Luckily Chinese Airlines continue flying over Russia, and so I was able to take the short cut from Toronto over the North Pole to Hong Kong. It is interesting watching the flight map, diving into Asia from that perspective. Still the 12 hour time difference, made me a little trouble this time. Then I also caught a fever and still had to flag pole over Macao due to a delayed visa process. So, everything became very tightly scheduled and there was only very little time for anything extra. I did not even go over to Lamma Island: no hike, no seafood, no nothing really. I apologize to all the friends I did not see this time.
Hong Kong is slowly digging itself out of the Covid-recession. It’s not easy. It helps to be closer connected to Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta. But you can feel, the city is in a bit of an identity crisis. But at least it’s peaceful, unlike it was in 2029. That’s partly a result of the National Security Law implemented, and also because economic pressures start biting. There were celebrations for the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the People’s Republic of China. And as usual, an amazing fireworks lit up the skyline. 75 years. That’s a lifetime, and a period of tremendous development in China - including ups and downs.
Just after finishing my course at Hong Kong University, I drove to the airport and travelled to Turkey. This time over India with a little detour. I like Turkey a lot, and I can only imagine that it must have a great economic future. There is no real reason why for example many German companies should not move production capacities into Turkey. The country has a young, well trained and motivated workforce. There are some unwise economic policies, I think. But that should not be hard to fix.
Finally, my trip also brought me to Germany, in a plane from Antalya full with German tourists. Luckily it was just a 3 hour flight, and manageable. But when landing in Germany, still with this preparation, it came to me like a shock how agressive the environment has become. Germans lives in the frustration of the second year of self inflicted recession, and meaningless government slogans like “Doppelwums”, “Wachstumsturbo”, “Bauturbo”, “Zeitenwende” … The socialist past socialist GDR-Slogans at least were not baby speak, and you could understand the words, if not the intended meaning. The effect though is the same: nobody listens anymore. Instead they start blaming random groups for their misery. Sometimes they even blame me. Today I parked my Vespa motorcycle (orderly) in front of a shop to get some food and somebody just kicked it over to the ground, while yelling something about immigrants. Luckily, actually an immigrant, helped me to put it back on its wheels, so I could continue my ride. Let’s see how this stopover in Germany is going to continue.