Mathi-S-hanghai

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Tasty chinese food...

YES! I ate scorpion which moves + a cricket! And you know what? it’s good! Like chips... Do you want try???

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CHINESE SINGER - SUZHOU

During a boat ride on Suzhou’s canal, the rower sang us a song!

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SUNRISE ON THE BUND

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Contrast between rich and poor people – Social Rituals

In China, we can observe a really difference between rich and poor people. Indeed, on the street, there are either beautiful cars or scooters. About cars, Chinese people need to pay a lot to buy a car: 15000€ to have a registration plate. Only rich people can allow themselves it. Therefore, they buy beautiful cars: there are so much Porsche! We never see small cars like “Clio”. Concerning scooters, it’s very cheap! Moreover, they are essentially electric scooters, we can recharge a scooter for less than 1€. But sometimes one wonders how is possible that they can work…

More, the old city of Shanghai is located in front of the rich modern financial district: Pudong! We can observe poor small buildings, with huge towers behind! It’s not like same city!

So, the contrast is very obvious!

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Nanjing Massacre – Geopolitics

The Nanjing Massacre was an episode of mass murder and mass rape committed by Japanese troops against the residents of Nanjing, then the capital of the Republic of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The massacre occurred over a period of six weeks starting on December 13, 1937, the day that the Japanese captured Nanjing. During this period, soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army murdered Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants who numbered an estimated 40,000 to over 300,000 and perpetrated widespread rape and looting.

During a trip in Nanjing, I went to the massacre Memorial. Its look a bunker. We feel a strange sensation inside… The architect is very talented. Chinese insist a lot on deaths number: 300000! We can see this number everywhere. Moreover, memorial-museum shows a lot of pictures, weapons, war clothes, and even a video about hideous war wounds! The atmosphere is very tense… We walked away very touched of this place. We feel that Chinese people haven’t forgotten and they don’t really forgive to Japanese.

It was very interesting to understand Sino-Japanese relations. Because the old generation be mat at Japanese, and some of Chinese hate them a lot. But the new generation begin to build strong relation with Japan.

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RIDDLE – Free Subject

RIDDLE: Why every Saturday morning, there are umbrellas everywhere in People square?

When I went in People square for my first time, I saw umbrellas everywhere… My friends and I are asked “WHY?” : Maybe an umbrella exposition, because some were very beautiful! Or maybe a public sale of umbrellas (maybe some of them belonged to famous people…). Because we could see on umbrellas paper with Chinese ideograms and some numbers like “166”, “1992”… But what did it mean? Have you got an idea? Think about it!

Hint 1: "Look beyond what you see…"

Hint 2: Forget umbrellas!

Hint 3: Think about numbers on the paper…  

Hint 4: It wouldn’t be possible in Europe!

Hint 5: It concerns 2 people…

So, have you got the answer???

Solution:

There are several million singles in China. Indeed, during school, Chinese students don’t have time to dedicate themselves to their love life, because they work a lot all the time! Then, their relatives, worried, display posters on umbrellas (umbrellas are just a support). Posters present: sex, age, date of birth, height, weight, Chinese zodiac sign, hobbies, family values, university qualifications and sometimes a picture. This is the Shanghai Marriage Market!

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SHANGHAI NEWS – Local News

The French “baguette” have a real success in China. A lot of french came to Shanghai to create their bakery. There’re everywhere!

It’s a story about a French bakery named “Farine” which was very famous in Shanghai. In march, police officers arrested managers for “use of out-of-date flour”. Indeed, managers bought flour in large quantities to pay cheaper, but the expiry date have been exceeds. Every 4 bakeries were closed quickly.

According to Yan Zuqiang, director of the Administration of food and medicine, bakeries breaking the Chinese law on the food safety by using foodstuffs after their expiry date. If managers are convicted of breaches, they will then have to assume the legal responsibility, he added.

It’s a staff member who notified policy. It was a scandal with the customers who sometimes spend 1h queuing to buy their bread. Actually, managers are still incarcerated.

On French side, some people suspect authorities of having closed bakeries because of their big success! “A jealousy problem”… Because even if it’s true that the flour was out-of-date, in China, in all small restaurant, I drank very often out-of-date beverage and sometimes food…

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Pundong sunset

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China Map - Geopolictics

China is compose by:

5 Autonomies regions: Inner Mongolia, Guangxi Zhuang, Ningxia Hui, Xin

Jiang, and Tibet

23 Provinces

4 Municipalities: Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing

2 Special Administrative Regions (SAR): Hong Kong and Macao

China is divided in 5 parts: North east China, East China, Central China, West China and SAR.

Why China is a particular country?

Urban and rural differences

East and West cultural differences: food for example

Face saving consuming habit

Rapid changes each years: Pudong district in Shanghai born in 1995 with the Pearl TV Tower

One country, two systems

Very advanced in some areas and backward in most areas: in Shanghai, we can see modern district Pudong close to the poor old city

Huge population: 1 400 000

Sky high housing price: 5000$/square meters

High demand of luxury goods in China: 46% of the planet, number 1

China ranks n°1 in both auto manufacturing and auto selling for 8 years

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Chinese Flag - Geopolitics

5 stars of the Chinese flag represent :

the big one : the Communist Party, and others :

workers (工 gōng)

farmers (农 nóng)

small shopkeepers (商 shāng)

soldiers(学 xué).

Also, the communist flag is very present.

