11-21-05

Paragliding exhibition in Gejiu, Yunnan Province. Gejiu (个旧) is a small city (2 million inhabitants) only 100km away from Vietnam in the most southern point I've set foot on in China. Also called Xidu (锡都- Tin Capital), Gejiu is the largest producer of Tin in China and is also the place where the first railroad was built. Built around a black lake, Gejiu people are very much proud of their city and were ready to celebrate the First Annual Tourism Festival. The local government arranged many activities, amongst which a paragliding exhibition which is where we played our part. We were to fly on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Not surprisingly, as it happens many times with paragliding, the weather was bad and we were unable to fly.

Friday night was the opening ceremony for the festival. Little we knew, we were honor guests and were invited by the local government and Communist Party officials. So there I was standing in front of more than 5,000 people waving at a cheering crowd. For three days I was famous! (even signed some autographs).

 

Alex pulls on his glider in front of a crowd

(click on picture for a larger view)

This is how things work in China. They just grab a bunch of foreigners, no matter who they are, and use their faces as an attraction. We felt used. For what it's worth though, we did make more than one friendly face smile back at us. When walking around the city, we quickly noticed that everyone had seen us on TV during the live broadcasting of the show. At night, we decided to go to a club where the boss immediately recognized us and gave us three full cases of Heineken for free.

Anyhow, after three days of much tennis playing at the Hotel/Resort we were staying at, eating every 2 hours and watching TV, we came back to Beijing on Monday night. Sunday afternoon, the weather cleared up for a few hours and about 10-15 managed to make a few flights. Out of these people, about 6 landed in the water, one breaking his ankle an another one aimed for the local soccer stadium where he broke his leg and arm.

What did I learn about chinese people during this trip?

1. They cannot drive without having the window opened (even if the temperature outside is below 0 Celsius). If they get too warm, they fall asleep!

2. The good thing about resting, is that they live better, healthier and longer. After talking to many of the chinese guys that went to the trip, I am convinced that it is the 'xiuxi' (rest) which keeps them healthy. They take one thing a time and do not get stressed over problems hence leading a tranquil lifestyle.

3. Their logistics techniques when organizing big events are not fully developed it seems. I am curious as to what is going to happen here during the 2008 Olympic Games.

 

in front of the crowd (photo: Philippe)

going up to the take-off, a view of Gejiu (photo: Joachim)

 

11-11-05

Back home and still alive after a long trip around China as many of you probably followed through my website. If you have lost the link or cannot find it, I have placed on the main menu of the main page. You can also click here and go directly to it. I was looking at maps on the Google Earth software yesterday when I realized that the distance Christian and I rode during the past month, is equal to a straight line between Beijing and New York City. Also, from a different perspective, Paris-Tokyo.

So what's new since I've been back? Weather is colder in Beijing and up until yesterday night, we didn't have any heating in our place. This is how things work: the heating system in the city (also called 'nuanqi' meaning 'warm air') is turned on by the government whenever they decide it's cold enough for people to actually need it. That being said, for the past week or so (since I got back from the trip), I've been sleeping in the exact same clothes I spend the day with. I usually took my shoes off but the sweater, pants and even belt stayed on throughout the night to help me survive the freezing 8 hours that are supposed to detoxify my brain.

We've been pretty busy with work here in the office as things are starting to take shape. Not too long ago I was at the flying site with the paragliding club people and was invited for a 5-day trip to Kunming (Yunnan, southern province). The government is trying to attract some tourism to a specific area of the region and they are organizing a Paragliding Competition there to get the attention.

 

In order to do so, they have invited a bunch of people, including some foreigner faces which always seem to do the trick around here. They're paying for our airfare, hotel and food from the 16th to the 21st of this month. It should be a lot of fun since the competition they are planning is for acrobatics.

That's all for now.