On May 28th, at 14:90 local time, we safely landed at Malta Airport on an Emirates flight.
As we walked down the airplane steps, the Mediterranean breeze greeted us.
With our EU visas on our Chinese passports, we smoothly passed through the airport immigration, even more smoothly than we had imagined.
A temporary Chinese beauty tour guide was there to greet us at the airport, as our team leader and the group from Spain and Portugal would not arrive until 20:00 that evening, so the local Maltese guide we hired would also not be available until the next day.
The temporary guide, surnamed Liu, was named Liu Fang, and she was holding a sign that read "Old Wang's Friends Group" at the airport exit to welcome us.
Since I was the organizer and advocate of this trip to Spain, Portugal, Malta, and Sicily, the travel agency in Beijing contacted the local guides in Spain, Portugal, Malta, and Sicily under the name of Old Wang's Friends Group.
So, as we exited the airport, I was the first to approach this guide, Liu, to communicate.
I also took a photo holding the welcoming sign as a keepsake.
In this travelogue, I will share my feelings upon arriving in Malta.
The journey from the airport to the hotel took about half an hour, passing through the old town, where the tall coconut trees and the old buildings made me wonder why this country lacked modern prosperity.
On the bus, Liu, our guide, first gave us a brief introduction to Malta, explaining how this country is different from others. She said Malta is the only country in the world that is a unique four-in-one nation.
We, the Chinese guests just off the plane, were particularly interested in what the four-in-one meant.
Guide Liu explained in detail what four-in-one means,
Malta has the benefits of being part of the EU, Schengen Area, Commonwealth, and Eurozone, hence it is called a four-in-one country. The advantages of this four-in-one status include favorable conditions for residence, taxation, currency, and more.
Liu mentioned that due to Malta's four-in-one status, it is very popular among Chinese people, with many buying or renting houses and obtaining residence permits here. She herself is one of them, having moved here four years ago to buy a house for her child's education.
I had heard about this before, but this time I truly saw the real situation.
Malta, an island nation located in the central Mediterranean, is known as the "Heart of the Mediterranean."
It mainly consists of five islands, with Malta Island being the largest, covering an area of 245.73 square kilometers; the second largest is Gozo Island, covering 67.08 square kilometers.
The capital is Valletta.
The capital is a European cultural city, named after the sixth Grand Master of the Knights of St. John, La Valette, and is the political, cultural, and commercial center of Malta. It has many interesting nicknames, such as "City of the Knights of St. John," "Great Baroque Masterpiece," and "City of European Art."
Human activities in the Malta region began as early as 5000 BC.
Malta is also a world-renowned tourist destination, praised as the "Garden of Europe."
Tourism is its economic pillar and main source of foreign exchange.
English is Malta's main official language, and all official communications, documents, and education are conducted in English.
Many employees in supermarkets and retail stores can speak Maltese, English, and Italian.
Maltese cuisine is primarily Western-style.
Since China and Malta established diplomatic relations on January 31, 1972, they have maintained a long-term friendly cooperative relationship.
Malta is located in the central Mediterranean, close to Italy, and is the largest archipelago in the Mediterranean, characterized by a typical subtropical Mediterranean climate, with mild weather and evergreen seasons.
As the heart of the Mediterranean, Malta attracts nearly 1.7 million European tourists each year.
After a half-hour journey, Liu's introduction and the information I had previously researched gave me a preliminary impression of Malta.
Soon we arrived at the hotel, and I want to emphasize the resort hotel where we will stay for five nights in Malta.
The hotel is called CAVALIERI ART HOTEL ****, located on a seaside area in St. Julian's Bay, right next to the International Yacht Club and other high-end residences.
This hotel name was new to me; I checked online and found that it is not managed by an international brand hotel management company but is a European chain resort hotel, and it is an art-themed hotel.
It is a rated four-star hotel.
We will stay at this hotel for four nights.
When I checked in and received the room card, I noticed that the front desk area was not the kind of grand and spacious space, but after entering the hotel room, I found that the room was very large, and it was a sea view room with a balcony, which I particularly liked, as the view outside was excellent.
The first group of us arrived in Malta from Dubai, consisting of 11 people in six rooms.
At 8:00 PM, another group of 10 people in five rooms flew from Spain and Portugal to Malta.
In total, we had eleven rooms, all of which were sea view rooms.
Standing on the hotel room balcony and looking around, the nearest view includes the hotel's outdoor seawater swimming pool, SPA hot tub, and the hotel's exclusive beach swimming area. Across from us is St. Julian's Bay, which is small but has cruise ships passing by and private yachts coming in, making the scenery particularly beautiful.
At the end of May, Malta was entering early summer, but the air on the balcony in the evening and early morning was particularly pleasant, with a suitable temperature for tea, chatting, and enjoying the sea view, including drying clothes; this balcony was very nice.
After checking in, we gradually discovered many advantages of this hotel.
Not far from the hotel, the bay has a variety of high-end Western seafood restaurants as well as local dining options, including a restaurant famous for Maltese rabbit meat right next door.
Within a three to five-minute walk, there are several large supermarkets, which are very convenient, and we often go there to buy fruits, water, and other necessities.
During our stay here, we found two more features of this hotel: one is that it is an art hotel, with the lobby on the first floor and the basement level resembling a large gallery, indicating that the scale and quality of this gallery are not low, hosting various art exhibitions and auctioning these works.
I had heard of such art hotels before, but this was my first time staying in one, and seeing these artworks every day truly provided us with a great visual enjoyment.
One of the hotel's highlights is its excellent breakfast; this was my first time in Malta and my first stay in a hotel here.
The hotel's buffet breakfast left a deep impression on me.
The variety was rich, and the ingredients were fresh. Especially the various desserts were extremely delicious.
Having traveled to so many countries in Europe, I found that the buffet breakfast at this Maltese hotel is indeed different from those in countries like the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Greece, and others.
Not long after arriving in Malta, I developed a good impression of it. After checking into the hotel, I also had a very good impression of the hotel, indicating that this was a great start to our trip in Malta. Next, I will gradually introduce the in-depth travel experiences in Malta.
（To be continued）