Completely Lost In A Strange City Without Knowing A Word Of The Language

This is the very first photo I had taken of myself in China (a Chelfie?) in 1988. It was in the then famous silk market, no doubt demolished now, and the guy was probably some seedy money-changing grifter named Wang. Or not! What did I care? I was ecstatic to be in China, roaming the streets on my Flying Pigeon bicycle, and, most of all, to be alive after the death-scare I had on my very first day in the country:

At that time I knew nothing about Cantonese, Hong Kong, simplified versus normal characters. It’s difficult to imagine now that I was once enraptured by simplified characters! I didn’t know any better. I still love the Beijing dialect though, where every sound is ‘aaahrrr’. Very masculin.

北京 (Bak Geng – Northern Capital/Beijing)
中國 (Jung Gok – Middle Country/China)
單車 (daan che – bicycle)
換錢 (wuhn chin – change money)