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Politics of China - Geopolitics

The politics of the People's Republic of China (PRC) takes place in a framework of a semi-presidential socialist republic run by a single party, the Communist Party of China. The actual president is Xi Jinping since 2013. More than 80 million members make up this party. Communists represent only 1% of the population, but they totally control China.  When Chinese are student, they have the choice to join the Communist Party. Only best student are selected. Chinese people don’t too much dare to say it, but they have little power of decision… When my parents were in Shanghai, the guide told us her feeling about the government, she felt powerless! It was very interesting.

The country control is maintained on the population thanks to information control, propaganda, censorship, threats and repressions. Facebook, Instagram, Google are prohibited for example. 

The Capital of China is Beijing. When I went to Beijing, I felt the worship of Mao Zedong. We can see pictures of him everywhere! It’s very different in shanghai, a city more modern (where there was moreover the first meeting of the Communist Party of China in 1921). In reality, Mao is hated by greater part of Chinese, because of the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" which was a disaster.

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TOPITOCHINA 10 WEIRDS THINGS IN CHINA -                   Free subject

1. Chinese people spit on the ground everywhere! Yes, it's a common practice here. Even grannies spit! And they are extremely disgusted when they see us blow our nose…

2. They sleep everywhere: car, subway, taxi, bench, park, restaurant, shop, museum, IKEA (the perfect place for a perfect nap). Sometimes the taxi driver sleep few seconds during the red light! We are so afraid…

3. Body language: they haven’t! So they speak us chinese with conviction, persuaded that we understand, but not.

4. Baby pants. Chinese are so ingenious, they are provided a hole in pants to facilitate need to pee or... Very clever!

5. Yes, besides, children pee in the street without pressure!

6. ALL CHILDREN are so beautiful. I want one!

7. The subway! You have to be strong to resist at the crowd getting out of the subway. Everybody get out and enter at the same time!

8. Odors: we often pass in a street where there is a horrible smell. What is it? We don’t know. Maybe a particular tofu, mystery...

9. There are shopping malls on all streets cross. They are huge, in the subway station, in the basement, or in huge buildings, it’s impressive! The little “La Part Dieu” in Lyon will no longer satisfy me!

10. Traffic: here, priority to cars and scooters. Crossing the road at green light is very important if you care about your life! Never a vehicle will stop in front of a pedestrian.

Brief, WE LOVE CHINESE PEOPLE AND CHINA!

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Security in China – Social Rituals

From the smallest restaurant of Shanghai to the Nanjing Road, there are cameras. They are present everywhere! We can’t be foolish or do strange things. We are watched!

Anecdote: During a weekend in Suzhou (city), a huge screen was placed in a crossing with: the photo of a woman (more and more zoom) crossing the road at the red light, in live, covered by a big red cross with mentioned « 不做! »  (Don’t do that!). Therefore, everybody knows!

Police is also present everywhere. In all roads crossings in particular, but also in front of shopping malls, important places, parks…

Anecdote: I was in scooter with my friend Camille when a policeman stops us: penalty! The reason? We drove on the road and not on the sidewalk... WTF?

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Chinese food – Social Rituals

It’s a real pleasure to eat in China for me! Food is often spiced, and I love that! And, above all, we can eat between 2 and 6€. So, what we eat?

Nems? NO! It is a Vietnamese dish!

Noodles, noodles, noodles! Often in soup with vegetables and some meat! We have our “noodles HQ”!

Rice of course!

Chicken fry, we like it.

Dumplings, famous traditional Chinese dish!

Macdonald’s! Yeahhh, it costs only 3€, so we can’t resist temptation...

Pizzas sometimes, but it’s expensive!

Chinese also eat strange things like snakes, scorpions, cockroaches… (you can look the picture)

Your question: Did I ever eat dog or cat? I don't think so, but I can’t be sure…

Our best eateries are "Halal" restaurants. For maximum 2€, we can eat a really delicious meal of rice or noodles, with fresh products and homemade noodles!

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SUIBE 上海对外经贸大学 – University profile

Shanghai University of International Business and Economics is a public university in China. It was founded in 1960. It was named the Shanghai Foreign Trade Institute until 2013. SUIBE has established partnerships with its overseas counterparts from more than 80 countries.

The Institute is located on two campuses, one in Gubei and the other in Songjiang.Songjiang campus is the biggest and the most modern campus of the university. Bus its 2 hours away from Shanghai in transport. I have chosen Gubei campus because it’s close to the city centre and it is more open for foreign people. We are in total about 45 foreign students.

On my first day, we had made a mistake about the daytime! It was funny. Concerning various represented nationalities, I think there are ¾ students from France. We can defend our country! There are also a lot of Germans, Dutch, Canadians, Americans and Koreans. It’s not very varied! However I discovered during the school picture that there are full of Chinese. But we are between foreign students during courses.

There is a good atmosphere within the university, everybody can speak with everybody. Lot of school trips were organized, but we were informed it too late… Therefore we organize regularly day and party between foreign students. We made a BBQ and a volleyball on the beach, it was a great day!  

Concerning courts, I have four classes:  

Basic Chinese: Chinese course, it is there that I understood that Chinese language is so complicated. The teacher speaks little bit English, thus I make some times translation errors. But I feel that I quickly progress.

Supply chain management: it is certainly the course that I like least but with a very nice professor.

How to do Business in China: very interesting, especially when we know that China is the first world power.

E-commerce: I really appreciate this price because we don’t learn this at ESDES.

For summary, it’s a pleasure to go to university!

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Hangzhou

Sunset

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Welcome on my blog!

I’m going to make you discover my life in China, thanks to my photos, videos & articles!

Thanks a lot to my school, ESDES wich offered me the opportunity to spend one semester in Shanghai! It’s fantastic! And thanks so much to my parents!

For my firts post, I choose to show you THE view of Shanghai: the BUND! Very amazing, no?