On christmas, we met each other in Serbia. We always try to meet “in the middle”, but even though we do, Chuns journey will always be longer than mine if we meet anywhere in Europe.๐
As you might know, the visa requirements and application for chinese people ia quite difficult. We decided to meet in Serbia because it’s one of the least countries in Europe that chinese people can enter without a visa.
Serbia is still a poor country, so I expected not to see so many tourism things. But it’s definitely worth visiting! There are so many beautiful places to visit and the people are really friendly.
We didn’t only visit Belgrade but Novi Sad, Subotica and Donji Milanovac (which is a really small village with only about 1000 inhabitants).
This is us!๐ we’ve made a boat trip in Belgrade. It was so coldโ but so beautiful and romantic๐
Summarized, I can only suggest to visit Serbia, especially Belgrade but also smaller cities. Even thought media and society isn’t talking well about this country (I’ve heard many bad things about it before I entered), it’s absolutely not true what they say. Convince yourself, you can only built an opinion when you see it by your own eyes. And it’s worth it.๐
Some more pictures of the landscapes will follow!๐
It’s Lunar New Year! I never celebrated it but I really wish to celebrate it in the future. I love the tradition and typical habits (especially the chinese ones), I think it’s so special even thought my boyfriend says he only felt it really special when he was a child. But I guess that’s normal, it’s the same with christmas in my case although I love that too.๐
I wish everyone who celebrates Lunar New Year a happy, healthy and lucky new year!! ๆฐๆฅๅฟซไน๐๐๐๐
Long distance relationship is sometimes a really hopeless thing. We’ve made it 1 year 4 months already. During this time, I did fine. I didn’t feel so bad and had many distractions. But now, it feels like it’s getting every day a little bit harder to deal with.
The more often we meet, the closer we get to each other. Being without him makes me feel empty and sad sometimes. I know we will move together in October, but that’s still a long time without him. I’m afraid of saying goodbye in the end of our next holiday in April. I’m so afraid of the farewell. This will be the worst part. Followed by the first few days back at home, only talking to him via WeChat. I don’t even want to think about that now.๐ฃ
Farewells are always so sad. We’re watching each other until one of us disappears behind a wall or something on the way to the airplane. We may not stay in the country our partner is from. Its so unfair and strange anyhow.
Anyway, I wish everyone who’s in a long distance relationship a lot of patience, strength and luck for the future. You have an aim together which you’re going to reach.๐ช๐
While we were walking in the old town in Beijing, we’ve seen so many beautiful traditional clothing stores. The quality of the clothes is so special because these dresses are all made of silk.๐
I love the traditional clothes, they’re so colourful and look so feminine.
Chinese people mostly wear it on special occasions like Chinese New Year.
These dresses were some of the most beautiful ones we’ve seen there.
In Hangzhou, East China, I’ve bought myself a blue silk dress for about 700 Yuan (~80โฌ).๐๐
Actually not very expensive if you consider that the whole dress is handmade and made of real silk.
2nd of July 2017. My first trip to China started!
When I was a child, I always wanted to visit China. And finally, this dream became true. I’m so happy I had (and still have๐) my private “guide” haha.
There are many more benefits when you’re an international couple. Of course true love, patience, honesty and trust is the most important thing in every relationship, but next to that, you can learn a LOT about your partners culture and you get to know the country much better.
Well, experiences will be different if you travel by tour guide in a group or if you travel alone with your native boyfriend.๐
The local people are much more open-minded and you gain much more experience, in my opinion.
Byebye, Austria! For 1 month I’m going to Chinaโ๏ธ
The flight took about 9 hours from VIE to Beijing.
It didn’t feel so long for me because I was really excited and happy to meet my boyfriend finally again. After 5 months of waiting we’d finally meet in his home country.๐ฏ๐๐จ๐ณ
During the flight I was watching 2 movies and talked sometimes to my seat neighbour who would travel to China for his first time too. And then…
Beijing Airport is the biggest one I’ve ever visited.๐จ๐ณ
Yeahhh!! I finally arrived in China!!๐๐
First expression: Smog! But well, I knew it’s very bad in summer, but luckily I didn’t have any problems with breathing or something. People told me it’s so bad for the lungs but fortunately I got on okay with it.
Unluckily Chuns plane was late, so I had to get to the hotel completely alone.
It was quite interesting๐ I couldn’t speak any Chinese, and most of the Chinese people can’t speak English. But I found a taxi and showed him a piece of paper which showed the name of my hotel. That worked!
I paid 200 Yuan (about 25โฌ) for 1 hour and 30 mins. Extremely cheap.
Later, Chun told me it wasn’t that cheap for chinese conditions.
Entrance to the Forbidden City (Verbotene Stadt – ๅคฉๅฎ้จ)
I totally loved my first taxi drive even though I was alone, but I could see so many things that I’ve never seen before. Only on pictures, and now I was there in real.
It was such a cheerful feeling.
Our hotel was in the Beijing Hutongs, Shijia Hutong (wow I still remember that๐ ). Hutong is a small and older “district” around the Center, but actually it’s a town for european conditions.
We visited the Forbidden City the next day. But that will be another post.
Chun arrived a couple of hours later, and knocked on my hotel room door.
Unfortunately I fell asleep before he arrived, althought I didn’t want to sleep, but I suddenly became so tired and forgot to set an alarm.
So he had to wait 30 mins until I woke up again haha, so poor!๐
He didn’t get any sleep the last 2 days either because he was worrying about me.
Our reunion and first day was so beautiful.๐ We were so happy and walked around the Beijing old town pedestrian zone (I forgot how it’s called in Chinese).
Surprisingly I only had jetlag for 2 days.
That fact is pretty cool because I’ve never been so far away from home and had such a big time difference before.๐
Pedestrian zone in Beijing
Hope you liked this post, and we hope to see you soon!๐
I’m Sandra and I’m from Austria๐ฆ๐น My boyfriend Chun is from China๐จ๐ณ and we’re in a long distance relationship! Since about 1 year and 4 months๐๐
This Blog will be about our travel experiences (places we have visited since we met; many!๐ ), many pictures and stories about different countries we have visited together, and our daily life routine with +/-7hours time difference. We’ll also let you know about difficulties in ldr’s, studying chinese/german, and our future plans (moving to China/Austria).
Maybe one of you is in a LDR right now too, and maybe some tips I’m giving here are useful for you. I hope so๐
So, we hope you enjoy reading, nice to meet you!๐
Life of an international couple ๐ 