September 25th - the end of the quarantine in Qingdao - off to Shanghai

We drove to the airport which was a ghost scenario on arrival. Now it turned out why - we had landed in the part where maybe two / three flights from abroad arrive per day. On the onward flight within China, we went to another part of the building and there the full life awaited us. Everywhere people, businesses. Insanity! The airport is awesome. Gigantic, clear and clearly structured, extremely clean and well-kept. Unfortunately, one has to say that the largest airport in Germany is small, ugly, filthy and pretty conceptless compared to it. But you get such impressions more often in China when you make comparisons with Germany. Before departure, there was a cake at the check-in because the airline was celebrating its 20th anniversary. So I got in line and because I'm a foreigner, the next piece of cake was brought to me before anyone else. Hospitality the Chinese way - almost a little shameful.

We, the handful of Europeans who flew to Shanghai, were the last to board the plane. We were escorted to boarding, they made sure that we got on the plane last and we sat in the back - probably also a Corona security measure. When I got on the plane, I only saw Chinese people and then I realized that I had now really arrived in China, very far away from Europe. Until then, I had hardly seen a Chinese person without a full-body disguise. On departure everything went smoothly and absolutely on time - I couldn't believe it. At a quarter past three sharp the plane rolled onto the runway. Boarding was quick, easy and stress-free. Above all, the punctuality and frictionlessness everywhere here are astonishing, because you have to deal with this huge crowd. It's a phenomenon. Subordinating to necessities that enable a speedy process does not seem to break the Chinese crown. You do it without feeling degraded by it. There is no rabble, know-it-all sayings or requests to justify this or that, no discussions in which you want to be right again, etc. In short: no friction in processes, no dissonances. Germans would say that the Chinese easily subordinate themselves because they have learned to be oppressed, have no free spirit, etc. The German fellow travelers complained that we were always accompanied at the airport: "Kindergarten here, or watt?" Anyway, now I have Germany behind me for the time being. On the approach to Shanghai we flew over the Yangtze Delta. I've never seen so many cargo ships at a glance. There were innumerable. Only delta and ships can see as far as the eye can see. Again there was a comparison to Europe, the English Channel would be comparable, does it look like that from the air?

We landed again at a completely gigantic airport, which I was already at two years ago. And again everything went absolutely smoothly. No waiting, nothing. At the exit, my colleague George met me and we took a taxi into town. Shortly the route of the Transrapid next to us and you could already see the skyline from afar. The Shanghai Tower, the second tallest building in the world, stands out in particular. However, the Chinese recently decided that they would no longer take part in the race for the tallest buildings. Only up to three hundred meters - reason: Everything else is wasted and does not help. And it was further justified: You don't always have to have the greatest, the highest, in order to be self-confident. When we drove into the downtown area, it was already dark and the city was alive - and it really lives! I looked out the taxi window and saw the neighborhood I will be living in for the next few weeks. It has an atmosphere that really only exists in very large metropolises in warm climates, where life can take place on the street. There, in the neighborhoods, the manageable and small suddenly get so much space again that they take place in human proportions. Lots of small shops, but not a single international chain, only food stalls, boutiques, greengrocers, butchers, fishmongers with all kinds of living animals and everywhere people on scooters and bicycles loaded with materials in such a way that the driver disappears in between.

Arrival at the hotel. Then the view from the hotel room. In the square opposite, a group of senior women dances every evening; that is one of the real traditions of China. The laundry is hanging in front of the windows here, qigong is done here in the morning and there are small supermarkets that look a bit confused and where the likelihood of someone speaking English is absolutely zero, where things are as cheap as we were 30 years ago However, with 70% of the products you don't know what they are anyway, seniors stand in large numbers at the meat counter in the mornings to shop for lunch, men sit on a small wall and chat. It is beautiful here. Beyond Nanjing Lu (Nanjing Road), Waitan (Bund) and Renmin Guangchang (People's Square) with these gigantic luxury branches there is still old Shanghai, which is so often said that it has disappeared, but I somehow live right in the middle of it. I'm coming to the end, because the evening is late and I have to go to sleep, 11 p.m., you can also see that in life on the street. It has become pretty quiet now. You can't imagine it, but Shanghai sleeps at night. Here you can sleep with the window open, it's just quiet. A taxi only comes by every now and then. The skyline lighting is switched off from 10 p.m., the subway closes its gates from 10:30 p.m., and it ends at 11 p.m.

Häufiger Anblick: Wäsche vor den Fenstern

Eine der unzähligen Garküchen, hier werden Dumplings zubereitet, gedünstete Hefeklöße - vielleicht in gewisser Weise vergleichbar mit kleinen Germknödeln - aber gefüllt sind sie auf verschiedenste Weise, von herzhaft bis süß.

Seniorinnen beim Gruppentanz, ein allabendliches Ritual, das zu den chinesischen Traditionen gehört. Ob es eines Tages mit der älteren Generation verschwinden wird?

In China sollte man auch Nudelsuppe mit Stäbchen essen können, sonst kriegt man bei vielen Gerichten ein Problem. Hier sieht man zwar einen Löffel, aber den nimmt man als Hilfsmittel dazu. Vorher fischt man die glitschigen Bandnudeln, das dünn geschnittene Fleisch und das Gemüse aus dem Sud.

Hier habe ich mir mal einen Exportschlager aus Hong Kong gegönnt, die Eierwaffel, auf Chinesisch: 雞蛋仔, (Pinyin: Gai Daan Jai). Eigentlich ist nur die Form das Gimmick. Das Waffeleisen wird zugeklappt, um 180 Grad gedreht, so dass sich darin der Teig verteilt. Die Waffeln werden nach dem Backen zusammengerollt und mit allerlei gefüllt: Sahne, Eis, Toppings, Streusel usw. Mir reichte die Grundform. Dass es Schokolade war, wusste ich gar nicht, die junge Frau redete ununterbrochen auf mich ein und hatte dabei sichtlichen Spaß vor ihren Kollegen, weil die Kommunikation voll nicht funktionierte. Dabei kam Schokolade heraus.

Vom letzten Stück der Nanjing Lu (Nanjing Straße), einer der größten und luxuriösesten Einkaufsstraßen der Welt geht der Blick direkt auf den Oriental Pearl Tower.