– Guest commentary by Anne Pommerenke –

China is culture shocking at its best and always worth the trip if you want to get rid of things – rid of conventions, politeness and etiquette. If heareable body sounds and urinating in public tour busses is no problem at all for you – China is your destination of choice.

A trip to China should be part of every management seminar as the quintessence of every attempt is: “That’s not my problem” and “No money, no funny.”

Always in-between sound pragmatism and total ignorance the Chinese maneuvers in his pretty predictable life – everything planned by the government in advance. The self-responsibility is actually limited to their own family, their fruitful business network and their own belongings. If you – as a bloody tourist – ask for any directions it is pretty predictable that you either will get a shake of the head or the signal to take the complete opposite way.

Apparently China is a country of extremes trying to combine a long traditional history and massive economical growth. So far, China was worth the trip to get to know a completely different culture, value system and to experience what it means to be totally out of your comfort zone without being able to read or communicate and definitively out of the know hygienic conditions (disinfection wipes become as important as the passport).

We are looking forward to all the cultural surprises we will see at our way through China. After a – let’s name it interesting – start in Guilin we are now approaching panda-town Chendgu.

Addendum to Hong Kong

As we did not manage to book a ticket from Hong Kong to Guilin in time (obviously this took us nearly one day – expectations were at 30 minutes) we stayed longer in Hong Kong and did a nice cable car trip to see Big Buddha.

Obviously there was one of the numerous special days so that “Hello Kitty” was welcoming us everywhere. As you would expect from good tourists for sure we did an extensive photo shooting with her.