I'm sitting in a Shangai Airlines plane on the tarmac at Guangzhou
airport: since our departure time has been delayed one hour thanks to
the control tower, I have time to describe the (free) day. Groups were
formed according to wishes: I was fortunate enough to hook up with Yun
Wu, our substitute violist, who is a native of southern China and a
charmer on any continent. I heard later of fantastic excursions to the
island in Zhuhai bay, of bike rides and shopping expedtions, but I can
only tell you what I experienced. Three of us visited the harbor and
the museum with it's marvelous life-sized clay statues and later
headed to a restaurant where we chose the ingredients for our meal.
These were returned to us some minutes later in the form of soup. Yun
led us through a supermarket, showing us many local specialties and
curiosities, and later to a district of small shops where salespeople
tried to entice us inside with their wares. This is where Yun
displayed an amazing talent for bargaining: the leather belt which
cost 38 yuan at the beginning of the negociations was finally sold for
10. I should have bought more of them! As we entered a tea shop the
employees greeted us with a song- they did the same for all the
entering and exiting- customers. It was a great little show, but the
following ceremony of choosing tea and sampling a cup far surpassed
it- what a cultivated way of doing business.
Getting 99 travellers and 10 celli onto their respective planes (we
travelled in two groups) is not a task for sissies: this takes men of
steel, which is why I'm really happy that Frieda was there when she
was needed. Calmly sorting through piles of passports to find my
missing one, she helped to get me to the gate (not the church) on
time. Boarding had started when I arrived at the gate to see a
golfcart laden with celli and their owners zip past me- what a sight
for sore eyes! They'd managed to get through security even though
they'd had only tickets for their celli and not for themselves.
As soon as this plane gets off the ground I'll start thinking about
the stories to come.
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen