nov2007 - area 51
wednesday. my girlfriend vivien and me are now together for 51 months, which suggest that she must be of some alien kind to stand me for that long. well, no, actually i couldn't find any better picture related to the number 51, but still found this special event to be worth mentioning. vivien and me celerbrated by having a nice meal at my favourite german restaurant (outside of germany) in guangzhou. well, the more i think about it: i am an alien and guangzhou is my area 51.

24nov2007 - disneyland of guangzhou
saturday. the same company that runs the safari park (see below) also runs a waterpark (the biggest in asia), a crocodile park, a golf park, a hotel and the chimelong (name of the company) paradise, which i from now on like to call the disneyland of guangzhou. it is a really modern park with all the standard attractions, rides and shows that we are used to from disney or other similar parks all over the world. the roller coaster on the left is the newest attraction and will be completed soon. can't wait to have a ride on that one, which should not be a big issue, as this park is also only 5 minutes away from my home. how convenient, i got my own disneyland around the corner.

24nov2007 - on safari in panyu
saturday. after having checked out the guangzhou zoo, which was a rather sad experience, i went to the xiangjiang safari park in panyu, which is just 5 minutes from my home. it is a nice park which can be explored by foot as well as on wheels. the park is modern and the animals are clean and well fed. you can see white tigers (they have like 30 of them!), white lions, white kangaroos, pandas, giraffes, camels, koalas, hippos, elephants, monkeys and many more. it is really nice. on the left you can see me feeding a white tiger baby, which i wish i could have taken home with me. altogether a really nice day and an attraction that can truly be recommended!

23nov2007 - visitors n' bbq
friday. my girlfriend's brother and his girlfriend came over from hong kong for a long weekend in guangzhou. we kicked things of with a nice bbq at our house ... well, but it didn't last long. after a long hard working week and a big bbq i fell asleep on the couch watchin my favourite tv show (two and a half men) and sadly missed the time for washing the dishes. ey, i just realized it, something was missing? where was the vodka?

22nov2007 - not welcome
thursday. the US navy regularly visits hong kong to allow it's sailors some freetime ashore, which was exactly what they planned to do for the thanksgiving holidays. but the chinese central government did not allow the kitty hawk and her support vessels to enter hong kong. 8000 sailors had to stay on board and many of their relatives, who especially flew to hong kong to meet their loved ones were heavily disappointed. the chinese government did not give a specific reason and finally gave the navy the permission to enter hong kong at the very last minute. guess it was a display of strength or simply a revenge for the US giving a one-billion us-dollar missile arsenal to taiwan. quite funny, well, at least from my perspective. who is the boss?

22nov2007 - european cup
thursday. don't mean to be an ass here, especially towards some british friends and colleagues of mine, but i know one team that will not travel to switzerland/austria next summer to play in the european championships. well, just a hint, it's not germany! well, you guys might have one of the best leagues in the world, the richest clubs in europe and your national football hero (who is married to a spice girl) playing with the galaxy in the land of soccer for 1 million euros or so per week, but that does not get you anywhere. cheers my friends and better luck in four years! sorry! ;)

21nov2007 - british chamber
wednesday. joe, my america friend, and me headed towards the irish pub 'paddy field' near the garden hotel to attend a networking event of the british chamber of commerce. in china it doesn't matter where you are from and whether you are a member or not, so you just go and meet all kinds of interesting international people. feels like all the foreigners in guangzhou know each other and always meet somewhere sometime. well, there's simply not as many of us here compared to hong kong. anyways, it is less formal here, but you still find some people to do business with. it seems like it will not get boring here!

21nov2007 - a day in the car
wednesday. i spent almost the whole day in our company van travelling from guangzhou to nansha ferry terminal, nansha container terminal and back all the way in order to give one of our customers a tour of the container terminal. don't get me wrong, i love to get out of the office and experience the real work on the terminal, but driving all day on china's roads really wears you down. luckily i was able to take a nap in the back of the van on the way back as my driver was flying back on the chinese expressway back to guangzhou city.

20nov2007 - foshan - ceramic city
tuesday. that morning i travelled with some collagues to foshan, which lies around 30 minutes south-west of guangzhou. the city is world-famous for it's thousands of factories producing tiles and ceramics. chances are quite high that the tiles you walk on in the shopping mall or the pot your flowers sit were made right here in south china. acutally, today around 80% of the worlds consumer goods are made in south china and the expected export volume for 2015 out of this region is 200 million TEU. unbelievable! ey, if you plan to move to foshan, you better buy a white car. you will know why!

19nov2007 - gin tonic bzzz
monday. that evening i had to meet a client in a hotel in the downtown area of guangzhou, which turned out to be a longer one. the client and me had such a good chat, first on business and afterwards on everyday-stuff, that we forgot the time and did not realize how many gin-tonics we had. after more than three hourse the client went to bed and i jumped into a taxi towards panyu. why is this meeting worth mentioning? well, as we had the drinks in the hotel lounge of the holiday inn hotel, they did not accept my case and my client had to pay for the drinks. even after i offered once more to pay for the drinks, he insisted on paying. hey, wish i had more such nice clients.

