"My dream to come to China dates back to my time as a high school student when I had just begun to learn Mandarin. Admittedly, China has been on my radar primarily for professional reasons but having learned so much about it, my curiosity to explore dragon land was also sparked on a personal level. Knowing that one day I would actually make it there I continued my efforts to learn the language with a private teacher who also educated me about the profound Chinese culture. As part of my study program, I now call Shanghai my temporary home where I am doing an internship at a pharmaceutical company. Here, I cannot get enough of the metropolitan lifestyle where Asia blends so flawlessly with Western cultures. During the week I am working on exciting projects at work and I reserve the weekends to explore this mega city making sure to visit food and fabric markets. In order to make my Chinese fluent once and for all, I receive two hours of Chinese classes each week along with 2 meetings of Tandem with my new Chinese friend who is planning to visit Germany soon. Chinese continues to be a challenge but I am positive to reach my goal of having a solid Chinese one day in the future. Shanghai definitely has its own peculiarities which can be seen in the customs cultivated by the Shanghainese. Even the local dialect differs from those spoken in other regions. Unfortunately I have not yet been able to see much of China leaving me little opportunity to compare Shanghai to the many other places worth seeing in China. Visits to other places are planned for the New Year. As for the many stereotypes we have in mind when thinking of China, I must say that many are true but many are also hyped by people who haven't even been here themselves. So I say, come and let China enchant you! It really is a lovely place!"