these are unidentified animals: something in between eels and big worms, with also some leech feature. i didn’t choose them

this is one of the tables with the food in display

would you perhaps do without few culinary information?
surely not!
here is the gastronomical report for today:
the town where i am now, dalian, is on the sea. i very happily have found my favorite food, fish.
i’ve been at an interesting place for lunch.
a restaurant by the sea (to tell you the truth a grey and marshy sea, rather revolting) where at the entrance there is this kind of big fish shop where one can choose the fish that is going to be cooked. it’s not something new, i’ve been in many places in the world that have the same concept, but here there is an incredible quantity and weird species. strange fish, crabs of all dimensions, enormous mussels (as big as my hand), entrails of fish, oysters, enormous and minute sea urchins, crayfish, head of fish, octopus, cuttlefish, everything and even more … you choose and then they cook.
the other peculiar thing is that the restaurant is mainly on the second floor, where along a corridor there are many small rooms, where people dine. walking along and looking inside those with open doors to allow the waiters in, i found this scene in front of me, a round table with a big glass rotating tray in the middle full of any kind of food, and around it big fat drunk chinese men, smoking, drinking and laughing without stopping.
we also went towards our own “prive’”, but our lunch with the clients has been far more relaxed.
any way…the name of the restaurant is nantuo fishing village.
telephone number 0411.87641588
our waiter was jaun, ask to be served by him, if by any chance you find yourself around there and you are hungry while visiting north east china…
ps: following here above some photos of the nice place

i already left beijing and now, after one hour by plane, i arrived to the pretty town called dalian, on the north east coast of china.
that is, the ass hole of china.
it is here i’m supposed to shoot.
what can i say, questions are always the same: what the fuck i’m doing here far from everything and everybody? all the way here to take some fucking photos? all the way here what for?
only for my unstoppable curiosity for the world?
probably yes.
i’m staying at the plaza hotel.
the fax number is +8641182808533. room 806.
if someone wants to send me a fax i’m here for a couple of days.

here i am, i am in beijing
needless to say it is rather shocking.
everything is quite different, but not so much different from the way we are, that is absolutely normal, but different from what one expects. after reading terzani and knowing china through his pages, full of love for this place, it is difficult to find references, sensations that can justify all the love he had for this land.
not the thousand years old china
not the communism
it looks to me a triumph of a europlasvegasianassirobabylonese mixed in a dysfunctional manner with the meager kitsch overdevelopment.
i can say that the small shot i took this morning here above represents all too well what i mean.
i already had meetings, i already had lunch, and soon i will get on another plane to get to the location where we will shoot.
and the adventure goes on ….

i’m traveling, how nice!
it is nice especially because as usual while traveling i manage to do two things i love that while in milan i find difficult to do: to read and write. one imagines that the trip stimulates who knows which emotions and instead it allows me to do what i could easily do in my small bedroom in milan ….
and so, here i am in paris, as you can see from the pictures above that in fact i could have also taken while in milan so it then becomes a metaphor of the whole subject.
i’m waiting for the next flight that will take me far, heading east.
talking about flights, i would like to spend a couple of words about one thing technology has taken the charm away: the air ticket. everybody complains that records are not as nice as some times ago, without the nice big cover, the big photo, etc…
but also the air ticket … some times ago when you had it in your hands, with all those sheets, those mysterious codes, it had the fascinating taste of the trip, of something complicated and adventurous.
and now? now an electronic ticket arrives via e-mail that you have to print and that’s it, one paper sheet.
ok, i have to go now, i’m late, i will keep you updated from…..