17nov2007 - got me a bike!
saturday. i had the plan to buy my girlfriend and me a bike to cruise around our area and nancun city in panyu, which we put to reality on that day. we went to the old part of guangzhou (near my friend's alan's house) together with alan and nakata to visit some bike shops. we found a really small shop in a really old buidling and i bought a mountainbike and a small girly-bike for my girlfriend. including a basket and two locks we paid cny 1100, which equals about 110 euros. what a bargain - bikes are unbelievably cheap here. afterwards we hired a van-taxi to drive us home. it took almost an hour and costs us cny 90 only. watch out panyu, there's a gweilo with a mountainbike on the loose!

13nov2007 - japan fusion
tuesday. went out for lunch with my friend joe that day to a restaurant called japan fusion, which is only a 5 minutes walk way from my office. it is the biggest japanese restaurant in asia! well, i don't know if that is true, but it is huge and i really don't care. anyways, the decoration is outstanding, the food is good and the prices are more than acceptable. i had a bowl with some pork, rice and vegetables along with a bowl of japanese soup. guess how much i paid, considering the nice atmosphere and the waitresses being pretty, too? well, i padi only CNY 13.00, which equals about 1,3 euros. you gotta love living and eating in china!

13nov2007 - making new friends
tuesday. last week i met some interesting people at a german chamber networking event, of which one actually works in the same building as me. as he is also the only foreigner in his office, we both now finally have someone to go out for lunch with. well, of course i also got out with some of my staff or local colleagues sometimes, but this is certainly an option that is more than welcome. besides, feels good to meet some other foreigners here to share experiences, problems and possible ways to solve them if you are not able to speak chinese. get your network on, baby!

10nov2007 - absolut bbq
saturday. this weekend i had my first official bbq/housewarming party in guangzhou. eight friends (finn, joey, tjen, dr.moth, soo-mi, helle, etc.) from hong kong found their way to panyu and we celebrated with delicious food, chinese beer and ... finish vodka, of which i might have had a little too much. anyways, thanks everyone for coming all the way to see me. can't wait to have the next absolut bbq experience in my backyard. bbq in november, bet you are jealous, huh?

08nov2007 - german chamber of commerce
thursday. after three months in guangzhou it was about time for me to establish some contact with fellow german citizens in guangzhou, wherefore i followed an invitation of the german chamber of commerce for some networking drinks. the venue was somewhere in guangzhou and luckily the taxidriver knew how to get there. i had a good time and met many new interesting people. things are looking good in guangzhou! cheers!

03nov2007 - the beyonce experience
saturday. beyonce gave an amazing concert that night. why amazing? well, there are too many reasons why she is amazing, so let me just mention three. first of all she has an amazing voice that is even more impressive when she sings live, secondly, she has the most amazing female figure and looks and thirdly, she really know how to shake her body in that tight little silver dress. waaaah, what an artist, what a woman! hope that was not her last performance in china cause I would go to see her again. oooh, the venue. yes, the venetian arena is very nice, especially since they have beck's beer and a german barkeeper, from bremen (no kidding!), who serves it at 30 hkd a cup. what a night!

03nov2007 - frogs don't make good pasta
saturday. vivien and me travelled to macau to see beyonce knowles live in concert at the venetian arena. after arriving in macau we walked around the casion's shopping mall, which included an indoor canal, which you can ride on in little gondolas with an american "singing student" pretending to be an italian. what a joke. by the way, it will also cost you 120 hkd a person, wahahahaha. we didn't do it, but we went for dinner at the blue frog restaurant. my mexican burger as well as our salad and pumpkin soup were excellent, but the past was tasteless. vivien even added ketchup to get a little taste, wherefore i complained to the manager. so she took the pasta of the cheque and gave us a free desert. well, don't mean to be a bitch, but if the food it bad, don't just swallow it.

31oct2007 - getting cold here
wednesday. it has gotten quite cold over here these few days, which means that the temperature is below 20 degrees. well, i mentioned this in my diary before several times - you get used to warm weather and suddenly 20 degrees feel like minus 10. aaargh, so cold and especially humid these days. ey, and what you can see on the left is what you get when you type cold in the picture search of google.de. not kidding!

30oct2007 - karaoke
tuesday. in only did karaoke twice in my life so far (once with kjell and joris in the manila karaoke pub in emden, germany and a secord time with classmates from polyU in hong kong) - both times i was quite drunk! it's simple: the more i drink - the better i sing. well, this time i had to go with a trucking company for dinner and karaoke afterwards, which was really a lot of fun. the general manager of the trucking company doesn't speak any english very well, but we got along really well. good for me that his english is not well, so he didn't notice how bad i performed (ruined) robbie william's angels. well, it's always less emberassing to sing at such an event than not to sing at all!

25oct2007 - first class treatment
thursday. not i did get such treatment, but my customer did. that evening we had to entertain a potential big client from scandinavia, which we took to the shangri la hotel for a western buffet dinner. what a nice hotel and what a nice dinner! the customer, two quite young gentleman who run their own businesses, were nice to talk to and the evening stretched quite late with lots of wine, cognac and beer. aaaah, i hate my job, hehe.

