China daily randomly # 2

Number 4 means bad luck (interesting is that number 8 means opposite – so if you double your bad luck, you get happy :-) so Chinese people try to avoid it as much as possible. The most visible it is in buildings, usually there is no floor 4, 13, 14, 24 (with higher numbers I can’t tell because the highest building I have visited was with 26 floor). This is especially important if you want to practice bungee jumping from building, e.g. when you are standing on the 30th floor, there are 4 floors missing below you, which might mean painful difference :-)

They use different measures of cubature actually it still in ml but numbers are weird. So you can by milk 243 ml or 486ml. Small Coca-Cola in bottle is usually 600 ml, same as beer. In McDonalds or KFC you get drink 375 ml or 405ml etc.



This is my business card. As you can see my name can be written by 3 Chinese signs. But there is only LU-KA-S. If they have to write my surname it is 5 another character, (8 together) which is for Chinese as my friend Jolin said: “very weird name and impossible to remember” (average name is 2 or 3 characters). They write surname on a first place and then given name, so if somebody see my card he would thing that my name is Kas Lu.

China daily randomly

Here is bunch of random pictures and comments from daily life in China.

I have made some notes about trafic system in Beijing. So this is situation in subway aroun 8am - working day.










A takhle to vypada, kdyz Sisanek dopapa :-) Ale ne, to neni jen moje vina, obecne recenu tu jedi jako prasata. Kdyz maji nejaky kosti, tak to rovnou flusou na stul. Taky jim furt neco pada mimo talir a treba v teto restauraci vam donesou misku a horkou vodu, vodou si vyplachnete misku (protoze ackoliv je umyta, tak na nase standardy je spinavejsi nez hajzl na nadru) a jen to tak normalne za sebe chlestnete mezi dalsi stoly. No ale v tomto aspektu jsou mi cinani celkem sympaticiti a necinilo mi moc velke problemy se adaptovat:-)





Painting of The Great Wall in PricewaterhouseCoopers. We had meeting with our Board of Advisors there.

Nedelni vylet aneb jak jsem (ne)jedl mistni speciality

Je nedele, aneb prilezitost objevovat mistni kulturu a pamatky. S celym MC tymem jsme se vydali do Lamaistickeho chramu, coz je jedno z nejvyznamnejsich mist v celem Pekingu. Bylo nas celkem devet, dost blby cislo, protoze se o jednoho cloveka nevejdeme do dvou taxiku. Pokusili jsme o jiz vyzkousenou strategii - zastavit taxi, na nic se neptat a narvat se tam v peti lidech, treba si toho ridic nevsimne. Vsiml, nasral se a jedna osoba musela vystoupit. Asi jsme ho natolik dopalili, ze pozadavek o zapnuti klimatizace vyhodnotil jako nejvyssi drzost a vyhodil i zbyle ctyri lidi. No ale nakonec sme si sehnali jiny taxale a vyrazili.

MC se podarilo v prubehu vikendu finalizovat plan, proto se vydali do chramu pozadat Buddhu a pomoc při jeho realizaci. Pri tomto procesu kazdy MC clen podepsal a pote obradne spalil kopii planu. Exchange tu docela frci, tak na tom asi neco bude...

