World Scenic Flights by HeliGraphix

What hasn't changed, unfortunately, is the Chinese's unability to pay attention to people around them. Nobody has ever heard about the concept of queuing up, and in crowded places at least the European mind sometimes feels reminded of ants running all over the place in a confused manner. Add to this the uncommon habit of spitting in public (to name just one; you will find this in a number of other places, too, but less perfected; the coolest is if your taxi driver stops, opens the door, spits, and then drives on), and there you have it - an interesting, fascinating Eastern culture. Don't let's talk about things like human rights and intellectual property, but let's concentrate on the terrific food and happy, friendly and diligent people.

With over 1.3 billion people, the People's Republic of China is the largest people in the world, and the economy grows at a startling pace. Together with India and Vietnam it has the potential to become one of the leading global market players, and it will be interesting to see what the situation will be like 50 years down the road. There isn't one China, by the way - in fact, the seemingly uniform country consists of countless "states" with their own languages, their own traditions, and their own unique way of life. This is what creates a difficult political situation, but it also accounts for one of the richest cultures and a long history.



Our good friends Dong Yu and Shen Dong are currently in Texas/USA where they had been offered a good postdoc position. This leaves us a little more to our own devices; it cannot be denied that communication is a REAL problem. Even in large cities like Beijing (which, after all, happens to be the capital) virtually nobody understands or speaks English, so it is difficult to order food, go to places by taxi, etc. Thought the menu in restaurants is bilingual? Nope.

Funny story: I had been looking forward to one of the famous "Peking ducks", but we simply didn't manage to find a place where they serve it. So we drove to one of the biggest hotels in town (I happened to have the name in Chinese letters on a name card so we could show it to the taxi driver); I knew they have it, and I knew they speak English. We walk into the lobby - very impressive! Turn left where the restaurant used to be four years ago. Hmm, no restaurant there, just a number of smaller rooms with tables, plus posters showing delicious dishes. It is 9:30 PM; a lady spots us and addresses us in Chinese. We try to tell her what we've come here for. Totally blank look, she does not understand a single word. OK, so we point at the food posters and rub our stomach. "Aah!" she makes, puts on a bright smile and points us the way --- to the hotel's business center! Heh?! Why do you think people come to a restaurant and rub their belly? "No no, look, food!" We make gestures and sounds like we're eating and drinking. "Aah!" she makes again and points upwards. Hmm, second floor?
The escalator did not work; we couldn't help but had a hunch there wouldn't be any open restaurant upstairs. Yep, right, this time we found ourselves in a conference room! The people there spoke no English (what a surprise!) and we went downstairs again to talk to the guys at the front desk. Bad English, but they got the point. The restaurant had been moved over to the other side of the stairs, about 50 m away from where the nice lady had sent us to every part of the hotel - except the restaurant! You think this is an exception? Nope again, this happens dozens of times every day (and there is times when it's hard to see the fun side of it).



Before we close this post there's three more things we'd like to pass on to you:

1) In China the internet is censored. We cannot view or access this blog - nobody can do it from within this country! It's equally impossible to address many .com domains. The reason is that blogs had become an important means to share free and unbiased opinions, so the government eventually cut it. We are lucky that through a back door we can at least post these lines - we just cannot see the result!

2) ROTOR 11/2007 should be out be now. We recommend buying the issue! It reveals most interesting details on how exactly this complex trip was planned and prepared; you'll be more than amazed!

3) Tomorrow (31st of Oct.) it's Nicolas Kaiser's birthday - we'd like to extend our best wishes to him! :-) If you get the chance, why not do the same?!