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"life is a waterfall, we're one in the river and one again after the fall"
System Of A Down

Took a walk on the chity wall today, it's massive! Taking a bike wasn't feasible in the rain, unfortunately, still was very cool. Enjoyed some great views over the inner city and the surrounding park, the moat and the high rises behind them.

19919   |   photo 中国 陝西 city architecture wall plant tree

I so adore roaming these cities at night and immerse myself in the xenon sea, especially right after it stopped raining.

18919   |   photo 中国 陝西 city street night light

Guiyang is such a lovable city, more civilized than Kunming but equally as green, located on a large river and fashionably up-to-date like Chengdu and modernity-wise exactly in the middle between those too. The first subway line went into operation only about two years ago and there's tons of construction sites around. Every major Chinese city kinda has/is looking for its field of expertise and Guiyang claims itself Big Data capital. Someone told me that Xi'an is the China of the past, Shanghai is the China of the present and Chengdu is the China of the future. My bets are Guiyang is on track to become the next Chengdu, 100元 on that!

13919   |   photo 中国 贵州 city mountain forest fog

Can't sleep.

13919   |   photo 中国 贵州 city building night light

Until that point the day has been full of unexpected surprises but there still were two more to come. Yesterday I read on a local city guide that a Norwegian Band called Sturle Dagsland were about to play and they were giving away two free tickets. So yeah, I won them! Awesome, would've gone anyway, cause they described the guys as a pretty excentric and unique mixture of all kinds of the-good-kind-of-weird shit and I'm always up for that.

So the other surprise was that it was impossible to locate the venue D:< After coming down from the Western Hills Park I actually took a taxi ride through the district where it was supposed to go down. They built smaller versions of the Eiffel Tower and other stuff around there and the venue was supposed to be in the Contemporary Gallery of Kunming. Was trying to spot that the other day for an exhibition already, but no map of mine had it. So I went into the vicinity an hour early, hired a moto rider to drive me there. Four lanes, only vehicle, tach maxed to 50km/h and of course: no helmet. (I don't think there are any, haven't seen a single solitary person wearing one now that I think of it). Cool ride anyhow. And of course Yours Truly, aka the Western Haggler Baron got a sweet "discount" again.

But no sign of the Arc de Triomphe or the gallery anywhere in sight. Asked a lot of people, policemen, security guards around to no avail. ): Really hope their music sucks, cause I feel that I've just missed out on a really great gig.

And now half of my journey is already behind me. It. Is. So. Unfathomable. Awesome. Over. Here. I'm having such a blast and I can't even believe I could do all of this one time over again, or what other experiences this country could have in store for me. My time in Yunnan got a bit slanted by the unusual, untimely rain, but nevertheless it's been tremendously great and beautiful around these parts. And I even got to accomplish Project Peacock way ahead of scheduled time. ;)

Tomorrow morning then I'll be boarding the bullet train up to Guiyang, capital of Guizhou. Watch me!

11919   |   中国 云南 photo city water lake sky cloud

"We're not in Chengdu anymore!"

10919   |   中国 云南 photo city street human

After I arrived back from the Stone Forest and stepped off the Metro a thunderstorm hovered over the city and it began pouring cats and dogs. I was soaked to the bones within seconds and streams began running down the hilly streets of Kunming turning the last leg of the tour into a track and field run. Because my only pair of shoes turned to sponges and it rained the whole night through, I couldn't even go out to get some dinner. So I went down to the girls at the reception that don't speak a word of Engrish if I could order something to the hotel. They weren't into that idea for some reason, but could offer me a huge bucket of instant noodles from their own stash. Well, alright then :P

Today's weather was just about the same and the forecast says it's gonna continue that way all over South West China and even get worse. Guess I struck April in the City of Eternal Spring.

And writing of shoes … the guy from the skate shop told me I probably won't find any my size in the whole country.

10919   |   云南 中国 photo city building roof

View from my room. It's got almost the exact same layout as the one back in Chengdu with the thick carpet swapped for those fake ass vinyl boards I also got in my apartment and two single beds instead a queen sized one. The TV's got some sort of netflixy thing going through which I watched Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings. It's a Wuxia flick and I can't quite believe I haven't even heard of that series. If a blend of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Naruto with the production value of Marvel cinematics tickles your fancy you're in for a real treat!

8919   |   photo 中国 云南 city street building roof

Nothing like pwning your friends before work to kick off the day.

3919   |   photo 中国 四川 city street human man game bike

Took the panoramic elevator up the West Pearl Tower, at 339m the tallest in Western China. Surprisingly the top floor sports VR- and AR-arcade setups, because what else would you do up there, right?

2919   |   architecture city 四川 中国 photo building river fog

你好! Finally arrived in Pandaria Chengdu after a solid 24 hours of travel. Everything went super smooth, treated myself to a last awesome breakfast with real bread in Prague, where I also stumbled by a movie set and enjoyed a decent pint of Pilsner Urquell at the airport later on. Spent roughly 9 hours on the plane watching The Sopranos, getting a first glimpse of proper Sichuan spiciness with intermittent contortioned sleep breaks. Totally lucked out, though, had two seats to myself.

Got disinfected with some weird spray before leaving the plane and walked through thermometric sensors to make sure I don't bring in any foreign germs. Further 'alien' processing went through without any hiccups whatsoever and whilst getting on the Metro it totally paid off choosing Chengdu as my point of entry. Everything's in English and super high-end – choose your destination on a touchscreen map, get your 70c ticket and off you go. It's a breeze.  
Got to my hotel four hours before earliest check-in time, but the guys where so nice as to prepare my room in 20 minutes after I arrived. This is the view from my top floor suite. Don't fret – it's way less urban-hellish than it may seem :P

Later on my good fortune balanced out when I set off the nasty alarm of the safe in my room, the bowel bubbling I received from the glibbery rice goo on the plane churned itself down the drain and I discovered that it's quite impossible to access any English navigation service or app. Managed to finesse my way to a setup file, though, and it's all good now.

2919   |   photo 中国 四川 city building

Street scene near my hotel. Typical Sichuan weather so far, 80% overcast, 15% rain. Was asleep during the remaining 72 minutes, caught up on what I missed during the flight.

2919   |   photo 中国 四川 city street

The old chairman overwatching central Tianfu Square.

When I walked by earlier in the afternoon a guy and his wife stopped me and asked for taking a photo. Not of them with Mao, but with me as a lucky charm.

2919   |   photo 中国 四川 city statue

Aw shit, Rocky dropped another killer vid just half an hour ago. Directed by James Mackel.

301118   | music video hip.hop rap beats human man woman weapon gun police city car

Collab of the year finally got blessed with a video. Classic Club Hel vibe, better act like you know it.

31118   | music video hip.hop rap beats human man woman city clothes street car dance smoke weed

24518   |   България Со́фия photo human woman city statue stone building

22518   |   България Со́фия photo city building mountain