Horological Meandering

a recent mission to South East Asia took me to the Chinese city of Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, located in Southern Central China (6.7 Mio citizens, a small town here, almost a village...). Befitting long-distance travel I of course took my Blancpain GMT Alarm with me, a most versatile travel watch.

Lufthansa's trusty battleship Boeing 747 conveniently took us eastwards (view from the Lufthansa First Class lounge in Frankfurt, here with its erstwhile successor, the A380, in the back):

Breakfast time above Mongolian soil...

The city of Nanning might be unfamiliar to many, but it has a distinct importance in recent Chinese history as this city, in January 1958, hosted the conference of the Chinese People's Party to finalise the 2^nd Five Years Plan that later became famous as a social and economic campaign called the The Great Leap Forward.

The meeting was chaired by Chairman Mao Zedong (pic lifted from the net). 

Also, my discussions took place in exactly the same hotel that served as venue for the meeting itself and accommodation for its delegations, but most importantly also for the Chairman himself. Since our host was the vice-govenor of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region we were granted the rare treat of being allowed to visit the separate compound that was the private home for Mao Zedong. Here you see yours truly (on the left) posing in front of the Chairman's bed:

In terms of epicurean delights you have to be prepared for some surprises. First of al, a very lively table decoration...

accompanied by Chinese red wine (no comment):

For the rest of the dishes I recall having identified lizard legs in the soup and decided to spare you further details...

Dinner was finished with the appearance of a traditional girl's choir representing the different ethnies endemic to Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Mercilessly they subjected each and everyone of us to a ceremony that involved loud siren-like singsongs while they grabbed our ears and force-fed (!!!) us with a bucket full of sorghum schnapps washed down with a similar amount of the said chinese wine... they claimed that is to foster our manliness - oh dear...!

That's about what I remember from that evening...

Feeling a bit hmmm next day, I decided to give Chairman Mao's teachings a try and take an early morning swim in the pool (the Chairman apparently was very fond on physical exercise, and almost immediately after having seized power in 1949 Mao ordered the construction of an indoor swimming pool in his residence adjacent to the Forbidden City in Beijing; pic lifted from the net).

I did not understand the instructions in the dressing room but at least nobody complained...

REFRESHMENT and feeling like a human being newborn:

A few days later, and quite exhausted, I gladly entered the inviting cabin of Austrian Airline's almost vintage 767, for a relaxed flight back to Vienna. From seat 1A my Blancpain and myself enjoyed a last view on China's mainland and appreciated the Great Wall:

Altogether is was an exhaustive trip with many, many unforeseen things happening but we still survived. We were deeply immersed with the Chinese way of doing things but this is an entirely different story.

I only promised myself that next time I'd be better prepared in terms of accessories (pic lifted from the net)...

I hope you enjoyed my little report!

Cheers and have a nice weekend (off to my plane to Athens),

Magnus

  login to reply