Eating Ants with Minglei

Dear Readers,

I hope my lines find you smiling, despite the strange food presentation I am sharing with you today. One of my many Shanghai days I spend getting to know Minglei over a bowl of fried ants (admittedly on roasted and very tasty pine nuts). We met in the early afternoon at her workplace and went to a AAAA touri site whose name I have entirely forgotten. Since it rained pretty much the whole day, we remembered the day as "the day it rained and we ate ants". Thanks Minglei for a great culinary start into our friendship!

Cheers and bon appetit,

Matthias

Ming Dynasty in Nanjing

Dear friends and family,

thanks for your continuous endurance of my blog posts. Today I shall reward your patience with some nice pictures from the Ming Dynasty Park in Nanjing, the capital of the South. Carefully restored, many beautifully ornated houses and ex-palaces are scattered throughout a vast park that is on top decorated with plenty of stone carved statues. Being one of the most expensive touristy sights in entire China, it better offers its visitors something more than a stone cold kiss from an old dynasty monster.

Have fun as well while walking in the park!

Cheers,

Matti

Big Wild Goose Pagoda

Dear readers,

hopefully this message finds you very well. In my last entry I was refering to the old German saying that after your extensive meals, you should either rest, or take a thousand steps. We did opt for the thousand steps options, but only on the next day, when we visited the supposedly second best attraction of the city. I guess I must have been some other place for I was absolutely unimpressed by the seven story pagoda that was towering over Xian. The small sorrounding park did some help in covering up the rather decor-less interior of the pagoda and the seven floors helped in getting our 1000 steps in, but overall, it was again the company that made the day worthwhile while the sight could have been much better. Maybe I am a little spoiled for the picture does look okay, but on that day, I did not like it very much. The turtle statue on the way back to the bus stop was much more appreciated though.

Cheers to turles and their capabilities of escaping my good care even in an elevator,

Matti

Drum Tower

Liebe Freunde und Verwandte,

nach einem guten Esssen soll man ruhen, oder tausend Schritte tun. Nun haben wir in diesem Fall das zweite gewählt, allerdings nur im Rahmen einer Schrittanzahlung. Nach dem Muslimischen Viertel am Abend, haben wir den "Trommel-Turm" von aussen bestaunt, der eigentlich seinem Zwillingsbruder dem "Glocken-Turm" in nichts ausser Touristenmengen nachsteht. Vielleicht ist sein kleiner Ruhm der verhältnismäßig einfacheren Herstellung von Trommeln im Vergleich zu Glocken geschuldet. Jedenfalls nett beleuchtet und mit Multi-Drachen glohrreich umflogen war er eine nette Abendattraktion für uns.

Liebe Grüße,

Euer Matti

Muslim Quarters in Xian

Dear friends and family,

in an attempt to catch up with the long overdue reports on my travels in China, here come some pictures about the food to be enjoyed in Xian. Why this quarter with its old small pedestrian streets is called the Muslim quarter is not really detectable on first sight, so I stopped my investigation and rather looked at the various delicious food novelties on display. Please join the smile of the rice cake guy :-)

All the best,

Mat

Terracotta Soldiers I

Dear friends,

I hope my lines find you smiling and you are well off.
Today I want to share with you some pictures form the biggest museum that I have been to. Largely uncovered even until today, the Terracotta Army of one of the Chinese emperors (of the Ming dynasty?) was one of the highlights in Xian. Once brought to daylight, the exquisite coloring fades away in minutes, so what we can see today is only a small part of the entire formation that was supposed to protect the deceased emperor from his enemies. The soldiers are in life size and made up out of (only) three pieces. It must have taken years to produce only the small fraction that we are able to see.

I hope soon the Chinese scientists find a way of conserving the color when excavating the rest and can open up even more fields of history for us to marvel at and learn from.

All the best until soon,

Mat

Night-train Beijing-Xian

Dear Readers,

one of the least adventurous things to do in China is taking a night train. In terms of comfort it easily reaches European standards and in terms of price it is very well competing with the low budget airlines, unlike our overpriced railway connections. Thus after our trip in Beijing, we took the night train to Xian, saving on an overnight stay at a hostel :-)

Cheers to Chinese trains,

Matthias