In China for two Months

Two months ago I arrived in China. Today I want to share with you my thoughts about my time abroad. I remember that when I arrived I felt like entering a whole different world which at first felt very foreign to me. The beginning was not always easy, there were some cultural and linguistic differences which made some situations challenging. But now I definitely feel like Shenzhen is my second home and even though I sometimes miss Switzerland, I am very very happy to be here!...

My chinese learning progress

I have now been learning Chinese for almost two months and I can definitely see a lot of improvement. Regarding my speaking skills I can make very simple conversations with people as long as I can choose in which direction the conversation goes. What I mean by that is that I cannot talk about anything, but I can for example talk about where I am from, my studies and the University, my family… I really like to try out my abilities and so I sometimes just go up to people and try to start a conversation (and several times I’ve already been successful)!...

My part-time job in a hotel

This week was the first week that I started to work part-time. I work as a trainee in the lounge of a hotel. Trainee basically means that I’m learning new things while I’m working. I applied for this job several weeks ago and after a series of interviews with different managers I started working on the Monday of this week. It started with an introduction of the hotel (which was mainly in Chinese) and then I went to get my work uniform....

National holiday week in Nanchang

Last week it was the national holiday week or also called Golden week. In this week there are two important days celebrated in China: On October 1st there is the National day of China (whose holiday is prolonged until October 3rd) and the Mid-Autumn/Moon festival which is celebrated on October 4th. Therefore we got one whole week off at University....

How to get around in Shenzhen

This week I will present you the three main public transport systems in Shenzhen. Metro Since Shenzhen is a big city, you need a way to get from one place to another fast. This is provided by the Metro underground system. The Shenzhen Metro has 8 lines with in total 199 stops and a length 286 kilometer. There are two close metro stops to my house, one for the line 11 and one for the line 1....