{"id":6,"date":"2020-01-05T08:57:50","date_gmt":"2020-01-05T07:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.2032.ch\/?p=6"},"modified":"2020-01-05T13:28:19","modified_gmt":"2020-01-05T12:28:19","slug":"china-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.2032.ch\/index.php\/2020\/01\/05\/china-19\/","title":{"rendered":"China \u201819"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With this blogpost I want to share some of my experiences during my staying in China from November 28th until December 31st.\nI’m doing this for two reasons. First because I don’t want to repeat the same story to everybody who asks "Hey bro, how was China?", and second because I think it will be fun to re-read it in a couple of years.\nThe main purpose of my China visit was to learn some Chinese (Mandarin). Other reasons were to get insights into a new culture and to meet new people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Shanghai (\u4e0a\u6d77)<\/h1>\n

I arrived in \u4e0a\u6d77 on a Thursday morning.\nAfter having changed some money, I bought a subway ticket to the city center. I didn’t really know where I had to hop off to get to my hostel since I couldn’t easily combine the map on my smartphone (maps.me) with the subway map. I later found out that maps.me has a subway layer, very handy!\nSince it was morning and I only had a light bagpack, I had the whole day to figure out how to get to my hostel.\nI chose to hop off somewhere which to me looked like the city center, I ended up in Hangpu District (\u676d\u6d66\u533a).\nFrom there I walked along the Bund for a while before crossing the river with a small ferry. I then got to my hostel an went to sleep (early).\n\u4e0a\u6d77 is very big. Maybe the biggest city I’ve ever been, for some reason I didn’t like it. There are big roads, tall buildings, big, very big shopping malls and nice parks. But what I missed was a soul. Maybe I didn’t go to the places to be. Maybe I was there but at the wrong time. Maybe I wasn’t ready for China. Maybe I was too jetlagged to appreciate this city. Who knows.<\/p>\n

My favourite place in \u4e0a\u6d77 was a people’s park. It was an idyllic place inside this noisy city. There was someone playing some stereotypical chinese tunes on a guzheng. I guess the hour spent relaxing in the park listening to that music was the best experience I had in \u4e0a\u6d77.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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People\u2019s park in \u4e0a\u6d77.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After having spent 2 days walking around aimlessly in \u4e0a\u6d77 I took a train to Guilin (\u6842\u6797). Since I was not in a rush, I took a slow train. It took me a little bit more than 24 hours to get to \u6842\u6797. It was a nice experience, which I wouldn’t want to have again. I didn’t know what to do on the train. I only had a bed and no place to sit. So I was lying in bed the whole time. I slept, read, slept and read. And at night I couldn’t sleep anymore because I wasn’t tired. Bravo Mirco.\nOn the next morning I eventually arrived in \u6842\u6797 and took a shared taxi to Yangshuo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Road in \u4e0a\u6d77.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yangshuo (\u9633\u6714)<\/h1>\n

\u9633\u6714 is a nice little town. Lots of little shops. People selling fruits and veggies on the sidewalks. I liked this place way more than \u4e0a\u6d77.\nThere were lots of construction works going on. They were creating two new lakes, one near romance park and one next to \u9633\u6714 park. Apparently, a government official is going to visit \u9633\u6714 soon. Seams a lot of work for just a visit.\nIn \u4e0a\u6d77 the lens of my camera broke. Once arrived in \u9633\u6714 I wanted to buy a second hand lens. It seams that there are no camera and no second-hand shops in \u9633\u6714. Since I wanted a new camera anyway, I bought an almost new Nikon F5 with a 50mm f\/1.4 lens from Xian Yu, a chinese eBay. I’m glad to have a new companion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Buying fish on the market for a yummy picnic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My favourite woman preparing my breakfast.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Street in \u9633\u6714.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

TV Tower<\/h2>\n

TV Tower is the name of a hill which is reachable from the city in about 30 minutes.\nI went there in the morning a couple of times, it became my favourite spot in Yangshuo.\nThe view from the very top, where you have to pay 5\u5143 to reach it, is very beautiful, given that the weather plays along.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Morning view from TV Tower.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

