English – MA SAN BLOG

23. Mai 201621. Oktober 2016China, English, Impressionen, unterwegs1 comment

The most remarkable sections of the Great Wall near Beijing

There are many sections of the great wall that can be visited in a daytrip from Beijing. The ones at Simatai and Jinshanling are among the best. The steps lead up steeply into the air. They are cracked by the centuries and we have to use our hands to make it, virtually on all fours, to the top. Also the outer walls look more and more desintegrated as further we go. However, as more desintegrated it becomes, the more I like […]

12. Mai 201610. Juni 2018Allgemein, English, Südost Asien, Thailand, unterwegs0 comments

Koh Ngai – a dream island in the Andaman Sea of Thailand (I)

Koh Ngai has it all! Turquoise water, a snow-white beach and colorful coral reefs. The best – you have it all for yourself. A crowd of odd-looking birds is populating the tree right behind us. All black and with a disproportionately large and oddly curved yellow beak they stare upon us from above. Before us lies an endless, golden beach, and on its end are trees just like this one alternating with palms. The warm water that continues to slowly work […]

12. Mai 201610. Juni 2018English, Südost Asien, Thailand, unterwegs0 comments

Ko Ngai – a dream island in the Andaman Sea of Thailand (II)

»Article continued, read the first part!« Koh Ngai Our way to Koh Ngai firstly leads us to Phuket, from where we want to go on by ferry. On the famous Peninsula we remain two days and we chose Phuket Town as our base, a colorful melting pot full of cute Sino-Portuguese town houses, stylish restaurants and cafes. Best: Phuket City is unlike the rest of the island – because no private beach – very inexpensive and an ideal place to to […]

4. Mai 20163. November 2021Allgemein, Best Of, China, English, Fahrrad, Impressionen0 comments

China Talk – a chat with Gao Shusan, co-founder of WKUP URBAN CYCLING, about cycling (Part I)

Recently, I coincidentaly met an old friend at the Berliner Fahrradschau, a bicycle lifestyle show. As a co-founder of a startup called WKUP URBAN CYCLING he is busy designing minimalist bicycles. Sometimes things happen that are simply crazy! The other day some friends dragged me to the Berlin Bicycle Week (externer link), the world’s largest bicycle lifestyle show. Just like at a music festival, hip young people walked through the halls of STATION Berlin at Gleisdreieck Park, to check out what’s […]

4. Mai 201621. Oktober 2016Allgemein, China, English, Fahrrad, Impressionen0 comments

China Talk – a chat with Gao Shusan, co-founder of WKUP URBAN CYCLING, about cycling (Part II)

Continuation of an interview with Gao Shusan at the Berliner Fahrradschau, a bicycle lifestyle show. As a co-founder of a startup called WKUP URBAN CYCLING he is busy designing minimalist bicycles. When can we buy your bicycles here in Germany? Since the online sale for Europeans would cause excessive costs due to high shipping costs, we are currently on the look-out for a local retailer. That’s also a reason why we are here at this fair. I really hope that we […]

4. Mai 201621. Oktober 2016Allgemein, China, English, Fahrrad, Impressionen0 comments

China Talk – a chat with Gao Shusan, co-founder of WKUP URBAN CYCLING, about cycling (Part III)

Continuation of an interview with Gao Shusan at the Berliner Fahrradschau, a bicycle lifestyle show. As a co-founder of a startup called WKUP URBAN CYCLING he is busy designing minimalist bicycles. Especially in Berlin more and more people decide themselves against owning a car at all and just cycle instead. There are real movements like the “Critical Mass”, a protest on wheels for a more bicycle friendly city. Although we are still far away from bicycle meccas like Copenhagen, it still […]

2. März 201621. Oktober 2016Allgemein, China, English, Geschichte & Kultur, Impressionen, Literatur, Bücher0 comments

Liao Yiwu – The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories: China From the Bottom Up (PART 1)

»The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories: China From the Bottom Up«, Liao Yiwu calls his book, which has reached the world public after a long time and approaches to prevent its publication. (Diesen Artikel auf Deutsch lesen auf ma-san.de) The author talks with the persecuted, the humiliated and the outcast – he was one of them – at times of the Great Cultural Revolution, the years of terrible hunger and the present. The result is an extremely important and controversial contemporary […]

2. März 201621. Oktober 2016Allgemein, China, English, Geschichte & Kultur, Impressionen, Literatur, Bücher0 comments

Liao Yiwu – The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories: China From the Bottom Up – (PART 2)

This is the second part of the review of Liao Yiwus book – The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories: China From the Bottom Up. Click »here« to read the first part. About the book About the mentioned events a silence prevails in the country. People don’t want to talk about what happened, they want to forget. But the mind does not forget, people don’t forget. It must be clear that hundreds of millions of Chinese still living today have experienced this […]

1. März 20163. November 2021Best Of, China, English, Impressionen, unterwegs0 comments

Moganshan

About a very special, almost forgotten place in front of Shanghai and how an Englishman lost his faith in China, just to rediscover it right there. (Diesen Artikel auf Deutsch lesen auf ma-san.de) Summers in Shanghai are hot, very hot. The adventitious high humidity makes life in this time almost unbearable. An even short walk in the oven-like streets will leave a sopping-wet shirt on your skin. Shanghai is grilled by the sun. This is not new, but has always been […]

2. Februar 201621. Oktober 2016Allgemein, China, English, Impressionen, unterwegs0 comments

Guangxi – Chinas enchanted province

Karst mountains, rice paddies and women with incredibly long hair – a journey to Chinas rural South. (Lesen Sie diesen Artikel auf Deutsch auf ma-san.de) When someone talks about China, negative emotions are nearly automatically created by the listener. He thinks about polluted rivers, about smog that seems to hide the sun forever – about people in endless, machine like cities who are making their living in grey, sad streets. But about a paradise on earth, a wonder of nature so […]