Thursday, September 30, 2010

What's big in Berlin is peanuts in China

Eat this, feel great (right?)

I’m back in Sweden after 3,5 intensive days in Berlin hanging out with fellow Swedes working all over the world. I had a fun experience when I went with a fellow China-based colleague to visit Berlin’s famous mall “Ka De We” that’s supposed to be “huge” and “massive.” We entered the mall and walked around for a bit, until I couldn’t help myself for any longer: “They call this huge? This is peanuts!”

I’ve obviously been damaged by 4 years in China. Still, I remember the first time I went to Beijing (spring 2006) and a Chinese friend took me to one of the world’s largest malls, located in the outskirts of Beijing. The mall was so large that it took almost 30 minutes to walk around it! My friend told me that if you visited every shop in the mall, staying for a mere 5 minutes in each shop, it would take you more than one week. Now that’s big everyone! However, hands up to Ka De We still, as it had a fantastic deli section, turning me into a mad woman on a (chocolate) shopping spree. How’s a bar of 100% (that’s right!) chocolate for instance? Me and a fellow choco-holic managed to convince ourselves that 100% chocolate actually cannot be bad for us, but rather, the more we eat, the healthier (although maybe not thinner?) we’ll get. A moment later I stepped out of Ka De We, asking myself what on earth had just gotten into me, and made me spend 20 euros on chocolate –thinking it’s going to be good for me? Oh well.

I’ll now spend a few days in Sweden (as a national holiday in China is coming up, tomorrow’s China’s national day –good timing of this trip I must say!) before I go back to my dear Shangers. Running is definitely on the agenda, especially after consuming all of my "healthy chocolate." It's beautiful over here at the moment. Blue skies, a shining sun, and fresh, crisp autumn air. Ahhh, heaven. Amazing that I didn't learn how to appreciate this until I moved away from here.

4 comments:

Li said...

I reminds me my first visit to NK in Stockholm. My swedish friend was so proud to present me stockholm's best shopping mall, and after 10 minutes i told her that in Beijing we have at least 100 stores bigger than NK. She could not believe it until she came to visit this summer. I also went to “Ka De We” this summer , and i bought lots of sweets for my chinese friends. Most of swiss chocolates are half price compare to those sold in Beijing. By the way, german and swedish food are full of fat and cream. Chinese food in Europe are not chinese food at all. If every chinese eat the european style chinese food, we all look like Michael Moore.

Unknown said...

The mind boggles! - China's BIG on everything!!

mantse said...

actually, sometimes i think those are too big but content...

Jonna Wibelius said...

Li -yeah, it's not even fair to compare Stockholm to cities like BJ and SH... As for Swe food being full of fat and cream -sure, but Chi food is full of oil and msg so I'm not quite sure what is considered best. Maybe oil and msg won't make you fat on the outside, but it sure cannot be healthy or good for your inside. Also, the Chi air turns your lungs into lungs of a smoker. So you win some and lose some, no matter where on earth u are.

Keats -Not so big on fresh air... ;)

Mantse-the BJ mall I visited was def too big. It felt oberwhelming and tiring to be in there. Too much too look at. We didn't buy anything and left after 1 hour.