West Street<\/h2>\n

West Street (\u897f\u8857) is the recreation district of \u9633\u6714. To me it was a little bit too modern and "fake" and didn’t really fit in, so I avoided it when possible.<\/p>\n

Orange fields<\/h2>\n

I once made a little scooter excursion by myself. I found it strange how slow they drive there. I don’t know whether they drive that slow beacuse of the road conditions or simply because they are not in a rush.\nOn my little excursion I saw a lot (really a lot) of orange fields. Maybe it wasn’t all orange fields since I think they use the term "Orange" for every orange citrus fruit (oranges, mandarins, clementines, etc).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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An orange field.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Running<\/h2>\n

I didn’t go running as often and as far as I wanted. I found some nice places where one can run.\nFor a short run one might go to \u9633\u6714 park or climb TV tower. There is also a nice path (approximately 3 km) behind romance park. For some long runs (or hikes) one might go along Yulong River. To get there you need to walk on roads for some time, but the landscape there is really worth it!<\/p>\n

Omeida<\/h2>\n

I chose to go to Yangshuo because I didn’t want to stay in a big polluted city and Omeida Chinese Academy happened to be the only school there. The staff at Omeida was always very nice and helpful.\nOmeida is a good place to learn mandarin and to enjoy life. Every weekend they organize an activity, which allows you to explore the surroundings, get to know other people and learn about chinese culture.\nOmeida has an associated canteen. Very convenient. The food was good, but almost always the same. At first I ate there lunch and dinner. After the first week I cancelled my dinner since I wanted to eat more special local dishes, go out and explore \u9633\u6714 and be more spontaneous about when and where to eat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

On Learning Mandarin<\/h1>\n

I’m a little bit dissapointed of my learning skills.\nI thought I would learn the language faster and better.\nBut when you first have to learn a new way to pronounce words, cope with new sentence structures and learn a new writing system, maybe, but just maybe, one month is not enough.\nPeople who have stayed longer reccomend to study mandarin for a period of 3 month or longer.\nIt gave me nevertheless the opportunity to fully immerse myself into a new world.\nIt allowed me to nourish my curiosity without satisfying it.\nI made the mistake to attend an intensive course, which sum up to ~5h of class + ~1h of review + ~1h of homework = ~7h per day. I guess I can’t be focused on actively learning something completely new for 7 hours a day.\nAnd since the afternoon class was not the continuation of the morning class, there was a second learning book, another teacher, additional homework, other classmates, etc. Maybe it was an advantage to see the language from another point of view.\nI cancelled my morning classes for the last week. I think it was a good decision.<\/p>\n

The first thing I had to learn was how to learn. Since I’m a visual learner, I like to see the words in pinyin and kanzi to learn them. Others may only need to hear and repeat them a couple of times to memorize them. You should optimize your learning process depending on your learning style.\nI started by taking handwritten notes in class. I figured out that I dind’t review my paper notes.\nI later began to apply the newly learned language points by writing a sentence in hanzi on a plain text document. While reviewing, I would add some comments, write the sentences in pinyin and translate it to english.\nWhen I was out with chinese friends and I learned a new sentence, I would add it with my smartphone to the same document (synchronized with git), ready to be reviewed later.<\/p>\n

Another mistake I made was to go there without a proper goal. Why did I want to learn mandarin again? I guess curiosity in my case was not specific enough. Is my primary goal to be able to order a cold bubble tea with ice without milk without a plastic bag? Do I want to read chinese comics or newspapers? Or be able to flirt in mandarin? Or watch chinese movies?\nDepending on your goal you would put your focus either on the written or the spoken language.\nI tried to focus on both.\nWhile reviewing I tried to decompose the most common charaters and write them down from memory. During my "free time" I attempted to apply my newly aquired skills with local people or chinese friends.<\/p>\n

Lessons learned from my mistakes, or things I would do different:<\/p>\n