As promised, we won’t tell you again some stories about the nice Chinese we met (although they keep being friendly, helpful and open-minded). So instead, let’s tell a story about a nice Pakistani we met. After our relaxing cruise we spent a night in Wuhan and headed to “Huang Shan”, another sacred peak in China, also known as “Yellow Mountain”. We were quite happy when we finally arrived there, because our taxi driver – like so many Chinese – seemed to love the risk (actually they drive much worse than in South-America where I was never frightened, whereas honestly in China I am). He overtook the other cars at any place, may it be possible or not. When he tried to do so at a construction site where we had a slow truck in front of us, the road was obviously too narrow, in a bad shape and with limited view. This did not prevent our driver from overtaking and what should happen happened: the stones proved not to be the best underground to drive on and with a terrible noise, they caused some damage in the motor. So the driver had to lay with his designer clothes on the dust under the car to repair it. At least he surprised us with his technical skills. And at the end, the delay turned out to be beneficial because while queueing at the hostel check-in, we met Nabeel.

Nabeel is a Computer Science student from Pakistan, currently terminating his Master’s Degree in Istanbul before hopefully going to the US to do a PhD. More important, he loves travelling and despite the tough visa issues for Pakistanis, he has already seen lots of countries in Europe and Asia. We went out for dinner and did the hike on the “Huang Shan” together. In hours of talking, we learned a lot about reality in Pakistan: the different ethnic groups and everyone speaking at least 5 local languages (REAL languages, not dialects), the problems with the amount of drone attacks and the terrorism induced by that, the remote nomadic tribes susceptible to the Taliban, the pros and cons of the Madrassas, the bad international reputation and the role and consequences of the media reporting false facts (may it be on purpose or not). But we also talked about more positive topics like food, the people and the beautiful and safe areas worth travelling to. Thank to Nabeel we have a new country we definitely still have to visit, and we also know which region better not to got to! Apart from that, “Yellow Mountain” was overcrowded but the landscape is stunning …. we just cannot see stairs anymore and are looking towards trekking on natural trails in Nepal.

Luckily, after “Huang Shan”, around Huizhou we finally found the rather untouched parts of China. We went to a small ancient city called Yuliang and had two nights there, which gave us the opportunity for a long walk through some very remote little villages where probably no tourist has ever gone. People there are living from agriculture and fishing, both done with traditional methods and instruments. Walking over the overgrown paths and enjoying the nice, but not so spectacular scenery was really refreshing – and there were no stairs at all. This stay helped us taking a deep fresh breath before our last stop in China: Shanghai.

We had only one full day to visit this metropolis, but thank to our couchsurfing host, Junbiao, we could make the most of it. We saw the 1933 Building (an old slaughterhouse), we walked through the French Concession, where you can see the beautiful architecture from home, and we were at the Bund, where you can see the not so beautiful architecture from home. Honestly speaking, it was great to spend a day in Shanghai, but we do not feel like we have missed a lot by not staying longer. Although it is actually not that international, the city is a business town, which by westernizing probably loses more than it gains. Additionally it was the first place where a strange guy asked us “Do you want a ladies’ massage, they are beautiful girls, and I have lots, you can choose”. Requesting him to do the job himself surprisingly resulted in a laughter and was a good way to get rid of these kind of guys.

Our farewell from China was much better than the welcome and fitted perfectly to what we experienced there during 4 weeks: When we left the country, at the migration there sat a young and pretty official. She looked to my passport, put the stamp in it, handed it back and let me pass. “Happy Birthday” she wished and smiled.