Po navsteve chramu jsme se vydali na jidlo, coz znamena rozsahlou diskuzi, ze co to bude. Jedna cast chtela jit za ostatnimi praktikanty na pizzu a druha na nejaky tradicni cinsky jidlo. Ja jsem se klonil k te druhe variante, vsak pizzu jsem mel nedavno v jedne japonske restauraci :-) Skupinka se rozdelila a ja zustal v te „cina“ skupine, byla tam i Nina, zatim jsme oba meli dobrou naladu(viz. foto). Restaurace to byla takova malicka, hajzl měli na ulici a misto umyvadla takova nadoba, jak se z ni u nas ve skolnich jidelnach nebo na Seci toci caj. Po usazeni se mistni vrhli do objednavani, furt se necemu smali a my se na sebe s Ninou jen tak divali a cekali co bude. První prinesli nejaky omacky, který se davaji na varic uprostred stolu a v tom si pak macite a varite ostatní jidlo. Ano varite, tj. cokoliv co vam serviruji je syrove a vy si to sami udelate. To by mi jeste tak nevadilo, vsak tatarak miluju, ale mistni nabidka predcila me ocekavani. Nejdriv se na stole objevila nejaka zelenina, no to moc nezeru, ale budiz. Potom nejaky lysohlavky ci jiny houby (zase vedle)a dalsi prisli raci (to taky moc nemusim). No ale hlavni chod se teprve blizil. Nejdriv prede me postavili neco co vypadalo jak vymachana rohozka a az po chvilce mi vysvetlili, ze to je zaludek( to se mi navalilo poprve). Pote nasledovala rohozka white edition (druhej naval) a zavrsil to syrovej mozek (potreti). To sem se podival na Ninu, ktera byla taky radne zelena, a po rychlem vyhodnoceni situace na stole, kde jsem k pozivani nasli pouze kedlubnu a salat, jsme se rozhodli k omluve a rychle evakuaci.

Venku sme se v klidu rozdychali a vydali hledat druhou skupinku, ktera sla na pizzu. Samozrejme sme nevedeli kam mame jet, ale tady je nejlepsi kdyz nevite co, zavolat nejakymu cinanovi, dat mobil taxikarovi a oni se uz nejak dorozumi. Podobne to fungovalo i na miste, když jsme nemohli najit pizzeri, ale za pomoci nasi cinske spojky a dvou nahodnych chodcu jsme se nasli. Musim rict, ze po predchozim soku to byl uplny balzam pro oci i zaludek. Pizzy tu měli všechny mozne druhy a hlavne ta velikost. Nejvetsi verze je tak asi pro 5 osob a stoji cca 300 Kc (kdyz se to rozkraji na osm kousku, tak každý ten kousek je velky přes cely talir standardni velikosti). K prezrani mi stacilo 1,5 kousku Hawaie (akorat mam pocit, ze si tu trosku pletou ananas s cibuli, které tam bylo narozdil od prve zmineneho halda). Ale kazdopadne sem byl rad, ze jsem se vyhnul ryzi a vselijakemu syrovemu kdovicemu.

Po veceri sme se sami s Ninou vydali zpet, protoze tama vedla prima linka domu, tak na to nepotrebujeme nikoho mistniho. Ovsem netrvalo ani 5 minut a uz nas vyhazovali na konecne. Tak jsme nasli zastavku v obracenym (a spravnym) smeru a unaveni, ale super napapani dorazili domu. A dobry je ze pizzerii poznam i z autobusu, kdyz sem kolem ni jel dvakrat, takze se muzeme kdykoliv vratit.

2008 Summer Olympics

I guess, that most of you know that Beijing will host Summer Olympics in August 2008. So how they are preparing? Everything in under construction now, but Chinese are pretty fast in this activity so they do not expect any complication. We will see.
I have already seen main Olympic Stadium and Olympic village. Here are the pictures how they look like now and also how Olympic stadium should be when ready. Locals call stadium "Nest" (Hnizdo).

The stadium will seat as many as 100,000 spectators during the Olympics, but this will be reduced to 80,000 after the games. The stadium is 330 metres long by 220 metres wide, and is 69.2 metres tall. The 250,000 square metre (gross floor area) stadium is to be built with 36 km of unwrapped steel, with a combined weight of 45,000 tonnes. The stadium will cost up to 330 000 000 EUR (cca 10 miliard Kc).


