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Amazing China: Beijing and the Olympics

By Larry Backus, Special to the Green Valley News

Published: Thursday, July 10, 2008 9:14 PM MDT

I’ve long fantasized about a visit to the People’s Republic of China, a country whose recorded history stretches back thousands of years before the birth of Christ.

Her land area is about the same as that of the United States, but with a population of 1.3 billion (one-fifth of all the people in the world) she has roughly four times the population of the United States.

Every person that I’ve ever spoken to who has traveled in China has rated it as an experience not to be missed.

In September 2007, my wife and I took a three-week guided tour that included five major Chinese cities, a cruise up the Yangzi River with a stop at its nearly completed Three Gorges Dam project, and visits to major tourist attractions such as the Great Wall, the Ming Dynasty Tombs, the Terracotta Army, the Giant Pandas in the Xian Zoo, and even took a pedicab ride in old Beijing.

We watched the limited amount of English language TV programming, read the English language “China Daily” newspaper (on line at: www.chinadaily.com), visited shops, stores, small factories and people in their homes and came away believing that present day China is truly an amazing place.

I write these articles to give you a flavor for what we saw and to suggest that if you are planning to attend the Beijing Olympics don’t waste a perfectly good airfare by failing to see the rest of China while you are there!

ORIGINAL IMPRESSIONS: As a boy, I remember watching the black and white Korean War newsreels in the winter of 1950-51 when the huge Chinese People’s Liberation Army stormed across the Yalu River in “human waves” to engage the U.S. and UN troops and pushed them south. Many feared that World War III against world Communism was then beginning.

To everyone’s relief, the UN forces were able to push the Communists back to the 38th Parallel and the Korean “Police Action” was fought to a bloody draw and a truce declared. Years later, in 1963, I was an American “Cold War warrior” stationed near the Korean DMZ (demilitarized zone) during the Cuban Missile Crisis, nervously wondering if by the next morning we’d be looking down the business end of Chinese burp guns (the popular weapons of choice at that time).

Fortunately, JFK and Nikita Khrushchev averted a nuclear war then and we all came home safely. In 1972, when President Nixon visited, we learned that the PRC was no longer the implacable enemy of the American way of life, but despite differences in cultural, social, political and economic systems, Communist China and the United States could live in peace on the same planet. Nowadays they sell us all their soft goods and loan us money.

OPENNESS: Language is always a barrier to understanding and this proved to be the case during our trip to China. In most cases our interpreters could screen what was being said and heard. Nevertheless, it seemed that our guides were anxious to have us meet their people and learn more about them. We were always treated with curiosity and respect by the Chinese we encountered on the trip.

I had heard and read about the historical secretiveness of the Chinese and their reluctance to open the country to foreigners, particularly Americans. We found just the opposite.

“Transparency,” the current politically correct policy, was being practiced with visiting tourists. We were encouraged to ask any question we wished, whether or not it was politically sensitive. We were invited as guests into a number of individual homes. On one occasion, a man who had been a young college student during the great persecutions of Mao Zedong’s “Cultural Revolution” in the late 1960s, was able to tell of his personal experiences and answer questions. Another time, we talked with an English-speaking woman who told us how she was sent to the countryside for “re-education” during that same period. Notwithstanding the continuing government efforts to suppress dissent, it seemed that individual citizens felt comfortable in making critical comments.

BEIJING: THE CENTER OF THE ACTION: Beijing is the capital of the PRC and her third largest city (14 million), after Chongqing and Shanghai. Historians tell us that “Peking Man” lived in the vicinity 50,000 years ago! In 1421 AD, well before Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain, Ming Emperor Yongle moved into his brand new Imperial Palace, the Forbidden City (so-called because the common man could never, without permission, set foot within its walls).

Being a Chinese emperor back in imperial times was easily the equal of being a French or English king or a Russian czar. The 9,000 room palace was staffed with 9,000 ladies-in-waiting (including a large number of concubines) and 100,000 eunuchs, who saw to the personal needs of the royal families. Ostentation and overindulgence were the watchwords of the period.

Today, as a result of a more egalitarian society established after the Communist takeover of 1949, even common tourists can visit the inner sanctums of the Forbidden City and also see the grandiose Summer Palace and its grounds located in the hills beside Kunming Lake,10 miles northwest of Beijing. It was originally built by Emperor Quinlong in the late 1700s based on designs by an Italian architect using lavish European models including the palace and gardens at Versailles.

