Visiting The Dragon
Judy Sullivan and sister Hoskins are ending long trek on Great Wall.
Forget everything you thought you knew about China. Having visited there 20 years ago, almost to the day, the China of 2008 that I recently re-visited is far different from the China of 1988. From a purely "tourist's standpoint," the China of today stands squarely in the center of the intersection of market economy capitalism and communist ideology. They buy, sell, copy and market everything while still holding fast to the "Big Brother is watching you" communist form of government. That being said, it seems, at least currently, to be a well-blended atmosphere. While readily accepting the odd and even driving days (due to extreme pollution), and flooding of their homes for the Three Gorges Dam Project, they unabashedly sell "Rolex" watches and "Gucci" handbags on the streets.
Our group was a good one. We were about 30 from all walks of life and all parts of the country. We had physicians, teachers, even a judge. All were well traveled, fun loving and adventuresome. We traveled via bus, taxi, ship and air and all managed to retain our senses of humor throughout the 12 days of being together. Our hotels were 5 star and beautiful; located in parts of the city that allowed us to observe the people in their everyday lives. We watched Tai Chi groups and dancing parties (complete with boom boxes) in the squares early in the morning and the hawkers crowding the buses in the afternoons and evenings. "Fans, one dollar, hats one dollar.” The American dollar was readily accepted; often even preferred.
With the "one child per family" rule in the Han, the largest in number of the 56 ethnic groups (earthquake victims excepted), we found it interesting that we saw very few pregnant women. Culturally, they do not frequently go out into public while pregnant but we began to count the ones we saw. Over the 2-week period we counted a total of 4.
The 8-08-08 date for the Olympics is especially important since the number 8 is a very lucky number for the Chinese. There are few governments that could withstand the scrutiny that the Chinese have endured during these Olympic Games and they are determined to be perfect.
In so doing, they have micro-managed everything from the singer at the Opening Ceremony to the smiles for the cab drivers. While we did not know much of this at the time, the fact that it has come forward now is not surprising. They are all proud of their country and the Olympic spectacle that allows it to be seen by so many.
Gone are the teeming seas of bicycles. They have been replaced by speeding taxis, cars and buses. Since driving is relatively new, the drivers are inexperienced and often have one shaking his head at some of the antics. The pajama style clothing of Mao is gone. It is now virtually the same as in any western city such as Dallas, New York or Chicago. Cell phones are everywhere, and the abundance of KFCs (the largest in the world is only a few blocks from the Forbidden City in Beijing), MacDonald's and Wal-Marts is staggering. When we asked if the Chinese liked this "fast food," we were told that some of them liked the convenience, occasionally, but if demographics prove anything, the Chinese children are heading in the same direction as ours! Young and old alike, however, seem to remain in tune with regional favorites. This is evidenced by the food courts in some of their malls which have all the culinary flavors of their homeland.
The food! Everyone always wants to know about the food! 20 years ago it was very much different from the food we experienced this trip. This time we enjoyed a more typical: choose one from column A and two from column B sort of cuisine. It was all served "family style" from a large glass lazy Susan in the center of the table and it was for the most part all good. There existed the regional culinary differences but they were subtle and varied. From the spicy Sichuan of the western provinces to the sweeter, milder Cantonese of the south, we ate them all, enjoyed most, and rarely questioned, “What do you suppose that is!?" It is doubtful that we encountered the fabled sea slug, chicken feet or pigeon wings we had heard about, nor did we see any sign of a fortune cookie!
We watched in one restaurant as noodle dough was kneaded, flung in the air, slammed to the table, cut and placed into the broth. The staples, aside from rice of course, seemed to be fish and chicken. There was pork as well and all restaurants were very careful to note which dishes contained pork, probably for the Muslim and Hebrew visitors. Breakfasts at our hotels were huge buffets featuring everything imaginable from dumplings, noodle soup and sushi to American cereals, fruit, eggs and pastries.
With all the preliminary discussion of dog on the menus, we also counted the number of those that we saw. Outside of the major metropolitan area of Beijing, where we did see them openly walked, we counted only 4 of them. Most were strays scurrying around the streets of the smaller villages and did not appear to be pets. The only pets that are allowed are limited to no more than 14 inches high!
The Chinese working in the tourist industry have all taken English names since their Chinese names are hard to wrap your tongue around. We met a waitress named Shining, a guide named Simon, a bus driver, Joe and a housekeeper on the ship named Cinderella. They were mostly young, very well educated, attractive and devoted to their families. Many had visited the United States, enjoyed those visits but were totally committed to their homeland and its principles. One gets the distinct impression that they had all been chosen as carefully as those for the Olympics. Our guides were careful when answering "sensitive" questions in public areas often asking that we bring it up on the bus!
People on the streets were fascinated with us. They were warm, friendly and filled with national pride. Children were pushed forward by parents and grandparents to be photographed with us. They would circle your waist, flash the old 60's peace sign and smile broadly. We joked that each time we raised our cameras to take a photo, there were several pointing back at us. We each figure that we are in the photo albums of at least 100 Chinese families! The young are eager to practice their English. They approach with, "Hello, how are you? Where are you from?” Then they giggle, hands over their mouths and smile…always smile!
The security was obvious everywhere with everyone coming into Tiananmen Square or Forbidden City, subject to an airport type X-ray search of bags, backpacks and purses. One of our group members was stopped (a 76 year old widow from upstate New York) and detained for allegedly carrying a knife. It took her a full 10 minutes to unpack everything she was carrying to disprove this. Our bus was allowed only a "drive by" at the Bird's Nest. We could not stop, only slow down, so our pictures show it from a distance of 2 blocks with reflections of the bus window!
Although over 30 percent of the Chinese over 16 say they are religious, the Chinese as a whole are not a religious people, but are very superstitious. Numbers and combinations of numbers are considered lucky or unlucky. Fengshui or the philosophy of living in harmony with the environment is present everywhere.
Their everyday lives are driven by a desire for peace, prosperity and longevity. Family members are sent to the afterlife by burning facsimiles of paper money (in denominations of at least one hundred million RBI!), automobiles, homes and even credit cards at funerals to insure that their after life will be as good as or better than their first one. Most households contain 2 and sometimes 3 generations under the same roof. Weddings now are either western, traditional or a combination of the two. We observed a reception at a large hotel, the bride dressed in a typical long white dress with all the red Chinese trappings and decorations visible in the room behind her.
Probably one of the most amazing issues we encountered on the trip was that of the luggage. We checked our bags in Miami at 6:00 A.M. on one airline. They were to go straight through to Shanghai, China via LAX, another airline, 2 layovers and over 18 hours in the future. Sure enough, we left the plane in Shanghai and they slid down the carrousel looking just like they knew they belonged there! The same held true on the return trip from Beijing. None of our group had a single missing piece of luggage. Confucius say, "Modern miracles, it seems, really do happen.”
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