Rolls Royce

I read this article about the extended wheelbase version of the RollsRoyce Phantom here (german only). Now that is crazy - especially the high security version with 4.5t - the 760i high security weights in about 2.5t (these are officiall information you can get from the BMW website).\par
The RR Phantom is much bigger than a 760i but I am not sure if I would like to drive in this car because it won't drive faster than 160km/h. This might still sound a lot but if you consider that these people buy the car because they are really subject to attacks then I would prefer to be able to get away fast...

forbidden city

I have been to the forbidden city this weekend. I spend a whole day there.
The place is very interesting - so many things have taken place there that my head is still turning. The city was always extended and then some parts burned down and were rebuild.
The emporer was always in danger. There are no trees (except in the park for the concubines) because someone might hide in there. The floor is made of 5m deep stones so nobody can dig a tunnel into the city. Very astonishing experience. I bought a little book about stories of the forbidden city to get some more information about this topic. Some impressions from my visit:

Merry Christmas

I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year. May the next year be full of challanges like this one was! I keep you posted. Planning on the 'Forbidden City' tomorrow...

driving home for Christmas ...

On thursday I needed 2,5 hours to get to work - saw many things that I would like to have taken pictures of but did not. This morning I got my camera ready and took some snapshots while driving 'Mini Cooper S' back and forth ...

smog in the morning - this is not fog - you can smell the dirt

always the same: hope the truck sees you ...

looks safe?

even worse ...
driving home together
waiting at the toll gate - automatic toll collect should be available next year - people stare at the Mini - don't feel comfortable ...
on the way to the city ...
traffic jam on the 4th ring road - there is no day without accident

hair cut

Maybe it is not worth mentioning but I finally got my first haircut in China :-). Why do I mention it anyways? Think it is a nice story.
There is a barber called 'schnittpunkt' near my appartement so it is easy to go there after work. The Chinese guys there speak pretty good english. After getting my head washed for 15 minutes (!) the barber cut my hair for 45 minutes. That is a long time when you consider that I have a rather simple cut. Maybe he just liked talking to me.
His friend is the owner of the shop and also from my hometown Hamburg. The guy who cut my hair is from Seoul, Korea but worked in Sydney, Australia for 12 years. He arrived in China one year ago and speaks Chinese, Korean, Englisch and also Japanese. After this one hour cut I spend 68 Yuan - around 5,50 Euro.

first snow in Beijing

I was pretty astonished this morning. The first snow has arrived. It was too warm so it melted as soon as it hit the floor. Wonder if we are going to have a white Christmas...

I wanted to publish some picutres from the olympic test event but it was not allowed to use the flash light of my camera so the pictures are pretty bad. There are pretty good pictures at http://www.gymnastics2007.org.cn/gr/en/. Also other information about the test events can be found here: http://www.goodluckbeijing.com.cn/en/

Olympics on friday

There is an olympic test tournament on friday night - 'Rythmic Gymnastics International Invitational Tournament'. I will be there with my coworkers. I wonder what this is going to be like ... pictures might be here around saturday.

Christmas in China

As you know there is no Christmas in China. After having a good party last night we went to the german embassy this noon to have a look at the Christmas charity event. We had to wait for about 30 minutes to get into the embassy because there were so many people.
A few coworkers joined us so we had some topics to talk about. In the embassy was a typical german 'Weihnachtsmark'. The money earned will be spend for some charity events in Beijing.
No Christmas feeling yet but we talked to some other guys form Mercedes Benz and they are starting a party on the 25th so you never know ...

meeting with coworkers

We had a meeting on the 28th after work to get to know our coworkers. Actually they are not my coworkers since they work in the Head Office and I am at the testcentre but I went there anyways. Usually I am around engineers and there are only 2 women - that night there were 8 and I was the only guy at the table.
I have no idea where I learned to eat with sticks but I knew how to do it when I came to China.
I think I nead a haircut but I am not sure about the barber yet. If I get a chance I will take care of that this weekend.

