Guiyang: 2004-09-05
Breakfast at nine o'clock. It wasn't easy to get out of bed in time. Yesterday evening I had fallen asleep soon after dinner, woke up around 12, got undressed, then couldn't sleep, you know the routine when jetlag hits. Anyway, this breakfast is really special. A large western styled breakfast buffet. Or Chinese, or Japanese. You can pick what you want. Or mix.
A few tables further I see Song and Ch'oe. So they have arrived. Yes, they look really young, this new generation of go players from Korea. But they are so strong. Yesterday I saw on internet that they both have won their second round game in the Samsung Cup (and Cho Chikun is out -- he lost against one of the younger Chinese).
Internet?
Yes, I saw it on internet. Just plugged in the cable in my hotel room and it worked. It is free, not like the European hotels I frequent where you have to pay 15 euro a day. As Chris said later on during the day, and I have to totally agree with it: the impression we have in the west about this country is totally wrong. I was prepared for it, after my visit to Korea last year, but it still comes as a surprise. What is happening here in the economy is phenomenal. Construction works are everywhere. And internet is just a commodity in this hotel, like electricity. There might be this big big gouvernment controled firewall somewhere with censorship of certain sites, but it is not at all obvious that it is there. I cannot reach the Japanese Yomiuri newspaper site indeed, I vaguely remember that it was blocked because it published an article that was critical about the Chinese. On the other hand the conservative Nikkei Shimbun is accessible, and so are the many other newspaper sites that I try, from the Asahi to the New York Times. In any case, the speed is nice but not overwhelming and the stability is ok. I can set up the VPN to the office and it just works. No censor looking over my shoulder. I can go to my project Quickplaces and they do work. Wow.
The park
We went to the near-by park. It is a Sunday. It seems tout Guiyang enjoys the park today. It is very crowded.
The park in Guiyang, the end of the pond.
When I read La Joyeuse de Go, where they play go in a park in a Chinese town, I had an image of a flat park with lots of grass and tables in some sort of meadows. That is of course my Dutch lack of imagination. This park has hills, slopes, ponds with levels, paths going up to the mountain, with lots of dragon flies near the water, has caves that go deep into the mountain and even an ancient nunnery at the end of the pond that served as a prison in the second world war for some generals. It does not look like a prison, it looks like a nice old house. It might have been a bit lonely, but one can image worse places to be kept prisoner.
One has to pay to get into the park. Besides the scenary there are also some fairground attractions. But we are as much an attraction as the park itself. We do not really belong there. We certainly have not seen any other non Chinese person there. We are stared at, people look over their shoulder. Little children react in a most natural way. They look and smile. And then they use the only English word they know: "hello?" So I say "hello" back :-)
There is lots of singing and music making, lots of exercises, such as ritual sword handling. But I have not seen any go. Card games yes, but no go.
