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Everything has been the capital of China – long, long history! Among the places we visited this time, Hangzhou,
Nanjing, Chongqing, Xian, Beijing ...
As for Vietnam, Saigon, Hue and Hanoi have all been capitals at some time.
Even tiny Hoian was the commercial capital of the Champa state.
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Our hotel was called Marco Polo. In the lobby we found a brochure claiming that he was actually from Korčula (or the Polo family was) making him a Croat.
Oh well... According to the brochure, everybody is a Croat:
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In his novel "M/F", Anthony Burgess presents some Malay words that need long periphrases in English:
«
Xian has been the capital of China
a capital excursion!
«
Hangchow was visited by Marco Polo ...
plus many famous ones, like Nikola Tesla and Ruđer Boskovic
«
tulat tuil tukang
| tulat | the day after tomorrow |
| tuil | carry weights on a stick over the shoulders, using a second stick to help balance |
| tukang | a skilled worker |
The day after tomorrow, the skilled worker will carry weights on a stick over the shoulders, using a second stick to help balance = three words in Malay.
The porter in the picture does tuil with two bamboo poles (you can see the helping stick above his right shoulder) All in all, a very efficient use of very simple technology, like making pulled noodles.
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Vietnam is the second exporter of rice in the world, after Thailand. Most of the country allows two crops a year, and the southern
regions even three.
Another export they place second – after Brazil – is coffee.
All the coffee I tried there was great; in general they drink it with sweetened concentrated milk, and often on ice.
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Some more bitching about the simplified Chinese script: the traditional "dragon" 龍 is, at least,
satisfactorily sinuous; but the simplified character
龙 looks like nothing at all! And, IMHO, it might be based on
the radical 尢 , meaning "weak" !
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"Osagyefo" means "Redeemer" and was the title of
Kwame Nkrumah. We also met Nkrumah in Beijing, at the famous Pecking Duck restaurant.
There he was with Zhou Enlai on the wall above the receptionist, both young and smiling.
The duck was excellent, even beloved wife appreciated it, and she usually hates duck.
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Besides, many other Chinese poests wrote about the beautiful lake: Lu You, Xin Qiji, Ouyang Xiu ...
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Xiaoyin told us about her own "voluntary work" carrying fertilizer for tea plants, in the good old times.
I really could not estimate Chinese age. One of our drivers looked to me 25, but was over forty. But maybe I say "young" because all the
airport officials ran around eagerly, would not take any decision by themselves, and only had one shoulder stripe
– junior officers, therefore young.
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The Vietnamese call it Eastern Sea, and
quarrel
with China about maritime rights and boundaries.
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«
I, of course, had no money.
And very safely so. On the one occasion I was left with the wallet, I spent
everything on useless stuff at the flea market, starting with
Mao's red book.
«
... a new crop of rice.
It is mostly Robusta coffee, rather bitter, but, to me, very tasty. Recently they
diversified to Arabica coffee, fancier mixes and cà phê chồn.
«
Longjing means Dragon Well ...
«
Ex machina Osagyefo appears
«
... two famous poets were governors of Hangzhou ...
Bai Juyi, around 830
Su Dongpo, around 1100. This one started his career as sushi, and ended as
a pork casserole (which we tasted on the shore of West Lake).
«
... a lot of jogging up and down hills on a tea plantation ...
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... a young lady
«
... Halong ... 6000 islands and rocks, scattered in the South China Sea
«
I squandered money ...