Shanghai is probably not yet famous for its traditional Christmas. But we’ll gonna help that reputation bit 😉 My family has been baking Christstollen for decades. My mother took up the tradition from her mother. And I, otherwise not a big home baker, have been once so crazy to gather some friends back in Frankfurt to try it ourselves. The result was overwhelmingly good. And so the idea to try it again here in Shanghai was probably quite straight-forward. Continue reading Shanghai Christstollen
Tag Archives: Shanghai
Century Park “Mosaiculture”: Plant Sculptures
As part of some Tourism Festival Shanghai’s Century Park has at the moment a large number of Plant Sculptures on display. They have been designed by gardeners of different Shanghai district, various Chinese provinces, and also quite large a number of foreign countries. Countries I remember include France, Spain, Belgium, Brasil, Canada, USA, Japan. Not, however, Germany 🙁 Continue reading Century Park “Mosaiculture”: Plant Sculptures
Service Culture
I saw it already quite often, whenever sitting in a restaurant or just ordering a coffee at Starbucks. But recently I had a talk with a Chinese colleague, who spent several years in Germany. And being pointed to it she confirmed my probably pretty western point of view:
It is about how to deal with service. I can remember very well that my mother tried hard to make me say “please” and “thank you” during my childhood. (Well, she actually tried to make me say “Bitte” and “Danke”, but it means the same… 😉 ) I cannot forget her pointing to the back of a public bus, which we one day happened to follow. On its left back side was a sticker. On it a car in red and a bus in green on the right side of the street at a bus stop. Attached to the bus was a big green arrow, which curved back on the street in front of the car. Meaning was clear: Please give way to busses pulling out of bus stops. And below that the word “Danke!”. Continue reading Service Culture
Best of the Press: Officials end Gorges landscape tourist site
A very Chinese attempt to attract tourists:
Officials end Gorges landscape tourist site
Continue reading Best of the Press: Officials end Gorges landscape tourist site
The Heavy Rains of Shanghai
I know for quite some time, even before I came here, that Shanghai has something like a “rain season”. Last year all of us Germans tried to figure out from the locals when exactly is that rain season. Rain seasons in other countries are quite predictable due to local and regional weather phenomenons. The Shanghai rain season is either unpretictable or the locals don’t care…we didn’t find out in advance but only when it started raining. Continue reading The Heavy Rains of Shanghai
Sunset Sports Bar
You might have heard that there is something like a Soccer World Championship somewhere, well, you may find hints on FIFAworldcup.com.
Recently, a bar named “Sunset Sports Bar” opened very close to my appartment. Just fall out of the south gate, turn right and there you are: A brand new bar, which tries with a couple of flags taped to the ceiling and some pretty fake cups to create something like a sports bar atmosphere. It wouldn’t work on a brand-new bar. It needs a bit of patina for that atmosphere to come up. And that old a Shanghai bar rarely becomes. Never mind, it’s a sports bar, it has beer, burgers, and large video screens, it’s just around the corner, and the staff is very friendly and understands a good bit of English. Hey man, what else could you ever want in Pudong? Continue reading Sunset Sports Bar
Am I Deaf?
I am walking with a colleague through Wai Gao Qiao, that remote free trade zone at the outskirts of Shanghai where our project is located, on the way to our usual lunch location. We have to cross a large intersection, which leads directly to one of the main gates to the area, through which large trucks keep passing through. In the end, someone has to move all these freely traded goods, isn’t it? Quite a change over the centuries, given the fact that in earlier dynasties pure merchants where not well esteemed, actually had few or no rights as they were thought of not adding value as long as they would not produce any goods. But that’s long ago and not my issue. Chinese trade like hell nowadays.
A Day in the Grand Hyatt Shanghai
Ever seen this building?
Fireworks – Or some LianYang night shots
Pitty or not, but again I did not see fabulous fireworks during the Chinese New Year festivities. Partly due to the fact that I was too lazy to travel into the city and then, after watching around, fight with thousands of people for dozens of taxis. So I stayed home also during the 2 nights, during which fireworks should be most dramatic: The actual New Year’s night (this year from Saturday, 28-Jan to Sunday, 29-Jan) and five nights later (from Wednesday to Thursday) as this is the eve of the 5. day of the New Lunar Year, on which traditionally the money man is called with a lot of explosive to attract his attention and leave some money over the year. So while we westerners try to scare away evil daemons the Chinese try to get someones attention by doing fireworks!
8 Treasures Rice – 八宝饭
2 days ago a Shanghainese friend gave me a deep-frozen disc, apparently made from rice. Before packing it into my backpack I also noted some colored sprinkles on it, said decently “Thank you” (or maybe Xiexie) and forgot about it for a while. We spend the day shopping. Back home I put the rice disc into the fridge. Only then, via messenger, finding out what it actually was: Continue reading 8 Treasures Rice – 八宝饭