Eleven and a half years later, the former Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, which was bombed during the NATO bombing of Belgrade in 1999, is finally being razed. Some say the embassy's bombing was not an accident, as NATO claimed, but was done deliberately. In any event, the Chinese now have a new embassy here in Belgrade in another location.
I thoroughly enjoyed taking my new Chinese friend Lixiu (LEE-hyoo) whom I met yesterday (see last post) to Belgrade's Chinese Market. The market consists of three large pavilions crammed with sellers of just about everything, even the proverbial kitchen sink. "He's speaking a southeastern Chinese dialect; she's speaking Mandarin Chinese," remarked Lixiu, as we wandered through the market. Lixiu remarked that the clothing is designed for export and western tastes, and many items you wouldn't find in China. She treated herself to a western-style sweater. In the above photo, Lixiu is buying some vegetables and noodles from the produce sellers between the pavilions. (She's staying in a company apartment with a kitchen.) I bought some, too, and some moon cakes, a sweet typically eaten, so says Lixiu, on the Moon Festival coming up on September 23rd.
Went for a walk on Saturday in Kalemegdan Park. I stopped to take a few photos from this vantage point overlooking New Belgrade in the distance and the confluence of the Danube and Sava Rivers when this young woman approached me and asked me to take her photo. I obliged, we got into a conversation, whereupon she complimented me on my English (smile) and was amused by the irony of running across the only person nearby who was a native speaker. Her name is Lixiu, and she's from China. Lixiu (LEE-hyoo) is here on a business trip, and loves to walk. She walked all the way over from New Belgrade from near the tower you can see in the distance. We walked on, and since she was so keen on seeing more of Belgrade, I promised to take her tomorrow to see the...Chinese Market! Stay tuned!
Cigarette and texting break for this member of the SERBIAN MILITARY POLICE.