"cheap" transport

What are you going to do if you need to transport your sheep but don't have a truck? Well in China you use what you got ... and yes, the sheep are alive.

plans for the next months

This is my rough schedule for the next months:

december 20th to january 7th: free time (I will have to study)

january 20th to february 1st: winter testing - 4000km through China (not confirmed yet)

february 1st to february 4th: Hong Kong

february 7th to february 10th: national holidays

So in my mind it is already march ...

intercultural things

My Chinese co-workers asked me if I want to come with them on friday night to have dinner and ktv after that (ktv means karaoke tv). I thought it is a nice idea and so I went with them.
We had a nice dinner with all kinds of food. After that we went around the corner to the ktv. I had no idea what it is going to be like.
You come in and there are a lot rooms - I did not count them but we were in number 117. It has a big screen, two big tables (we were 7) and a lot possibilities to sit. Since everybody sang, I did it too. I have the feeling that my Chinese co-workers are much easier with me now. Maybe I am not a good singer but at least I tried.
I noticed that the lyrics are sometimes pretty messed up. This might be due to the fact that the 'classic' songs are from Chinese artists. Anyways - nice experience.

new office

I moved into my new office this morning. I am the first one - five more to follow next year. Looks pretty empty but we will start to put up some pictures on the wall soon.

[ picture curtesie by Laney ]

snapshot

On my way to lunch on sunday I took the following snapshot:



The construction site in the background is the new building for the chinese TV. It should be finished by Juli 2008. I pass it every morning on my way to work but have not had a chance to get a good picture. The idea is to have two towers which are connected at the top by 13 floors. The towers are turned against each other so this is not the classical 'straight' kind of buildings. Maybe I can find a picture about that ...

Yong He Gong

Visiting the 'Yong He Gong' budhist temple. I can not comment on every picture but you see what I have been up to on saturday:

entrance




























This is the kind of proof pictures that show I was there...


















These temples contain different Buddhas for different purposes like the Buddha of wisdom ...










































Turning the drum creates luck.


















Just some nice decoration on the roof.

last weekend

My rommate Jozsef (bottom) and me (top) are trying out Chinese beer:

some statistics

I did some research on vehicle numbers and traffic victims today:

Germany: 46 million cars, 5050 dead (2006)
China: 21 million cars, 89.000 dead (official), 165.000 dead (inofficial)
whole Europe: 39.200 dead

Winter in Beijing

Der Spiegel berichtet über die "Gewohnheiten" der Chinesen was das Heizen angeht - und erspart mir viel Schreiberei: http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,516577,00.html

shopping on sunday

I went shopping today. Strange experience. Everything is fake but they pretend it is realy 'armani' or 'polo' and stuff like that. I needed a warm jacket and it was offered for 120 Euro - in the end I paid 30 Euro. The guys try everything to make it more expensive. This jacket is long, it has a lot of pockets - bla bla bla. I also bought some shoes and the girl pretended it is real leather. So I wanted to take a lighter to make sure the boots don't burn. She did not like the idea :-) ...

impressions from work

BMW Beijing has two divisions in the town. The first one is the head office which holds the sales and some part of the development - around 400 people. The other part is the testcentre outside of Beijing with about 15 people.





This is the building of the head office - BMW rented some of the floors.

This is the lobby of the head office. Can you
find the 2m Adrian in this picture?












Another view where everybody arrives and leaves.




















This is a picture of the workshop next to my office. I can not take other pictures ...
















Just because everybody was asking: This is our lunch - costs 8 to 11 Juan (0.8 - 1.1 Euro) per Person. We get it from a restaurant near the centre. Nice :-).


This is everything for this week. Maybe I take some more pictures on the weekend.

talking about polution

So what does pollution really mean? I can tell by looking out of my window every morning. Here are three examples.

1. nice day - no pollution so far

2. it looks like fog but it is smog


















3. this is the kind of smog you don't like to see - it can be worse but for me this is enough ...