goodbye london

Original link: https://leonson.me/2023/7/london-trip

On July 16, I came to London for the second time. Is the whole text over…?

not at all! But facing the monitor, I also have a deep sense of powerlessness. This is already well written, discussed, pictured and sung, and every minute more is being produced by humans (and some tools invented by humans) and they hope that other people, or tools, will notice it. Even if I write something, what can I add to it?

So I can only write a little bit about what I have seen, heard, and felt during the few days I traveled to and from London.

• The plane will fly over downtown London before approaching Heathrow. If you choose to sit by the window on the right side of the plane, you can see the main London attractions from God’s perspective, such as the Tower of London and Big Ben.
• There are two teams for entering the UK: one for the UK, the EU, the US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, ^New Zealand, Australia, New ^Zealand, etc., and one for other countries. I entered the country through the roads of other countries, there was no queue, and I was stamped in one minute, so I was very happy. A few days later, I talked to an Indian colleague about it, and he said it was because the flight I took was from the United States. If you catch a flight from India, it is normal to queue for an hour or two.
• Study tour groups from primary and secondary schools in China are everywhere (there were none last year). In the British Museum, a study tour group wore the “Best Choice Ever” school uniform, with the words “Meet Britain” or “Meet UK” written on the linyard. I am glad that I did not meet them when I entered Heathrow, otherwise my queuing time would not be short.
• I saw the text of the “Nanjing Treaty” in the special exhibition of various forms in the late Qing Dynasty . When I was in Nanjing, I wandered around but didn’t see the “Nanjing Treaty” signing site. I checked that the treaty was signed on a British warship on the Xiaguan River. In fact, when I took the ferry from Pukou to Xiaguan, Been passing by where this text has been.
• Walking on the street, I happened to see the blue and white sign “English Heritage” on the wall of the building stating that a certain jazz was born here, so hurry up and take a photo. After walking about ten steps, there was another sign with the same sign saying “a certain celebrity has worked here” and hurriedly took pictures again. I walked another ten steps… I gave up, I couldn’t finish the filming.
• I was queuing up at the gift shop at the Emirates Stadium to print my name on the jersey. The father in front of me said to me, “I’m sorry to hold my position, I will send the baby to training, and I will be back in a minute”, and he really came back in a minute. His baby is estimated to be six years old.
• This time I decided to eat a famous British snack, Fish & Chip, and walked into a shop with good reviews. Full of Chinese tourists. I wait, no one greets me. I went in and asked, and the waiter was confused, “Aren’t you with the others?” Then, “Uh, there’s no place left, they’ve all taken over.” So this time I still didn’t eat the famous British snacks.
• Half trolleys at King’s Cross platform 9¾ are also required to commute.
• There are always strikes. But even on a rail strike day, I didn’t experience any inconvenience as a tourist, the trains from London to Cambridge were so empty that I could seat four by myself. This is my first time taking a train in the UK.
• Businesses love tourists, especially Chinese tourists. In a barbecue restaurant in Cambridge, the words “BBQ restaurant recommended by users of Xiaohongshu!” are posted on the window. In the Xu Zhimo Garden in Cambridge, a tourist asked the tour guide: “Does Cambridge like Xu Zhimo?” The tour guide said: “Cambridge does not necessarily like Xu Zhimo, but it likes Chinese tourists.” The proportion of Chinese students accepting British university offers and coming to study in the UK has both decreased) it really happened, “the big thing is not good”!
• While walking in Cambridge, I heard legends about the Mathematical Bridge. Version 1: Made by Newton, without nails or rivets. Later students dismantled the bridge and wanted a reverse engineer but couldn’t put it back together, so they had to use rivets; A hundred years ago, a torch burned the bridge, and the newly built bridge did not know how to reproduce Newton’s technique, so it had to use rivets. Soon I walked to Queen’s College by myself, bought a ticket for five pounds to visit, and a small map came with it saying: “Most of the legends about this bridge are not true. It was not built by Newton (the bridge It was built in early 1749, when Newton died long ago), nails and rivets were used from the beginning. This bridge is not called a mathematics bridge, but a wooden bridge.” When I walked on math bridge When I was on a wooden bridge, a boat happened to pass by under the bridge. The boy who punted the boat said: “This bridge is a mathematical bridge. It was built by Newton. There are no nails or rivets…”
• Xiaotian Garden, the new online celebrity check-in point in Cambridge, is a little far away from the main scenic spot, but it is easy to find. Set the destination to 72 Churchill Road, and just look for the path opposite the parking lot and walk in.
• Opposite Big Ben, on the east side of Westminster Bridge, and at the northwest corner of St. Thomas Hospital, there is a “National Covid Memorial Wall”. Many people have left the names of their loved ones here to remember their lives.

I still don’t know much about London, but I don’t mind.

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