It´s probably 30°C outside, and now that i have internet access, i feel that i have really arrived. So i can start telling some of my first impressions.
From the beginning, i left the station in Erfurt with my more than 20kg backpack, and i thought i was taking too much.
Well, it was maybe not that much, but it was heavy. And i know i will need the warm clothes in the last month. :-) In the check in they said that i can take 30kg anyway!
Train trip was ok (luck me that there was no strike), and waiting in the airport was boring. Bought books and magazines, read a bit, tried to learn some Chinese.
Flight for the first time in a 747 with a second floor. Tought it would be quite empty, but it was not. Nice service, the stewardesses were very much relaxed, and there was no crying baby or people doing party (like the last flights to Brazil).
Had a place by the window, and could observe, when not sleeping, the view outside. Big cities at night are so amazing. And also very impressive was to Gobi desert. Could not see so much from Beijing.
While almost melting in the 35°C, just worried that there would be any problem in the pass control, i did the transit to the other machine, which was also full. I was indeed very tired, and could sleep the in the last hour of the trip. 14.30, just as said, we were landing. Colleagues were waiting for me in the airport, and, we had to go up and down looking for my backpack.Until now i don't know what happened, just that the luggage was not where it was supposed to be, and nobody knew about it. It comes to be really interesting when there are discussions in the Chinese language. We took a taxi from the very south to the very north, and i could get an idea of how big Shenyang (Sy) really is. More than 7.000.000, way too big for me, but, i guess i will survive. Anyway, streets are clean, the air is a bit muggy. The transit seemed to be not very chaotic. After more than one hour in the taxi (for 110 Yuan), we got in the university campus, almost in the rural area. Another master student was waiting for us, she had the keys of my dormitory. Unpacked, and we went eating. Well, i was afraid it would always be like this, a way to much food, and very spicy. My nose was saying thanks, than, indeed, it was good for cleaning!
We bought some stuff, a sim card for my cellphone, locks for the closet and some smelly incense against mosquitoes & co. There are really nice insects down here.
Could sleep the first night very well. Even had dreams. Met Miss. Zhang and we came to the lab: new and big, and really nice. There are some fermenters for anaerobic digestion experiments, and other measuring equipments. There is also the climate chamber for the landfill gas formation simulation and there are also two big
pilot plants. Pictures come later.
I got some literature to read, the proceedings of the 1. ICEEE (Institute of Clean Energy and Environmental Engineering) Conference which happened last year. The facts about waste management in China are quite impressive: only 30% of the population is served by collecting system, and this represents 155 Million tonnes waste every year. And only the half of this is treated (most in uncontrolled landfilling, some composting and incinerating). And i ask myself, first, what about the waste of the other 70% of the population? And, what about the other half of the collected waste, where does it go to?
Reading all morning, then lunch at the refectory. Good food, maybe some dishes with too much oil, but the rice is always good, and i am getting better with the chopsticks. The food costs between 2 to 8 Yuan's (20 to 80 cents), and the restaurant is like 24/7, almost all day open, the entire week. People here normally eat a hearty meals for breakfast as well. And guess what, after lunch i could even take a snap. They do so in summer here. But here an advice: not to sleep longer than 30min, otherwise you will be sleepy the whole afternoon.
So much for the first 2 days. Let´s see what the weekend will bring.
