23/11/2005: Barcelona, Spain

23/11/2006: In the middle of the Coral Sea, Australia

23/11/2007: Marsa Alam, Egypt

23/11/2008: Shanghai, China

5 years, 5 continents. And that makes 31.

All this has made me feel some nostalgy, some homesickness. I miss the Indian Summer. I guess that's why he call it Indian Summer and not Chinese Summer. Music is helping me cope with my feelings. I had never appreciated so much listening to Serrat, Llach, Juan Luis Guerra or Celtas Cortos (yes, I am ecclectic).

I also miss my life. I am getting really tired of so much work at school. The main event in November is next eek, the final of the Shanghai Masters Cup next Sunday. The only day off in 2 weeks. Yes, I have class next Saturday. You can't imagine how fucked up I am by Nadal's injure (albeit, less than himself, of course). We purchased the tickets for the final expecting to see Rafa win the title. We already had the red and yellow t-shirts ready and we were preparing the show we would do so that people in Spain would see us on telly. And now, neither Nadal, nor Ferrer, Robredo, Feliciano, Almagro... nothing. I guess they'll have to see us only thru pay-tv.

I need Christmas break. 3 weeks not thinking on assignments, exams nor cases. Being able to have my own free time, meet people to talk about something else than the school, eat home-made food (mmm, I am looking forward all the smells in grandma's kitchen). I'll be there on the 17h!!!

In other sort of things, this school has impressive high-level political contacts. Besides an ex-dean that was a deputy minister of economy in Spain, I have caught up with the Dutch minister of foreign trade, tomorrow we have the mayor of Barcelona... After all, the school is a joint-venture beteen the EU and the Shanghai Municipal Government. In contacts with Spain the school is also quite impressive. One notices easily that the ICEX, the Basque Government, the one of Cantabria, the Port of Barcelona, la Caixa, BBVA, Santander, Telefónica, Gamesa, Banc Sabadell... each are sponsors of the school. As the ex-dean commented, this school is the area in China where Spain is most influential. All this thanks to Mr. Nueno, founder of this school and current executive president.

Now we have to translate that into even more corporate contacts. Let's see if tomorrow we can network a little bit with some of these 40 executives that come with Hereu.

Isn't the school truly China Europe International :)?

Well, the municipal governemnt organized a Foreign Investment Forum and the governemnt agency organizing this invited a few foreign-looking classmates to spend the week-end in Hangzhou so the event looked a success. Yes,like the people who go to talk shows just for the hot-dog. Except that ehre it was a 4* hotel and duck buffet.

Just the bus n our way there gave the right tone for the "investors":

We did have time to hang out a little bit, have fun and go to a club we had been told, the SOS. They were holding a funky Halloween part, with people disguised as Chinese zombies (yes, dressed as in old times, much like the soap operas here9, waitresses "flying" as vampires...

One would say two deers seconds before locking horns.

Saturday night there were some fireworks (roughly, the 25th time I see fireworks in China, but these were, arguable, the most impressive ones). Fireorks were in the river and they were fired from boats placed at each side of a bridge. We were sitting in the first rows (we were treated like distinguished guests), but- it was raining and fireworks fired at our side were rapidly hidden by a thick smoke. After a while, we could only see colored smoke. No fireworks. This said, the best part of the fireworks were the raincoats we got:

One gets 90/100 and thinks "I am THE boss, I rock, you morons" until ones sees that the average is 88 and the loest grade is 80/100. weird. I was used to see grades that covered almost all the spectrum (at least, from 3 to 10 - in Spain we always grade over 10) and I find it bizarre to see everybody in the upper part. The bad outcome is that it is hard to know what you do well and what you do bad. Or you can assume that, yes, you are the boss and that, others, are too.

Well, all least it is rewarding.

Another cruriosity is that final grade does not only depend on your own effort, but also in other people's grades. If at the end, you get 90/100, that doesn't mean much. If the average is 98/100, you might very well have failed. It seems that behind ahead of the pack is more important that beating the record of the mile.

Hongcun is a town full of canals, but it is not the Venice of China. Not even the Venice of Anhui. Surprising.

As said, these two towns are famous for their 17th century houses:

The best of all Hongcun was arguably the place where we ate. Not only it was in a small hill, which let us see the town (and that added some more pain to our knees), but it was awesome by itself:

The walking sticks in the background are ours. You can't imagine the state of our knees.

That night, after dinnar, to relax a little bit, we went for a massage (something pretty common in China, especially foot massage). However, just before we decided to go to a KTV (karaoke). I had heard that some KTVs were more girls bars (whorehouses). This one, once inside did not try to soften the message. It was a dodgy place with semi-nude women (and men) pictures on the wall. There was even a pink plastic spaniking hand!!

Brian and Hao showing how to use the spanking hand.