Invading British and French troops pillaged and burned the palace in 1860 during the Second Opium War. Later, notorious Empress Dowager Cixi diverted funds earmarked for development of the Chinese Navy to rebuild the Summer Palace and grounds and to construct a frivolous “Marble Boat” at the edge of the lake, to use for afternoon tea. Cixi’s remarkable political intrigue and manipulative skills kept her in power for 47 years -- a record that no modern-day politician, Eastern or Western, has been able to match.

TIANANMEN SQUARE is probably best remembered by Americans as the place where, in 1989, a young student protester faced down a column of T-80 tanks. The subsequent violence, which has reminded some of a mega-scale “Boston Massacre,” was nowhere memorialized or in evidence in the square - suggesting to me that the government is still extremely apprehensive about this monumental protest for democracy by the common people. Unfortunately, the Great Hall of the People (where the People’s Congress meets) and the Mao Mausoleum (where the embalmed body of Mao Zedong lies in it’s glass enclosure), were not open during our visit.

On that day, Tiananmen was bathed in bright sunshine and bedecked with red flags, thousands of potted plants and temporary fountains, in preparation for the Mid-Autumn/Moon Festival, one of three annual weeklong national holidays, which was to be held a few days after our visit. Chinese and foreign visitors, as well as hundreds of souvenir hawkers jostled us as we gawked our way through the immense square. On leaving, we were shocked to learn that a pickpocket in the crowd victimized a wheelchair-bound senior member of our group! Alas, even the PRC is not able to get a handle on petty crime.

THE GREAT WALL: We took a tour bus about 50 miles northwest of Beijing to see and walk upon a touristy section of “China’s greatest public works project.” It was originally constructed around 200 BC during the Qin Dynasty, to keep northern invaders out of the newly united empire.

Later, emperors repaired, extended and relocated portions of the wall, which at one time reached a continuous length of more than 4,000 miles. Portions of the wall have fallen into disrepair or have been destroyed, but because of its great draw as a tourist attraction, other sections near major cities have undergone major restorations.

I had to smile while standing on the ancient piece of world history.

As I peered over the stone parapet, I couldn’t miss seeing a huge Olympics logo and billboard sign on a nearby hillside proclaiming: “One World One Dream,” the slogan for the upcoming summer Olympic Games. Here was a classic Madison Avenue touch on the other side of the world.

Tourist buses disgorged thousands of eager Chinese and foreigners each day to swarm through the souvenir shops, trek back and forth along great expanses of the wall and have their pictures taken.

THE 2008 SUMMER OLYMPICS - CHINA’S FIRST PRIORITY: Perhaps the best example of the present attitude toward the West and the rest of the world may be found in the great effort and expense that the government is going through to sponsor the 2008 Summer Olympics. It had been pulling out all the stops to make the best showing possible for the hordes of foreign visitors expected from all over the world. English language newspapers such as the China Daily regularly told of the extensive preparations and gave an indication of the great importance that the Chinese placed on making a positive impression on the world’s visitors.

One sunny September morning, we passed by the Olympics area and viewed the newly constructed Olympic Village and National Stadium, the “Bird’s Nest,” partially obscured in an early morning blanket of smog! Pollution was obviously a major concern of planners for the games. Construction, reconstruction and renovation efforts were also in evidence all over Beijing in preparation for the big show. Even the buildings of the Palace and Forbidden City were receiving a facelift and new coats of paint, presumably for next summer’s visitors.

We had no idea during our visit that a major attempt would be made to ruin the Olympics and embarrass the Chinese through the use of political demonstrations and a boycott. Only time will tell whether the enormous effort that China has made and is making, will be in vain.

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a four-part series by Larry Backus on his recent trip to China.

About this series

Green Valley's Larry Backus chronicles his experience in China. His stories on the Olympic host will appear Fridays through Aug. 1.


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The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of gvnews.com.

Ron Munn wrote on Jul 11, 2008 1:37 PM:

" Enjoyed Larry Backus article on his trip to China, but question his comment that Empress Dowager Ciixi 47 year reign of power is a record that no modern-day politician, Eastern or Western, has been able to match.....what about our friend to the South, Fidel Castro? "

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