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It have been 2 months full of experiences given the opportunity of working in a total Chinese environment… This entry I mainly want to dedicate to my colleagues in the Corporate Social Responsibility office who had to deal with me every day ;) The CSR team works for a good thing that is new to the industry and even new to China. It’s about treating people, human rights and environmental issues that are focused on and dedicated to being improved. As the first industry adapting this way of thinking it is also the first step of putting forward the country’s development in not only economic perspectives rather than human-oriented perspectives.
Sitting here on my last day in the office and typing these lines reminds me mostly of intense times going along with a lot impressions of culture, language and lifestyle. My colleagues are very kind people that cared for me very well during my stay and I constantly had the feeling of being appreciated and my work being respected. I simply had a blast here!
I hope all of us will keep in touch and I also hope that some day I’ll have the chance to revisit you and your adorable city.
我祝你们好！白白，小麦
In order to revisit some of my former Tongji University colleagues I went to Shanghai for 5 days from 11th to 15th September 2009. I mainly want the facebook-pictures to tell the story in that case, as this time for me was relaxing rather than sight-seeing intense… In general I appreciated this trip to a very special place although it’s getting torn apart at the moment due the upcoming expo 2010. The city seems to prepare exclusively for this extraordinary event and puts all emphasis to it. On Tuesday I had the chance to visit the Urban Planning Museum on Peoples Square. I learned that China is the first ‘developing’ country having the burden and at the same time special honor to host a world exposition.
Shanghai, of course, seems to be the perfectly sophisticated place for it!
He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man.
I confidently followed the calling of the probably most famous chairman in human history, and made my way to the simatai part of the great wall (司马台长城). I got up at 6 am this morning in order to get there early. I went to the long distance bus station in Dong Zhi Men (subway line 2 north east) in order to get on the bus 980块 (fast) towards Mi Yun. It’s about 120 km to the north and costs only 15 yuan. Getting off in Mi Yun in order to find some driver taking me to the great wall, I had bad luck as I was the only hiker there.
Downturn: not the best bargaining position at all, as there was nowhere else to go…
But finally I ended up at the spot, where I wanted to go, which was about 70 km more by taxi. And obviously enjoyed it!
…for a little more mutual cultural understanding ;) Chinese people usually love to give and receive presents. It goes beyond the obviously famous red envelopes presented at holiday celebrations. The act of “sharing” or enjoying something together in Chinese culture has its roots in history and has been embedded in every day-life for centuries.
Nevertheless there are limitations for what is suitable as a present. I read many behavioral books about China and thought I’m already firm concerning this topic. I learned that it’s a taboo to choose a pair of shoes as present, as for symbolic reasons your paths could apart (as shoes even though being a pair, can stand alone as well). Furthermore it wouldn’t be very clever to give away umbrellas or a clock as gifts. It would decently tell the receiver that her/his time is up, maybe metaphorical standing for the time of mutual friendship or the underlying relationship respectively.
Even though having the apparent knowledge I decided to bring my colleagues a pair of ODEM® socks to the office without any further thinking of course. About a week after handing those out it suddenly appeared to me… Is it the same measure with socks supposed to be taken, as it is for shoes? Do our paths now apart? Did I make a cultural mistake? Are they completely fed up with me presence right now? I wanted to clarify of course. And, as you can imagine – it was no problem at all and my colleagues were quite thankful for that neat present.
It just made me aware again that our cultural perceptions really often differ.
