Eastern Qing Tombs & Teppanyaki's ...

An meinem dritten WE hier hab ich mich mal wieder um eine angemessene Party life - Culture - Balance bemueht ... Nachdem wir in der Praktikantenrunde am Freitag Abend zu einer OpenBar Party waren, ging es am Samstag nach gut 1,5h Schlaf zu Viert zu den Oestlichen Qing Graebern. Die Qing Dynastie ist die letzte Dynastie hier in China. Es ist ziemlich ueblich hier sich fuer solche Tagesausfluege einen Fahrer zu mieten ... kostet insgesamt um die 40,- und ist wohl komfortabler und wesentlich schneller als mit oeffentlichen Verkehrsmitteln. Dumm nur wenn der Fahrer wie in diesem Falle mit nem Kleinwagen vorrollt und man hinten zu Dritt sitzend sein Schlafdefizit nicht wirklich aufholen kann ...

Wieder zurueck in Peking sind wir am Abend in kleinerer Runde zum Japaner Essen gegangen ... das war der absolute Hammer !! Der Tisch war im Halbkreis um den Koch angeordnet, der fuer einen dann privat die Speisen zubereitet hat ... all u can eat & drink fuer nur 15,- Euro ... es gab dann quasi fast alles, angefangen von Sushi, ueber Fisch, verschiedene Fleischsorten, Schrimps, Muscheln, Spiesschen ... dazu dann nen kuehles Tsingtao und nen paar warme Kurze ... Einfach klasse :-)

Abends sind wir dann durch die Barstrasse in unserem District gezogen ... Der Sonntag wurde dann freigehalten um das in der Woche angesammelte Schlafdefizit mal wieder aufzuholen. Sind natuerlich nach dem Ausschlafen Essen gegangen ... man kocht hier ja einfach nicht, da es genauso teuer wie Essen gehen ist ... nur manchmal gibts am Abend schnell mal 'ne Nudelsuppe, wenn man keine Lust mehr auf Restaurant nach dem Feierabend hat ...

Eastern Qing Tombs & Diner at Teppanyaki's

Walk on the Great Wall

Hey buddies ... time for some news from Beijing ... last week was really hard. Started it with a lack of sleep and wasn't able to compensate it during the whole week. Work is really ok ... but there is not really daily business for me to do, so my boss gives me some little projects. Volkswagen Finance (China), a daughter of the Volkswagen Bank in Germany, is offering car loans in the retail and wholesale market in China. The market for financing cars isn't well developed yet in China ... so it's lot's to do ... I'm in the Sales & Marketing department ... but actually until now my job was to develop some tools to analyze Sales performance and things like that ... and it's all about Excel - so work is really tiring :-(
Every friday is a teammeeting ... because there are only two Germans, my boss and me, it is in chinese - my boss said they tried to do it in english before but it didn't work well, so now in chinese ... and it always takes 3h or more ... The good thing about work is that my colleagues are really nice, the atmosphere is ok and there are lot's of nice interns ... usually the interns meet for lunch and then we go to one of the numerous restaurants next to our office ...
DVD's here a really cheap (if that is the reason for my flatmate here is watching them almost every evening ?) - they are pirat copies, of course - but anayways, this week I bought "Office Space" ... think it reflects a bit my situation in office here ... Unfortunately I haven't seen it yet ... but will remember Bordeaux when I watch it guys !!

I'm starting to enjoy Beijing ... ok, it's not the best weather and the smog here really sucks ... but it's an interesting atmosphere in town. Chinese people are nice and helpfull in generell ... even if almost nobody speaks english here ... but my chinese is improving ;-)
Food here is so cheap ... so I have lunch & diner in a restaurant almost every day ... on thursday I had my first Duck (Pekingente) here ... the other days I have been to a korean, a japanese, a greek and chinese restaurants ... so I'm defenitely not missing good food here ... :-)

On friday we rocked the Night in a big group of interns ... after only three hours of sleep on saturday I went to Simatai - about 120km from Beijing - at 9:30h in the morning; together with five other interns or students here I had a 10km walk on the Great Wall ... with almost no sleep and no breakfast the first hour was horrible, but after I got over it it became one of the best experiences right now here in China ... that part of the Great Wall was derelict, so it felt like walking on a part of chinese history [have a look at the pics - you will get an impresion of it :-) ] ... So really tired in the evening I felt in sleep while watching "Lost in translation" ... Today we played paintball against some other interns of BMW and DaimlerChrysler here in Beijing ... it was a blast !

Great Wall Trip - Simatai

Paintball

First Sightseeing ...

First week in the company is done ... finally everything worked out quite well ...

On friday I've been out to party the first time here ... have been in a bar with 3 other Germans and went to a club afterwards ... was a good night :-)

First Seightseeing

Today I had my first real sightseeing here in Beijing ... went to Tian'anmen and the Forbidden City, later to two parks here in town. Was quite cold, of course, but was really nice ... already uploaded some pics ... right now I will go out for a drink, tomorrow I have to work again ... So will give some more details next days ... First a beer is waiting for me ;-)

First days in Beijing

On Sunday afternoon I had a walk in my neighbourhood here in Beijing ... China is really cheap to some extend - so I bought a DVD (a private copy, ok ...) for 1,- €, you kann have a big menu for diner or lunch for 3,- € a person, you get a pair of fake adidas-shoes for 6,- €, taxi driving is really cheap, and to hire workers is cheap because wages are low ... probably it's even more cheap in areas where no tourists are or especially in the countryside ...

On monday I had my first day in the office ... Unfortunately I was not really expected to show up, at least my two bosses didn't know that they get a new trainee ... so everything went slow the first two days. I neither have a PC yet, nor a email-adress or login ... So I was shooting the shit ... trying not to look too bored ... Today will be my 3rd day in the office, so cross your fingers it will become more exciting ! Unfortunately I will not have internet at my desk :-(

First pics via ... http://picasaweb.google.com/thomasdiete ... or just click on the pic below ...

Beijing & Great Wall

Arrived in The Far East

Due to some international friends I decided to post some news in my Blog in English right now [Caro … my next Blog will be in French, maybeeee ;-)] …

After an 15 hours trip I arrived yesterday morning at about 7:30h at the Beijing Capital Airport … with a big lack of sleep. Fortunately I met a german guy working in Beijing in the plane, so I already got some important information about China first hand during the flight. Picked up by a shuttle I was transferred to my appartement, were I met my new roommate – Julia from Berlin, also spending an internship at Volkswagen. To get over the Jet lag she convinced me to join her and her mum to visit the Great Wall … together with another german Intern we first had breakfast (or lunch) in a really nice chinese restaurant, went to Mutianyu by a public bus to climb the Great Wall and had finally Diner later in town again. I think I go fine with the chinese food … at least I hope so ;-) … At night I hit the sack absoluty tired and had a wonderful first sleep in China.
Now it’s Sunday, I’m watching an NBA-match in the chinese TV and will go to discover the town for my own later. Beijing looks like a normal western city with some chinese signs and letters and lot’s of chinese people, of course …And it seems to be really big.