Last year was an incredible year of traveling for me. Considering I am a full-time analyst, I was surprisingly able to squeeze some of my days off into some soulful places within geographical reach, that is Southeast Asia. Overwhelming destinations I had never dreamt of visiting before. The first of these trips was to familiar and culturous Hong Kong. If we acknowledge that the two activities most of Asian visitors – including me – have in mind when visiting Hong Kong are shopping and eating, I felt like performing a miracle when I unexpectedly managed some sightseeing! It was on my second day in Hong Kong when suddenly, as if being possessed by some form of magical energy, I found myself ducking for the MTR underground and later hopping on the 5.7 kilometer-long clear-glass cable car trip to Lantau Islands to visit one of the latest sensations in Hong Kong: the Tian Tan Buddha, also known as the Big Buddha. Once I reached the arrival highland area of Ngong Ping, a the cable car’s upper station, I found a small and charming custom-made entertaining village waiting for me, with restaurants and souvenir shops along the walkway leading to the Big Buddha. Walking up nearly 300 steps to the statue was almost effortless. After having paid respect to the statue, I circled around its base three times as part of my Buddhist ritual. This allowed me time to think and reflect on my thought to what I wished to do for the rest of the year: resolutions, motivations, interests, the list went on and on. The trip was definitely worthwhile and spiritual, and it only took half of my day. On the way back, I almost missed a hidden spot directly opposite the Buddha, the Po Lin Monastery, which boasts several prominent architectural structures. This monastery offered a perfect touch to the end of my visit to the Big Buddha as it is vibrant and has a sacred, colorful and iconographical interior based on Buddhism’s narratives. The restaurant with a vegetarian menu was quite practical, serving the perfect recipes for pilgrims. The following day, I decided to further pursue my sightseeing mission and checked out the old China Town area, where the sacred and traditional Man Mo Chinese temple is located. I could not possibly pass on a great opportunity for good photos. The temple was full of joss sticks curled into circular shapes hanging from the ceiling, which gave out a strong and enchanting scent. After that, I strode along on a China Town curvy lane, passing several antiques shop, unexpected urban restaurants and hip coffee shops. Yes, right in the traditional Soho area of Hong Kong! I continued walking down from the Soho slope and I somehow arrived at Charter Road in the Central Area, where I splashed my wallet with a little guilty consciousness. I kept striding and turned to parallel Connaught Road; this lane leads to the financial district, and this allowed me the opportunity to check out some sky-high Feng Shui-designed buildings. However, on the way there along Pedder Street I couldn’t help noticing an attractively white, elegant and classical building with lion statues in front of the entrance. The dark glass windows made it even more intriguing and so I went in. The light inside the building was dim and I was startled by a big shining crystal chandelier as well as walls painted with historical pictures of men playing sports. It was then that I realized I was inside Central’s Pedder Building at the Abercrombie & Fitch retail store! Not that it was not on my list of places to visit, as advised by a friend back home, but I had sky-high buildings in mind so I quickly moved on with my mission. One of the buildings I had in mind was the Lippo Center, which truly lives up to its reputation of being a cultural landmark of Hong Kong: it simply and majestically stood out from the surrounding buildings. The two buildings at the Lippo Center, dubbed the Koala Tree as they look like koalas hugging a tree, were designed by USA architect Paul Rudolph who relieved the traditional severity of skyscrapers with his clusters of obtruding windows. Impressive. Having been to Hong Kong countless number of times before but mainly to shop and eat, I admit that this time what impressed me most was the cultural part, one that I had never experienced before: from Lantau Island to temple visits, from walking along old streets to observing the local traditional lifestyle. So long, culturous Hong Kong.

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China, a short five-letters name, yet in these five letters dwells the name of the largest and most powerful nation in Asia, the fourth in the world in size. A country rich in history, culture and art, a country that for one reason or another, most people wants to visit, fascinated by books, films and comics that have always presented China to the world in their own way. From Marco Polo to the Kung Fu movies that were a big hit in the past, to the well-known Last Emperor in Bertolucci’s masterpiece; from Mao‘s Little Red Book of Thoughts to Corto Maltese’s trip from Hong Kong to Harbin, nearly each one of us, for one reason or another, has been attracted by this partly mysterious country caged, up to a few years ago, by an inaccessible ‘forbidden door’. Those were different eras, of course, because China has always been there; not always visible to the world perhaps, but always present, like a Damocles’ sword which we need to confront with sooner or later. “China is near”, it is often said; perhaps with a hint of fear by those who see this majestic nation as a looming threat, or with a certain admiration by those who are moved by its arts and culture. Huge amounts of people queue up to see the XiAn terracotta warriors when they are taken to exhibitions around the world; many who passionately follow the Maoist ideals that made ​​inroads in the 70s, still look with pride and hope at the affairs of the homeland of non-soviet communism. Personally, the fascination for China reached me almost 20 years ago when I was living in Italy and China was not close at all, but was in fact approaching thanks to my relocation to Asia. I started to see China in the countless Chinatowns of the places I was passing through: Bangkok, Penang, Kuching. Extending my gaze beyond an impenetrable horizon, I saw, or rather I imagined, its far shores from the Thai banks of the Mekong River; I saw its door, no longer forbidden, at the border posts in Macao and Hong Kong, countries that belonged to China but that have already been barbarized by the previous presence of foreigners. China was always there, almost within reach, an open door inviting me to enter, whispering in my ear: “come in, come.” Like Oscar Wilde, I too ‘can resist everything except temptations’, and China is an unfair temptress, setting traps during years and years, throwing hooks and waiting for my arrival, patient as a Chinese citizen, sitting on the edge of that proverbial river. And I, for years, watched China secretly, as one peeps the generous cleavage of a busty lady, playing indifference, pretending not to show interest yet admiring, with the corner of one eye, this shrewd Lady of the nations with the air of one who still feels too inexperienced to enjoy its grace. Now that I am a grown up and mature enough to court her, and my approach is just a few days away, I realize China is so terribly big that the preparation of a journey inside its borders presents a hardship far greater than difficult visa applications. “Where do I start?”, is the question that has been haunting me for the last few days. I look at a map, I read a name without conviction, then I say: “I want to go there”, then the eye continues to run greedily on the same map, I read another name and with equal conviction I add: “Yeah, I also want to go there”. But time, as you well know, is an evil tyrant, and the little of it I have at my disposal forces me to make some hard choices. There is an infinite number of names, and they all convey feelings, exoticism, culture and somehow poetry. I need to pick one, and one only. In the end I choose Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province…

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