Becoming Chinese with the Umbrella cooperation [Day 2 in Changde]
Friday - A day filled with adventurous paperwork and the sweet success of a personal accomplishment.
But first let's get a proper breakfast!
Bauze breakfast time
Not knowing how to spell words right yet I am writing the name of the dish according to how it sounds like thinking out loud in my mind.
That doesn't always help though...
Yesterday evening I was asking one of my Chinese coworkers if they like Bauze. She didn't understand what I was talking about at all. So either she's not Chinese at all as it's a pretty common breakfast or I need to improve my Chinese pronounciation.
Probably last one ...
The high yards of coffee - Changde's HKM
Anyways, I enjoyed a cabbage filled Bauze, a spicy one and one with sweet red bean paste.
The cabbage filled one reminded me of Russian piraschki which are basically made the same but instead of steamed either deep fried or baked and mostly stuffed with potato or for non vegs with onion enriched meat.
Manou - Steamed bread. Period
Manou is a steamed bread and this one basically tasted like bread. Steamed. I kinda expected a more interesting flavor having the taste of taro or cinnamon infused manou from Chiang Rai, Thailand in mind.
Getting connected
After the breakfast and digesting part was down it's time for some bureaucracy! Yay!
Our today's task leads us to the realms of 'China Mobile' to get Björn, a great man and new arrival from Hanover and myself a Chinese Sim Card.
On the way to the shop we bought some lotus nuts which we joyfully ate at the counter
waiting for our 2 designated guides through the paperwork rollercoaster to make a couple of phone calls themselves to make sure we German foreigners are allowed to make phone calls on our own.
"Why you no Chinese?!"
The big problem apparently was the lack of us having a Chinese nickname hence making entries into the system complicated.
Just look at Björn's name! Where on earth people think it's ok to put dots on vocals? Germany!
In the end after telling us getting a Sim Card is impossible for foreigners they called us back and it kinda worked nevertheless.
Turns out having a Chinese mobile number is a quite nice but doesn't help to make WeChat-Wallet the universal Chinese payment system working. That would have been too easy!
In addition to a Chinese mobile number a Chinese bank account is needed too. Ok sure. Why not? Let's just become Chinese instantly. May result in less papers to fill out.
I heard a 'No' coming from my left side. Seems like getting a Chinese citizenship is a hell lot of catalogs to fill out plus you're even getting less rights as you would have as a tourist. Plans abandoned.
Let's stay with the bank account. But first:
Let's have lunch!
Rocking Changde's umbrella style
Inspired by Isabel's pioneering umbrella sun combination and the microwaving temperature of 29 humid °C I tried out my own colour-fitting umbrella.
Although it blocks the direct sun from above, the umbrella doesn't really help against the heat as the heat is all around you like a warm cozy blanket infront of a fire site on a late December night ... Just in midsummer!
International neighborhood
The walk to our lunch reliving good old gatherer and hunter times lead us along the pretty clean emerald shining river.
Around 7 minutes away from Chinese German town, they built up a Chinese Chinese town - in traditional flair.
Changde is also setting up an Italian town
Enough talking where is food?!?!!
Aaron one amazing photographer, filmmaker, Barista marketer and human Being will be leaving back to Germany on Sunday so we decided to go somewhere fancy instead of ordering ordinary take aways.
A restaurant with a movable roundtable in the middle!
Perfect for sharing
At feasts like these and maybe ordering food in China in general is done by only one person choosing the food
"Two Cheeseburger please"
and the rest of the party eating along.
My precious!
Every time I'm eating Chinese food my tastebuds get introduced into a new layer of food heaven. Mostly a positive one.
I'm especially turned on by the flavours and diverse tasty tastes of the sauces which are adding the cherry on the cake. Taro was dope!
The aftermath
Our café opens at 3pm due to mentioned enormous heat residing here in Changde during the day and closes at 10pm when outside temperatures finally reach a pleasant level.
On the way home
Not being 3pm yet we still had time to finish another big task of the day and one more step of becoming more Chinese.
Setting up a bank account
As mentioned before a Chinese bank account is strongly needed to set up WeChat Pay and thus being able to use your mobile phone to pay for almost everything. From coffee to transportation to underwear. I'm feeling like going back to the future!
Being prepared by the latest bureaucracy act of getting a Sim Card getting a Bank account opened up yet time-consuming.
The staff of the bank one time even lost Björn's passport. Turns out they left it at the copying machine!
Coffee Art Time!
What a paper fight! Having survived that part of the day it's time for some hand's work.
I continued with my soap water infused training method and also added training-cacao today.
After several dry liquid soap art training attempts I switched to a combination of real milk and cacao and managed to get this kinda heart on top of my not yet dissolved cacao mix.
Love is in the air!
While my attempts are still quite cute here you can see a proper Barista (Aaron) doing some latte art captured by camera.
Besides using latte art you can also just pour an espresso over tonic water to get one marvellous piece of beverage art.
Most German coffee
Once the sun has set and the outside temperature gets suitable for the human race, Changde's German town's streets are getting filled being visited by local Changde residents.
