Thursday, March 31, 2005

Välkommen Mira!

Min lilla guddotter Saga har en syster!
Stefan och Tobas andra dotter.
05.44 22 mars 2005
en flicka, 49,5 centimeter och 3215 gram
vi kallar henne Mira

När Stefan skickar mig en bild så postar jag den!
Stefan! Skicka en bild!

Last days in HK

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The famous skyline. Postcard from me to you all.

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Nightlife. Think this pic was taken in Soho.

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Add me to Faluñ Goñg and it's not only good, it becomes god! Not bad huh. I had my bag full of Faluñ Goñg instruction CD:s with me back to China.

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A busy day in Stanley.

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Strolling through an open market.

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Somewhere around midlevels by night.

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Mark, a friend of Wen, and his japanese girlfriend. They visited HK for two days, so we accompanied them during a day. We wanted to change money in the Chong Qing mansion and got 'attacked' by the horde of Indian guys trying to sell watches, food, and rooms.

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Hong Kong's dream factory gone bad. Watching "House of Fury", a Hong Kong flick that you don't want to waste your time on. Best part is when the paralized western bad guy attacks the good martial arts expert by rolling his electric wheel-chair on to him. I don't want to spoil the ending for you, but the bad guy dies when he runs into the wall instead. Oups. That was the ending.

HK: Staying in HKUST

During the stay in HK I stayed most nights with Wen and KangWei at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).

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KangWei is Wen's old highschool class mate. Anyone that manages to get into Peking University can choose to obtain a scholarship to study in HK. He choosed to go, Wen choosed to stay in Beijing.

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As long as you are not caught you don't have to care about signs like these :) Same as everywhere else where there are rules for rules sake, e.g Singapore.

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A good guess would be that this room belongs to a mainland student...

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HKUST is a really nice university located next to the sea.

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They have a beach just outside the campus!

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Just like so many things in HK, this campus reminded me so much of NTU in Singapore. Students half-asleep in the library.

My stay in China has made me better understand the parts I didn't like and appreciate more the parts I did like. I miss Singapore and I wouldn't mind at all to live in HK!

Macao: A different city

24-25 March

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HK: City in Clouds

Hong Kong 22-23 March

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Indian food

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Friday, March 25, 2005

Hong Kong: Walking the streets

I've just came back from a two day trip to Macao. I'm pretty tired, but happy, after having done a lot of walking. It is a very different place from HK. More on that later.

Before going to Macao I had two days walking the streets of Hongkong and discovered a lot of places I didn't see when I was here last time 6? years ago.

Not sure how long I will stay here nor if I'm going straight back to Beijing.

Monday, March 21, 2005

Shenzhen by day

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Waking up with this busy city. WuWui's little place is on the 12th floor of one of the numerous anonymous blocks that are crammed on to this piece of land.

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She's got a nice little flat...

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...with giant toy dogs.

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WuWei picked me up in the early afternoon.

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Walking through the streets in down town SZ. Endless shopping for the Chinese and Honkies coming over for a bargain.

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Eating street stuff.

ShenZhen: One Wild Night

Arriving at 8pm in Shenzhen, I was picked up by my friend WuWui and her two friends. First stop was dinner.

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Good stuff. Really good service here. Pooring the first cup of tea in the bowl, then clean the spoon, and then pour it out in a bowl. Hot towels to wash your face and lemon water to clean your fingers. I haven't seen that in Beijing.

After a fast drive in the city and further on the high-way we went on. The guys stopped to practise their flirting skills using cantonese (they are among the 80% of the people in SZ that have moved here the last decade) . Unfortunately they failed to stop at two red-lights, confirmed by the flash from the traffic camera. That will be two 500 kuai fines coming up. They asked if I wanted to join the to watch 'meinu', pretty girls. I thought they were kidding and said yes. They were not.
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So we went to a super tacky disco with tons of teenagers jumping on the dance floor. Even if it was Sunday night there was quite a lot of people. This was really the chinese version of disco with the jumping altered with some games and a pretty poor show.

