Tuesday 31 March 2009

Kaifeng and Jason, Jason and Kaifeng

You can’t name one without mentioning the other.. Jason and his city are entangled as strongly as polar bears and the North Pole, something which many people have hitherto found out by visiting Kaifeng.
After having disposed of the various taxi drivers who wanted to take me somewhere whilst I had more important matters on my mind (finishing the delicious breakfast I had just bought for twenty cent) a guy on a rickshaw approached me. His expression was one of concentration, as if looking for some words he had difficulty remembering, and naturally I assumed the bloke wanted to share some of his five-word strong English vocabulary. Utterly surprised I was however when his introduction was in Dutch, not so much of the fact that he knew the words but rather that he knew I was from the Netherlands! It appeared that he was kind of famous for taking foreigners around the city and hence his English was of a level I had not run into in China outside the school grounds. Proudly he showed me the newspapers in which articles about his business were written and his treasure.. the diaries in which hitherto 508 foreign tourists had written something about their experience in Kaifeng with Jason. One could not have supplied me with a more convincing argument and hence I entrusted Jason with showing me Kaifeng. And that he did. Elaborating about historic stories at the various sights we visited, taking me to the best food markets and, above all, being pleasant company during the day Jason made my weekend! I have posted plenty of pictures below as well as some videos. In one of them one can see Jason showing one of his precious diaries, one to which I have also contributed by now!










1 comment:

Red Roses Farm said...

Tony in India and China: I am not savvy to blogs and such, but I have an interest in world travel. I have a question I would like to ask you about the language(s) of India. I had a young visitor from Puni and now I am curious. I have searched via google and am frustrated. Would you consider answering a simple question? Pat