Chengdu

Chendu, city of 13 million people seemed without end. In Chengdu buses cost 1 or 2 yuan (15 or 20 cents) a ride, long or short, so I spent a couple of days riding on buses, getting off at various locations of interest and getting lost... Truly the words --Lost in China -- kept me amused when I wished for a pocket compass or the ball of Ariadnes thread...

If Chengdu is a reflection of China I would ay this is truly a nation of contrasts... Everything seems side by side, rich and poor, humble or proud, The Gucci/Armani shop or the vendor with the street-stall. It amazed me to see how orderly the maddening traffic circulates. Vehicles of every sort are everywhere, buses, cars, taxis, motorscooters, bicycles... J-walking penalties must be non-existent there... simply because a pedestrian crossing the street needs as much skill as any driver on the road...

I liked China the land, and I liked the Chinese, their subttle vigor, stamina, perseverance of daily pursuits, whether crossing the road or playing cards on the sidewalk, making noodles or eating hotpot in a noisy restaurant, driving a luxury car or loading a mountain of recycled cardboard on a bikecycle... Returning to the western-mode of this planet I returned renewed, I finally understood that something abstract that always eluded me, just now I don't know exactly how to relate it, let me say that I gained some inner wisdom by way of which I have graduated... As for the Chinese... for me they will have a new face as see them with wiser eye...