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Quite a lot of there fat guys hanging around too.

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They actually wanted to drag me to prostitutes WuWui told me, but we at this time we both wanted to go back. She lets me sleep in her apartment and she went to her parents.

Train to Shenzhen

After my project finished end of last week I decided to go travelling. First stop Shenzhen.
Departure Beijing West at 20:30pm, arrival Shenzhen 24 hours later and 437 kuai poorer (hard-sleeper, T as in 'tekuai'-type)

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Beijing West Station. A colossal place with several hundreds of people crammed in huge waiting halls.

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The first evening this little fellow stared at me like I was a ghost. His parents tried to make him talk to me and call me 'shushu'. Next day when he had gotten used to me he ignored me completely.

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He had just quite his service as a soldier stationed outside Beijing. He told me that they couldn't speak to foreigners nor watch TV unless it would be under supervision. Now he was on his way to hang out with of his buddies in Shenzhen and possible start looking for a job.

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The soldier giving the constantly burping and farting old guy a head massage. He snored too. A true master of body sounds.

Light switched off at 22pm. Hot water always available and decent food to eat. The squat toilets were really clean too. A really comfortable ride with a large part of China passing by the window. Unfortunately a quite ugly picture this time of year and this time at all. The ugly buildings and shacks becomes more apparent when the ground is gray and brown. The trash too.

Thursday, March 17, 2005

吃东西 - Eating Stuff

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北大家园餐厅
Peking University JiaYuan Canteen

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家园外边的烤肉串的。烤鸡翅可能是我在中国最喜欢的小吃!
The kebab place outside the canteen. BBQ:d chicken wings are my favorite snack in this country.
3月12日 晚上7.40
March 12th, 7.40pm

还有一片关于吃东西的帖子。

我在北大看书的时候有好多留学生不喜欢去食堂吃饭。我自己一年差不多每天去。不瞒你说,我还觉得去学校的食堂比较好。有时尽管你们只有一两个人也可以选择各种各样的菜。去一般的饭馆除了吃拉面饺子以外只能点一两样儿菜不然肯定吃不完。

Another post about food

When I studied at Peking University there were a lot of exchange-students who didn't like to go to the canteens to eat. I went almost everyday for the whole year. To tell you the truth I still think the canteens are pretty good. Even if you are just one or two people going there it is still possible to eat a variety of dishes. If you go to a normal restaurant and eat something else than noodles and dumplings you can only order one or two dishes or else you won't be able to finish them.

游泳池男女公平 - Swimming Pool Gender Equality

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海淀体育场游泳池 3月12日 晚上6点45
The swimming pool at the Haidian Sport Center, March 12th 6.45pm

进去游泳池必须戴一顶性感的游泳帽和给他们看你的‘深水证’。因为拿到一张‘深水证’一定要证明他们会游泳,男生250米女生游200米。逻辑是如果一个男生只会游200米让他进去有点危险,可是如果是个女的就没有问题。

To enter the pool you have to wear a sexy swimming hat and let them see your 'Deep Water License'. To obtain the 'Deep Water License' you have to show that you can swim, guys 250 meters and girls 200 meters. The logic is that if a guy can only swim 200 meters it could be dangerous for him to enter the pool, but if a girl can swim 200 meters, she will be fine.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

新疆菜 - Xinjiang food

Xinjiang food
新疆菜在语言学院的那家饭馆。
新疆汤饭,新疆拉条子,烤馕和羊肉串儿。
3月11日 晚上7点41

Xinjiang food at the restaurant in Bejing Language and Culture University.
Rice soup, noodles, bread, and mutton kebab.
March 11th, 7.41pm

Sunday, March 13, 2005

毛主席的印记 - Chairman Mao's imprint

Old times at Beida
北京大学哲学楼。
Peking University, the philosophy building.