Every good day has to come to an end. Saturday evening will be karaoke night! I love it! Up until then!
You are one of my faves on here (but you know that already :P ) full UV and resteeming :)
Yay! Thanks a a lot. Somehow we both enjoy reading each other's written exbursts of thoughts and it's always uplifting to read your words ≧◡≦
Still waiting for more shitposts ;)
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Damn man you're killin it :) I had no choice but to upvote, resteem, tweet and comment. Great job man. I felt like I was there with you. I need to remember to get better POV shots like this in my travels. It really gives a fun perspective. Cool video of the table too. Thanks a lot for sharing and for another great post!
It's only missing one thing 😜 #minnowtowhale just teasing a bit! Looking forward to the next.
Awww, thank you very much, Joey! You're rocking!
Those Chinese round tables are amazing. They offer so many possibilities. Not just for eating! Thinking about getting one for my home once I settle down.
Just for clarification: Does POV mean Point of view?
#minnowtowhale ;)
That umbrella pic hahahah classic my friend. Looks like you are living life, keep it up. Doing what you are doing is one of these fastest ways to figure out your life purpose
Keep doing great thing buddy :)
When in Rome do as the Romans :)
My current life's purpose is enjoying to live life to the fullest while sharing it with my family on Steemit until I found another one :)
Thank you for Being my friend!
You're welcome my friend. And heck yeah man that sounds like the dream right there. So awesome to see the things you are doing.
I can't even imagine the world leader you will be in a few years. Keep doing great thing buddy :)
I don't need to be a world leader except being the leader of my own little world. Inspiration and spreader of happiness is enough for me :)
Sounds like the world leader I was talking about my friend :)
❤
Liebe :)
I love love!
Thank you for being!
Ha! Yes, what we think are simple processes in can be torturously confusing in China. I still love the place though. I'm an occasional visitor to China. My friends give me Wechat money in exchange for cash, so it works out fine without a bank account. :)
Interesting. How does WeChat Pay work without a Chinese bank account? I didn't find any option to do so except having a Chinese ID Card. Do you have one?
No. A wechat user just sent me Red Packets. :)
Nice post man. Interesting to read how they manage in China!
Resteeming!
Cheers! @filmtraveller
Oh wow! Thanks a lot Ji. You're awesome! More stories about China incoming :)
I love your post brother, you really nailed it! :) enjoy crazy china dude :D #M2W
Thank you Mitchie! #Travelbuddies! :)
Awesome post and your story telling is really good. As I have experienced many of the things you mentioned I especially can relate how it can be a struggle sometimes in china, even with the small things like getting a SIM card lol. Very nice umbrella by the way, I also have one which is blue so I feel real manly when i use it ,) But seriously sometimes you have to use it because the sun is Uber intense here.
Oh wow, thank you Dan. Your words mean a lot to me. And yes Umbrellas are totally manly!
Germany is always known for its love for bureaucracy but after having been to India and now experiencing China I can say that paperwork just got a whole new level :D
I furthermore guess office workers here in China also are not allowed to make decisions on their own hence making a lot of phone calls to higher planes of hierarchy necessary.
Hangzhou is near Shanghai, isn't it?
Yea Hangzhou is only an hour away from Shanghai by train and I think it's definitely a place worth visiting in China. It still has many aspects left of the traditional looking China that you think you will see before you go here but which u later find out is hard to find in many of the bigger cities! Where are you from and how long are you planning to stay in China ?
Sounds like definitely worth a visit. I am currently in Changde, China and will continue to do so for the next 3-6 months. The built up a Chinese Hanover (German town) here and also a "traditional" Chinese area nearby.
Are you living in China permanently?
If you follow & vote me, i will follow & vote you!
No thanks
Hi, I just wanted to give you a friendly thought just incase you are unaware. I see you're new here so welcome. As far as the follow for follow, vote for vote thing goes here, It's not much like the same as other social media sites. You may find people who do it but it's not the best way here. The best practice here IMO is giving good genuine comments and it's completely cool to let someone know you followed them and maybe they'll follow you back. Different people have different ways of doing things and if you are 100% sure you feel this is the best way for you than I won't say you're wrong but I wanted to share my thoughts. Also you should consider doing a #introduceyourself post and a separate #verification post. You will be seen by many people and if you do them pretty good you can receive some great rewards. Best of luck and if you ever have any questions let me know!
https://steemit.com/steemit/@reneenouveau/verification-and-you-how-why-how-to-ask-and-how-not-be-a-usd-about-it
Your response is so much kinder than my was. May I copy that text for the next generation of follow seekers yet to come, Joey? :)
Lmao!! Sure man! I can't blame you at all Robert. It can get a bit overwhelming ;)
wow - such great pictures! @rootingrobert
Thank you :)
@rootingrobert! Yes, culturally, they love to keep their skin fair so umbrellas will be everywhere... Unlike in the West where we like to get tans. Look forward to seeing more!
Yeah, the skin thing is turned upside down. Where in the West you'd see advertising for suntan lotion here you see giant billboards advertising whitening creme. Same in Thailand.