With some new colleagues from Finland ant their families we were brave enough to visit the opening of a new chinese style restaurant. It really sounds nice: free food, free flow of softdrinks and beer. Perfect, let's go. Who cares, that the name of the restaurant is "Chairman Mao".
Well, the name says it all, as you can see at the nice uniforms of the waitres. All favourite dishes of Mao are on the menu.
And then the hard time hit us. Mark and Claire has left Suzhou. Mark found a good new job in Shenzhen and so they decided to move. What kind of present would be good? After heavy brainstorming we decided to give them a ticket for a returnflight from Shenzhen to Shanghai, so they can visit us soon.
After sacrificing our selfs to drink all the leftover Spirits at the party, there was just packing left. Sigh. But nevertheless, the Taitai daily business didn't stop. Lunch at Da Marco, shopping at the pearl market,.... busy Taitais.
Staying the last night in our apartment, we made sure, that they really left Suzhou. After some days they also managed to get some kind of visa, Claire is accepted by university of Shenzhen as a student and with a little luck, they also find a apartment there.
The part of Suzhou where we're living is the SIP. And this year is the 15th anniversary. This is celebrated not only with a big firework and speeches but also with a excibition. Nicest part of it are the pictures from the "ancient SIP". We're living the rice fields. Unbelievable
But that's not all. Direct in front of our compound is the construction yard for a 340m high sky scraper. In Suzhou. Now they're gone completly insane. And this eill not be the highest building as it's planned. Well, at least the Horizont Resort will survive - for now.
Looking at this models it's really good to have some green spots around.
And then the big surprise: black beauty, the faithfull bike stopped working. Just stopped during a ride and that's it. Ok, let's check, are there somewhere fuses or is a contact loose. I couldn't find anything, so I pushed her to the fabulous bicycle repair man in the neightbourhood center. If you know where to look, in this case under the cover of the battery, there are some fuses. and couple of minutes later, the black beauty was cured.....
After solving this problem, we went and got a bike for Regina also. The old one fall apart more and more: no working brakes, no light, a very silent horn - no bike for the chinese traffic. And here she is: Blueberry Lu! Isn't she a beauty?
Beeing mobile again, Regina was able to enjoy Starbucks again. A real chinese phenomen. In Europe we've been in sum only 3 times to Starbucks. Here it seems to be the living room....
As each year the EAS is printing calenders for charity sale. The subject this year (or better: next year) is art. As we heard some complaints, that not many people are sending in pictures we startet immediatly with our photo safari in Suzhou. Know we're really tensed, if we get some pictures in.
For the third time this year we were celebrating new year. There was the normal new year 1st of January, then there was the week of chinese new year and now jewish new year. There are a lot of advantages with a multi cultural society and friends.
And the food - wow, did we ever told you, how much we enjoy the different dishes from around the world? If somebody of you thought, there is only rice in China, well, you're not exactly right.
The taitai connection found out, that there is a fabric market in Suzhou. Not as big as in Shanghai but there is one. Calling the troops in and visiting the market was a matter of only a couple of hours. There is a nice choice of different fabric and rubber bands. Rubber bands? Why they sell them on the fabric market will stay as one of the secrets in China.
But the shopping isn't finished yet. Close to our compound a new shopping center opened. Now the US americans are really happy, because now they got an Walmart. But there is also C&A, Starbucks, H&M and according to Lyiam finally a Burger King.
The last weekend we've been down town to get our mooncake. Stephan got a voucher from a supplier for one. On this voucher there were 10 shops listet, where we could get the cake. Unfortunatly in chinese. But we asked for translation and rode our E-Bikes to the nearest shop. And then we got the surprise: it's a ice-mooncake, not a standard one. It would defenitly melt before we make it home. So once again calling the troops and meet them in the Bookworm to have mooncake and coffee.
Just before China closes for a week due to mooncake festival, Stephan was invited for a company opening ceremony. Real chinese with a lot of speeches, flowers, dragon dancer, fireworks, drums and a good lunch with entertainment.
So, now the mooncake festival can start. But first of all there is the big celebration of 60th anniversary of the peoples republic of China. Everywhere are red flags, red ribbons and red 60 signs. Also at the gate of the compounds. TIC.
And what is a celebration in China without firework. We went to the Jinji Hu together with millions of Chinese to have a look on it. Most of the Lauweis are currently in Thailand or Malaysia in holidays.
After this we were ready for the mooncake festival. As every year it is on the 15th day of the 8th month according to the chinese calender. Which was 3rd of October this year, as everbody knows. What exactly is celebrated isn't that eays to find out. "It's a tradition, so what" is the standard answer to out questions. Later that night we saw an incredible amount of flying lanterns coming over our compound. Wow.
Somehow this page today was a mixture of different events. The next page is already in our ideas with pictures from the rising sun - what? Rising sun? That's pretty early the day, right, but why we have pictures anyway, this is a completly other story....
Shoes...
...is a never ending theme in China. But all the girls are
wearing it voluntary...
