Life and Travel in China

Recently I have slowed down the pace of adding new photos, for several reasons. There are already over 1,000 photos, there is space on the server for another 3,000, but someone wrote that the number of 800 photos scares him. Maybe this number is simply scaring some people and they don't view the gallery? The second reason - I'm quite busy with my job. The third reason - I sell more and more photos from China. The fourth reason - (as I conclude from the keywords in search engines) some people simply copy my photos for their own commercial or non-commercial use, and this is not nice. Is it even worth asking?!

Tomorrow is the big day, the opening of the Olympics. There will be a great show! In Beijing, most companies have the day off, in Shenzhen they finish work earlier. Ceremony at 20:08, i.e. 14:08 Polish time. I'm only worried that the Polish media will comment on it like this: "Beautiful spectacle, colorful dragons, wonderful dancers, but... imagine that after the Olympics people will be shot in this stadium!" I don't know if that's good or bad. There will be many such BUT..., beautiful, BUT..., well organized, BUT... The Chinese are hospitable, BUT...

Yesterday we were at our friend's wedding reception. At the entrance, the bride and groom greet the guests, the bride in an imitation white European dress. At the entrance you have to sign the book and leave the obligatory gift in the form of a red envelope with money, we also gave them a gift. Then we sat at the table for about 90 minutes and waited for all the guests. The master introduced the young couple and talked like a Chinese radio for 20 minutes. Dinner was served... frogs, turtles (prepared in such a way that you can't see exactly what they are), there was still a bison missing and everything would be fine. Stuffed cabbage soup (bird, not the one with rice and cabbage), pork, fish, chicken, green vegetables. The bride changed into a Chinese dress and they approached each table with toasts. At the end, she divided the bouquet into three parts, she was supposed to throw it to unmarried girls, but the bachelors also showed up. Two tall boys and one girl caught the bouquets. A pathetic copy of European/American wedding customs. There were no traditional Chinese accents. At 8:55 p.m. people started leaving. No dancing, no music, and they took the wine from the tables to save a few bottles and pay less for the whole thing... I already wrote about it once, that their weddings are almost like our wakes. They can't have fun. In their culture, there was never dancing during a wedding. We shouldn't call it a wedding. WEDDING - cheerful, yes, they were happy, but not as they should have been. Let's call it - MARRIAGE PARTY.

I now have an "Olympic sensor" in the form of my neighbors. When I suddenly hear shouting outside the window, I turn on the TV - what's happening, some Chinese is winning again. I'm a bit bored with these Olympics, the Chinese are winning all the time, weightlifting, volleyball won against Poland, yesterday women's football and won against Argentina, swimming just now. They really want to show the world that they are winners. Generally, apart from political aspects, the average Chinese lives for the Olympics! Yesterday they were watching basketball on a big screen in front of a department store, they blocked the entire intersection, cars were stuck in traffic jams, and some people stopped on the side of the road and watched too. China is excited about the Olympics and that's probably the point.

Polish athletes were so focused on politics and Tibet that they forgot to prepare for the Olympics. Or maybe they just don't want any medal from China in the form of a boycott? Are they not putting in the effort because they secretly agreed to boycott the medals? Just now, Mrs. Otylia - fourth place, two Chinese women - first and second place. I can already see the face of the guy who assured that the results would be better than in Athens, that he was not afraid of anything and would stand in front of journalists with an open visor. Well, good luck! For comparison's sake, I would like to add that medals are already awarded to such poor and backward countries as Zimbabwe, Kyrgyzstan, Togo, Uzbekistan and Armenia.