China and Me
A relay of civilizations
My first contact with the Middle Kingdom took place several months ago when I was appointed Ambassador of Greece to the People¡¯s Republic of China. I immediately felt the powerful impact of this country, through its nature and people.
Coming from Greece, the cradle of the ancient western civilization, I was eager to know from the very first moment, the birth place of the most ancient of eastern civilizations.
This trip proved to be really exciting, revealing to me both the similarities as well as the differences of the two countries.
That¡¯s how, despite my scarce free time, a kind of peregrination started leading me from Xian with its Terracotta Warriors and the amazing museums, to Changsha and the tomb of Marquise Mawangdui; from Chengdu and the Giant Leshan Buddha to the mysterious Sanxingdui; from the idyllic village of Feng ¦§uang with its gondoliers and their songs, to ¦¦hangjiajie¡¯s breathtaking scenery; from Mao¡¯s bucolic birthplace at Shaoshan to Hang Zhou and the 1000 Islands Lake¡
To all this alternation of images and sensations of the rural and bucolic China, one should add the impressed one gets when visiting China¡¯s modern cities and seeing their infrastructure: Beijing, Shanghai, Dalian, Shenzhen, Guangdong, Hong Kong and other major Chinese cities match in harmony the old and the new. It is in this sense that beyond this wonderful peregrination and the need to satisfy my curiosity I cannot help but admire the speed and power of Beijing¡¯s development in view of the 2008 Olympic Games.
As a representative of the country which gave birth to the Olympic Games, as well as a citizen of the world, I am delighted that the successor of Athens in hosting the Olympics will be Beijing. From the ancient western civilization and Modern Greece, the baton of relay will be passed to the representative, by excellence, of the eastern civilization, Modern China.
From this true relay of civilizations, stems my desire to take part in the torch relay of the Beijing Olympic Games, representing my country. I¡¯m not an athlete, but a 60 years old man with a juvenile heart, aspiring to serve as the link between the previous and the upcoming Olympics, a link between the two civilizations.
Being already convinced for the success of the Beijing Olympic Games, I wish to my Chinese friends, to organize the best Olympics ever.