23oct2007 - 455 billion dollars?
tuesday. you all might know they guy on the left, but did you know that he already spent 455 billion us-dollar on the war in iraq? that looks like this: 455.000.000.000. in chinese renminbi that would be around 3.549.000.000.000. oh my god, i wonder what good could have been done with this money in the US or all around the world. as far as i know there is still more than 10 million children in the US without any healthcare. wake up mr. bush! stop the war in iraq!

23oct2007 - kamikaze frog
sunday. as i mentioned before - i have a frog in my backyard who keeps coming back and back. i usually catch him every night and throw him into the little creek behind our house, but this time things went different. just when i was about to release him into the creek, which is about 3 meters down from my garden, the frog slipped from my hand and jumped down. unfortunately he didn't land in the creek but on the concrete stairs next to it. ouch! i though he was dead, but just 30 minutes later he was back in my yard. unbelievable this crazy kamikaze frog. he must be japanese!

21oct2007 - crab dinner
sunday. my boss, colleague and friend roy and his wife invited my girlfriend and me for dinner that night. we went to a seafood restaurant at the landmark hotel near the pearl river to eat some hairy crab, which is the food of the season. i am not really a fan of seafood, especially not crab, but this one was really nice. well, you always got to try something new, especially with chinese food, or you might miss out on something really delicious.

21oct2007 - guangzhou zoo
sunday. i love zoos, wherefore i went to visit the guangzhou zoo, which was opened in 1958, and with it's 43 hectares is the biggest one in south china. at first i was excited but soon shocked. the park itself is nice, but the enclosures are plain concrete and they give you the expression that the animals are on death row. people throw food and rubbish into the enclosures and consider the animals as entertainment only. well, me and vivien seemed to be a big attraction also as people kept staring at us. never seen a gweilo before? don't waste your time and stay away from this zoo, unless you like to be depressed!

18oct2007 - unenforced rules?
thursday. recent reports showed that guangzhou has about 100.000 dogs, but only 872(!) are registered. no surprise if you have to pay cny 10.000 (around 1.000 euros) per year to register it. seems like nobody enforces the rules here, so people simply do not care. anyways, now the government reduced the fee to cny 700.00 (!) for the first year and cny 300.00 for every following year. aaah, that sounds better. i would register my dog at that price, if i had one. well, let's see what happens next year.

18oct2007 - the crazy frog
thursday. i have a garden now, which seems to be heave for frogs. i find and catch them in my garden every night, especially one very big one. every time i catch him, i will throw him over the fence into a small pond nearby, but somehow he always seems to find his way back into my garde to sit always in the same spot under my tree. what's up with this crazy frog?

15oct2007 - spaced-out starbucks dude
monday. near my office we have a starbucks where i happen to stop by regularly for an iced cafe latte (hey, it's hot over here in the morning already!) and a muffin on my way to work. a couple of times i met an australian guy there, which i also met that afternoon at the hung hom station in hong kong before boarding the train back to guangzhou. this time he was totally space out (drunk or on drugs - or both) and finally even happened to sit right next to us. he started to talk to the ladies on the train in mandarin and ran up and down the train like the energizer-bunny. wow, totally space out that dude!

15oct2007 - canton fair
monday. twice a year the canton export import fair is held in guangzhou, which attracts sellers from all over china and buyers from all over the world to meet here. the fair is famous worldwide and was the first door that opened towards the chinese markets about 50 years ago. today the fair spreads over various convention centres all over the city and hotel room fares skyrocket to 3-4 times the normal level. wow, i have never seen so many foreigners in guangzhou before. one more interesting fact: next year, after the completion of phase two at the new convention centre, guangzhou will overtake the german city of hannover in terms of most exhibition space worldwide. think big - that's the philosophy!

15oct2007 - trade meeting in hong kong
monday. the whole day i spent with my colleagues from taiwan, hamburg, london, dublin, hong kong, shenzhen, macau, zhonghsan and guangzhou in a meetin room at our wan chai office. kind a cool being invited to such meetings and being able to interact with the big guys face-to-face and point out issus we have in our buisness locally. the more you know ... wellm the more people you know.

14oct2007 - hotel in hong kong
sunday. for the first time i stayed in a hotel in hong kong. so far i always managed to stay with friends, student hall or my own apartments. so i checked in at the luk kwok hotel in wan chai (close to our hong kong office) and met with my colleagues that night for a little chat. after heading to my room i just managed to get changed and brush my teeth before falling in a deep sleep until the next morning.

14oct2007 - family birthday
sunday. thank god, no hangover from the night before, but still a tough day ahead as it was the birthday of my girlfriend's mother. the day started with some dim sum in tsing yi, some shopping in sham shui po and finally dinner at a japanese restaurant in tsuen wan. aaaah, i will sleep well tonight - that's for sure!

