Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport，2014-10-22 21:55:37 +0800
Day 59 in China
I’m at the airport in Chengdu and wanted to use the hour and something that I’ve left to write a few pieces of advice for travellers to China. That’s mostly because my mother and brother are coming over for Christmas. My mother asked me to list all the items required to get a visa for PRC, but I thought that maybe a practical phrasebook might also come in handy. The Chinese version is given in Traditional characters, i.e. the ones not used in China anymore. I also gave the official Pinyin transcription, as well as a DIY transcription for Polish speakers.

On the plane to Kunming I was served a butter-flavored cake (which didn’t resemble either butter or cake) and mala-flavored goose meat (which was actually quite good.)

你們是美國的還是英國的？
Nǐmen shì Měiguó de háishi Yīngguó de?
Nimen szy Mejgło de hajszy Inguo de?
Are you American or English?

都不是。我是波蘭人。
Dōu bú shì. Wǒ shì Bōlán rén.
Tou pu szy. Ło szy Polan żen.
None. I’m from Poland.

荷蘭嗎？
Hélán ma?
Hyelan ma?
You mean Holland?

不是荷蘭，是波蘭。在歐洲中部。
Bú shì Hélán, shì Bōlán. Zài Ōuzhōu zhōngbù.
Pu szy Hyelan, szy Polan. Caj Ouczou czungbu.
Not Holland, Poland. In Central Europe.

波蘭人說英語還是說俄語？
Bōlán rén shuō Yīngyǔ háishi shuō Éyǔ?
Polan żen szuo Ingjü hajszy szuo Yejü?
Do Polish people speak English or Russian?

我們有自己的語言，叫波蘭語。
Wǒmen yǒu zìjǐ de yǔyán, jiào Bōlányǔ.
Łomen jou cydzi de jüjen, dziao Polanjü.
We have our own language called Polish.

在中國呆了多久？
Zài Zhōngguó dāi le duōjiǔ?
Caj Czungło daj le tuodziou?
How long have you been in China?

中文說得很好！
Zhōngwén shuō de hěn hǎo.
Czungłen szuo de hen hao.
Your Chinese is very good!

哪裏哪裏，我的中文說得馬馬虎虎！
Nǎlǐ nǎlǐ, wǒ de Zhōngwén shuō de mǎmǎ-hūhū!
Nali nali, ło de Czungłen szuo de mama-huhu!
Where-where, my Chinese is horse-horse-tiger-tiger!

請問，…在哪兒？
Qǐng wèn, …zài nǎr?
Cing łen, …caj nar?
Excuse me, where is …?

宮保雞丁
Gōngbǎo jīdīng
Kungpao dziding
Gongbao chicken

魚香肉絲
Yúxiāng ròusī
Jüsiang żousy
Fish-flavored meat stripes.

魚香茄子
Yúxiāng qiézi
Jüsiang ciedzy
Fish-flavored eggplant

Chengdu Airport Shuttle Bus, 2014-10-27 22:49:40 +0800
Day 64 in China
I’m back from Kunming. I didn’t want to go back to Chengdu after such a pleasant time, but my so-called university may really start to miss me if I skip too many classes (as if I’ve skipped few until now.) This trip shows that it is still possible to fly cheaply in China, and not necessarily with Ryanair’s level of service. The return ticket Chengdu-Kunming cost 709 rmb. I could probably have got it cheaper, but I booked it just a week before departure.

Kunming is simply beautiful in spite of (or, for people like me, because of) all the dilapidated buildings. The city is located in the mountains, and even though it’s quite big even for Chinese standards, it’s the only Chinese city I’ve been to where you can see the blue sky, white clouds and yellow sun virtually every day. It is also famous for it’s mild climate. They say that in Kunming all four seasons are just like spring (四季如春 si4ji4-ru2chun1.) When people asked me what exactly I’m going to do in Yunnan, I told everyone “Oh, I’m going to drink the world-famous Yunnan Pu’er Tea.” I was, of course joking, because I actually had no idea what one can do in Kunming. I seldom plan my trips before I go, a habit I could probably change in China.

The problem with not planning longer trips in China is that the country is so painfully big. Many attractions listed on the Web, especially for bigger cities, are not located in the cities itself, but in either the suburbs or even farther. The Great Wall, a must-see attraction for Beijing, is actually three hours by coach from the city. So even in Kunming itself, if some place looks close on the map, it can be as far as two hours by bus. Then again, the only search engine for bus routes working in China is Baidu, a Chinese product that overtook the market thanks to the Chinese government’s ban on Google. The company’s motto is 百度一下，你就知道, which translates roughly as “100-degree it for a while and you’ll know,” but from what I’ve noticed until now, googleing (or, to be more precise, baiduing) any important information with Baidu is like asking a three-year-old boy who only speaks Kurdish about the best places to eat Beijing roast duck in Warsaw. Add to that the fact that the buses traditionally don’t have a schedule as such. What you find at the bus stop is usually a set of plates with the bus number, all the stops listed in the vertical align, exclusively in Chinese, and the hour when the first and last bus leave. What happens between these times, only heavens know. So if Baidu claims that the trip will last roughly 3 hours, you may be pretty sure you won’t be back home before dark.

On my way to Daguan Park yesterday, I found two places offering interesting plants. The first one was a wild bush of cannabis. The second one was a shop selling 雲南普洱茶—i.e., Yunnan Pu’er Tea. I got more than 700g for 80 rmb, and the people in the shop invited me to sit together with them and savor the delicious pu’er.

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