Email No. 11

-----Original Message-----
From: Motti Mor [mailto:motti_mor@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 3:46 AM
Subject: Trip to China (part 6) - when it's over

Hi everybody,
I hope you enjoyed the pictures of Yunnan. I tried to describe by taking them the beauty of this amazing province. After almost two months in Shanghai, those ten days were an experience which showed me the real China: the feeling, the smell, and taste that I've been looking for all this time. What I mean is that when we read about China and look at the pictures of China, we're really seeing this place, the real China, a place where everything is simple, happy, and time is not a concern: just relax, enjoy the air (which is hard to find in China), and the wonderful weather.

A place like Dali which is full of different minorities and cultures is one of those places which are hard to find while traveling, but when you find it, it's the best feeling you can get. Lijiang and its amazing old city and surroundings, which although is too full with local tourists, has its own and unique charm. (The place really magnifies the potential that Jerusalem as an old city has).

And finally Kunming with its cloudy weather, small tea houses, parks, and wonderful people. I think that what made it special for me was that I decided to go alone but wasn’t really alone the whole time, which means that you can find friends anywhere.

Time for conclusions now as I’m getting ready to go to the airport and catch my flight back home. The China that I’ve seen during these last three months has many faces (maybe too many for one country). It’s a country with so many different places, different tastes, and different cultures under one country’s name. You can visit in a quiet place such as Dali and just sit in a park with a few people or walk in the subway in Shanghai with millions (and I mean millions). In Dali I entered a park and sat down to write something. I took out my big bottle of water and put it beside me. Two minutes later a 3- or 4-year-old kid with glasses that one side of them was broken and covered with tape came by and didn’t say a word. I asked him how he was but he didn’t reply just walked across me, took the bottle of water, and walked away.

In Shanghai while walking the street (and trying not to get run over by cars, bikes, bicycles and the millions and millions of people), one can find many DVD stands. There is one stand that is always funny to see. The guy there has a thing for Harrison Ford. He likes to create his own original sequels (that haven’t been made yet naturally) of Harrison Ford’s movies. He invents movies, makes his own posters for the movies and their tag lines such as Indiana Jones 4 (“The man with the whip is back”) and Air Force One 2 (“One man has another chance to save America, The President”). I just buy it for the creativity because the movies inside are not truly connected to the outside.

China is rapidly changing, building, and growing. I had to fly all the way to the south to find what I was looking for. I know that there are many places that are still like that, but it’s getting harder and harder to find as all the villagers want to come to the big cities to find a better life for themselves. Many new big cities are emerging instead of the old villages and the cities are exploded with people. Only Shanghai in five years has multiplied its population and -- I’ll say it again -- it’s really amazing the amount of people you see in the streets.

The food is China is extremely diverse: spicy, sour, sweet, and strange. You can find everything you want here, and if you know what to order (mostly you don’t), it’s really amazing. I was really surprised to learn that most of the food here is fried. Many things are fried with many different kinds of oil, even the rice and vegetables. The food is so different from one place to the other, and sometimes when you order the same dish in one place, you’ll get a different one in the other even though you are in the same city. McDonald’s and KFC pop up on every corner and are very popular among the kids here. Kids are becoming fat, mainly in the big cities where the parents are working and the only kid is raised by his grandparents.

I can go on and go on but it’s time to go…. I think that this is the time to visit China before the Olympics and the big change that is going to affect this wonderful country. The conclusion is that China is unique because of it’s people their lives, way of living and behavior and not only from the places you visit (that are amazing in any way).

I’m now on my way back and the experience was far more than I expected.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my thoughts and my stories because there are many more to come…..

See you all soon…
Signing out from China,
Motti

A COMMENT FROM MARGE: Motti, this was a fascinating missive on your extraordinary trip. Soooo interesting!!! Thank you!!!