Lhasa - Shanghai in 3 days...

gesang
 August 27, 2008, 02:39 AM posted in General Discussion

Hello everybody! Remember me?

Long time I didnt open chinesepod... i was so busy with studying tibetan ;-)!!

Yesterday i came back from Westtibet to Lhasa and will travel on to China soon. I dont really want to leave from Tibet, but i also look forward to see Shanghai...any last minute tips for my week there?

Some asked me for some pictures from my work and travel up here... i am sorry it is so hard with my camera and the computers here..i will be happy to send some when i come back to Switzerland in about 2 weeks.

i am also happy to study here again then... i used my chinese so much, but i feel i didnt study for ages!! At this point: Thanks again for this side. it was the first time i came to china (tibet) after i studied chinese with chinesepod and i really felt a difference to last time here!!!

Best regards from my beloved city of Lhasa, Gesang.

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light487
 August 27, 2008, 08:19 AM

Of course we remember you.. you are too cute to forget! :P I'd really like to hear in more detail about how your using Chinese went in a real-life setting. Were there moments when you couldn't think of the right words.. or did it all come easy?

 

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gesang
 August 27, 2008, 10:21 AM

hi light, there were MANY moments i searched for words..and often i took out my language computer (plecodict rocks!!!) but i was also happy in many moments when it just worked and people understood!! it was easyer to speak chinese with the tibetan people. i think it is because they also had to study chinese at school and know what you are able to say as a beginner and speak more slowly with me... many chinese did not speak more slowly but louder when i ask them to repeat slowly ;-).  (note that i am beginner in chinese..when i write: speak with them - it is not a real fluent conversation!!)

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sebire
 August 27, 2008, 10:34 AM

Hey gesang, China is so much fun, I had the time of my life travelling around there a few months ago! Are you just going to Shanghai? We ended up only spending a few days there because there aren't so many tourist attractions. I liked wandering around the old city best, it was really cool. Also, you should consider spending a night in Hangzhou - I think it was around an hour away on the really fast D train (the nicest train I have ever been on) because it's really pretty.

Have you got somewhere to stay? I stayed in one of the YHAs, but I reckon that the Captain Hostel YHA looked better than the one we stayed in (I think it was called West something or other YHA, off Nanjing Lu near the Bund).

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gesang
 August 28, 2008, 01:57 AM

thanks sebire, i asked the staff in lhasa hotel too help us book the first night, then we want to look where to stay when we are in shanghai. i noted your tip, too! by now i cant really think about leaving...i will miss my friends here so much :-( !!!!!!!! but i am sure shanghai will be great... and if anything goes well (work permission) i will fly back (from Bern) to lhasa in 10 month again :-)!

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sebire
 August 28, 2008, 10:47 AM

I didn't make it up to Lhasa - how did you cope with the altitude? I'm pretty certain I would get very sick very quickly at that altitude! It looks really cool though.

Another tip - watch out for the tea scam in Shanghai. We had a pair of chinese people come up to us claiming to be students from Harbin, but they both looked like they were in their 30s! They wanted us to see some tea ceremony with them, but I think they were scammers, so we left them in the park.