Longji Terraces, known as The Dragon's Back
On September 18, 2008, my wife and I flew to China (my ninth trip since 1999). She planned the trip and made all travel and hotel arrangements.
During the next twenty-eight days, with my older sister Nancy and her youngest daughter Jenny , we traveled China. Starting from Shanghai, we took a train to Beijing where we visited the Great Wall.
Several days later, we flew to Xian, the ancient capital of China where hundreds of emperors ruled the empire for more than a thousand years before the Ming Dynasty moved the capital.
After a few days in Xian, we flew back to Shanghai and took a train to Hangzhou, better known to foreigners as the West Lake, where the Southern Sung Dynasty (1127-1279) ruled what was left of China after invading barbarians (Manchu and Mongol) conquered Northern China.
After the Hangzhou, we took a slow train back to Shanghai and then to Suzhou, where I got sick. I returned to Shanghai to recuperate before we flew southwest to Guilin near Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand.
While in Guilin, we took a slow boat down the Li River and attended a musical and lighting extravaganza "Impressions of Liu Sanjie" near the town of Yangshuo. This outdoor show with a cast of six hundred (local people) takes place at night on a stretch of the Li River with real mountains as a backdrop. The "Impressions of Liu Sanjie" is the creation of Zhang Zimou, China's famous film director. Zhang is also world famous for directing the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. However, Zhang directed “Impressions of Liu Sanjie" several years earlier than the 2008 Olympic opening ceremonies.
During the trip, I took a thousand pictures. I'm going to post a few during the next few weeks. The menu will grow until I have finished this pictorial travel log of today's China (at least what we saw of it on this trip).
Why am I doing this? Simple. This year when the school year started, our daughter returned home one day to tell us that her history teacher talked about China and said the people in China must be very depressed to live under a totalitarian government like the Communists. When our daughter attempted to disagree, the teacher and the entire class put her down so she shut up.
I wanted to go and straighten that teacher out with a dose of reality, but Anchee and our daughter said not to stir the pot (very Chinese). I've been to China many times and have never seen the people depressed like I have here in the country of my birth.
Other than Western media reports, when in China, you hear little about the government unless you listen to the official, government media. The people are too busy living life and enjoying the living of it to be bothered by a government that is doing all it can to raise the standard of living for 1.3 billion Chinese. I see more depression and anger in America than I have seen in China.
There are seventy million communists in China and more than a billion people that love life and live it the fullest without chasing one material thing after another with credit card debt. My wife has a friend from her days at the Chicago Art Institute that broke into tears once because she couldn't buy a two thousand dollar jacket. I've never seen or heard of that type of behavior in China. I'm sure it must happen, but I haven't witnessed it.
This project is a photo documentary of China today--not the West and America's view of China. People in China are friendly and courteous. Come back and visit often as I add more pages and tell a bit more about my experiences in China. I'm sure that this is what caused Robert Hart, the main character in my novel. My Splendid Concubine, to fall in love with Chinese culture and the Chinese people. What I find amazing about Robert Hart is that he did all this while staying connected to his family in Ireland and to his Irish, British heritage. After all, Queen Victoria made him a Baron late in his life. In addition, more than a dozen countries honored him with awards including the Pope in Rome.
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