It has been a while and hence there are but a couple of days left. . .

As it is without your own computer and without having internet access wherever you go, you loose the need and the eagerness to go online just to write a few lines. After all, it is difficult to put into words, what you are experiencing in such a foreign world. Even before my camera has been stolen I thought over and over again that it might be sad that I am not a professional photographer and that the camera I had might not be perfect to capture the beautiful landscape I am encountering wherever I go, but at the same time there is so much it could not capture anyways: neither the smell nor the taste of a real hot Chinese dish, the noise of spitting and burbing Chinese right next to you when sitting squeazed on a hard seat on a ten hour train ride to a new unexplored city full of surprises, not the feeling when waiting for an unknown Chinese - who does not make any attempts of speaking the Beijing Mandarin so that I might understand him - left with your train ticket after having you caused to miss the train you where suppose to take, neither the feeling of being surrounded by a group of Chinese - all of them eager to help you - when putting your bike into pieces.

Yes, I am very happy and that is probably the reason for me not updating the blog on a regularly bases after all. There is still so much to see and to learn. And here I am now in one of the most famous touristic spots in China sitting in an internet cafe while unexpectedly waiting for my bike to arrive.

After my visit at the police station and looking back at the past days I can even consider myself fairly satisfied with my slowly improving Chinese skills. The urge to come back to this country as soon is possible keeps on growing - yet not as a tourist, that is for sure; I am not a good tourist, I need a place to work at in some way and so far - apart from the Tiger Leaping Gorge, of which I took wonderful pictures now in the hand of some stranger - I disliked almost every tourist attraction to a large degree. And the list of potentials cities in China is getting longer and longer.

But then again I consider myself very lucky that I can finally continue my bike trip tonight before I will reach Beijing where I will likewise cycle around and then, well then I need to go back to Germany. ..