Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
When they had flown over the Sinai Peninsula just now, Zhang Zian’s heart had been in his throat. The flight landed safely at the airport, and only then did he feel relieved. He thanked all the immortals of the East and West and Buddha once. Fortunately, no missile had come from the horizon to shoot down the flight.
After all, these kinds of things happening in the Middle East were not shocking. When the news came to China, people would only say, “See? There’s a nice home to stay in, but you insisted on going to Egypt to seek death! Serves you right!”
Tourism was one of Egypt’s most important economic industries, so the Egyptian government spared no effort to promote the development of tourism. Of course, it would not neglect China, a big, new country, and implemented landing visas for Chinese tourists because the stories of rich Chinese tourists who spent huge amounts of money had spread all over the world.
Unfortunately, the local rich tourists who loved luxury goods usually did not go to Egypt, because Egypt would not sell mummies and golden coffins, and they could not show off their wealth that way.
After getting off the plane, Zhang Zian had to apply for a landing visa as well as an entry certificate for Fina. Otherwise, it would be easy to bring cats into Egypt and difficult to take them out of Egypt. In addition to purchasing traffic cards for Internet access, he had to go pick up Famous, who had been holding it the whole way. As soon as it was let out of the cage, it could not wait and requested to go to the toilet.
Wei Kang kept busy with this and that, scared that someone would go missing or lose the valuable equipment. He was not reassured until all of them got into the hotel taxi.
Truthfully, the interior of the Cairo airport was still very clean, but with taxis heading southwest toward Cairo, the veil of modern Egypt was slowly drawn back.
As the largest city in the Middle East with a population of 20 million, Cairo’s urban outlook might not be as good as that of an ordinary city in China, and it was suitable to be described as dirty, chaotic, and poor.
As for the traffic situation in Cairo, the website of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had written in their “Notes for Chinese Citizens Going to Egypt” that the traffic facilities in Cairo were old, the traffic order was chaotic, and tourists had to pay attention to traffic safety when they went out. The main means of transportation in Cairo were taxis, buses, and metros. Buses usually only slowed down without stopping at the stop signs. Passengers needed to climb up and down off the fast-moving vehicles. It was very unsafe. Tourists were advised not to try.
Excuse me?
Passengers needed to climb up and down off the fast-moving vehicles?
Were they sure it was not a cheat trip towards India?
After seeing it with his own eyes, Zhang Zian realized that in order to avoid hurting the great friendship between the Chinese and Egyptian people, the wording of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been very polite—because what the f*ck, there was no traffic at all here!
After departure from the airport, there was hardly a traffic light on the way. Only the traffic police at the intersection commanded the traffic and acted as human traffic lights. Choking exhaust and endless loudspeakers were distracting. There were so many cars on the road, it was like dumplings. Every car moved like a snail, and roads that were clearly three-lane roads often ran parallel with five cars.
Drivers tried their best to get to their destinations as soon as possible, crossed the intersections without slowing down, and turned without signaling, overtaking on the left or right completely depending on their mood. It caused people to doubt whether a driver’s license here could be obtained just by paying money.
There were few luxury cars on the road and also very few new cars. There were many cars that had been out of production for many years and could not be seen anywhere in China. It was like a museum of old cars. Egypt had no rules on the number of years before vehicles had to be scrapped, so everyone drove their cars until they couldn’t be used at all.
Here, new Japanese cars such as Toyotas were already luxury cars. Occasionally, they could see several domestic cars, which were popular among local people because of their low cost and durability.
Whether a new car or an old one, a private car or a taxi, the surface of each car was pitted and scratched, and there was not even one piece of complete paint. Here, when a car was scrapped, it could only be considered unlucky.
Because it did not rain all year round, Cairo was covered with a layer of gray-yellow color where dust and automobile exhaust gathered near the surface, unable to disperse. Under the strong sunlight, there were lines like ripples in water that shook.
Zhang Zian and the rest had come in the middle of summer and felt that it was even hotter and more unbearable to see this scene.
He took Fina and Famous in a taxi with Wei Kang. The three men and one woman rode in the other two taxis because they had too much luggage and had to do so.
When Fina saw how far behind modern Egypt was, she was even more worried.
“Eh? Why are there so many unfinished buildings in Egypt?” Wei Kang observed the scenery of Cairo, and suddenly asked curiously.
“Unfinished buildings?” Zhang Zian had not noticed that.
It happened that the taxi was stopped because the road ahead was blocked again, and Wei Kang pointed to a slightly higher position. “Look, these three- or four-story buildings don’t seem to have roofs, and some of them have exposed steel bars, as if they were half built and then abandoned.”
After he pointed this out, Zhang Zian looked up and found that, as Wei Kang had said, there was a row of small buildings next to them that looked that way. But unlike the unfinished buildings in China, these small buildings were obviously inhabited by people, and there were clothes hanging from the balconies.
Zhang Zian was also not clear about what was going on and guessed, “Is it that they were building it and ran out of money halfway?”
Wei Kang inquired about this to the taxi driver in English, but the driver’s English was not very good. The taxi driver stuttered word by word and was not grammatically correct at all. However, with gestures, he managed to explain the situation clearly.
It turned out that in Egypt, after building a house, you had to pay taxes, but you didn’t have to pay for an unfinished house, so ordinary people’s houses would never be completed to avoid taxes legally. Of course, the premise was that Egypt’s climate was extremely dry, with almost no rain. If they’d done this in a place where it rained a lot, they could have rowed boats in the houses…
Zhang Zian and Wei Kang looked at each other on hearing that, and could not help but exclaim, “The ordinary working people’s intelligence is really unlimited!”
But was it really economical to do so? After all, the top floor was half covered, without a roof, so who would be willing to sleep there? Whether it was rented or sold, there would probably be no one who wanted the top floor. Even if it could be rented out, it would probably be very cheap.
The driver then explained that Egypt had entirely private land ownership, and the land would always be bought by individuals. You could build as many floors as you liked on this land. A family lived in those three or four stories of small buildings, and it was not for rent or sale. There was a strong sense of clan in the Arab world, and families needed to live together in a neat way—as the family population grew, they would not separate, but would build the buildings upward level by level. They would never complete the roof.
Wei Kang prepared a walkie-talkie for each of the members in the team to make it easier for them to contact each other. He told the other four people these things through the walkie-talkie, and everyone was fascinated listening to it.
