1,000,000 photos on a working Sunday

Sunday, 08/04/2018

Today is Sunday and a working day! Why? Well, because all of China (except our broker John) followed the day name on Friday and maybe worked black on a government-mandated bridge day (Thursday was Qing Ming Festival). If we calculate the economic loss that occurs when hundreds of millions of people don't work as they should, it is clear that an adjustment needs to be made. The yang to the idle Friday's yin is simply working on a day that should be free! This exchange of free and working days is centrally controlled and likely occurs throughout the year. This is probably the counterproposal to Russia or Greece, where Monday is simply given off when a public holiday falls on a weekend. Anyway, we have chosen it this way.

To make up for the exhausting search for an apartment, we met with the family of my new boss, who had to work 🤗, in 'Tinglin Park'.

My new boss is called Christian. We have known each other since the beginning of our Voith career, we are about the same age, and we both used to lead departments in Heidenheim. Christian went to China in February. He has also studied in Beijing for a year and apparently speaks Hanyue quite well. I am looking forward to leaving our mark here together.

The park was quite crowded, as expected on a Sunday, but buses of pensioners arrived who had attended a wreath-laying ceremony. We didn't quite figure out what they were commemorating. What surprised me was that a flag of the Soviet Union was unfolded. I mean, the comrades know that it no longer exists, right? After all, we are not in North Korea. Or was it to commemorate the deceased Soviet Union? I'll just ask next year.

Christian and his wife Saskia also have two children of similar ages to ours. The weather was nice and we found a shady spot to watch the gang, which quickly got along well. Philipp had his plane and ball with him as usual, so occasionally a Huáxiángjī flew around someone's ears, or they were already shown what the world revolves around in June/July. Apparently, children in China are allowed to do anything until a certain age. In any case, everyone was delighted with the bustling gang of little foreigners.

And then they spotted Jule again... Suddenly, a group of two or three dozen people gathered around us and started talking to us and taking pictures. Strangely, we can barely understand the Chinese people. But that's not due to our Chinese language skills, as we don't want to engage in philosophical debates, but rather apply our basics. No, apparently people here already speak with a strong accent compared to the Mandarin homeland. We simply always respond that the child's name is Jule, she is 8 months old, and a photo costs 20 yuan, and that Philipp is Jule's 'gege'. Most of the time, the Chinese continue talking, so our language skills can't be that bad.