Im Herbst 2021 war es mit Urlaub wegen der Pandemie nicht so einfach. Aber das haben wir als Chance gesehen die nähere Umgebung mal ein bisschen besser zu erkunden. Wir sind dann nach Winterberg gefahren, eine kleine Touristenstadt im Hochsauerlandkreis. Der Ferienhauspark liegt auf einem der vielen Hügel, und so hat man eine ansprechende Aussicht. Morgens lag dort häufig noch Nebel in den Tälern, eine sehr schöne Aussicht.

Auch von der Terasse aus hatte man einen Ausblick, von dem man Zuhause nur träumen kann.

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Ein Freund wohnt inzwischen in Kopenhagen und feierte seinen Geburtstag. Über das Wochenende wollte ich ihn besuchen.

Für die Anreise nach Kopenhagen lohnt sich das Flugzeug zeitlich schon deutlich. Man braucht bei einem Direktflug von Düsseldorf (DUS) nach CPH 1:20 Stunden in der Luft. Dazu kommt dann noch die Zeit von und zum Flughafen, sowie die Wartezeit dazu. Eine Woche vor dem Hinflug buchen ist bei Flügen natürlich teuer, 349 EUR sollte ein sinnvoller Flug kosten. Ein Flug mit Nachtaufenthalt in Wien war für 263 EUR zu haben, aber dann müsste man ein Hotel am Flughafen in Wien bezahlen. Das ergibt keinen Sinn.

Generell versuche ich Flüge zu vermeiden, wenn es geht. Um so ein Gefühl dafür zu bekommen, wie viel CO₂ entstehen würde, habe ich bei myclimate geschaut und als Abschätzung 330 kg bekommen. Damit kann ich mit meinem Auto 2700 km weit fahren. Das ist also schon eine ordentliche Menge.

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Unfortunately our vacation to Gdańsk (Poland) earlier this year was canceled due to travel restrictions. We therefore chose to go a bit later and closer. The Eifel nature park is very near and also offers a lot for a vacation. Taking the opportunity to explore more of the local country side, we decided to go to Heimbach (Germany).

Heimbach is a rather small town, with a main street full of tourist targeted restaurants and cafes. The street is rather narrow and lined with half-timbered houses. It looks just like I expected a town in the Eifel to look like.

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I've been to a few Trance events, like the Armin Only concerts. In early 2020 there has been a large festival with A State of Trance (ASOT) Episode 950 in Utrecht. Together with a friend I bought tickets and went there.

My sleep cycle usually has me spending the hours from like 23:00 to 06:00 in bed. Going to a concert which goes from 22:00 to 06:00 was going to be quite exhausting for somebody who is not nocturnal. I tried to sleep in but could only get to 10:00, so it was going to be around a 24 hour shift.

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My return flight to Düsseldorf was scheduled for Saturday at 01:50+0800. Arrival at Düsseldorf would be something like 06:30+0200, so I would get home in the morning and with sleep on the plane the jet lag should not be that bad. At the airport I bought such an U-shaped pillow. A lot of stores outside of the security area carry them. They ranged between around 300 CNY to a cheap feeling one for 120 CNY. I ended up with a mid-range one, it is amazing how many different models there are!

Before I got to the gate the flight was already marked as delayed, they showed 02:30+0800 instead of the scheduled 01:50+0800.

For some reason it is a problem to bring water bottles through the security check. So I always have to toss them and buy new ones afterwards. The easiest way would be to just empty the bottles and refill them at the drinking water fountains. But I did not know that these existed, so I did not bring any containers. In the domestic terminal on the way to Wǔhàn there was a small grocery store that accepted my credit card and sold water. In the international terminal I could not find such a store. There were many stores under construction, so perhaps one of this kind was being rebuilt. I found two vending machines that accept credit cards, so I purchased a bottle of water there. Also I spent my last CNY on water, I was happy to have spent it all.

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Being a vegetarian with some food allergies makes traveling a bit more involved. I have heard that Chinese cuisine uses a lot of peanuts, therefore I wondered how people cope with that.

I found a couple of sources that cover the topic:

• https://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2018/10/23/how-cope-peanut-allergy-china
• https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/6dz5f7/living_in_china_with_a_severe_peanut_allergy/
• https://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2017/03/27/mandarin-monday-how-survive-china-vegetarian-and-other-dietary-requirements
• https://ltl-school.com/peanut-allergy-china/

They pretty much all say that one needs some sort of sheet stating the allergies. In most articles they warn about peanut oil. As the allergic reaction is triggered by the proteins, the oil should be generally safe. The post on Reddit especially states that.

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Běijīng (北京) literally means northern (北) capital (京). The name "Peking" is the official name in English and German and corresponds to the same city. I just prefer to use the Chinese name. There is also the city of Nánjīng (南京), the southern capital. Depending on how you count there are 23 million people living in Běijīng, which is completely beyond my comprehension. Compared to Wǔhàn that is just a factor 2 adding to the factor 50 Wǔhàn has to Bonn.

To really get an idea about Běijīng, compare these maps with the same scaling comparing it to Bonn. You can see that the metro area of Běijīng easily fills both Bonn and Köln and all the space in between.

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After the first week I had to do a transfer from Wǔhàn to Běijīng. These are around 1050 km linear distance apart:

If you started in Bonn and went 1050 km linear distance, you would already be in Spain. This should give a first impression on the size of China.

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The 37th Annual International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (just "Lattice 2019" by the people in the field) in Wǔhàn (武汉市)

Going to Wǔhàn and back from Běijīng will obviously be done with a plane. I have just booked some flight which did not have a long layover and no unnecessary stops in Zürich or Amsterdam. My flight left at 13:05 hours from Düsseldorf airport. On the way I bumped into some computer science students that I just happened to first meet two days before the flight. They were also on their way to a conference, but in the USA. One just had a little backpack for the whole week. In contrast, I had my large suitcase full of stuff.

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In the summer of 2019 I was able to spend four weeks in China. One week during The 37th Annual International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (just "Lattice 2019" by the people in the field) in Wǔhàn (武汉市) and three weeks during a summer school "Frontiers in Lattice QCD" in Běijīng (北京市).

This is the first of a series of articles about my trip. You can find the whole Series via the China tag. The following map shows the cities that I've visited in China to give you a rough impression.

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