13oct2007 - party tour through hong kong
saturday. that night we met with old friends to take a party tour around hong kong. we started off at stormies (3x becks) near the icc on kowloon station, headed for some italian dinner at o-sole-mio (1x red whine, 1x averna, 1x digestif) in soho, afterwards to stauntons (1x tsingtao), followed by v13 (1x bacardi coke), mink (3x bacardi coke), insomnia (2x bacardi coke, 1x tsingtao), typhoon (1x havanna club) and finally mes amis (2x havanna club) in wan chai. ouch, we got home at 5:00 am the next morning and i fell right asleep on my girlfriends' parent's couch before she finished brushing her teeth. what a night! zzz zzz zzz

13oct2007 - next stop is shenzhen
saturday. this day vivien and me travelled to hong kong via shenzhen, which is much cheaper (less than 50%) and takes only slightly longer. anyways, the trains are brandnew (made in japan) and fly down the tracks at up to 200 km/h, so you reach shenzhen from guangzhou within one hour. a real althernative, if you ask me, especially as the train departs about every 20 minutes and not every 1,5 hours like the through-train to kowloon.

12oct2007 - get the trash out
friday. today, after more than two months, our landlord finally removed some left-over furniture from our house, which included a two beds, a safe, a table, two desks and all kinds of other trash. sorry to say what really become clear over here - money simply can't buy you style. aaah, finally this place feels like home. anyone looking for a pink bed? i can pass on the phone number to you.

09oct2007 - guangzhou management dinner
tuesday. that night the whole management of our guangzhou office was invited for dinner at the 1920 german restaurant & bar near the pearl river. another opportunity to enjoy some delicious german food away from home. let me stress it once more - if you come to guangzhou, make sure to visit this restaurant! mom, don't worry about me, they have good food over here!

05oct2007 - tomb of the nanyue king
friday. just across the street from the yue xiu park lies the museum of the nanyue king's tomb. the tomb was found in 1983 (while digging for a new building developement, i suppose) and has become one of the world's most important museums. the grave is more than 2000 years old and held the remains of king wen, who was buried together with large amounts of jade as well as fifteen human sacrifices including four concubines, guards, cooks, musicians, etc.). the symbol on the left belongs to the king of nanyue and consist of a disc that combines a dragon (middle) and a phoenix (outside). i chinese culture, the dragon always represents the emperor while the phoenix represents the emperess. if you come to guangzhou, make sure you visit this one.

05oct2007 - five rams statue
friday. the five rams are the symbol of guangzhou and they can be found in the form of a huge statue in the yue xiu park. the legend is somewhat that five immortans came to guangzhou riding on the back of five rams. they carried rice and gave it to the people of guangzhou as a sign that they would be spared from famine in the future. the immortals diasppeared and the rams turned into stone and gave the city of guangzhou its name meaning five rams. well, don't know if all of that is true, but it sounds nice and the statue is worth a visit!

05oct2007 - zhenhai tower
friday. towering over the yue xiu park is the zhenhai tower, which hosts the guangzhou museum. (haha, yes i do visit museums.) the museum boasts a huge collection of relicts, the biggest one being the tower itself, which dates back to the ming dinasty in the 15th century. it is amazing what long and interesting history the city of guangzhou went through over the centuries. wort a visit!

05oct2007 - yue xiu park
friday. you simply can't spend a whole week of vacation at home and sleep, right? well, after having spent a few days to clear and tidy up some final things around our house, vivien and me decided to go for some sightseeing in the centre of guangzhou. our first target was the yue xiu park, which was surprisingly empty considering that basically all of china is on vacation. the park is huge (212 hectars), beautiful, has many lakes, is green, has some mountains and all kinds of other attractions to be explored. you can even sign some chinese opera with some locals - if you dare, hehe. warning: you ears might fall off afterwards if you are not used to these sounds.

04oct2007 - hmm...hainan
thursday. my girlfriend vivien and me went out for dinner that night to a hainan-restaurant in tianhe. hainan island, which is one of the place on my list of "places to visit" and which is often referred to as the "hawaii of china", lies just south of the guangdong province and apparently people like to cook with their main ingredient coconut. since everybody has been to thailand these days, i am seriously thinking to hop on a plane from guangzhou next summer, which will cost me only cny 1000.00 for a round-trip, just to try something different. well, for sure the food is already worth it.

03oct2007 - entertainment centre in the making
wednesday. having lived in south china for over three years now, i pretty much got used to the fact that international music super stars are not willing to hold a concert in hong kong due to the fact that there is simply no market for their music as local people mainly listen to their canto-pop stars and have sometimes not even heard of robin williams or madonna. (wow, what a sentence.) well, it seems like things are improving as the venetian macao resort has concerts of "the black eyed peas" and "beyonce knowles" in its schedule for october and november. as i have also met andree 3000 for outkast there two weeks ago, i have the feeling that more is soon to come and macao is only two hours and a cny 60.00 bus-ride away. how emberassing is that for hong kong?

02oct2007 - take your shoes off
tuesday. i took my girlfriend out to a japanese restaurant in tianhe that evening, which has a real authentic atmosphere, good service and excellent food. as i said, the atmosphere is authentic, that's why they ask you to take your shoes off at the door before you walk on the clean wooden floors to you low japanese-style table. aaah, excellent food! well, in china you live well if you eat well - i like that idea.

01oct2007 - chinese national day
monday. china celebrated it's 57th chinese national day on october 1st will all of china being able to enjoy a long one-week holiday, which is referred to as the "golden week". families gather to have lunch and dinner together, people travel all over the country and chinese flags are on display simply everywhere. organized or not, i have the feeling that chinese people have a deep pride in their country.

