Zhengzhou is the Capital of Henan province. When I arrived here at 7 AM, tired and hungry, my first thought was; Why the hell did I choose to come here?
The city isn't a pretty place.... to say it in a kind way. Industrial, would be the right way to describe it.
Most of this town seems very old but I also saw about 100 construction sites in only one day, so it is probably going to change soon.
Some parts of the city looked like ghettos and I thought maybe I should travel to another city soon.
But now I can say I am happy that I came here. This is a real Chinese city. I had not really this feeling when I was in Beijing and Shanghai.
A lot of foreigners and western influence. McDonalds, KFC, Rolex, Tissot, Armani, H&M wherever you look (seriously - no joke!). The fast-food-joints can be found in this city as well but otherwise there is not much western influence at all.
When I went to eat something after a few hours of sleep, I saw the difference. This city is unbelievably crowded, people everywhere and all of them staring at me. And there is a good reason for that; I'm white and here are absolute no Caucasians here. And I'm also blond with blue eyes which makes me even more special here.
I walked today about four hours in the crowd and I could not find one other foreigner in what felt like 10 million Chinese people.
For a short period of time it felt nice to get that much attention, but it gets annoying quite fast.
In clubs, people come and give me free drinks all the time. At my hotel one girl just stood next to me with open mouth, so I stared back and the reaction after two seconds was a "Ah hey Niiihaoooo!" with a big smile.
I could tell a lot more stories like this but then I wouldn't have anything left for when I'm back.
After a few days it became annoying, especially when you sit in a restaurant eating, and everybody watches you like an animal in the zoo.
I think it was the right decision to choose China as my first destination. The culture shock is not as extreme to me, as I spent some time, working in under developed countries in Europe.
The biggest differences for me are the odours and behaviours of people. The Chinese are spitting everywhere, they cough without hand in front of the mouth, people walk on the street within fast traffic and the car-, taxi- and also the train-drivers honk all the time.
The smells are sometimes extreme, like if you sit in a bus next to some farmers (negative) or walk by street food places (positive).
I found out that even the young population is barely able to speak any English. But to be honest, its not that big problem at all to get around and communicate.
The Chinese government and also companies here are now hiring foreigners without any teaching experience or knowledge to teach English and tackle this problem. But as my description should tell you.. They are not the best teachers.
It was funny because I even met Germans and Brazilians who were teaching English here with their beautiful accents. So you see the standards are pretty low. They don't even need to know Chinese. If you want to stay in China for a few years, this is the perfect way, and you can learn the language.
Something I wonderd about in Beijing and Shanghai was the fact that the security personnel in the metro has no authority at all. They show everybody to put their bags into the X-Ray-Machine, but if you dont do it they still let you pass.
And this is something which would be important for public safety. Once a security guy tried to hold a women back to scan her bag. She just screamed at him and started beating him with that bag. Then she just walked through the entrance without security check. Some people here are crazy. She should try that once with a Swiss official.
Today I leave for the Shaolin Temple at the holy Song Mountains, and tomorrow I have a 24 hour train ride to Chengdu in front of me. Yeaah!
Soon I'll leave China.. Looking forward for the warmer temperatures, so I can enjoy being outside again. Unlike now.
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Right now, I'm sitting in a train to Zhengzhou and I don't exactly know why, but I don't feel that excited right now..
Yesterday, Ilya left China. In the last two weeks we spent a lot of time together and became good friends. Then I had a goodbye dinner with Alyona, another of my new Russian friends.
And after that I went to a club, I think because I didn't want to sit at home and think about these things like now.
It's somehow hard for me to leave my new friends, maybe its also because I'm alone again. But I know this is only the beginning of my trip and this will happen again in the next months. I just hope I can stay in contact with these people, and see them again someday.
That is maybe the point, I know that I will see my friends and family at home again but I don't know how it is with the new ones.
To write all that down really helped. I feel much better now.
Good night China
Hello Everybody!
I'm now already close to one month in China. And that's also the reason why I couldn't post here on my Blog until now.
Unfortunately blog-sites, YouTube and Facebook are blocked here in the free Communist Republic of China...
But yesterday I finally managed to install an app on my phone which allows me to access these sites anyway.
So lets catch up, should we?
Beijing:
I arrived in Beijing and it was freezing, maybe around two degrees but with a very strong wind, which made it feel much colder.
Unfortunately I did not inform myself beforehand on how to get to my hostel, and decided to take a parked taxi outside of the metro station. Big mistake!
Learn from me: Never take a parked taxi anywhere in the developing world. These are always the scammers of fixed price taxis, always get a driving one and insist on the meter. Long story short, I got charged about $15.-. Does not sound like much, right? But it is, because the real price for this distance would be around $0.35...
My hostel, the Sanlitun Youth Hostel (www.sanlitun.hostel.com) was great and in the middle of the Sanlitun embassy district, with lots of bars, restaurants, nightclubs and shops close by.
