New Orleans center Alexis Ajinca – a native of France, one of five international players on the Pelicans' preseason roster – provides the first Pelicans.com “postcard” from the team during its week-long visit to China.
Greetings from halfway around the world, Pelicans fans! I'm checking in with you from Shanghai, China, and wanted to update you on the first two days of our Global Games trip.
To be honest, I had never been to China before, so I was really looking forward to seeing what it's like. I always enjoy getting to experience different places, and I had heard that it is an amazing place to visit, how the food is so unique.
This is actually my second overseas NBA trip, but the first since early in my career. When I played for the Toronto Raptors, we went to London, England, but that was for two regular season games in March 2011 against the Nets. It was cool and it was a good experience, but we didn't have that much time to do a lot off the court. Mostly we were just trying to get some rest, because we were jet-lagged, and we were already about 60 games into that season. We got to see a few things, but not very much. This time I'm really looking forward to seeing the Great Wall of China on Monday and as much as possible during our visit. It's going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me, a lifelong memory. I don't know if I'll ever have a chance to come back here, so I'm going to take advantage of it.
Don't get me wrong, if this trip was to France, it would be even better – I'm just saying. But no, this trip to China is something that will be a memory that stays with every player for a long time.
