Life and Travel in China

A new massage salon is about to open. I'm not exaggerating when I say that about a thousand people were employed there: waiters, standmen, porters, towel dispensers, foot masseurs, body masseurs, maintenance workers, etc. Yesterday, everyone gathered on the local stage to prepare a show for the opening of the salon. I managed to get there and took several dozen photos. It was fun, there was a lot going on! There was even a Chinese Michael Jackson and a fan dance. And of course, a whole army of beautiful masseuses. As soon as I deal with the outstanding photos, I will add new ones.

It is also possible to organize a decent Christmas Eve and Christmas in China. All you need is a bit of willingness, culinary skills and a few semi-finished products from Poland. I prepare chicken jelly, fish in jelly (gelatin from Poland), borscht with dumplings (borscht concentrate from Poland), vegetable salad, cabbage with peas and, of course, fried fish. What's more, I have a delivery of pork neck, ham and bigos from Poland. In fact, it's good that the holidays are, in a sense, commercial. Thanks to this, even in the middle of nowhere there are Christmas trees and Christmas decorations everywhere, and the staff in supermarkets, restaurants and other service outlets wear Santa hats. Of course, the vast majority of Chinese people don't know any Christmas traditions... maybe only those from American movies like eating turkey and stockings as gifts. Apart from the inhabitants of Hong Kong, hardly anyone has time off for the holidays.

In a fit of Christmas spirit, we went to the Catholic Church in Shenzhen (Meilin) ​​today. It was an unpleasant sight... A huge building, modern, a cross on the tower, no stained glass windows. Inside there is a huge hall for 500 people, benches without kneelers, maybe 200 people inside. No altar, just a stage, a piano covered with cloth, a lectern with the symbol of a cross, and an armchair next to it. Nothing else - no pictures, no figures, no candlesticks, just white, bare walls. Tragedy! And the worst thing was that there wasn't even any priest or nun. Some sermon from a movie was playing on a projector, on a screen that was rolled out there instead of an altar. And this is supposed to be a church during the holidays?! Shame! There wasn't even a simple Christmas tree and no decorations. If there is a living priest there at all (not the one from TV), he should be responsible for it, I would send him to Europe for training.

This morning my wife saw young militiamen of someone like ORMO making the right decision? and how necessary? fighting with frying pans. We all know that sidewalk sellers of tofu, sausages and dumplings threaten socialism and public safety. But seriously... imagine defenseless people cooking some simple food on the sidewalks, preparing breakfasts for people going to work, and today... a group of policemen in camouflage uniforms attacked them, smashing strollers, motorbikes and bicycles with pots and gas cylinders. They were accompanied by a camera, and later television will show this just and unequal fight against false commentary. They have nothing to do? Are they too strong? Do they have too many uniforms? Please... let them start dealing with the mafia that offers prostitutes and controls massage parlors, or the army of beggars, or the crazy drivers and illegal taxis. And what bothers people about a man preparing steamed baozi, jiaozi (Chinese dumplings)?

The Chinese have made a mistake and they seem to treat our Christmas as 'their' equivalent of the New Year. It's not 2008 yet, but I think this is the fifth person wishing me a happy new year!? Some people think that after our Christmas comes the New Year. Weird...