Now that we mention whorehouses, the hotel bathroom was pretty revealing as well:

Last day, we went to Xidi, a town similar to Hongcun, but without that many canals. Everybody seemed to like it more than Hongcun, but I had the feeling that every single house had someone trying to sell you something. Slightly overwhelming.

There go 40 RMB more.
Here I had a "déjà vu" moment. We ate in the street, a sort of cakes stuffed with nooddles (yes, stuffd with nooddles), vegetables and spices. The lady and the kitchen reminded me powerfully of the tlayudas in Oaxaca. Mmm. Look:

Xidi, China, September 2008

Oaxaca, México, August 2004

To me, the conclussion is obvious. Tacos are Chinese food.

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The campus smelt so nicely afterwards! Sapnish omlette! Now we only need a jamón hanging from he ceiling and we'll feel like home.

There were 8 of us: Raymond and Julie, from China (PRC); Charlotte, from Korea (South); Eu Jin, form Malaysia; Hao, from Switzerland; Chrisitan, from Argentina, Taiwan and Poland; Brian, form the Beautiful Land and me, from 西班牙.

We arrived on Saturday morning and, after buying some water and food, we started walking. The area around the entrance to the park (12€ student fee, entrances are ridiculously expensive in China) has plenty of waterfalls with lyrical names (nine dragons, for example).

What really surprised me in that area were neither the waterfalls, nor the thousands of stairs (forget about walking on soil, it's too natural, too risky and, even, too uncontrollable), nor the pagodas in the middle of nowhere, nor the chains full of locks hanging (they are a symbol of the strengths of the bonds of marriage), but that amongst the pines, sometimes, a bamboo forest appeared:

Don't you believe this is real Asia?

The idea was to spend a night at the top of the mountain to see the sunrise, but it was becoming quite late. No worries, Chinahas a solution for your problems: a cable car to the top. Besides night, mist as also falling, the cable car was a wonderful option with impressive views. At nightime, after checking-in and dining some instant nooddles and sausages, we went for a walk and star-watching. In an impressive demonstration of knowledge, I pointed out what I thought was the North Star and, thus, where the East should be.
The next morning (5am), we decided not to follo the crowd and trust my (in)expert sailor intuition. So, we climbed the mountain that looked best suited to see the sunrise. As in Amanece que no es poco, the sun rised by the wrong side (or maybe my orientation was bad, who knows? in any case, viva the gps!) and we missed the sunrise. This said, we also missed 2,000 Chinese people in the same peak and the scenery was still breath-taking:

Is it or not the most beautiful hill in China

But looking at the positive side, we were alone contemplating the Grand Canyon of the Western Sea (a sea of mist). At dawn. Alone. Without nobody near us, enjoying the peace this place transmits. I am not surprised it has been a source of inspiration to so many Chinese poets.
The plan for the rest of the day was easy: go down the canyon, walk around and climb back in order to later go to the Lotus peak, the Jade peak and take another cable car to go down the mountain. More than 3,500m up and downhill. About 20 bilion steps. That was horrible! Brian, Hao and me, we ended up with our knees softer than porridge and beging for some soil path without stairs. No way:

There was a girl in our group with vertigo. Poor girl.

I was slightly in advance of the group, as I thought I'd have trouble going down the steps (my doctor will be really happy with me after so many stairs :)) and I had time to take some pics and be taken in some pictures. I think I will be in about 1,000 Chinese family albums under the chapter "the laowai that climbed Huangshan with a huge bag".
At the end, the plan changed. Cable car closed at 16g30 and, by then, we were not even close. So, after waking up at 4h30 and walk for about 9 hours, we had to go don about 6km of stairs. Ah, there my knees really went nuts. Knees, thights and calfs. My whole legs.
However, once down, our guardian angel, Raymond, had already arranged a van to take us to Tunxi, where some went for a massage. I just went for a shower and to bed.

PS: There's a lot more pictures in picasa.

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Last Sunday was mid autumn festival. As I said, Chinese people tend to meet with their families and, together, under the full moon go outdoors and eat the mooncakes (yueping in Chinese). It is a traditional and family event.

Monday was a bank holiday. At 9am somebody was knocking on my door. Sam was bringing that:

A box with 9 mooncakes. There are 3 types of stuffing: marzipan with egg (really sweet), red beans with egg and minced spicy meat (this one, without egg). I was impressed. I have to remember to bring him some polvorones when I go to Spain in Christmas (and some jamón for me). I was amazed by how elaborate the packaging was. Every cake was wrapped, then into its individual box and then, all together into a larger box.

On Friday we are starting a one-wekk holiday (National day). I am going to Huangshan, the yellow mountain, in Anhui. Chinese people say it’s one of the most beautiful areas in China, so I am really excited. I am really looking forward of going out of the city and seeing another part of China, more rural. Meanwhile, I have to spend the week-end analyzing the cola wars in China. Exciting. Luckily, it rains.