Wonderful and beautiful Budapest!

It's truly a surprise that I get to set foot on Budapest soil.
Thanks to my boss who has provided this rare chance.
Why on earth would a dumb Asian like me to make a trip down myself to a distant yet unfamiliar land where you don't get to see any Asian on the street?

Communism has left a tragic picture in this beautiful country. I have never seen a place that have been occupied and ruined so many times in history.

It is still great to see that people are generally smiling and economy os booming.

China has thrown in US$1 billion dollars to set up a Trade Hub as a distribution center to market all China products to the EU countries. It does make a lot os business sense because Hungary is up and coming and labour costs are still low compared with the developed nations in Europe.

Hungary is already on its way to the EU community. They have started taking Euros.

Language is quite a pain for us though. The general public do not speak Enlgish. We were often told by the local guide that Hungarian is a standalone language not popular at all. To acquire the language skill, you either have to be born there or you have a lover. That sounds like a frustating challenge when I am not qualified for both criteria (at least not ready for the second one yet).

For cars lovers, it is a place to go! Many different brands of cars are seen there. From big fancy Benz to Hummers, it is like a major car exhibition hall with the motion.

For those who appreciates culture and history, it is certainly a place to explore especially you want to know when the Huns and Mongols have ever came in before, albeit not a long period of history.

80% are Catholic by population and about 15% are Protestants. You get to see many elegant Basilicas (sounds better than Cathedrals) around the city and outside of Budapest. The remains of archbishops are normally found and heavily guarded like national treasures.

Food-wise, Goulash! They do make super soup and it is the birth place of this wonderful beef soup. The Hungarians are generally meat people and have lots of meat on the dining tables most of the time.

Perhaps the Mongols have left behind some blood in their old settlements that made some of the Hungarians look somewhat like Chinese but with blonde hair. It is very interesting to know where their origins were if I had mor time there otherwise it may sound rude to throw that question to a sranger.

Mind you, the Hungarians actually do not like to call themselves 'Hungarians' because they do not like to be associated with the Huns who were the barbarians. But it is also hard to change the worlds wrong impression unless they launch another revolution like China and India where they renamed Peking to Beijing and Bombay to Mumbai respectively. Of course another way is to keep the name and rebrand themselves to become another friendly and wonderful community of people.

There's no Chinatown in Budapest!!! So the Chinese had not created a presence in this land. But now I found out that there is a huge mall 35 mins drive away outside Budapest and it is brand new place with some bright neon light signifying the Chinese trading capital. We were thre at about 8pm and they were all closed. But still it was a great experience just to find out where they are. Hence if you want Chinese food or Japanese food, you can still find som ein the city centre of Budapest but they are like the copy version. Why? the bosses and waitresses and the chefs are all local caucasians. The Chinese food did not taste like Chinese cooking even though they look like one. The ambience is a mixed feeling cos the restaurants are made like the Asian but the hosts are whites.

Overall it is a wonderul experience and I look forward to go back there when the Chinese business are more established.

BUT if you are one of those super-enterprenuer who is daring enough to enter this market, it has great great potentials for Chinese goods and products. Howabout opening a new Chinese take-away for a start?!?!