In our sixth meeting we introduced each other to our country in a little more detail regarding its geography and its destinations one has to visit when being there.
I taught my Chinese peers about a.i. the biggest German cities that are Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne and Frankfurt am Main. I especially adviced them to visit Frankfurt when they have the chance to since it is the city I know the most about and because it is the only German city with a proper Skyline (see picture). It is Germany’s and maybe even Europe’s finacial heart therefore being very rich and modern. The Chinese counterpart is Shanghai as I learned.
We really had to laugh when they showed the population of one Chinese province being ~60m poeple because I then told them that Germany’s entire population is 80m people. I guess they did not expect Germany to be as small as it actually is.
We also discovered some similarities: The extrema of the climate/ weather in both countries are rather similar. Temperatures vary between -15° and 40°. However, the difference is that the extrema last different amout of times whereas they only last a couple of days in Germany but they last a couple of weeks or even months in China. Another similarity is the distribution of wealth: Both countries have certain regions that are either destinctively richer or poorer than the country’s average. For China, the northern part is a lot richer than the rest of China and in Germany the eastern part (former GDR) is on average poorer than the rest of Germany.
Moreover, we were talking about a couple of sights worth visiting in each other’s country. For Germany, I adviced them to visit “Schloss Neuschwanstein”, Cologne’s cathedral or Berchtesgarden and they recommended the forbidden city, beijing or shanghai.
As always, a very interesting and informative session.
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