Life and Travel in China

I haven't written anything for a long time, I have a lot of different things to do. I moved the website to a new server. In addition, I sell more and more photos and have a photo studio at home. Two weeks ago I was also in Yunnan province, the mystical town of Shangrila and the famous Lijiang. I will try to add some interesting photos. I would like to remind you that I will no longer use the domain www.foto.xip.pl - I will stay www.fotochiny.com.

If you were going to China, in most cities and towns I recommend visiting company stores: Li-Ning, ANTA, 361. They all have a logo similar to Nike. These are Chinese Adidas - branded clothes. They are produced in the same factories as Nike, Puma, Adidas etc. They are usually half the price and have the same quality and durability of fabrics and footwear. I really recommend it! 361 usually has interesting promotions in Shenzhen, I buy one pair of shoes - the second one is free, I buy a sweatshirt for 200 RMB (the Adidas one costs 380 RMB), I get the second sweatshirt worth 100 RMB for free. It happened to me that I bought nasty Adidas shoes, and after a year the sole fell apart. Some time ago I bought Li-Ning sports shoes, 2 years ago everything is fine, recently I bought 361 shoes, they are also comfortable and well made. As you can see, Chinese branded items can also be decent, and the accusation that they are 'made in China' may equally apply to Puma, Adidas and Nike. The reality is that you pay for a global brand or you get a Chinese brand for half the price.

The average Pole lumps Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, and sometimes even Thais and Filipinos into one bag. After a long stay in China, I can definitely tell the difference between these nations. Apart from the language and writing (Chinese and Japanese characters are similar), they differ greatly in appearance (eyes, height, nose, eyebrow shape, hair), as well as clothing and behavior. I've met Japanese people, recently some Korean students, and Filipinos, and I would never consider them Chinese.

I'm wondering about this stereotype of Chinese fortune cookies. I just saw them for the hundredth time in an American series. Well, in 5 years of my stay in China, I have never encountered this. I did some reading and it turned out that these cookies were invented by a Japanese in 1914 in San Francisco, USA. A similar idea had an emigrant from Hong Kong who invented the 'fortune cookie' in Los Angeles in 1918. As you can see, the famous Chinese cookies come from America and actually have little to do with Chinese culture. They only exist in CHINA TOWN and in Chinese restaurants outside the Middle East. The only connection with China is that in the 13th and 14th centuries there was an uprising against the Mongols and secret messages were hidden inside mooncakes. But these are completely different cookies... and yet another legend.

I'm wondering... Tusk is in Shanghai now. He came two months after the Olympics because he was boycotting the event?! Maybe the prime minister is just offended at Beijing and cannot fly to Shanghai? I don't know, but if someone denies China and accuses it of so many things, why come here at all? Or to put it another way... why is he rushing to the Chinese if he still has a lot to discuss with them? We will never win against the middle country, because the Chinese do not have to take us into account, and we - on the contrary - have to take them into account on an equal footing with the USA, Russia and Germany. Prime Minister Tusk got off the plane wearing jeans, a sweatshirt and a jacket. The Chinese delegation was surprised. It's good that the plane is clearly marked, because maybe the Chinese would start looking for another plane with a more elegant passenger when they saw it.