My last week in Asia

The time has arrived, almost..

For the past weekend and a few days more now I visited  潘蕾 in Shanghai, but she got a job right now and basically we have little time together.

In this last visit anyway I managed to be scr*wed with my bad bargaining skills when I went to buy a couple of t-shirts for the very last minute presents (and moving back I will not buy presents anymore for the firends in Europe); I managed to experience the n-th example of bad Chinese public services and in this case lazy doctors at a hospital that should be quite famous (not for me, but I went with a friend..); I verified again the extremely high prices in Shanghai for everything, from subway to taxi to food; I managed to meet a couple of friends that I will certainly miss; I had some good local food that I will also certainly miss.. and a few other things..

Tonight one last Aikido session at Xijiao Shanghai dojo and a chance to say bye to a few friends there. After that I can consider complete my visit to Shanghai.

Tuesday late night I’ll have a flight back to Shenzhen resulting in a last night in Shenzhen airport, hoping to find again the same place I used the times before, being actually able to catch a few hours of real sleep (some soft benches close to a mini caffe of course closed in the night).

A couple of days of packing in Longgang and then Friday I’ll go to Hong Kong from where I will leave on Sunday night. I actually look forward to Friday: I got nothing real to miss in Longgang and I am happy I got the chance to have some tiny accomodation in HK. Leave as soon as possible Longgang is actually the high priority aspect!

In HK I’ll got actually more friends than in Longgang and I will certainly manage one more Aikido session and have a good time!

The time in Asia has passed quite fast and my decision to leave has been suffered but I have been realistic. I will write more about this. And I will write more about China for sure. As I am sure I will come back, but no idea as for traveling or for work again.

I have learnt much, but I have failed in the most important part: learning Chinese. Without Chinese here, unless you work as ex-pat for some big international company that send you or support you locally with international salary rates as well it is very tough, unless one speaks the language.

So it is a farewell to China without too big regrets and also not regretting the decision to come here at first.

Now, let’s get ready for Aikido 😉 (and I am happy to go back to Europe for the Aikido part!!)