26.3.2009 1.Tag in China

First day in China
for my English speaking friends. My German friends all can read the text in English language. So it is fair to write in English.

Now it is Thursday 22:00 and I am not tired yet.
I like my room in Guilin Park Hotel with access to internet. I just came home with taxi because I got lost and it is less than 10 Yuan (1 EURO equals about 9 Yuan)to take a taxi within downtown Guilin.

Let´s start in the beginning. Yesterday Inge brought me to the Bremen Airport and I started to Amsterdam at 11:25. I booked a place to the aisle for all the 3 flights. Inge alway says that I need more than one place and she never has enough place for her arms whenever she sits next to me. Well on the flight to Amsterdam I was sitting next to a mother from Africa with her 2 year old boy on one seat. The airplane to Amsterdam has only 2 rows with 2 seats each. So I was lucky to sit next to the aisle since this queued boy didn`t want to be fastened with the seatbelt, an extension of his mother´s. He tried to crawl under the seat and so on. We both, his mother and me stayed cool in all this chaos. Well during landing procedure Emanel felt asleep and his mother tied him on her back with a towel.

In Amsterdam airport I had to wait for 5 hours for my flight to Peking. I was not really successful playing Suddocu while waiting. The flight with the Jumbo was ok, but 9 hours and I only sort of slept for 2 hours. I didn´t sleep since then.
In Peijing I transfered to the domestic flight to Guilin, one longnose together with all these Chinese. No problem to get along. All announcements were in Chinese and English. And I met a Chinese businessman living in Australia with business branch in Guilin. We talked a lot.
At Guilin airport In was picked up by a German speaking (fluently) tourist manager with her driver (what a luxury, just for me) to bring me to the Guilin Park Hotel through the heavy traffic where we arrived by 17:00. I ordered the transfer at Meiers Reisen, a German agency, in order to get the first day settled for sure.
By 14:30 I arrived at Guilin Airport with Southern China Airlines, 20 hours after leaving Bremen. You can imagine how much I enjoyed to take a shower and change cloth. I checked the hotel and saw that they have a studio in the basement for foot massage, 1 hour for 60 Yuan. I tell you the massage was great and the young Chinese lady did a good job. It turned out that besides the feet, she gave massage to my legs, back, neck and head. I was glad she didn´t massage my belly. She pressed hard and I didn´t know that massage can be so painful. But afterwards I felt like in heaven and I walked quite a bit.

Guilin is fantastic what I could see in dark. The Li river, bridges, lakes, hotels and parks along the water are illuminated.
I walked down the main street with all the shops. In 2001 Inge and me, we were in Peijing and Shanghai, but that is nothing compared to Guilin today. The Quality of cloth is high with modern fashion. February in Venice Inge and me, we admired the well dressed young ladies. Now I know where the cloth, shoes etc come from.
I went into a gigantic department store for cloth, jewelry, electronics and all kind of high quality you can imagine. All written in Chinese, just the name of the labels I could read.
Inge what size does Leni have? For example I found "Lackschuhe" in Leni´s size f0r 68 Yuan.
Nevin, I almost bought shoes for me.
I couldn´t find the name of the departmentstore, all written in Chinese. At the side entrance I finally found "Niko Niko Do Plaza".
In the upper flor, there is a restaurant, very convenient for tourists. All kind of dishes are displayed. From the waitress you get a receipt and then you ask the cooks behind the many displays to stamp the number into the receipt. Then the waitress gets the food for you. I chose duck with rise. Tee was served in addition. I payed 18 Yuan for the delicious food.

The saying "living like God in France" should be changed to "living like God in China".

I wonder where Foring, my tour consultant from Guilin will take me to dinner tomorrow with her collegue. I read in the tourist guide, that bamboo rats or snake soup are specialities of Guilin.

Well now I will drink a cold Tsingtao beer from the minibar of my room and then go to bed.