Winter time has officially started in Shanghai. OK I have to admit, it's not like minus degrees (yet) but ....here in the cities below the Yellow River none of the house know any form of central heating (!) The government once decided that all the places above the river shall have central heating (which is to be turned on a set date - even if it's still 18 degrees outside) and everything below that have to just bare the miserable winter months by buying little (energy sucking) oil heaters, air conditioners (they are able to blow warm air here), or some kind of fan that looks more like a mini satellite that beams heat. I am just scared looking at that machine, since it is open heat. (read: any items that are placed like 10~15 cm away from the heat beamer will catch fire- there's a reason why you guys in the EU have never even heard of this heat beaming object)
Then to add on my winter misery here in Shanghai - we live in an old lane house, this is to say in the 30s they did not know any kind of isolation. I mean it's a fantastic apartment and all, but it's just extremely hot in the summer, and extremely cold in the winter....brrrr...
I really hope that the government will soon issue some kind of statement that all the new (preferably old houses too) houses are required to have central heating. That will save us probably couple of degrees of global warming and some ice caps every year.
29 November 2006
I've been trying to make myself feel better on how poorly I have been to travel around China - so I just looked up some figures...only for you (and me) to put in perspective. Did you know that China is 9,596,960 square kilometers, and the EU is only just 3,976,372 square kilometers (incl. the ten new member states) ? Sooo this means that my map below is not that bad..... :)
Another random note that I would like to put in right now, which is not very much considered by many people outside of China, is the sheer diversity in the different regions of China that comes with this size. And to those coming from the Netherlands - they do not sell any Babi Pangang here, but they do have all kinds of more authentic dishes (that are all different depending on the province) that you never even heard or dreamed of.....So yes, yet another reason for you all to come and visit me! (picture: random food street vendor - sometimes you would never even consider to go inside by the looks of it - but if you disregard all the nasty stuff in the kitchen, sometimes it could be surprisingly good)
28 November 2006
Just now I was randomly browsing through the internet and got onto my friends blogsite on www.nomadlife.org - and saw a map of China where you can tick off the provinces you have visited in China. Well....I just did it and it was sad to see that after almost living here for 1,5 year this is my result:
So basically I've only seen the coastal region (the wealthiest part of China) and within this region I have mainly visited the big cities, and as the Chinese would say, some villages (of approx. 2~4 million people) Yes they do have another way of scaling things ;-)
It's a bit early for any new years resolution, but next year will be the year that I will discover the rest of China!....
22 November 2006
We're getting to leave the 'alternative' workspace soon (an office like cafe - it's great for people with no official office space) to make some dinner at home. O is going to make his fabulous sweet potato soup :-D
I have been playing around with this new website thing, and it's actually surprisingly easy! So perhaps this will keep me going for a little while to come. What I realized by reading other blog sites of my friends, is that I mostly like to read about people's daily life wherever that may be. So I will try to keep this blog short, sweet and about me me me me (and the 1.3 billion other Chinese ;-) )
21 November 2006
So yes, I started once more with a blog site, let's see how long I will be able to continue this ;-)
Latest information is that we are planning to go to Changchun for coming Chinese New Year! I am very much looking forward to it!!! Although, not really much looking forward to the cold - it's like minus 20~30 degrees Celsius up there. And you know how I am with the cold ..... remember last year when I went to Harbin (also up north) = I'd cried like a little baby (and my tears froze instantly ;-) brrrrrr
