South of east

Here the waves flow perpendicular to the shore, where it is cloudy and opaque Sea waters mix with cold delta floods.

Just like fish that curiously wander the shores, butterflies, bees and dragonflies become flower garden passers-by Christmas lights surrounding the room.

– Canton is a blessed country – he tells us Patricia, whose real name is Golden Spring; And the series of coincidences, coincidences and miracles that accumulate in the 2,200-year history of this port give cause for thought.

Small land canoes float serenely on the lakes and rivers of the place. Mountain ranges end in deep valleys that are filled white rivers of clouds with the morning chillcrossing creeks and widths like sea foam.

Canton is dominated by three elements: the dazzling light of the golden Sun, mountains fringed with tropical trees, and water, the latter perhaps responsible for Canton’s idiosyncrasy, interesting to Western eyes. This province of the eastern tropics, according to popular culture, about magical lands. Legend has it that after a devastating famine, one of those whose memory echoes through the centuries; Five geniuses came down from the sky riding on five goats because, motivated by the suffering of the people, they decided to take the reins of their destiny and give them magic grains and teach them agriculture and thus end the people’s punishment.

China has been transformed, metamorphosed into another part of the millions of fairy tales and stories that make it up and rest on this land. The Middle Kingdom is a vase, a china vessel full of superstitions. Four, for example, that number between three and five which is so natural to us, is treated here with caution and distance, because its pronunciation, “sì”, resembles the pronunciation of the word ‘death’, “sï” and just as this floor is neglected in many buildings, Chinese society works, it works and he is guided by the stories of his ancestors. Their advice rises through wisps of incense smoke and echoes in their way of looking at life, in the way they relate to Camino.

Enormous hospitality, constant attention, the need to accommodate even the smallest disturbance can become boring, clashing with the custom of giving the baton of your time to the guests of our regions, but here it is a necessity, an obligation, a lunch. foreigners love a diplomat even if he is no more than a columnist.

We left Canton early in the morning, I guess not to make those who hosted us sad.

But we carry with us more than our suitcases can carry, the memory of a land divided by rivers and ports, united by bridges and ships. Canton has become a den of many fantasies about prosperity and a lot of introspective disappointments. Comparisons resonate and fall under the weight of reality, management of two similar platformss, taken to two different destinations.