I love China!

Although I love New York is teeming with life at every street corner, if its excess and if I like the sound of traffic does not bother me, I'm more accustomed to large landscapes and islands across the world. But Saturday morning, arriving in Beijing for the first time on Chinese soil would not have left me to imagine such a surprise: Beijing no longer living in the era of Mao, it has two feet firmly planted in the future !

Broad avenues more like ring roads to urban streets, buildings that climb to conquer the sky, the Chinese fashionistas more than most of our ladies trendy Champs Elysees, the shops of all major brands Luxury scale of China, and millions of Beijingers who cross you staring at you in a bit but not too surprised either. Peking is not like the image that we kept Tien anmen ', it is in the race to lead the most modern cities in the world.

I am coming full force in the Chinese world of today barely touching what will be tomorrow, we must see the amazing silhouette of the Tour tarabustée CCTV (Chinese television) to understand that ... we don ' have not yet realized how far will the Chinese.

Within 48 hours, and after a flight of 9 hours (not 11 as I had announced previously), with a lag time of 6 hours in the skull, I have already devoured your teeth a China that has promised to surprise me. Just by being around the block from my hotel located just ten minutes drive from the Forbidden City, I let myself caught up in two shopping centers: one well known to warn tourists and Chinese who come here to negotiate counterfeit T Ralph Lauren shirts and true "truck fell" at prices defying any consistency, the second much more recent and intended for businessmen and wealthy Chinese, representing all major international brands including some that I did not even know. And just imagine the girls that the Chinese fashion, if it has not yet invaded our Western magazines, however, should challenge more of our editors as I discovered yesterday evening shoes incredibly beautiful and modern boots a rare elegance and other bags that you would require some dry regime returning from a trip like this if you let yourself be tempted by such a profusion of good taste at a price more affordable after all ...

Last night I told my aching muscles in the hands of a young Chinese who do not understand a word of English. Difficult to explain that a nerve (or a ligament?) Made me suffer to the point of almost being able to walk! Yet by dint of mimes (for me) and sympathetic smile (his hand), I lay on the table of torture after negotiating the price of a traditional Chinese massage. Sixty looonnngues minutes that I thought I was going to scream in pain as the experienced hands of this young mad crashing stack on the nodes that terrorized my muscles. Some stretching exercises before and I got up with the feeling of being squashed by a tank ruthless but still able to walk back to the hotel, and without a limp this time! This morning I woke up fresh as a rose, keeping no memory of my weakness yesterday, but the deltoids which always make me suffer, I feel I still have the imprint of fingers that fool magician sincere smile and nothing in the world I go back there tonight even if I am convinced that I have no doubt that the greater good ...

The entrance to the Forbidden City in Beijing, under the gaze of Mao.

I tell you I visited the Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven? I tested my new Canon 500D all day, and I forgot the video function! By cons ... I have spent my strength on the streets of the city, admiring the relics of past emperors and wondered if empresses life was enviable ... I'll tell you this in detail shortly.

Perhaps you'd be more interested (e) by my tests greedy? ...

I did not understand everything that I tasted for two days even if I know myself limited to pork and chicken for now. But I saw "things" on cards, and in other dishes on the table, that inspire reflection and understanding ... So far I've hunted small restaus premises, those customers you come look with amazement, those to which old gentlemen bicycle with you kindly to make sure you do not lose, those are not the best days of reports that flourishes these days in magazines French and we do the honors of China proper, fair and avant-garde. In restaurants I chose, I cleaned the board teacups discreetly with paper towel before filling an amber brew flavored with hope. And I took care to wash my hands in a dirty sink before eating and after, as recommended by the flashes of which we are now heaped on the TV channels, to believe that the French would ever take care to wash their hands (in this case thank you to the influenza A!).

But believe me, whatever the somewhat dubious cleanliness of facilities that we had recommended, I am really entertained! ... And for less than € 4 per meal the curious gourmet flavors that I tasted of big plates too well-stocked with rice Cantonese larger than life and all with a teapot full of jasmine to reinvigorate any visitor exhausted. An happiness! ...

But I have to queue to visit other gardens, other palaces, other temples. Especially as rehearsals for the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the revolution swing now and I am not alone to pace the aisles. Yesterday officials of a sound tested the resistance of acute on some songs of Celine Dion ...

I still have three days to pass over in Beijing and about tomorrow and Tuesday I will spend two or three hours on the Great Wall, I hope it will also handsome today!

I already love China! ...