New Zealand and China

Mountain in China

Before leaving to China I was in Hiroshima, Japan, to contemplate the existential risk involved with nuclear war. As most of us know Hiroshima is one of the two cities in history that have been nuked, thereby brining the second world war to an end. I made a new friend who was there for a similar contemplation. He was in the US Navy. He was taking a two week break after spending a few months in a submarine on a mission. His job: in case of a nuclear war he was the one to press the button in the submarine to fire away the nuclear missiles. To contemplate the risk of nuclear war with him obviously made a very lasting impression on me. I expressed my view that, in case of an all-out nuclear attack on the U.S. it would probably not be the best idea to then retaliate and destroy the agressors country. I wouldn’t have thought that my interest in the existential risk related to nuclear war would find such a concrete way of application. There’s definitely a huge underallocation of people thinking about preventing nuclear war. He was a friendly guy and felt it was his moral duty to go to Hiroshima and contemplate what happened there.

After Japan I went to China which was a great experience. I befriended Will, who I met in Japan. He showed me around his hometown, Xiamen and we brainstormed about some business ideas we thought of doing together. Later (after New Zealand) we went on a roadtrip with his friends.

After New Zealand I went to China again to go on a roadtrip with Will, another new friend Scott and five more of their friends. Four of them didn’t speak English. I never realized how incredibly geologically diverse China is. At the end of my trip I was starting to lose motivation to plan my traveling. I considered going home when I was in New Zealand. My friend Will spontaneously invited me to join the trip. The whole schedule was made already. My task was to just sit and experience everything. It was so nice that the whole trip was planned out. Traveling through China is quite challenging without local friends, to be honest. All the applications that you would usually use, especially google maps, for finding restaurants etc., are hard to use because the government does not allow them. (Still usable with a VPN but not optimally). Being in China made me realize how different it is compared to the rest of the world. It’s different in another way than other places I’ve been to across the globe. This made me reflect on how the world’s culture is so globalized / westernized. What’s still similar in China is the capitalistic economics. Where we can’t agree on environmental or migration policies or basic values, we all believe in money. Despite big cultural differences and misunderstandings, it was easy to connect with local people. So cultural norms and values are also very relative. But on some topics I found that I just had a completely different view on the situation, and it could be challenging to exchange thoughts about this. In the end, however, building connections wasn’t different from any other place in the end. Love is universal. I was so very much welcomed by Will and later by Scott and their friends as we went on the roadtrip.

For my whole travel experience It was just so essential that I met Will in Japan. He introduced me to his friends, showed me around his city and invited me on the roadtrip. So I got connected to a group of internationally oriented business people and entrepreneurs in that way. My experience in China without having met him would have been completely different. China was not on my list to travel to until he invited me.

Will and I now also recorded a podcast. I think our different (cultural) perspectives created an interesting conversation. We plan on recording more episodes in the future.

Link to the podcast: https://youtu.be/Ixbl0LRsiOY?si=qWSGqqDX_5SFsIil

More pictures of China. Me with the people I met.

Can you spot me in the middle?

Pictures of the nature are below

I believe now it is really important for the West and China to bridge the cultural gap. There is so much we can learn from each other. The biggest challenges of this century are global so this connection on collaboration is essential.

Then I went to New Zealand.

I was there for 7 weeks to connect with the beautiful nature. I had all my hiking gear with me and only brought the things strictly necessary. (This also ment I only had two t shirt for my whole trip in general). But it has felt very nice to travel so minimalisticly. I think I’ll get rid of some more stuff when I get home. So New Zealand: absolutely beautiful the nature and I made great friends. I befriended Lino, a Swiss guy and we went hiking together and made a roadtrip. I also hiked by myself. I made many other friends.

When I finished all the hikes I wanted to do, I became more focused on connecting with people. At the end of my last hike, I had just completed a dangerous river crossing. It was two hours to the nearest town. Then my friends I had made in Japan picked me up and I spent some nights with them in their van. That was so nice. When picked up, I felt like the scene below from Lord of the Rings. (Where Frodo wakes up after almost passing away).

At the end of my trip I stayed with my mother’s cousin. She grew up in South Africa and migrated to New Zealand. She and my mother had never met. It was truly so nice to meet her and see how much we had to talk about. Having such a feeling of beloning with family I hadn’t met before at the other side of the world was so heartwarming. At the very end I stayed at the place of a new friend which was in the nature. My pasport got stolen so I needed a new one and the Dutch Embassy people were so helpful and friendly! New Zealand really opened itself to me.

A remarkable experience was when I was on a hike and the only person ever to run across Africa (who goes by the name of “the hardest geezer“) was in the same bunk bed as me in the wilderness hut. After running Africa, he went home to rest and eat some bad food for some time. So now he was running across New Zealand to get fit again. It was very inspirational to hear his stories. He had a strong spiritual motivation “I speak to god every day” as well as a strong motivation to prove himself, as he told me.