29sep2007 - a four million TEU fishing village
saturday. nansha is a city in the panyu area, which belongs to guangzhou (it's a big city), and most likely it was only a small fishing village ten years ago. today it is a city and it hosts the newest star among the south chinese container ports - nansha container terminal. i was invited to witness the opening ceremony of phase two that morning and attend a banquet at the shangri la hotel with some carriers and government officials afterwards. for those of you who know about the shipping industry, will agree that 4 million TEU is quite a number for such a new terminal, considering it only is in it's second year of operation. tic = this is china!

28sep2007 - working weekend
friday. the chinese national day holiday is coming up and the whole of china will have one full week vacation - well, amost. from october 1st to october 3rd everyone is off, but you have to pick two working days out of 29th/30th of september or 4th/5th of october. as i need to work on this weekend, i will have a complete 7 days off to relax and explore guangzhou. hong kong only has one day off, haha.

28sep2007 - fut da whack?
friday. on this week (tuesday) the chinese celebrate the mid-autumn festival (also know as the lantern festival) and they like to play with fireworks. this is forbidden in the most major cities like shanghai, beijing, hong kong and guangzhou (hey, imagine 12 million people play with fireworks at the same time), but not in the suburb of panyu where i live. since it was already friday morning, you can imagine that we literally fell out of bed when our neighbor two houses down the street decided to light some on the street at 4:00am. fut da whack? how can he do that? man, some people are really not considerate - unbelievable!

27sep2007 - chinese haircut
thursday. after one month since my last one, it was time of a haircut again - my first in china. as usual my beloved girlfriend had to take me as most of the local hairdressers do not speak any english. it is always a big adventure and i always end up to be the main attraction of the night. altogether i got a decent haircut (don't worry, the picture on the left is not me), my hair washed four times and a head massage - all for only cny 39.00, which is equal to about 3,9 euros. not bad, huh?

25sep2007 - delivery from hong kong
tuesday. after almost two months in guangzhou, my furniture and personal belongings finally arrived from hong kong. unfortunately the were not delivered by a hot lady like on the left, but six chinese relocation professionals did a good job in delivering a total of 71 boxes to my house and setting up the furniture. now i feel like i really arrived here in china.

23sep2007 - bus adventure - part 2
sunday. i was lucky not to wake up with a hangover that day as i had to pass through another bus adventure. i woke up around noon and headed for the sands casino with sam for some breakfast. afterwards he dropped me at the border and i crossed back into china, which was no problem. luckily i had memorized the way from the border through a shopping mall to the underground bus stop of china travel service. i was lucky again that one man at the counter was able to speak little english and helped me to catch the next bus to guangzhou only five minutes later. perfect timing! from there it was easy: back to guangzhou, taxi, home. uaah, every bone of my body aches and i will need the whole week to recover from this weekend. guess i am getting old!

22sep2007 - sky21
saturday. on the 21st floor of the AIA tower in macao, you can find one of macao's hottest nightlife spots. it has a modern atmosphere, nice food, a wide range of cocktails, loud house music, many beautiful people and best of all - a terrace from which can see over the whole city. andre 3000 must have thought the same, as we met him there again and found him in a very good mood. well, i didn't get to party with the rich and famous for too long, as the long day finally caught up with me around 3:30am (after 20 hours on my feet) and forced me to retire and head home to sam's place. what a night! tjen, happy birthday and all the best for you simon back in germany! we will miss you!

22sep2007 - gambling
saturday. well, you can't go to a casino without placing a single bet, so we finally hit the tables after midnight. i played some roulette and was flying high until loosing it all again. well, in the end the casino always wins and you simple have to know your limit and when to stop. i knew that and so my loss didn't really hurt my wallet a lot. still had some money left to head for some more drinks in one of macao's trendiest bars - sky21.

22sep2007 - andre icecold 3000
saturday. in the lounge we met andre 3000, real name andre benjamin, who is a member of the american hip-hop group outkast. he was sitting behind us with his bodyguard and some music promotes, being hardly recognized by anyone in the casino as a superstar. i bet he really enjoyed being somehow seen as a normal person, as western music is not really famous in hong kong unlike on the chinese mainland or japan. anyhow, we recognized him, talked with him, shook his hand and took a picture with him. well, we will meet him again later, keep on reading.

22sep2007 - casino lounge
saturday. we didn't focus much on blowing out our money at the roulette tables but headed directly for the casino lounge to enjoy some drinks and all kinds of entertainment shows such as dancers, singers, artists and live bands. we stayed there for more than three hourse until midnight to celebrate tjen's birthday. casino's are not raeally my thing, but this loung is really nice and definetly worth a visit. cheers!

22sep2007 - the venetian
saturday. macao's newest casino attraction is the venetian resort on taipa island. it has a massive 3000 suites, the biggest convention centre in the world, shopping malls and its own stadium with 15.000 seats. and there is more to come. i was really impressed by this massive gambling temple that has more than 800 tables and i don't know how many slot machines. it's hard to believe, but the place is packed 24/7 and crowds bring in money non-stop. the estimated gross profit per day is higher than one million us dollar. well, gambling is big business in china.