It was very fairly priced at around $5.- per night, had hot shower, good heating and various free activities. Really recommended!
I met cool people from all over the world and had a lot of fun in the nightlife of China's capital city.
It also turned out to be Chinese new year, who knew? So I was stuck in Beijing for a week because during this time every form of transport is booked out. But it allowed me to see the most incredible firework of my life. It was simply indescribable and will be burnt into my memory forever..
When I tried to visit some famous places like the forbidden city and the palace of heaven, a bicycle taxi scammed me by charging 300 yuan for a three minute ride to the wrong destination. When I tried to get away, one of his buddy suddenly appeared to help mugging me. I however just threw a hundred at them and managed to run away.
Good first day in China! After that a nice older couple tried to invite me to a tea-house but I already read online that this was a famous scam. So I told them politely to disappear after chatting with them for a couple of minutes. All in all I can tell you, in Beijing a lot of people try to get your money in many different ways, even right in front of the police.
However otherwise the city is an astonishing mixture of old and new. Beautiful, hidden Hutongs (old quarters) next to Skyscrapers as one example. One evening I was invited by an English teacher to join him to a hidden small bar in one of these Hutongs and it was awesome, foreigners and Chinese doing stand-up comedy, a fun night out!
A few days later, I went to visit the great wall of China, which was on one side very impressive and on the other hand a terrible experience as it was freezing up there and the steps are very dangerous. But still well worth seeing one of the world's wonders!
Shanghai:
After my lessons learned in Beijing, I travelled to Shanghai with the bullet train (250 km/h) which took just 4-5 hour, and its quite a distance!
Here, I was again confronted with people trying to scam, sell drugs or promoting prostitution.
It was the second bad impression here but please don't think my trip is less exciting because of that. I just try to tell you everything.
But there is also a lot to love here! The people are generally very friendly, the food is amazing and the mix of old and new culture is fascinating.
My stay here in Shanghai should have only lasted a few days because I heard it is the most expensive city in China (expect Hong Kong). But now I am here for two weeks already, and I absolutely love this place.
I stayed at Blue Mountain Bund youth hostel (http://www.bmhostel.com/en/gyls-bund.html), and paid about $7.- per night. The hostel is perfectly located close to the longest shopping mile in the world, the East Nanjing lu (lu = road). And it is also close to the Bund where you can see Shanghais famous Skyline, plus very close to food and a metro (line 2) stop.
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I met a great group of students on exchange here at my hostel. They are from all over the world and I became good friends with Ilya. He is a guy from Russia who is a local news anker back home.
The city itself seems more western, but still also has its original charm with little streets in the typical narrow Chinese style..
I can recommend to visit the French Concession, the Bund, its old town or of course its famous fake market.
Also Shanghai has an amazing nightlife! Not comparable with anything I have ever experienced before.
I, myself, visited some parts of the old town, fake markets, market places and museums.
It was very interesting, but now I want to see more of the ancient China and especially the small villages. Because here a lot of things are just the same as in Europe. However, I really love the little streets full of people, honking cars and motorbikes, little stores everywhere and especially the delicious streetfood.
I can highly recommend the streetfood by the way! It is very cheap - 4 - 20 RMB per meal (100 Yuan is 14 SFr.-) - and it is safe to eat from my experience
One thing that I also really like is the bargaining here. You have to do it all the time and I think I'm getting pretty good at it.
After my time in Asia it probably will be terrible to go to a supermarket in Switzerland and just pay whats written on the price-tag.
So this was a long one - sorry about that..
Next I will go to Zhengzhou, then Chengdu and Chongqing in the west. And after that I want to travel to the south to Kunming where it is very warm right now.
I am looking forward to the warm weather so I can send all my heavy, warm clothes back to Switzerland.
The city isn't a pretty place.... to say it in a kind way. Industrial, would be the right way to describe it. 
When I went to eat something after a few hours of sleep, I saw the difference. This city is unbelievably crowded, people everywhere and all of them staring at me. And there is a good reason for that; I'm white and here are absolute no Caucasians here. And I'm also blond with blue eyes which makes me even more special here. 
In clubs, people come and give me free drinks all the time. At my hotel one girl just stood next to me with open mouth, so I stared back and the reaction after two seconds was a "Ah hey Niiihaoooo!" with a big smile. 
I think it was the right decision to choose China as my first destination. The culture shock is not as extreme to me, as I spent some time, working in under developed countries in Europe.
Something I wonderd about in Beijing and Shanghai was the fact that the security personnel in the metro has no authority at all. They show everybody to put their bags into the X-Ray-Machine, but if you dont do it they still let you pass. 
And this is something which would be important for public safety. Once a security guy tried to hold a women back to scan her bag. She just screamed at him and started beating him with that bag. Then she just walked through the entrance without security check. Some people here are crazy. She should try that once with a Swiss official.
