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'Totally
unexpected' impression
in first visit to Beijing and China
By Beth Sikes
Special to GwinnettForum.com
(Editor's note: When we learned that Snellville
residents Beth and Wayne Sikes were heading for China, we asked
Beth to give us her impression of that vast country. Here is her
report. --eeb.)
APRIL 26, 2002 -- As my husband and I planned our trip to Beijing,
China, we had thoughts of a dirty, old, dowdy city, with people
in plain-clothed Mao jackets and expressionless faces. What we found
instead was totally unexpected.
Beijing is a city in transition, China's capitol, with a population
of 13 million. We arrived at its new, $1 billion airport, and stayed
at a sleek, four star Harbour Plaza. The hotel employees spoke perfect
English and the service was impeccable.
From our window on the 14th floor, you could see the skyline of
the bustling city with construction everywhere; it looked like a
city of cranes. Incidentally, 40 per cent of all the cranes in the
world are in China. Across from the hotel we could see the ancient
art of Tai Chi being practiced as early as 6 a.m. each morning.
Tiananmen Square was much larger than I envisioned. People move
about freely and vendors sell kites, trinkets and a popular American
souvenir, the little red Mao books, hidden beneath their sweaters.
Uniformed police are ever present. Surveillance vehicles occasionally
drive around, recording activities in the square.
Our group took a trip outside the city to visit the Acrobatic Training
School. The "best of the best", 300 children from all
over China, are chosen to train under China's outstanding coaches.
They come to the school when they are six to live year-round with
only one or two days off a year---a little strict according to our
standards!
After watching the children perform for our group, a seven year-old
boy with a mischievous smile asked our guide if he could touch my
husband's beard. Chinese men do not have the facial hair like Americans.
He had never seen dark skinned Afro - American people like the couple
in our group and wanted to know where they came from.
The Great Wall stretches 4,500 miles from Korea to the Gobi Desert.
Pictures don't do it justice. It is extremely steep and exhausting
but a "must" for tourists. Once you arrive at the nearest
pinnacle you feel as thought you must reward yourself with the t-shirt
saying, "I climbed the Great Wall."
Among our other experiences:
- We flew to Xi'an, viewing the 2,000 year old terra cotta warriors.
- The Beijing Zoo.
- The Summer Palace.
- A rickshaw tour of the Hutong Village.
We had many new experiences, including learning to use the "Squatty
Potties", literally a hole in the floor. (Western toilets grace
the new construction.) We ate traditional meals of rice, noodles,
steamed bread, soup and hot meat dishes and used chopsticks with
almost every meal.
We saw thousands of two and three wheel family bicycles at every
intersection. We learned to appreciate jade, cloisonné, porcelain,
pearls and calligraphy as China's highest art forms. We saw young
people dressed in "chic" western clothes and fashionable
boots. They all seemed to have cell phones.
In Beijing we expected a dowdy, communist capitol, historic, but
run down with people in drab clothes. Instead, Beijing is modern,
with wide highways, beautiful high-rise buildings going up everywhere
rivaling any western city, expensive automobiles from Germany and
Japan and, as you might not expect, all of the American fast food
franchises.
Beijing is a vibrant, exciting city, preparing for the 2008 Olympics
and rushing headlong into the 21st century.
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Number
2.05, April 26, 2002