Some events, including football, sailing, and new 10 km swimming marathon events will be held in other cities of China. The equestrian events will be held in Hong Kong.
Number 8 is lucky number in China, so Olympics will start 8th August 2008 8:08:08pm.
Official web site of Beijing Olympics is http://en.beijing2008.cn/



I was also surprised that centre of city is already quite clean and green. You cant see almost any litters or garbage on the street, because they army of people who are cleaning the streets during the whole day. And also lot of touristic places are under construction, which is really annoying. This weekend we have seen Lama temple, which is biggest temple in Beijing (take si ji rika Chram vecneho klidu). It is really nice but impression of calm and peaceful place was little disturbed by bunch of workers who were repairing and repainting different parts of temple. Same happened last week when we visited Confucius temple – bad luck for tourist now :-(


Anyway I see three mayor challenges: transportation, water, air pollution. In preparation for the games, Beijing's subway system is currently undergoing a major expansion that will more than double its existing size. The system currently is composed of three lines and 64 stations. An additional seven lines and more than eighty new stations are being constructed, including a direct link to Beijing Capital International Airport. All new lines should be opened just one week before Olympics, so it will be interesting.

Tap water is not drinkable here. Actually water is not bad, but old transportation system is what contaminates it. So we have big barrels of water at home and in the office, but this is not solution for Olympic village. Somewhere I found “Regardless of whether the water transportation problem is fixed or not, officials have ensured that fresh tap water will be available in the Olympic Village” (tak na to su zvedavej).
Air pollution is so big issue here that I will mentioned later on in separate post.

You can see Olympic symbols and mascots very often here and you can buy them on any imaginable items, any shape or size. I already have T-shirt, key holders and beer glass (which I have from pub for free :-) ) Regarding mascots, they are called Fuwa (litterally "Goog-luck dolls"). They consist of five members according to the five elements of Chinese philosophy: Beibei (water), Jingjing (metal), Huanhuan (fire), Yingying (earth), and Nini (wood). The five mascots incorporate fish, giant panda, fire, Tibetan antelope, and swallow (vlastovka) designs respectively, and each also represents one of the five Olympic Rings. When the first syllable of each of the five names are said together, the result is the phrase which means "Beijing welcomes you" (Běijīng huānyíng nǐ). Each of them also represents one ideal - prosperity, hapiness, passion, health, good fortune. If you want to know more about them just visit official olympic web site. The red one is my favourite.
So eventhough now it is quite hard here with lot of constructions and restriction, I think that in one year Beijing will be nicer and more friendly city. And that is what Olympic idea is as well, isn't it?

P.S: New set of photos, especially from 2nd weekend, is here

Shopping and bargaining

For those who are interested in our weekend trip in central Beijing I recommend to visit Nina’s blog (written in Slovak). And all my pictures you can find here
I will mention only one part of our trip and that’s visit of Pearl Market. Is department store, where you can find clothes, electronics and one whole floor is full of shops with ear-rings, bracelets, watches and other fancy stuff (Meno, tady by ses zblaznila :-) ostatne jako vetsina zenskych). Firstly I made small market research, find the most beautiful pear ear-rings and start bargaining. The lady was quite tough, so I was not able to reduce price by a single yuan. So I left and try to find another place, but they were much more expensive (on average 4x , after bargaining 2x than first shop) so I went back and try another strategy – pretending that I want to buy more pieces. But when we get to number five and price was still same (or more precisely 5 times higher) I resigned and bought only two pairs of ear-rings. Than I decided to find another shop to get my lost self-confidence back. I found a nice red tie with Chinese signs and ask for price – 35 RMB (1 RMB = 3 CZK, so quite cheap but I tried…). I sad no and I received new price 30, I sad 20, she sad 25, I sad ok gave her 20 and left with new tie whohoooo….
On the street here you can by almost anything, shoes, clothes, books (I found Harry Potter in English), toys, bags, watches etc. Twice I also met guy, who was selling small puppies (krasny roztomiloucky stenatka). Close to our office is place where is a lot of this street shops, so it takes some time to get to bus stop, especially when you go with girl :-) But yesterday it was funny, we went through this street and entered for while normal shop to buy local specialty – tea with milk and jelly – and suddenly we realized that the street is almost empty. Than I noticed three police officers, how they are shouting to some woman and she had to leave very quickly. But after five minutes most of the sellers were back. Business is business and this police cannot change.

First Days in Beijing – I will survive...

