Future plans

Everybody asks: What's next?

There is no definite answer yet, so please remain patient. Yet, we have a medium term plan.

To start with, we'll be leaving Guilin early July. From there, we'll explore China and South Asia. Can't wait... we'll be traveling for two whole months and feel very fortunate.

Johanna's sister Eva has offered us a place to stay in Cologne, where we'll arrive in September. Thanks, Eve and Michael, you're stars!

There, we'll start applying for jobs, preferably in Germany or Belgium. The U.K. is also a possibility.

Although Lee very much wanted to be a lecturer at a university, we have put these plans on ice for now, since the market seems too competitive. In fact, he's looking forward to programming again, so maybe it is a mixed blessing. Time will tell. He still has some pokers in the fire, so who knows what might come of it.

Right now, we're hoping for the best and enjoying the remaining time we have here. It is unbelieveable how much we have experienced in just one year - it feels like we have had ten years worth of adventures.

One child policy and Chinese pragmatism

Quite a few of our Chinese students have siblings. We were intrigued to find out about the loop holes in the one child policy and thus dared to asked about it.

In fact, there are many ways around it (apart from the obvious one, which is paying a lot of money for the second born):

Firstly, if you're a farmer in China and your first born is a girl, you get a second "chance" to try for a boy.

Also, if one of your parents belongs to a minority group - and there are 56 of them - the family is allowed two children.

Thirdly, in the early 80s it became so obvious that there won't be enough women in society that couples with a son were encouraged to try for a girl. That only lasted for a very short while.

Kelvin, the older son of such a "case" told us the following: "My parents wanted a girl, and the government wanted girls. That's why my baby brother has got a girl's name". While we couldn't help but bursting out laughing, the other eight people around the table just nodded in understanding.

Chinese Hot Pants explosion

Before we came to China we read that Chinese women don't show their legs. To our surprise - and Lee's appreciation - the very opposite is true in Guilin.

With the nice weather you see legs everywhere, covered in a very minimalistic way. In other words: One can't tell whether the girls are wearing a big pair of underwear or a very short pair of hot pants.

In other words again: A good time to visit Guilin.

Back at work

As from May 8th we started work again. Now, the sun and heat has made it to Guilin. While it is lovely in the evenings, all we do during the day is sweat, sweat, sweat… Luckily, Johanna’s sister left us with some good deodorant; otherwise our students would probably fall unconscious.

Yet, we are really enjoying our last two months here. Lee enjoys going to the local market to buy fresh vegetables and fruit, and the stall sellers always have a big smile for the big white man with the big (now red) nose. Johanna is determined to learn as much Chinese as possible in the time remaining. Jan, our visitor, put us to shame, by speaking and understanding as much as us within two weeks!

Kunming and Dali

For the 1st of May we had a week off, and we decided to explore the West of China with Giz and Jan. It was definitely worth it! We all agree that this is the nicest part of China so far. Thanks to the altitude (around 2000 m), sunshine is almost guaranteed. After a week of grayness and rain in Guilin, that was most appreciated. Due to that region being on the “Silk Road”, one finds a lot of cultural variety. Some merchants brought more than their goods to this part of the world. Thus, the gene-pool got “mixed up”. We found it very interesting to guess the origins of the people there.

Afterwards we traveled on to Dali, a lovely city surrounded by mountains and next to a big lake. There, we found both perfect weather conditions and lovely Western food. The latter made us strong enough to go for a bicycle ride in the countryside and on a big hike up the local Changshang Mountain. Believe it or not, but the Chinese workers built a 12 km – long hiking “pavement”… 2800 m above sea level. Very convenient and impressive. In fact, the track was wide enough for people to cycle on it. The views we got on there were breath-taking. If we got you curious, please take a look at our photos at our flickr site.

Lee followed his nose and found a large plantation of his favorite plants. They can be found all over Dali, and old grannies are continuously trying to sell their herbal wares.

On our last day, we took a bus to a neighboring village inhabited by the Bai minority. We were able to see a lot of original Bai architecture buildings. Most of all, we liked the concept of courtyards. They are such a great idea. Why don’t we all do it? Shikun, what do you think?

Giz and Jan...

... stayed with us in Guilin for about a week and it was lovely doing “normal” things together: We cooked, watched movies, played sports and gossiped. They are traveling for a year, so they are in no rush. It was nice hearing about their adventures in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia and Nepal.

Lee commented on how nice it was to be a competitive man again – he tried to be Alpha man (despite his continuous losses in frizbee, pool, ... ).