Boeing Bluebills Voyagers - Trout Lodge 2003

		When we launched off to China in October 2003, I was excited about a 22-day trip into unmarked territory on my list of travels. I was curious to embrace a new culture and observe with my own eyes the sights pictured in National Geographic. The trip highlights, laid out for us in the travel brochure, were all show stoppers. It started with a climb up the Great Wall, five nights cruising up the Yangtze River, a stop at the Three Gorges Dam, a train ride to see the terra cotta warriors in Xi'an and ended in Hong Kong after an afternoon at the famed panda park in Chengdu and three nights in Tibet where we climbed to the palace of the exiled Dalai Lama. What more could a traveler expect? It was all right there. Flowers Everywhere - our visit coincided with a government-proclaimed "Golden Week," where authorities place flowers in all major public places. Golden Week is a vacation week for citizens, with salaries hopefully paid by employers. At the end of the week, flowers are returned to greenhouses to refresh themselves until May, when a similar event takes place. Left, the display at the Three Gorges Dam site tourist center.

These promised adventures were duly delivered to our tour group. The 13 compatible people in our group turned out to be a major blessing. We were very lucky, too, to have as our own a sparkling super-competent 30-year old Chinese guide, who cared for us every step of the way. Such a complex trip would not have been possible without a guide. Stephanie paved our way through teeming crowds, hotels, busses, railroad and airport gates, protecting us from altitude sickness and taking care to meet our every need even though she herself fell ill.
		But I was unprepared for the impact China would have on me emotionally. It is not just a unique place to visit. It truly pushed new thinking into my mind. Even now it is hard to comprehend the reality that this civilization is 5,000 years old and its current population is more than 1.3 billion. Throughout this history's 42 dynasties and 200 emperors, the people have endured living under a succession of warlords and rulers. Just now, following the demise of the greatest despot of them all, they are sampling a taste of the basic freedoms we take for granted. I was very curious to see how they were absorbing their changing society as the world's biggest dictatorship begins dabbling into a tightly-controlled version of democracy. (Left) Our tour group's formal portrait at the Great Wall of China.
*Smiles Everywhere* Considering that the Chinese people had been told for many decades that America was the barbarian enemy, I was totally unprepared for the welcoming smiles we met everywhere. In Beijing, young people with cameras would stop us on the street to ask if we would pose with them for pictures and let them practice English with us. In the smaller villages, people would turn and stare and then smile shyly at John, who has a full head of curly white hair and a beard to match. He was very popular in the picture-taking exercises.
		In the cities, people are stacked up in concrete canyons. Except for the lack of world news on television and newspapers, Beijing seemed fully modern, complete with outrageous traffic jams. All the bikes of 15 years ago have been replaced by cars, big cars. We saw young couples holding hands of darling children (one child per couple of course) all dressed as if heading for an Easter parade. I had read that just 20 years ago, the average Chinese couldn't even buy a Coke without knowing a foreigner. Today the country's two-decade experiment with capitalism reveals supermarkets and malls overflowing with merchandise. People are buying. (Left) In Beijing's Tiananmen Square, we are surrounded by giggling youngsters who stand, seriously posed, to have their pictures taken with the foreigners. My companion, John, and I stand in the back row.
Signs of new construction are everywhere as the country readies for the 2008 Olympics. New complexes are replacing slums and other distasteful sights. The authorities cordon off construction viewpoints with 20-foot tall, block-long graphic posters promising soon to reveal utopias of lawns, water parks, skyscrapers and the happy faces of citizens. Our guide Stephanie was very candid about the current conditions in China. She and the city guides were anxious to share their pride and tell us about China's past glories and the country's progress since Mao's regime. But they also seemed innocent of many facts. For instance our guides seemed puzzled when we mentioned the word "famine" while history books estimate that 30 million starved to death in the early 60s, the result of the ruler's policies. Our guide told us that during Mao's reign, the common folk never saw him. Rather, his pronouncements were delivered to them after 9 p.m. every day. So deified by his followers, the people didn't believe he was an actual person, which may have explained why they queued up in long lines to view his coffin. The terra cotta army being unearthed in Xi'an (below) takes your breathe away in scope and imagery. The park is still growing and will surely be a major tourist destination for the world's travelers.