Arrival was little bit adventures. We have already been quite close to landing runway (aprox. 50 meters high) and suddenly we changed the direction, plane accelerated and get back to 1000 meters. And we flew aprox. 20 minutes around Beijing, before we successfully landed on second time.
All legal procedures were ok, but I had to fill 3 different papers (entry card, custom declaration and health check). Nina was waiting for me at the airport and we get by taxi to our home. Than we went to discover surroundings. First challenge came when I had to change money in bank. I need to get a queue number, but machine with tickets was of course only in Chinese. So I pressed all available buttons, get few papers and waiting which one will come first. I was lucky, so I could change money at first desk, which I get in to, only lady there was quite surprised with my passport and was not able to find what is my nationality. And then we discovered McDonald’s so my first food in Beijing was Chinese Big Mac. I have to adapt slowly :-) And menu cost around 60 CZK so it is not expensive, but comparing to local prices it above average (in some restaurants you can order food by phone, they bring it to your office or home and one normal meal costs 9 CZK). And close to office we have also KFC and Pizza Hut, so I don’t have to eat only Chinese food - I will survive…

Z letištního kempu

Tyto řádky píši z Moskvy (ale zveřejním je až požději, protože sem tu nechytil žádnou free wifi). Let Praha – Moskva byl celkem fajn a uběhl rychle. Po příletu mi trvalo se chvíli zorientovat kam mám jít, protože tu mám jen transit a bez víz ze se mi za celníky nechtělo. Nakonec jsem našel nějaký dveře s nápisem transit ovšem zavřený. Když jsem zkusil tlačítko vedle, tak se mi podařilo zhasnout a rožnou svítí nápis nade dveřmi, ale ty se ani nehly. Tak jsem chvíli čekal co jako bude a nakonec se za jakousi přepážkou objevily dvě ruský „krasavice“ co se mi koukly na boarding card a řekli, že můžu jít. Jenže za přepážkou jsem narazil na ty samý zavřený dveře. Tak sem se vrátil, úřednice mi řekla, že mám chvíli počkat a až se nás tam naskupilo dost, mohl jsem vyrazit vstříc kouzlům transitního prostoru.
No moc toho tu vidět není, obchody tu jsou jen na chlast a na parfémy. Navíc ty parfémy prodávají ve stáncích hned při cestě, takže tím smradem musíte projít chtě nechtě. Jsou tu seskupeny na dvě místa, takže richna je to betálná, ale rychlou chůzí se to dá projít na jeden nádech. McDonald ani KFC tu nejsou, jen nějaký pofidérní párky v rohlíku dělaný na cibuli, plus asi dvě normální restaurace, ale ceny jsme nezjišťoval. Mám ještě dvě bagety z BILLY.
Půl litru Coly tu stojí 2 EUR, ale našel jsem i jeden kšeft, kde to mají za euro, tak sem se předzásobil, jen nevím jestli mi to pustí i na palubu letadla…
Nejhorší je, že tu je zoufale málo sedaček, jsou tu jen na dvou místech a to jen 10 a 20 kusů, který jsou permanentně okupovaný, takže sem vyrazil hledat místo, kde zakempuju. Je tu ještě jedno patro, kde je relativně malej ruch, což je to fajn, a podobných skautů jako já je tu víc. Národnosti se dají poznat dle toho na čem lidí kempují, já sem se usadil na Metru, vedle mě se týpek valí po Frankfürter Allgemaine a na druhou stranu mam bandu šikmookých, na těch je to vidět i bez novin. Furt hrají karty - no nevím, jestli je možný, aby každej z nich při švým štichu zároveň vyhrál, ale dle zvukových doprovodů asi ano.
Chvilí sem sem se koukal na film (Odstřelovač), ale v polovině mi zdech notebook, takže sem musel přesunout tábor na hlavní bulvár, kde se mi podařilo najít jednu zásuvku a dobít baterky. Už jsem tu šest hodin, ale super je že za dvě hoďky už mi to letí. Teďka už jsem zpět v základním táboře a du dokoukat jak to tam Mark Walhberg vystřílí…