22sep2007 - afrikana restaurant
saturday. being hungry from all that racing, we headed back to the fisherman's wharf to an african bbq restaurant. we enjoyed a rich buffet and downded a lot of pints of cool german beck's beer. aaaah, how nice is that? the perfect start for a night on the town in macao.

22sep2007 - just like schumi
saturday. after a quick lunch at the fisherman's wharf, we all headed to a go-kart track in the south of macao for some racing action. 20 minutes will set you back around 200 hong kong dollar, which is quite expensive for chinese standards, but it is a hell lot of fun. after being careful in the first few round, you get a hand of it pretty quickly and i am confident that i could beat schumi now anytime in any car or kart. well, need to get in better shape first, otherwise my weight will slow me down to much. schumi, who is schumi?

22sep2007 - cruisin macao
saturday. at the border crossing in maco, my friend and colleague sam, who works in macao, picked me up and took me for a spin around the city by car. we crusided all over the place before heading to the ferry terminal to pick up tjen, simon, stefan, bjoern, finn and christian. being driven around in a car is nothing unusual in china, as i am not driving here, and it makes me realize every time how much i miss driving myself. i think i really have to buy myself a car here next year to cruise around the pearl river delta. anyways, some other time, but now let's get this party started!

22sep2007 - bus adventure - part 1
saturday. that early morning i was headed for zhuhai and later macao to meet my hong kong friends for a party night on the town. as i was really busy that week, i had my staff arrange the bus ticket for me, which basically left me clueless where the bus would depart that morning. so i took the shuttle bus as usual in the morning, got off at my stop in tianhe and jumped into a taxi to a hotel bus stop. i showed my ticket to the taxi driver and luckily he knew the place and took me there within 5 minutes. at the reception of the hotel the first lady didn't understand what i want, but the second could help me out and even got me on one bus earlier. well, getting around in china while only speaking a little chinese can really be an adventure.

19sep2007 - donguan and crocodile
wednesday. that morning i visited a customer in donguan, which lies about in the middle between shenzhen and guangzhou. i was joined by a colleague from hamburg, which we invited for some lunch afterwards. we came to a restaurant that offered crocodile meat, so we simply decided to give it a try. well, it was really nice and tasted somehow like chicken. schni, schna, schnappi!

18sep2007 - brommel in town
tuesday. philipp, a colleague from hong kong which we all like to call "brommel", came over to stay at my house as we had to visit a customer together early the next day. i picked him up at the train station and we headed for the 1920 german restaurant near the pearl river. after many beers we headed home and enjoyed some more on my terrace. the picture on the left is what came up when i just for fun typed "brommel" in google. maybe the car is called "brommel" as well?

17sep2007 - got grass?
monday. the owner of my house didn't really care much about his garden at all, wherefore all the grass was basically dead when we arrived. even cutting and excessive amounts of water could not bring it back to life, so we hired a gardener to take care of it. instead of putting in seeds and let the grass grow slowly, he arrived with hundreds of little grass squares, which makes our garden look like patchwork. but hey, in 4 weeks it will be all fine and tiger woods could be on top of his game right in my backyard. got grass?

08sep2007 - foot massage
saturday. aaah, now something to make you all jealous. after having spent the whole day exploring the city, me and my girlfriend spoiled ourselves with a 90 minute foot-and-back massage in a salon just 5 minutes by feet from our house. it felt really nice and the price of CNY 68.00 each made us feel even better. people say that massages can become an addiction and some of my colleagues tell me they will go at least once a week, and i think at this price i could easily become addicted, too. gotta love china for such services!

08sep2007 - exploring guangzhou
saturday. me and my girlfriend vivien spent the day to walk around guangzhou and explore the main shopping areas between haizhou square, beijing road and the pearl river. i must say, guangzhou is certainly not as clean as hong kong, but more green and in some way more authentic chinese. you can find many old buildings, traditional back-streets and all kinds of interesting street-scenes that you can only find in china. certainly an interesting city and still many things left for me to explore. like this place!

04sep2007 - the "o" with two dots
tuesday. i was shocked when i found out that i still had not received any salary yet on that morning. i checked with our accounts department and they checked with the bank of china for the problem. what was the problem? well, the bank of china had some problems with the german "umlaut" in my name on my passport, the "o with two dots on top", my bank account being opened on "sonke" and my company advise the payment on "soenke". aaah, how come an international bank does not know how to deal with that? that never happened to me before, except once at the china customs. stupid!

03sep2007 - how did they know?
monday. hurray, i got my alien work permit that day. now i have a visa and a full work permit for china and can start the process of importing my personal belongings. hey, but how did they know i was an alien? damn, who told them?

03sep2007 - my own aquarium ... office
monday. my predecessor robin has left for his new position in zhonghsan, wherefore i can now take over his office and move into my own little (like i like to call it) aquarium. aaah, i have always dreamt of that and now it feels really good to be able to close the door behind me (if necessary) and enjoy some moments of silence, which a rare in china's logistics industry. ms. so-and-so, please come to my office, hehe.

