Unfortunately, air conditioning can not really able to replace “real” heatings (known as “wall heating” here, and virtually nobody has it). Even if Shanghai cannot compete with the German winter 2010 – it still can have down to 0°C here.

Chinese household gadgets are a challenge of their own. There's a lot of software that can help you to translate Chinese words and sentences at the click of the mouse. What a pity such software doesn't exist for TVs, DVD players and all the other household items…

In China, “thank you” has – according to my impression – a lot stronger meaning than in Germany. Especially when you are in the role of a customer, you do not explicitly have to say thank you all the time, except when the service was exceptional. If you still do it, the other person often seems surprised.

Coming to Germany, some Chinese are surprised how often you have to say “thank you” as a customer…