Life and Travel in China

Today is a special date, my little celebration, anniversary, three years of stay in China. I think that during this time I learned a lot about China and traveled a lot to various parts of the country. Unfortunately, I still don't put much effort into learning the language, but I'm definitely making some progress. Three years ago I had problems with simple phrases and counting, but today it's an everyday occurrence. I have to work harder and devote more time to the Chinese language, I guess this is my resolution for the next, fourth year in the middle of nowhere.

And on the occasion of my wedding, I received exactly RMB 888 in a red envelope from my friend. Why 888 (i.e. BA BA BA), because it means happiness and wealth, I have probably mentioned it before. At first, my wife and I were surprised to see old banknotes of 1 RMB, then 5 RMB, but after converting everything was clear. In China, numbers are very important. 7 and 4 are unlucky numbers, sometimes buildings do not even have such floor numbers, for example 8A. 4, i.e. the word SY means death in their language.

I read a week ago about the Shenzhen-Beijing high-speed railway line (ten hours), currently the journey takes two days. Recently, while driving along the Guangzhou-Shenzhen route, I noticed that work on preparing further tracks was already underway on a distance of approximately one hundred kilometers. I drove along this route a month ago, but nothing happened, and now... Work is really booming here and it's no surprise that there's such economic progress. Day by day they are building new viaducts, widening tunnels, removing nearby houses and sharply widening the railway line, in some places there are eight tracks and these are not sidings but routes that run side by side for several or a dozen kilometers. The new line is to be ready in 2008, if I remember correctly, and they will probably keep their word.

Polish media, or more precisely TOK FM, reported (from Xinhua information) that stripteases are organized at funerals in China so that as many people as possible pay tribute to the deceased... I don't know how much truth there is in this, I have never seen anything like this. And I'm a fool, I go to bars, discos and karaoke at night, and no girl shows anything there, now I'll know that I have to go to the cemetery and look for excitement there.

Big fuss about nothing today! Well, I took a photo of a lion (common sculptures in front of buildings), it was not a government building, a police building or a military facility. Just an ordinary building, there isn't even a bank there. Someone noticed me and immediately alerted two security guards via walkie-talkie. When I was leaving, these two hyperactive uniformed officers blocked my way, and to get me they quickly came from the other side of the building. He asks me why I take photos. At first I pretend I don't understand. He continues asking why do I need this photo? I say I like taking photos. He told me to show the photo and wouldn't let me leave. I showed him the lion, said it was nice and left. Police state.