As we prepared to visit the 50 acre park where the vast terra cotta army stands at attention, our Xi'an guide said, "The world quakes to think what would have happened to this place if it had been discovered during the Cultural Revolution." Seeing the acres of silent soldiers standing at attention took my breath away, and I believe those who call it the 8th Wonder of the World. Then you have to comprehend that this magnificent undertaking was a project began 2200 years ago. This particular emperor is also the fellow who unified China (conquering all) and began building the Great Wall. *Emerging Freedom* Although we hear that laws have been modified to allow more freedom (couples can be seen holding hands on the streets), freedom of the press is just another Western word. The China Daily, a publication produced in English, contains positive, feel-good stories, articles lauding the decision of leaders and reports about the intransigencies of Hong Kong and Taiwan. There is no news that might cause unease or stimulate opinions that might be anti-government. China launched its first man into space while we were there and the event went unpublicized until the "kaikonaut" returned safely to earth. Even then praise of the hero was mild and credit given to the team that supported his efforts. While we were in Beijing, we read in the China Daily that a man had set himself on fire in Tiananmen Square. No explanation was given to explain the deed. When we returned home I read an October 6 Newsweek report about this very incident. The victim had attempted suicide protesting government takeover of land from the farmers. "More protests are predicted," the Newsweek article said, "and new president Hu Jintao (since March) will need to handle the situation wisely or more protests will be forthcoming. The Propaganda Dept. has warned local journalists to quit reporting on antidemolition protests." Our guides say that farmers are being adequately compensated for the takeover of their lands. We don't think so. They explain that the Chinese have been conditioned to ignore their own needs and understand that sacrifice is necessary. Thus if "the authorities" require their land for larger purposes, they accept it. Besides, it would do no good to complain.

		The Chinese are extremely superstitious. Great attention is given to acts designed to appease gods and exorcise evil spirits, even though they are not necessarily religious in the western sense of the word. They revere tradition, and show great respect for the elderly. This is a good thing because tight living arrangements usually require several generations to share the small homes. Very few complain about the decreed one-child policy. Everyone can see how dense the population is. Our guide hopes to have a child someday, she said, but she agrees with the government that one child is enough. But, she adds, you can request permission to have more than one child if you are farmers or if you and your spouse are both only children. The young know that they will be expected to care for their aging parents. This attention paid on single children is creating a generation of very pampered kids, and the parents sacrifice greatly to assure that their children get the best schooling possible. The Chinese put fervor into their frequent temple visits. Left, in Xi'an, the air was filled with the fragrance of burning incense and roasted sweet potatoes, a favorite treat sold from burners on the sidewalk.
Considering the size of the population, we were surprised to see how uncluttered and clean everything is (except for their public toilets, which are unimaginable to spoiled westerners who expect to flush.) Streets are washed at night. Workers are everywhere, constantly sweeping streets, sidewalks and combing park landscaping with brooms of long twigs. In Beijing we visited a grandma whose feet were bound when she was six. Their small living compound of many tiny rooms was home to several grown children and their spouses. The grandma said that in the summertime, they have five garbage pick ups a day on her street. (At every home we had a chance to enter, we saw the same family centerpieces: huge, modern television sets and at least one Buddhist shrine.)


The Three Gorges Dam project is an engineering marvel, and has been producing electricity since early spring 2003.
The Chinese are hard workers, laboring long hours without the modern tools we are accustomed to seeing at major construction areas. Work sites literally crawl with people, laboring without the protective care of an OSHA-equivalent. In fact, our tour group got a good number of laughs as we climbed hills of rough stairs and navigated down and over barriers without the familiar yellow construction tape, hand rails or even warning signs. One more word about construction: I know that bamboo was an important building material, but it still rattled me to see the lengths of bamboo tied together as scaffolding for workers in skyscraper construction. Even at the Three Gorges Dam project, bamboo scaffolding climbed everywhere. And here of course, we did see state-of-the-art earth moving and building machines. *The Three Gorges Dam* This project definitely has to be the 9th Wonder of the world -- the largest water conservancy project ever undertaken by humans, according to the authorities. I don't doubt it. It's not possible to grasp its immensity even when you see it with your own eyes. We were taken up to a visitor's center with a 360 degree view of the area. The $28 billion project will control flooding, provide 10 percent of China's electricity, give sea-going ships access to inland China, serve as a major destination for the world's tourists, and the water may eventually be piped to the arid regions of Mongolia.

		This task is requiring the relocation of more than 1.5 million people in areas that have been, or will be, flooded in 2009 by the rising Yangtze. We took a small boat into the beautiful "lesser gorges" to see how the first flooding this spring had raised the river 180 feet, consuming farmlands and villages. In 2009 the waters will rise another 130 feet. Because they live in very small spaces, the people spend much time out of doors, and take advantage of their public parks. Many of them are the converted sanctuaries of former rulers. In Chengdu, we were treated to the sight of people walking their pet birds along the river park early in the morning. Birds are popular pets because a bird cage doesn't need much room. We visited the famed panda park, where the government is artificially breeding these charming creatures from the brink of extinction. We much enjoyed the facility, which will certainly be a major tourist stop when people come for the Olympics. Our Yangtze cruise took us to the remote lesser gorges, already under 180 feet of water. The humble homes quite often feature headgear like this satellite dish (Left).
The people are pursuing health and exercise with a passion. In the parks, they practice ballroom dancing, the martial arts, and perfect their gamesmanship - badminton, variations on ping pong, etc. Our guide said that during the Cultural Revolution, people suffered with bad health caused by poor diets and lack of mental stimulation.
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