I reached China - and as well I didn't. Looks like as I will not be allowed any further than Macau or Hong Kong this time, a very short "NO" at the visa office in Macau made it very clear I will have to change plans (well, did I have any ?).
To obtain a chinese visas in Macau you have to produce a return flight ticket plus hotel bookings for the period of your stay. I could have even arranged all this but then the visa would still be valid for only 7 days, which is not of any help to me...
Quite ironic that the olympic games in Beijing now keep me from going there and anywhere else in China - from my point of view it should be exactly the other way round! Most annoying thing is that now my mongolian visa is as well worthless because the whole idea was to go by train to mongolia / lake baikal and this is now impossible. After Tibet and Burma these are now places number three and four to be dicarded from my route...wonder what will happen next !?
After all, these delays and obstacles have a good thing, too: Chengdu was also a location I would have liked to visit but now it looks as I was much better off in Hongkong. Though the earthquake could be felt here it wasn't frightning. Funny thing is, I was actually right on that day wondering about whether or not earthquakes do at all happen here! Maybe because of the huge mazelike buildings which do not make a too safe impression...
Macau is really a nice place, interesting mixture of european and chinese architecture. Its relaxed on the one side but very busy on the other, because gambling is legal there (its illegal at china mainland, so one billion chinese come here at the weekend) and casinos are open 24hrs a day. I spent an evening at the Venetian and eventually played some Sic Bo, a dice game. Very funny, as well because I was lucky: Within 10 minutes I won 120 euros and within another 5 minutes I lost 70 of these...
