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English Version 59
Friday 30.05.08
Beijing
There nothing more to say here before 6 o`clock on my last day. Only
that "my China" has filled me up completely. And that I`m not through
with it. But I`m as ready as ever to take the taxi at 12 o`clock - and
it is paid for.
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| The staff at Far East.... | ....by speeches and singing.... | ....preparing for the olympics |
I`ve been thinking a lot about my friends in Maoxian, especially
after I arrived here. It`s been almost three weeks, but they still live
outside I`m sure. For how long? Maoxian wasn`t destroyed and because of
that we don`t hear anything. Have they got the electricity back? Is
petrol still limited? Are there food? Has classes started? That I`m sure
of.
Even the houses are still standing they have to be inspected and secured
every single one of them, before anyone move back in. Has the last hard
aftershock occoured?
An earthquake can fill the media for a week or so. But the restoration
takes years to full fill. Remember that.
I feel comfort in the Chinese saying one of my Chinese friends wrote to
me: If you don`t loose your life in the catastrophe you get a lucky life.
In my translation:
If you’re not killed in the disaster
You’ll have a happy life ever after
I send a SMS to Sherry my only contact in Maoxian to hear news. She`s
not so systematic in her answer, but she calls me and I understand that
much that electricity has returned for some, that there`s no lack of
food, that all houses will be checked before anyone moves back in which
will take at least 3 month, that she goes by bus to her school some
place and that the road from Dujiangyan has NOT opened. Maybe it`s used
by government trucks or they come from the north. Fixed telephones she
don`t know about. She wishes me a safe journey home, and when I say that
I hope to go back someday, she tells me I`m welcome in Maoxian.
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| Steamed buns - man tou |
Have got an answer from the transport company Santa Fe in Chengdu
which I have made contact to via the danish consul. They want to know
about my luggage, size and weight? I answer as best I can, and that it
will not be arriving in the near future.
I say goodbye to those in the courtyard and donate my washing powder to
one of my roommates from Holland. One of the last newcomers is an afghan
girl who`s lived many years in Hamburg and later in Canada. She thinks I
look like a teacher she once had. The last one shows up to be Danish
from the north of Jutland. He`s adopted from Korea and are now studying
Chinese in a town between Harbin (up north) and Beijing. So instead of
going at half past 11, it`s 10 to 12 before I`m at the reception telling
I`m ready.
It`s not a normal taxi. It`s a black Buick belonging to the hotel. This
one is "normal" size, but there is a small one too.
This "black" taxi-ride doesn`t end at the departure hall as the normal
taxis but goes to an underground parking/VIP entrance, from where I have
to take an elevator and a couple of walking bands to the departure hall.
This is China once more.
And it continues, so the SAS plane to Copenhagen is cancelled, and has
been so for 3 days, only not when I called on monday. Do I want to stay
another day in Beijing? Neither my visa nor my insurance let me, so they
end up putting me on a plane to Stockholm, which should have parted an
hour earlier. From there is a flight to Copenhagen.
I thought I would have time to eat in the airport, but I end up having
to buy some walnut biscuits in a shop to stop the hunger.
I`ve forgot to pack my Chinese made Swiss army knife, so I have to leave
it. And later my water is taken and my lighter with the naked girl -
it`s not the girls fault.
The plane leaves on time.
Goodbye China - see you again in the future. Soon I hope.