02sep2007 - going wireless
sunday. my friend and colleague alan was so nice to buy a wireless router for me and helped me to set-up a wireless network in my house. now my girlfriend and me and use our notebooks to roam around our three floors and our garden freely and connect to the outside world anywhere. yeah! thanks, alan!

01sep2007 - under construction
saturday. our hosue feels like it is constantly under construction with nothing being a 100% done. the grass has been cut, the curtains are up, the lights are fixed, the garden furniture are in place,the couch has arrived and the water solar heating system in fixed, but still there is a 1000 things to be fixed. i assume everything will be done by the end of october, so can start to free some time in your schedule to visit me for a nice bbq party at my place.

28aug2007 - german restaurant in china
tuesday. i heard that there is a german restaurant near pearl river (near haizhou square) in guangzhou, wherefore me and my girlfriend picked this venue for our anniversary dinner. let me tell you - i was amazed! the restaurant's decoration is really nice (see on the left), the food is authentic as well as delicious and the prices are reasonable. wow, good i found that place. it's called 1920, so if you come to guangzhou, make sure to check this one out. hmm, sometimes i just need a little german food to prevent myself from getting homesick.

28aug2007 - spider vivien
tuesday. my girlfriend vivien locked herself out that afternoon on our balcony. as she had no mobile phone with her, she had no other way to reach me and inform me of her situation. as we were supposed to meet for dinner later on, she had to take action and decided to climb over to our neighbour's balcony. nobody was home, but their door was unlocked, wherefore she entered their house and called my mobile. luckily she remebered my number. anyways, i had to shorten a meeting and leave my job early to free spider vivien from our balcony.

28aug2007 - four years
friday. it's been now four years since i got together with my beloved girlfriend vivien, which is the longest relationship i ever had. wow, how can somebody stand to live with me that long, haha. some people already start asking question about when we will get married - ha, no comment. i am still looking for somebody better to come along, haha. no, love my baby - happy anniversary.

27aug2007 - we got a new couch
monday. bought yeserday, delivered today - our new couch. this is one big step towards making our house more comfortable - as you can imagine, a living room without a couch doesn't look that nice. aaah, finally a place form which i can enjoy watching movie's on my 42" plasma tv.

26aug2007 - IKEA loves us
sunday. if IKEA had a rewards for their most loyal customers, i am sure that my girlfriend and me would be among the top candidates to receive it. after having already furnished our hong kong apartment completely with IKEA, we again spend thousands of dollars in IKEA to buy things for our new house in china. well, gotta love IKEA and hopefull IKEA loves us back.

26aug2007 - gecko alarm
sunday. when me and my girlfriend arrived at our house that early afternoon, we saw something run across our kitchen and climb into the cupboard. my girlfriend was screaming and ran out the house. it didn't see it fast enough and i really hope it was a big gecko and not a rat, which would be a bad start to living here. anyways, i saw many geckos here before and wherefore we will declared it a gecko alarm and call it a day, but not before spraying some posison into the space between the cupboards and setting up some traps all around the house. i'm gonna getcha!

25aug2007 - back to hong kong
saturday. i travelled back to hong kong that morning to pick-up my girlfriend to come to china with me. i arrived hong kong around lunchtime, went some shopping, changed my mobile phone contract, watched the simpson movie, went some more shopping and finally had dinner at my girlfriend's family home. feels good to be in hong kong again, but my new home is china now and it's time to let go. anyways, hong kong will always have a place in my heart.

24aug2007 - on the catwalk
friday. we celebrated my the farewell of my colleague, predecessor and friedn robin so that evening by having some drinks at a local bar called catwalk. it is situation in the tianhe sports center and just about 5 minutes from our office. the venue is very western with loud hip-hop music, nice decoration, sexy dancers and "entertainment gilrs". the only things that's really chinese are the dice games everybody plays on their tables. (something like the german game "meyern". anyhow, roy, robin and me finished a bottle of hennesy vsop before heading home for some good rest. that robin and me got lost on the way home, that's another story.

19aug2007 - connected to the world, but ...
sunday. today a guy from china telecom came to my house (on sunday) and fixed up my 2MB adsl-line. i made the appointment on wednesday, well my colleague alan did, and paid around 170 euros for one year. not bad, huh? well, it makes me wonder. we germans think that we are always so efficient and fast, but i remember when i order the dsl in germany, it took the german telecom almost four weeks to mail the necessary equipment to me. afterwards i had to install it myself, and they certainly would not come on a weekend. well, anyhow, now i am connected to the world again and can spend my freetime to surf the web, but something feels not right ... i really can feel that the web is censored. whenever i type something in google that contains china, the results are slim and many picturese are not loaded. well, this is china - welcome to the internet. well, at least my webpage has not been censored, haha.

17aug2007 - counterstrike
friday. my colleagues asked me to join them for a session of counterstrike in a local internet bar in tianhe. as i had no other plans for the night, i simply decided to join them, even though i never played this came before. we played 8 against 8 and had good fun for a few hourse. in the end everyone had to pay 8 rmb, around 0,8 euros for 2,5 hours of play. not a bad deal, huh? some things you gotta love about china.

