Tag: in shanghai

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in china

that time of the year.

rain in shanghai


october. november. december.
the rest of the year is stretching on sight now as the final trimester is here. i was going to write about how the weather has completely changed and now settled into a summer-autumn interlude, with nice temperatures and less mosquito bites – but today, there’s actually lots of rain (krosa was supposed to miss shanghai, yet, it’s making more damage than wipha, few weeks ago).

nevertheless, i like the rain and the wind, even if i get all soaked on my bike, while my yellow raincoat floats around me. autumn is my favorite season, for the colors and weather, and the creativity flows.

on other news, we’ve moved to a new house, slowly, on the 31st floor of the building next door. after a few days, the cats are still scared at every noise and hide below the couch most of the time. we’ve thoroughly cleaned it and we have managed to buy the contents of our previous apartment to the landlord – a difficult task, involving a couple of hours of discussing prices of items in our basic mandarin, but we did pretty well and in the end, managed to get a decent price out of the lot.

on a small remark, i can’t explain how proud i am that we haven’t given up on chinese classes, unlike many other expats i’ve seen here. no matter what they say, i still maintain that it makes a lot of difference whether you speak the language or not, in the way people treat you and on what you can achieve or understand about this culture. besides, no one can possibly convince me that learning the most spoken language in the world is a waste of time.

speaking of which, it’s been six months since we set foot on this land. maybe i should have blogged more, while things were still fresh, but first impressions are not always the most reliable, at least on this side of the globe.
through it all, i can say that i really like what we have here right now, and how shanghai is turning out to be. never mind the frustrations: the surprises have far outcome my initial expectations, though i think you have to live here for a while to understand what i mean. it’s like finding beauty in the randomness, or the chaos.

it’s not easy, but it sure is rewarding. the same thing can probably be said about the whole china. as josh puts it:


Where else is life a road that can veer off in any direction at any time? Where can you head to one of the biggest cities in the world and end up in an antiquated hotel surrounded by rice paddy fields? Where else can you wake up each morning and think to yourself, ‘something crazy is definitely going to happen today?’

rfc: what would you like me to blog about, regarding china? any questions or hidden doubts? i am by no means an expert in asian issues, but i’ve answered a few emails in the past few months of curious readers, so if you’ve been lurking and itching to ask something, go ahead and leave a comment! :)

photo by lifesucker, on flickr.

Categories
in china

中秋节 (zhōng qiū jié)

today is the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the chinese calendar, which is the “middle autumn festival”. it’s a day when families in china gather and eat traditional mooncakes by the full moon. i had never heard of it before, but the story is quite nice, and the mooncakes (like those 2 above, kindly offered by my company) are not that bad. :)
here is the tale that originated this holiday, according to wikipedia:


Houyi himself was an immortal, while Chang’e was a beautiful young girl, working in the Jade Emperor’s (Emperor of Heaven) Palace as the attendant to the Queen Mother of the West (wife of the Jade Emperor), just before her marriage. One day, Houyi aroused the jealousy of the other immortals, who then slandered him before the Jade Emperor. Houyi and his wife, Chang’e, were subsequently banished from heaven, and forced to live by hunting on earth. He became a famous archer.

Now at this time, there were 10 suns that took turns to circle the earth — one every 10 days. One day, all 10 of the suns circled together, causing the earth to burn. Emperor Yao, the Emperor of China, commanded Houyi to shoot down all but one of the suns. Upon the completion of his task, the Emperor rewarded Houyi with a pill that granted eternal life, and advised him: “Make no haste to swallow this pill; first prepare yourself with prayer and fasting for a year”. Houyi took the pill home and hid it under a rafter, while he began healing his spirit. While Houyi was healing his sprit, Houyi was summoned again by the emperor. Chang’e, noticing a white beam of light beckoning from the rafters, discovered the pill, which she swallowed. Immediately, she found that she could fly. At that moment, Houyi returned home, and, realizing what had happened, began to reprimand her. Chang’e flew out the window into the sky.

With bow in hand, Houyi sped after her, and the pursuit continued halfway across the heavens. Finally, Houyi had to return to the Earth because of the force of the wind. Chang’e reached the moon, and breathless, she coughed. Part of the pill fell out from her mouth. Now, the hare was already on the moon, and Chang’e commanded the animal to make another pill from it, so that she could return to earth to her husband.

As of today, the hare is still pounding herbs, trying to make the pill. As for Houyi, he built himself a palace in the sun as “Yang” (the male principle), with Chang’e as “Yin” (the female principle). Once a year, on the 15th day of the full moon, Houyi visits his wife. That is why, that night, the moon is full and beautiful.

happy mid-autumn festival!

Categories
foooood in china

not only with chopsticks…


no matter how much vla i ate in the netherlands, there were still no natas anywhere to be seen — and i missed them dearly.

so, the last time i was in lisbon, to take care of the passport/visa issues, i made a point in going to belém and eating a “nata” with an expresso. my little ritual consists of taking the coffee spoon, dipping it into the nata filling and slowly eating it, while drinking the coffee. only in the end i eat the shell that is left. natas go well with coffee: both are hardwired in my brain as “portuguese flavours”.

little did i know by then that the chinese are great fans of these “egg tarts”, as they call them! some of them know these are portuguese (some think they are from macau) and they enjoy them just as much as we do. of course, they don’t taste exactly the same – the filling is more pudding-like, i would say. but still, we’re quite pleased. :)

Categories
in china

looking for a job in amsterdam or shanghai?

this post is an unusual one: i wouldn’t usually post job-ads, but i’ve heard of a couple of interesting opportunities, that can maybe be of use to someone out there. i hope so. :)

* i received an email from greenpeace international, noting two positions that they have available for portuguese speakers. bad timing for me, but if you’re portuguese or speak the language, and looking for a part-time in amsterdam, maybe you should give them a look. the jobs available are web-editor and media relations specialist. you can apply on their website.

* also, the company where p. works is looking for php developers familiar with symfony, to develop web communities.
you have to either be in shanghai (or willing to move here), be passionate about what you do and be able to demonstrate your know-how. the team is very multicultural, they pay well, have a new loft/warehouse/office (complete with 2 very neat gigantic aquariums!), in-house cook and english/chinese teacher, and a bunch of cool bonus. oh! and the overwhelming experience of living in one of the biggest cities of the world is included. :) interested? leave a comment or send me an email.

Categories
geek in china

self portrait tuesday… and wipha.

i love threadless. they’re a company that works with user-generated content at its best, while giving a good part of their profit back to the community that makes them successful. sounds like a recipe to success to me.

still doubtful? let’s see. you submit a design and win a couple thousand bucks if it gets selected (by the users) to be printed, plus several bonus. if you’re not a designer, you can still buy a tshirt, submit a photo of it and get $1.5 worth of discounts. or if your picture is really good, $15! how cool is that?

to tell the truth, i think the average picture that users upload isn’t exactly “gallery-material”, and anyone can do a far better job with a little imagination. sooooo, right after we bought the camera, i kept bugging p. to take pictures of our tshirts, and guess what, so far, with 2 pictures taken, i’m stocking $16.5 in discounts! i’d say it’s well worth the shot, even if you’re a little camera-shy!

oh! btw, they’ve just opened their shop in chicago, and i heard it has some cool features. besides being a perfectly good example of how an online business can break boundaries and stretch towards the real world.

i would tell you more about it, but a (recently upgraded) super-typhoon is scheduled to hit shanghai this evening and i’m super-excited and semi-worried and i can’t think of anything else. our first typhoon. some 200k people have been evacuated and let’s hope i remember to park the bike indoors. basements are spooky. i tend to avoid them.