Life and Travel in China

The Chinese change their cars more and more often, of course they are looking for newer, luxurious and specific brands. They like the off-road Porsche Cayenne, I see them very often in Shenzhen. It is also easy to find such cars on the routes of Zhejiang province and around Hangzhou. Even a Hummer appeared in Shenzhen. Its owner is distinguished not only by the shape of a military car, but also by its yellow color, almost like "Baywatch". All coastal provinces of China with access to the port and industry are becoming more and more rich.

I spent a few days on the famous island (and province at the same time) Hainan (the city of Sanya), where the Miss World pageant was held in 2005. Now the Crown Plaza Hotel will host Mr. World there. I was in Yalong Bay, a bit 'shockingly' luxurious for China. Hotels like Marriott, Sheraton, Hilton, on the beach, prices start from PLN 400-500 per day, what's more, even outside the hotels, no cheaper restaurants, bars, nothing... only exclusive hotels. Fortunately, the beaches are free. I will describe the details later. We took an 18-hour ferry ride from Guangzhou (about 800 km) and returned by plane. I'll post some photos soon! And tomorrow is Chinese New Year's Eve and on Sunday it's the year of the pig (February 18).

Someone came to my website by entering the phrase 'best photos of China' - and that's how it should be, this is the most appropriate phrase to describe my website. Now seriously... I'm already tired of Chinese New Year. For the next 7-10 days, night after night at midnight, there are constant firecrackers and some poor fireworks, more noise than effect. I can't sleep! A security guard from the building opposite throws firecrackers under our balcony at 24:30. The Chinese are a strange people. Someone searched for the phrase 'New Year's Eve in China' and came to this website, there is no such thing as New Year's Eve for them! The Chinese do not organize New Year's parties at all, they eat a gala dinner with their families, sit in front of the TV, go for a walk or play cards, and certainly no one dances, much less champagne.

Today we went to the open-air museum for a walk and took some photos. Of course, it's Christmas in China, so there are crowds of people there. At one of the stalls, whose owners already knew us by sight, we asked about the fan. Original price 68 RMB (for suckers), we of course with a discount of 35 RMB. My wife (Chinese) says we bought one for 25 RMB, but the woman insisted and wants 35 RMB. After watching it for a while, my wife says it's ok because she wants it for herself for photos. The saleswoman replies: "For you, it's 20 RMB!" For Chinese it's cheaper, for white people it's 15 RMB more for the skin color, an additional fee for the visa.

From the series DID YOU KNOW THAT... housing loans in China have an interest rate of 60% to 70%? So, if you borrow 1,000,000 RMB for 20 years, you must pay back 1,700,000 RMB to the bank. And that's why the Chinese economy is growing so much. Who in Poland would take out such a loan? NOBODY! And in China there are thousands of people who buy apartments, cars, start companies this way and imagine that in many cases they can afford such a loan. Isn't this a rich country? It definitely is!