Winterreisen: CHINA mit Christian ´Lenin´ Schwingenheuer

In the organizer's words:

Traditional lecture series in a Neustadt pub on the travel experiences of cultural activists

Lenin in China...

The future is only somewhere else - A delegation trip at the invitation of the CPC

Clinicians from Thuringia maintain a professional exchange with their colleagues from the National Health Service in the People's Republic of China. One of these doctors intends to open a German-style home brewery in his home country of China. As Dresden brewer Christian "Lenin" Schwingenheuer, I am asked to provide consultancy services and so, together with a delegation of doctors, I go on a (culinary) tour of Beijing and the central Chinese province of Hubei. In September 2024, at the invitation of the Communist Party, our group of 13 doctors and a brewer is guided for 12 days, with a police escort, through the hospitals and posh restaurants, mainly in the megacity of Wuhan. I eat Peking duck (very good), oysters (salty), baked brains (forget it) and silkworm salad (nutty) in the poshest restaurants. All the officials want to meet the German clinic manager, and, (translation error) the "investor in a German beer factory". Due to another translation error, I am introduced as Lenin - with a civil first name. The CPC is beside itself with excitement. Summit meetings are held daily with district administrators, mayors and ministers from the party leadership. Every host has the same idea: to offer the Germans an original Chinese banquet for once in their lives. In 12 days, we experience 6 clinics, 10 banquets, 18 conference rooms and an operation on a live patient. Fantastic, disturbing and very satisfying.