Kuala Lumpur visa run

On September 21 it was time to leave China for Malaysia. Even though I enjoyed staying in China, I couldn’t wait to board the plane to Kuala Lumpur and finally meet Sairozi :D But before I could go onboard I had one last “China experience”. When the immigration officer checked my passport, all of a sudden his computer said something like: “Bitte warten sie einen Moment, Ihre Unterlagen werden geprüft.” It was difficult not to burst out laughing (that would have been really embarrassing), but I couldn’t suppress a giggle. Who would have thought there were German speaking immigration computers in Hangzhou?? Certainly not me!

The flight took about 4.5 hours and at 7.10pm I arrived in Kuala Lumpur. Sairozi was already waiting for me. We then took the shuttle bus from Kuala Lumpur airport (LCC-T) to KL Sentral which takes around 1 hour and costs between 8-9 ringgit (2 Euros). KL Sentral is the main train station in Kuala Lumpur and from there we only had to take the LRT to Pasar Seni (1 station) to reach our accommodation. We stayed in the Le Village Guesthouse (Jl. Tun H. S. Lee 99, 50000 Kuala Lumpur) which is one of the cheapest places in KL (double room for 35-40 ringgit/ less than 10 Euros for 2 people).

The next day we had to arrange our visas for Thailand. We took bus no. 79 to Jalan Ampang (1.5 ringgit) which took around 30-40 minutes due to heavy traffic. The Thai embassy receives visa applications from 9.30-11.30am and you can pick up your visa the following working day between 14.30 and 15.30. After our visa application we decided to walk back to our hostel and do a little bit o sightseeing. We went to the Petronas Twin Towers, visited Pasar Seni (art market) and did some shopping in Chinatown. Afterwards we enjoyed some delicious Malaysian food for dinner. On our must-eat list are: “Nasi briyani ayam”, “roti canai”, “nasi lemak”, "penyet" and to drink “teh tarik”.

Shanghai

After the summer university had ended, some of the students decided to visit Shanghai before returning to Germany. Since my flight to Kuala Lumpur departs from Hangzhou, which is only 1-2 hours by train from Shanghai, and the weather was getting colder in Qingdao, I joined them. On Sunday morning we took the train and after a pleasant 6.30 hours journey we finally arrived. The first impression of the city was very good… 26 degrees! The hostel we stayed in turned out to be more like a hotel and it was definitely one of the best (if not THE best) hostel I’ve ever stayed at. It’s called “Shanghai City Central International Youth Hostel” and room rates start from 60 RMB. It’s located within 5 minutes walking distance to the Cao Yang subway station (line 4).

The next morning I went to Huangpu bus station, from where a daily shuttle bus to Xiaoshang airport (Hangzhou) leaves. The ticket cost me 100 RMB, which is a little bit more expensive than taking the train, but has the advantage that Huangpu bus station is located right next to the Nanppu bridge subway station (line 4), which means I didn’t have to change lines (which can be quite a hassle due to the lack of elevators in some stations). The shuttle bus takes around 3 hours to Xiaoshang airport and drops you right at the international departure terminal.

After I had purchased the bus ticket I went to Shanghai’s main tourist attraction – the Bund! I went there at 5 pm to take some photos of the skyline while it was not dark yet. Then I went for dinner in a nice and small restaurant, where only Chinese were eating. The food was quite cheap compared to other places in that area (even though pretty expensive if you compare it to other cities in China). But 15 RMB got me a great dinner… at least that’s what I thought then. At 6.30 pm the sun had set and I went back to the Bund to take more photos of the skyline at night. It’s amazing how different the place looks at day and night.

Pretty exhausted I decided to return to the hostel, but somehow my “not-so-good-anymore dinner” didn’t like that plan and got me desperately looking for the nearest restroom. Luckily I was well equipped with the most important thing that everyone needs to bring when travelling in China… tissues! It’s fairly easy to find a restroom but 99,9% of them don’t have any toilet paper. So always have some tissues in your pocket. What’s even better are “German quality tissues” (deutsche Qualitätstaschentücher) which soon became a rare good in Qingdao. In the end of the summer university they traded 1:4 against Chinese tissues.

On my last day in China I went to an underground “fake” market (of course, the shop owners insisted that their products were not fake at all). “Wanna buy a watch? Rolex? Cheap, CHEAP!”, “Chopsticks only 40 RMB (4,2 Euro… that’s more expensive than in Germany!), very cheap!” … even though it got quite exhausting at the market I still had fun and got some great bargains. It might be a good idea to bring a friend though, because having someone on your side when 4 shopkeepers are yelling at you simultaneously can be very helpful…

Jinan, Taishan and Qufu

After having studied Chinese for 2,5 weeks a reward was waiting for us. This weekend we went on our 4 day trip to Jinan, Taishan and Qufu. On Friday we left for Jinan which is the capital city of Shandong province. Even though we didn't spend much time there we had quite a lot of fun, because a meeting between the participants of the summer university and local students had been organized. After they showed us their university and had some singing performances we had a large "hot pot" dinner together. It was super-delicious and the Chinese students were lots of fun. The next day we left early to climb the Taishan mountain. It's a holy mountain with lots of shrines and temples. But before we could visit the temples 2 hours, approximately 1 million stairs and even more Chinese tourists awaited us. But it was definitely worth climbing all the way to the top of the mountain as you can see on the picuters.

Our final destination was Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius. We stayed at a nice traditional chinese-style hotel which was located right next to the Confucius temple. The temple was really nice but unfortunately I didn't learn much about the history of that place due to our tour guide. In the beginning I thought he was speaking Chinese but when I asked a Chinese friend what he was saying she told me that she had no clue either... because what had sounded like Chinese was supposed to be English! It could have been a nice tour but since I didn't understand a word of what he was trying to tell us it got really boring in the end. Afterwards we went to Confucius' grave which was a really cool place. It's in the middle of a huge graveyard where only his family members are buried. The place could have been out of a horror movie cause it had a really eerie atmosphere. It's definitely worth visiting!

Qingdao

After two weeks of studying Chinese and exploring Qingdao I have more than enough to write about in my blog. Even before the summer university had officially started, we were brought to the beer festival in Qingdao. As a group of Bavarian students who are used to the Oktoberfest in Munich it was great fun. But before we got our well-deserved "Tsingtao" beer (which also comes with pineapple flavour!)we had to walk in a small parade. However, we didn't get too much attention since we were walking right behind a group of Brasilian dancers who wore less than I'd wear on the beach! Needless to say that (not only) the male audience loved them. Another interesting thing about the beer festival was that they were selling beer in plastic bags! Unfortunately some people had a little too much of that beer and I got quite annoyed with two Chinese guys who wanted to invite me for a drink. Even after refusing for at least 5 times they wouldn't accept it. So in the end I was really happy when we finally left.

 After the weekend our Chinese classes finally started. The 3,5 hours reminded me of a singing class, cause we had to repeat the four different tones at least 50 times... ma, ma, ma, ma! And now, after having studied Chinese for 1,5 weeks I still have problems with distinguishing the different tones, but it's getting better.

When I'm not studying or sleeping (both of this takes most of my time) I go into town shopping or visit the beach. At first I was surprised by the prices here in China, cause in the malls everything is just as expensive here as it is in Germany. However, when we visited the night market, I could finally makes some great bargains. I bought a dress and a thin jacket for around 8 Euros (together). I think that the clothes here in China look a lot better than in Germany. It's so easy here to find a beautiful dress or skirt... the only problem is that I'd have to lose at least 5 kg to fit into most of them :(