12aug2007 - cleaning day
sunday. a big house causes a lot of work, and i didn't want to put it all on my girlfriend when she comes to guangzhou in two weeks. even though i hate cleaning, i spent almost the whole day doing exactly that as well as working in the garden. now the place sparkles, so if you come to my place, make sure to take off your shoes or i will kick ... cleaning day, baaaah.

11aug2007 - gong zhau doy!
saturday. my colleague nakata took me to see a game of the local guangzhou football team against their opponent from chongqing. of course the level of football in china is not as high as in the european countries, but it was still really interesting to watch them play and experience the atmosphere in the very old stadium, which i guess must have been around since the 1950's and chairman mao's days. anyhow, the crowd made a huge noise and finally the guangzhou team won 2:1. go guangzhou team!

08aug2007 - living costs in china
thursday. even during the first few days i realized that the living costs in china are really low. food, cloths and public transport costs very little and rents are also affordable. wann have some examples? a taxi ride costs you 7 RMB (= 0,7 euro) for the first three kilometres. in germany you pay already 38 RMB (= 3,8 euro) basic fee without having travelled a single meter. a mcdonald's meal costs around 15 RMB (= 1,5 euro) and a pack of cigarettes between 10 RMB and 25 RMB (you do the math). well, i guess it must all be seen in relation with the local salary levels, but still i think the costs for certain things are either really low here or just simply ridiculously high in germany.

08aug2007 - aaah, IKEA
wednesday. it is always good to have some familiar things around you - one of them is IKEA. so far i could find it in almost every asian country i have been to - and in guangzhou as well. the products and names are all the same, apart from a few special local products, and sadly enough - the prices seem to be the same as well. compared to germany i think the furniture are little cheaper here, but for local standards they must be quite expensive. aaah, gotta love IKEA.

08aug2007 - my baby visits
wednesday. since i moved to guangzhou i have been living alone, wherefore i was really happy to have my girlfriend come over for a two-day-visit. she still needs to finish her last few weeks of working in hong kong before she will follow me to china. the first few weeks already made me realize that life here without her will be really difficult as english does not get you very far. can't wait for you to move here, baby.

08aug2007 - working permit, but ...
wednesday. i got my working permit on that day, which is the next step towards receiving my alien work permit in china, but it is still not enough to process the import of my personal belongings from hong kong. so i will keep living on one bed, one table and a tv until my final documents are finished. again it must realize, things take a little longer here. well, i better get used to that.

08aug2007 - china construction bank
wednesday. i opened my bank account in china that day, which took quite some time as banks are among the most busiest places in china. why? well, i guess because first of all there is soooo many people and soooo many of them have money. you don't believe it? well, i have seen bentelys, bmws, porsches and many mercedes-benz in guangzhou - so there must be some money here.

04aug2007 - partying in guangzhou
saturday. presently i am alone in this big city, as my girlfriend is still in hong kong, wherefore my friends bjoern, tjen and simon came over to visit me and take a party tour around guangzhou. my colleagues wrote down some adresses in chinese characters for me, which we showed to the taxi driver, who took us directly to the party district of guangzhou. we had a great time and hit guangzhou hard before returning home at 7:00am. what a night, what a party! you certainly can have a good time in china. thanks for coming, guys. sorry, my camera killed all the pictures. damn.

04aug2007 - puff, alan and 99 problems
saturday. during this week my travel adapter made "puff" and gave up it's service, which puts me in a quite tricky position. now i have no way to charge my notebook and mobile phone at home and as my mobile phone also serves as my alarm clock, there is the risk of me oversleeping. luckily i have a good friend, neighbor and colleague alan, who helped me out and bought me a new one. he also helped me with many of my other 99 problems here and i surely would not be able to settle in without him. same applies to my other colleagues in the office, which have all been more than kind in helping me to arrange all kinds of things. i simply must realize - n china you are pretty much lost without knowing how to speak chinese. well, what can i do? this is china.

03aug2007 - china mobile
friday. i entered the mobile communications world in china that day by signing a deal with china mobile. well, there are only two mobile phone providers in china, wherefore the choice was not too difficult to make. the bad thing is, as there are only two state-owned providers, the government makes the prices - and they are not low. well, this is china.

01aug2007 - first working day in china
wednesday. in the morning my colleague and neighbor alan took me to work to prevent me from getting lost in this world where you can hardly find someone who speaks english and where you can seldom find signs that are not in chinese characters. we took the shuttle bus from our estate to tianhe, which costs 5 rmb and takes about 25 minutes into the heart of the city. from the bus stop it's only a five minute walk to the office - thank god, in this hot weather here. in the office everyone was really nice and they gave me a warm welcome as the only foreigner in the office. a good start.

31jul2007 - arrival in guangzhou
tuesday. after arriving in china i was picked up by the company van and taken to my new house in panyu, which lies 30 minutes (by car) south of the city. it is a really nice estate with aparments, townhouses, parks, clubhouse, clean air and high security. now i will be able to sleep with my window open and enjoy the luxury of space, which you simply don't have in hong kong. that night one colleague and one of my staff took me out for dinner, which made me feel right at home. guangzhou, i have arrived!