With new restaurants opening up the whole day and the delivery service in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai McDonald’s is raising its popularity in China. But because of their addiction to Western brands a lot of the Chinese kids are getting fat… Anyway, it’s quite comfortable to let them deliver fast food sometimes. The prices of meals in China are amazingly cheap compared to western prices.

For those unfamiliar with Bubble Tea (珍珠奶茶 zhēnzhū nǎichá), it’s a drink created on a tea base mixed with fruit syrup or milk. I prefer the milk – black tea version ;). The tea contains small tapioca pearls called “boba”. They are the reason you drink Bubble Tea with a wide straw so you can eat them! Fortunately it’s served cool so it’s the perfect refreshment. Thumps up!

Thomas

A few days ago I discovered those hilarious videos. I love chinese commercials because they are totally diffrent from western. Most of the chinese contain small stories, so they are rather long for TV. But that doesn’t really matter! After watching them I wanted to buy some 7Up lemonade and I did it! It works haha. Here is another 7Up commercial. The second one is about the 27% chance of finding a winning bottlecap. Have fun!

Thomas

Happy New Year!

你好 (nǐhǎo) = Hello. / Good day.

我叫… (wǒjiào) = I’m…/ My name is…

德国 (Déguó) = Germany

美国 (Měiguó) = USA

中国 (Zhōngguó) = China

朋友 (péngyou) = friend

喜欢 (xǐhuan) = like

不 (bù) = not

今天 (jīntiān) = today

睡觉 (shuìjiào) = sleep

生日 (shēngrì) = birthday

See you next lesson! I’d appreciate your suggestions.

Thomas

The park is quite large and has beautiful water features ;). Of course it is very green, which represents the opposite of the modern Beijing. I think there is some kind of open-air museum but I can’t remember. It was something about other nations influence China?! Next time I will do some research and report more detailed!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Thomas

Soo today I’m going to continue with the dining series. Dining is one of the most important occupations and therefore it can takes a few hours ;). So you absolutely should assume invitations! If you want to say thank you for inviting a gift is appropriated. It should be wrapped in something red, because this expresses happiness in China. But you should avoid writing something in red ink xD. That would mean you want to end something like a friendship, for example. NEVER bring flowers. They could be a symbol of death, so just avoid that and don’t push your luck ;D.

You are not forced to empty the table. The host would be ashamed of hisself because he wasn’t able to offer you enough food. So leave some rests and tell him how delicious it was.

Enough for today :D! See you next time.

Thomas

WRONG!!!

Hey guys :). Today I will tell you how to behave when someone invites you to a restaurant. But don’t worry. The chinese table manners  are less restrictive than the european.You should pay attention anyway.
Let’s start with the famous “sticking chopsticks into rice”. Please NEVER do that, unless you’re at a funeral because it’s a symbol of death. Therefore it’s kind of misplaced at dinner :P. So there are small porcelain-benches on which you can leave the 筷子 (kuàizi = chopsticks). That’s about the most important :). You should also show some tolerance xD. When in China, do as the Chinese do haha.

Well it’s not forbidden to smoke during meal but if you really feel the urge then be kind ;). Offer your cigarettes to the others. While eating be frank. Try a bit of everything. This should leave a good impression! Nothing is worse than someone, who doesn’t eat anything because it looks weird or is unknown to him ==. The chinese way of saying “Cheers”! is: 干杯 (gānbēi)! The meal, which can take hours, makes a lot of fun and if you observe these hints you should leave a fair impression.干杯!

Thomas

Click below!

We were chasing after an olympic car but it escaped xD.

Some random buildings.

Thomas

Next to 大栅攔 shopping – street is the new cultural street of Beijing, which was built for the Olympic Games. So there were barriers everywhere… sucks!

We were finally able to find a green place to rest! Trinking lemonade while escaping the sun is very 舒服 :).

The cultural – street from the front. Quit interesting! Next time I’ll jump over those annoying barriers :D.

Hope you enjoyed this trip.

Thomas

During my stay in Fuzhou I live in the guestroom. It’s only for sleeping, watching TV and waiting ;). We’re used to go out from morning till noon and at night because in the afternoon it’s too hot!

That’s our housing area park. It’s so green, though the heat is so unendurable! Maybe they survive because caring gardener! *Thumbs up*

Click below to continue watching the pictures.

We rarly use the living room because my aunt and uncle are working and my cousin got to go to school, so the eating area next to the kitchen is the “real” living room :)!

Eating chinese food and watching chinese TV dramas. 很舒服 (hěn shūfu), very relaxing!

Hope you liked my first post about Fuzhou :]!

Thomas