I know it’s quite disappointing but I did not go to my private dance lessons last night! When I thought about it that would have been way too embarrassing as everyone would have stopped dancing to look at me dancing with an old grandma and being stupid (because I don’t know these dances!). Well, maybe I could have managed but I didn’t find the courage at the given time.
But many others (thousands and maybe even billions) opportunities to have strange experiences are on the way; because, as the old and wise saying goes: “the one who travel on the remnants of the Silk Road is bound to do cool stuff”. Ha.
To come back to our mouton, I am now in Xi’an, for the second time in history (I do not count my previous reincarnations). Xi’an, capital of the Chinese Empire for 13 dynasties and which 8 meters tall walls are 1400 years old. I had a non fruitful conversation on the train in Chinese with… a Chinese guy. But my Chinese is terrible, so it didn’t go that far. He had allergy from something, so his eyes looked like a raccoon. So he was going back home to study something. Yep, fruitful.
But I’ve changed my mind and I will try to get a ticket for Lanzhou for tomorrow night, so I can really get started with this Silk Road business of mine…
I was writing not so long ago (see “The Art of Baguette”) about the fact that I find amazing the lunches in Provence, with barbecue all the time and fresh salads and baguette of course. I had also praised for a long time what I call “the Art of Leisure” in most of the Mediterranean Europe which consists of drinking a good coffee and chatting with friends all day long; something that I haven’t found in North America and that I miss very much.
Well I found it very much in China. The cliché of Chinese people hurrying all the time to “work more to earn more” (as our dear president Sarkozy loves to say) is really just a cliché. People are just hanging around, chilling, having nice time, drinking beer and having street barbecues everynights! It is absolutely wonderfull! And it’s great food for almost nothing (ok sometimes it can be a bit weird, but still)!
I feel absolutely respectful toward their ability of enjoying… life! That’s something that is too often forgotten in our mighty and so developed Occidental World!
And that’s without even mentionning the dancing! But this is for tomorrow (I have been invited to dance lessons by a Chinese grandma…).
Yes, I though myself prepared but it was a blast. People are just crazy here, as the above picture shows fairly well… But the fact is that I had really forgotten about Beijing since last year. Yet I could not stop thinking that there was something else; and I remembered a phrase that I heard many times last summer: “because of the Olympics!” Yes, because of the Olympics Beijing was sleeping last year, probably because everyone had been kicked out for the summer holidays.
This times the Wudakou neighborhood is bustling with life and street vendors of all kind and food smelling all sorts of… flavors, for the best and the worst. But it is amazing how the sidewalks are crowded with T-shirts racks and handicrafts and weights and pots and toys and all what you could ever think about.
So the usual unthinkable mix of a high tech Wudakou (Google and Microsoft have their offices here) and Bangkok style mess is quite funny. And Chinese people have a particular custom to be strange, so the result is brilliant. For example the guy on the photo just above wearing his Cowboy hat with all the assurance of a Cowboy, in Wudakou… I really love it.
And as I was taking my little pictures as a good tourist I met my new Uighur friend, from Kashgar. When he told me he was from there I jumped on the discussion telling that I was going there in a couple of weeks. We then talked for about half an hour; he offered me a cigarette, of course, and he told me that he was soon coming back because he couldn’t find a proper place to stay since people here refuse to rent a room to Uighurs… I feel I’ll have a lot to talk about in there! Anyways, he taught me a couple of sentences in Uighur, such Assalai Alaikum (same as Arabic for ‘Peace upon You’).
I am in China! Yesterday was a long day but it finally ended up with me being in China; quite extraordinary isn’t it?
To sum up: it all started with Ryanair that I love so much. It’s interesting how the flight attendants seem to be raking up the passengers, trying to extract as much money as possible in the allocated time of the short flight from Nimes to London. They must have passed at least 100 times, each time with something new to offer: sandwich, drinks, duty free crap, and even donations for charity in the end. Charity for Ryanair? Ah…
But I survived these back killer seats quite well. Arriving London I was welcomed by the famous British rain. So I ran to catch the bus to Heathrow, trying to avoid the drops of water (I failed). The bus ride was longer than the flight itself, but at least I got to the Air China check in counter.
But then I hear that I cannot enter without a flight out of China! So they made me buy a refundable ticket from Beijing to Hong Kong, which I will cancel as soon as possible. As I was doing all of this I was starting to realize that I would soon be in China for the second time, with a little apprehension. Anyways, the flight was horrible. I was stuck between 2 big Chinese guys, which made me feel like I had a big panda on each side. So I was stick between 2 giant pandas for 10h. One started to sleep on the little tablet in front of me, so almost on my lap. The other panda was so big that he was spilling everywhere on me. So that was an interesting flight.
But then, then, when we finally arrive in Beijing, as I was walking by the “anti-pig-flu” infrared thermometers the machine start beeping like if I was a terrorist. So the quarantine people start redirecting me toward a tent in the middle of the airport where they could further check my temperature… Of course I am slightly hot as the terminal is like a furnace and I haven’t slept for 24 hours almost! Luckily enough the second check was apparently satisfying so they had to let me go, quite unwillingly.
And then I was in Beijing! It’s hot like hell, just the way I like it! I will soon write more on Beijing…
This times the Wudakou neighborhood is bustling with life and street vendors of all kind and food smelling all sorts of… flavors, for the best and the worst. But it is amazing how the sidewalks are crowded with T-shirts racks and handicrafts and weights and pots and toys and all what you could ever think about.
And as I was taking my little pictures as a good tourist I met my new Uighur friend, from Kashgar. When he told me he was from there I jumped on the discussion telling that I was going there in a couple of weeks. We then talked for about half an hour; he offered me a cigarette, of course, and he told me that he was soon coming back because he couldn’t find a proper place to stay since people here refuse to rent a room to Uighurs… I feel I’ll have a lot to talk about in there! Anyways, he taught me a couple of sentences in Uighur, such Assalai Alaikum (same as Arabic for ‘Peace upon You’).
