First contact

It's true, I was at Hong Kong airport, but that is not really China yet, and at Chengdu, but airports don't show how is the exterior. So, my first contact with China was when we stepped out of the Lanzhou airport, which is about 60 or 80 km away from the city, in the proverbial middle of nowhere. The first feeling I had, already walking through the corridors of the airpot, was of dry weather. Humidity was no more. Moreover, there was a wonderful Sun in an absolutely blue sky that increased the feeling.

The next step was to take a taxi. As expected, with an 80s look and without any air conditioning. What hit me was the landscape I saw next. So much, that I felt really homesick for a while. The thing is that, apart from the distance and the colors of the earth, the surroundings, the landscape reminded me a lot about the dry lands near Tauste (my father's adoptive hometown) or the Monegros. Obviously, the buildings are very different (the roofs are really curious), but many had some kind of inner court and some building next to it where I am sure they keep a tractor or other tools. There are corn and sunflower fields and places were they were reforesting the trees.


We were rolling along some kind of highway built to service the airport. Very little traffic, but there were warnings about rear collisions. The air was dry and very hot sometimes, but not too much; I've felt much worse. For a while, I was seeing one thing, but remembering another, and I was watching everything with a smile on my face. Very familiar things on the other side of the world.