Whereas I love to go back to Europe in summer to enjoy the long days, I also quite like to go back in winter. There is definitely less chance for sun, but it offers a welcome change from the ever same temperatures we have here in the tropics.
This year’s two-week trip was actually a busy business trip to Zurich, Geneva and Luxembourg that left a few days off work at the end. I wondered what to do and finally decided to stay in Luxembourg as this would not only minimize the travels but also allow for some new discoveries. Some of my work colleagues in Switzerland called me nuts for spending extra time in Luxembourg … and I did not really know what to expect.
However, I liked it from the beginning. It was a great change of perspective from the daily life in bustling Asia. The people are very friendly and open and due to the short distances it was easy to get around by foot. Albeit small, the town is very diverse and offers lots of history, something I am missing here in Singapore. To spice things up, we also went for a day trip to two nearby highlights. Trier, the oldest city in Germany, and Vianden, a small village with an impressive castle in the north of Luxembourg.

Geylang seems to be the one place in Singapore where the overall very strict enhancement of rules is less stringent and where the police – although very much present (to prevent any serious offences, I guess) – often turns a blind eye. It is not uncommon to find people smoking in restaurants or other public spaces, to see street vendors set up their makeshift stalls and sell pills or to be able to choose between different services offered by prostitutes aplenty.

It is THE place to go if you wish to escape the orderly (sometimes sterile) life and enjoy a fun time, strolling the street, enjoying good food and a comparatively cheap beer. During the season in August it is also the number one place to find the best durian.

As a good tourist, we visited the Chinese wall in Shanhaiguan which used to be a very strategic and now is a very touristy spot where the wall enters the sea. Luckily for us it is mostly popular with Chinese tourists who do not have identical interests to ours. We were thus alone on our quest to find and climb the remnants of the original (read: not restored) wall.

During previous trips in China the food was often ok and rarely very good. This time, we really enjoyed delicious food … street food such as noodle soup, baozi, jiaozi and a sort of pancakes, Peking duck and also international dishes such as salad, pizza and sushi. I’m not sure if it is just by chance but I prefer to think that we finally got the hang of it.

We travelled by train. China’s high speed trains being very modern, comfortable and on time it makes for very efficient travelling… if it were not for the purchase of the ticket prior to the train ride. Although ticket machines are available foreigners cannot use them as a Chinese identity card is required. We were thus left with no option but to queue to buy our tickets… and in contrast to the train ride, I can tell that queuing is neither efficient nor comfortable (just imagine hundreds of people in one big room with no aircon or fan and outside temperatures of +35 degrees). As if queuing once was not enough in Qinhuangdao we repeated this  exercise three times. First, we bought tickets at the high-speed counter only to realise later in the day that the tickets were for a train ride which would take us 11 hours! We then returned to queue early next day to return these tickets and finally to buy new tickets for the high-speed train which would eventually only take a bit more than 3 hours. We didn’t mind that the only category left was  standing room… at least it was in an aircon train and did not take the whole day ;-).

As a consequence, I often opted for black and white photography which was – in my opinion – a great choice as fortunately both Tianjin and Dalian offer very interesting and distinctive architecture with lots of contrasts. In comparison with other Chinese cities, they seem very European.

Tianjin is China’s third biggest city and has a rich history, impacted by foreign trade in the late 1800s. You find plenty of buildings with British, German, French, Italian or Japanese influence and it seems that the Italian concession houses the biggest cluster of old Italian architecture outside of Italy.

Dalian is China’s northernmost sea port and due to its ice-free location has ever since been a very strategic harbour town. For long, Russian or Japanese occupied the city and it was only in 1955 that it was returned to China. Still today, you see the influence of both countries and I was surprised to find that many Russian still spend their holidays there. The architecture with its old buildings and numerous squares, restaurants and even souvenirs stalls clearly show this influence.

Tianjin

Dalian

Our trip to Hong Kong in February 2015 was thus very much a walk down memory lane. Comparing our experience with how it has been the first time, I realised how many new things I have learned over the past years and how much I got accustomed to and fond of Asia. While five years ago I was overwhelmed and fascinated with all new things, now it is different. It feels a bit less exciting for sure, but it still feels very good.