(Mandarin) Chinese language holidays in China
What strikes most is the disproportion. Cities which seem to have been taken out of science fiction tales, the best architects of the planet are called upon to give life to the ultimate megacities. Glass, steel, concrete, which cross swords with the gigantic open-air markets which you would think have come directly from the Middle Ages. An anteroom of Chinese gastronomy where sea animals are bought alive and where the vegetables themselves take on the most unsuspicious shapes. China, this eccentric giant, is not only the most populated country in the world, but also one of the most inspiring.
We will not replay the verse of modernity versus tradition. Yes, since its ancient dynasties, the Middle Kingdom has produced what is most new and immoderate in science and art. The unending wall which encloses this other world. The fields of terracotta statues which were buried to put the weapon in the left hand. The birth of opera, calligraphy, of dance as a ceremony. And today, a calligraphy production which is not resolved to an avalanche of punches and mafia tales. An avant garde land, even in its antiquity, China from now on is experiencing a mutation which even the astrologists in the service of the Emperors couldn't have anticipated.
Cities
Shanghai!... Shanghai!...The mere mention of the city still fills the Western mind with fantastic and exotic images. A mysterious China, a legendary port, opium, games and traffics of all kinds, revolts, adventure...so many clichés maintained by the tales of sailors, the literature and cinema which crop up ...
More information on Shanghai
