About China

Without further ado let me tell you something. Shanghai rules!!! First, it is hot here - today is the first day since the arrival when temperature is below 30 degrees (it is 22). This drop comes handy if you are lazy to do your laundry or still did not figured out how to wash your clothes with Chinese-only washing machine and thus running out of T-shirts (easy switch to long sleeves). Anyway, I send warm greetings to all those stuck in 10-degree countries in Europe :D What is really different to Europe is level of humidity in the area. Climate makes it impossible to survive the day without taking two showers to get rid of sweat and changing clothes each couple of hours.

Secondly, Shanghai is huge, fairly clean and modern city. The number of skyscrapers standing and being built is quickly approaching those on lower Manhattan. Furthermore, it continues to grow like crazy with construction sites everywhere you go. Regarding smog issues there is no much difference between Prague or any other big European city and Shanghai. Only if you go on your bicycle (already bought one and in true local fashion it started to fell apart after 3 days) to the city center you will feel the increased dust level from the many above mentioned construction sites (I live slightly outside of city center - one hour by bike :) ).

Talking about locations, I reside in bigger of the two campuses of the university I should study at. Sports facility-wise a major improvement compared to any campus I have seen in Europe (and you can believe me as I have seen fair share of campuses in past 8 years). Behind dorms is athletic stadium next to which is c. 20 basketball courts (all packed during the day), volleyball courts (sand and concrete) and tennis courts. The dorm rooms are fairly small (see pics gallery - Shanghai pics) and facilities are somewhere between European and Arab countries level (in the two thirds towards Europe :) ).

Food is abundant and in great varieties. In my thorough exploration I have just passed cooked and roasted vegetables' mixes (with anything-what-moves-or-grows) part of the on-campus dining and started with noodle section (there is still soup section and roasted rice section in front of me). Although, I had my fair share of tofu (which I always confuse with chicken), no harm was done to my Karlin-trained alimentary tract. Of course as you let your guards down eventually everybody is caught up by a "toilette rush" - my undoing was Uyghur beer which brought me 2 days of suffering and interrupted my running patterns (instead of rounds at athletic track it was back and forth between my seat and nearest toilet). Anyway, in true explorer fashion, I continue to explore freely perks of local dinning (snake is good, octopuses even better).

Activity-wise, Shanghai appears to be the same as Prague. Only change is me going to classes every day instead to Karlin. Otherwise it is the same old same old - almost every night in the city center. Zuzka (former colleague) and her company stopped by in Shanghai this week for their last stop on their two weeks journey around China. Furthermore, there was another Czech/Slovak get-together with the Budvar acting as a main guest. I resisted the temptation of shots this time - I had a dictation next morning so beers were just fine and I think I am matured now :D

Anyway, I think I will be fairly busy for next couple of months as I signed up for intensive Chinese class (15 weeks of 5 times a week 3 hours a day). Besides that, I will have hopefully some additional classes and will actively pursue my professional and other education. Also as forthcoming week is the whole week off (Chinese national holiday) we are going to mountains for a 5 day hike - next blob on Shanghai adventures will be after my return (actually it appears that they are only hills rather than mountains - as high as Krkonose ;) ).

That is enough for now as this is getting way too long. So long and don't forget to feed the fish :)