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From Dreams To Mixed Reality
I came with dreams and left with a mixed reality. The United States are, to put it diplomatically, controversial. On the one side they were founded with values like democracy and freedom, on the other side those are not only questionable domestically but are being taken away from other countries…
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What Is Worth More
“’Is money so important for your people?’ [Winnetou] asked after the pause. ‘Yes, everything turns around money,’ I admitted. ‘Is it… why you joined the land-grabbers [railway construction]?’ he asked with long pauses as if every word had caused him pain. ‘In our world everybody says that happiness is about…
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The Sea-Wet Rock
Out there at the coast of southern China are a group of islands and a peninsula which British seafarers found suitable to colonialise when they arrived there in the 19th century. At that time a small fishermen’s village, it soon grew to a town, then a city, and since the…
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Harbour From Both Sides
“Hong Kong was chosen by the Englishmen as the location of their settlement with the kind of insight that’s typical for the British. The island on which northern side it is located is mountainous and has a circumference of about eighteen till twenty English miles. Its position has the advantage…
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The Eternal City
May the sky fall on the eternal city, it would just enhance the beauty. Empires come and go, and yes, still nowadays, but this city remains. The Roman Empire with Rome as capital ended in the year 476 CE but its remains can still be seen. After that year only…
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The Fragrance Of The Winter Harbour
Hong Kong in winter has a special character. The subtropical humidity is almost gone, it just shows itself in the form of fog. It is actually the best time of the year for visiting the Fragrant Harbour if you are not a fan of heat. The area of the arts…
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Down Under
As if the world wants to promote itself. Flying over the northern coast of Australia. The blue planet is sometimes really just that. The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world’s most famous and distinctive buildings,…
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Jet Airliner
Germanwings Flight 9525 in the year 2015 was not the first time that a pilot, in this case the first officer, deliberately crashed a plane. It happened before, for example in December 1997. SilkAir Flight 185 suddenly nose-dived into a river in Sumatra, Indonesia. The cause of the crash as…
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The World Is Not Enough
The world is not enough. To know how the seasons of the earth will be in 200 million years time you have to know the position of the earth more precisely than the size of an atom, otherwise you will have an inaccuracy as big as the rotation of the…
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Nine Million Bicycles
“There are nine million bicycles in Beijing, that’s a fact” according to Katie Melua. But no, that is history. It is rare to see bicycles in China nowadays, mostly just in smaller cities like Hefei and Kaifeng, although small cities can still have several million people in China. In the…
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The Audacity Of Science
Science does not only help us understanding matters, it also often leads to new technology. One example is the Transrapid or Maglev train. Originally developed in Germany it is nowadays operating in Shanghai. The track from Pudong Airport to the city centre of Shanghai is the only commercial one in…
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The Writing Is On The Wall
Shangri-La exists, or alternatively in Tibetan Semkyi’nyida. Actually the plan had been to go to Tibet, but there was a permit necessary and at the time there was a rule that minimum two foreigners had to apply together, however my friend was Chinese. So she went to Tibet alone, I…
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