As usual we started out day early in the morning and ate our beloved toast breakfast. We took our crowded bus and got to work right on time, being the perfect example of German punctuality 😉
Kenny had some network plans for us to take a look at and also showed us some testing equipment for fiber and copper cables. We also talked about the difference between multi-mode and single-mode fiber cable and which is used in which case.
„Work and a (violin) concert/performance/theater“ weiterlesen
With little sleep we fought ourself out of our beds this morning. Still groggy from last days marathon we finished our morning routine and went to work. We enjoyed a strong coffee from Lilis coffeemaker and began to further improve our AutoCAD skills. A little while later we were called into the meeting room, where we discussed the plan/activities for the upcoming week. We decided on the following:
After a delicious lunch with fried rice we went back to our work. Kenny was so kind to let us „Slow Friday“ weiterlesen
We climbed the Great Wall!
After our breakfast, which is now toasted toast with honey and Nutella, we took the bus to get to Lili’s home. There we met Zu, a former tour guide and perfect German speaker. Together we drove to the Great Wall at Mutianyu, about 70 kilometers northeast of Beijing.
When we arrived there Lili bought the tickets although we offered to pay for them. But it seems to be Chinese habit to pay for everything when you have guests. The ticket office is about three kilometers away from the wall, so we had to take a shuttle bus to get there. After the bus stopped, we separated from Lili and Zu because they didn’t want to come with us on the wall. So we took a cable car to the Great Wall and started to walk to the left.
Today was a normal workday. We awoke at 07:30, ate breakfast and were waiting for the bus at 08:30. We arrived at work on time at 10:00. We brought our own notebooks, because Kenny wanted to install some software on them. We installed AutoCAD and Autodesk Revit MEP together and Kenny gave us the project files of the project places we visited the days before. At first the controls were quite difficult, but we quickly got the hang of it and started to study the project plans and designs with Kenny in detail.
We were interrupted by Lili returning to the office with another gift for us. It was a „AutoCAD and Designs“ weiterlesen
We started our day early in the morning and surprisingly without hangover. Kenny took us to a small restaurant to eat breakfast. It consisted of a hot soup in which we threw pork, vegetables, mushrooms, an egg and most important ricenoodles. Then we mixed everything and had a really tasty meal.
Afterwards we took a look at an other project of the company. It was a furniture store, but it was still a construction site. But nevertheless we took a look around and tried to image how it might look in the future.
Then we changed the side of the road and went inside a furniture store, which was already finished. The architecture looked quite the same, so that’s maybe how the construction site might look after finishing. „Back to Beijing“ weiterlesen
#UPDATED: Today after our breakfast, we met up with Kenny at the Beijing Railway Station to catch our train to ZiBo. A town three hours away from Beijing. The train ride was quick and comfortable.
As soon as we arrived we took a Taxi to the place of our project, where Kenny worked for a long time. It was a newly built mall, where our company designed the security camera, elevator, escape and air-conditioning infrastructure. We were allowed to visit the „ZiBo Adventures“ weiterlesen
We woke up moderately early on Saturday. We went around the corner to the western supermarket
to try out the loaf of bread they were offering. Our verdict: Its not bad, but not great either. One can guess what taste they were trying to accomplish.
With new energy we met Li and Zhu outside to play some ping pong. We were not allowed to use the indoor tables in the basement of the school, so the ones outside had to make do.
After a few hours of showing our Chinese friends what’s what in the world of table tennis we went inside and started to study and go through „Slow Saturday“ weiterlesen
Today we met at 9:30 at the company to drive to the Bird’s Nest, the Olympic stadium of Beijing. As usual, Lili managed to surprise us. Instead of parking somewhere outside the Olympic park and then going to the stadium like a normal visitor, we drove straight into the parking lot of the Bird’s Nest, which is located beneath it. We just showed a small piece of paper we got from a police/security officer at the first gate and everyone let us pass through.
After we parked we took an elevator to get to the 4th floor, where the VIP boxes are located. We entered one of them and saw a wall with monitors showing pictures of security cameras. An employee explained a little bit about the control system, from the room we were standing in it was possible to display information about nearly everything that’s electronically controllable. The cameras, water flow, temperature, elevators and so on. We could also step outside to see the inside of the stadium, 91.000 people fit inside. Here are some pictures of the room and the inside of the Bird’s Nest:
The alarm clock woke us at 07:30. Alex was so kind to go out and buy our breakfast baguettes on his own, so that I had time to wash my hair under freezing *ass water. We waited at 08:30 at the bus stop. Unfortunately we couldn’t take the first bus, even though it was the correct line, but it wouldn’t have stopped at our destination. The second bus arrived minutes later, cramped and full. The drive took longer than usual due to heavy traffic on the streets. Nevertheless we arrived at work on time. Johnny welcomed us and we went straight to work. Our task was to set up a SQL database and expand our knowledge of the syntax and various commands.
When Lili arrived it again was time for some more gifts. She brought us „Enjoying work“ weiterlesen
We got up at 7:30 and ate our usual baguette-with-honey-and-nutella breakfast, then we took the bus number 983 to get to our company. We are expected to be there at 10 o’clock, so we took the bus at 8:30, traffic is horribly in Beijing. But we drive along the bird nest and the water cube, the places of the Olympic Games 2008.
For lunch we had some potato stripes with a Chinese sauce as well as rice with chicken in curry style. Again everything was delicious, we also had a yoghourt which tasted quite similar to a normal German yoghourt. Then we were driven to a post office by an employee with a company car (VW Tiguan), because Lukas needed some stamps for his postcards. For only 6 Yuan (1€) you can send a postcard to Germany via air mail.
Lili then met with some other managers of the company to discuss what we will be doing at our time there. And the plan sounds awesome: