Look, everything I've heard about China is less than appealing. Pollution, overcrowding, people spitting on your feet, zero comprehension of English,the regime's obsession with paperwork, bureaucracy and non-appreciation of the finer things in life, like taking happy snaps for your photo album. Verboten, in the Land of the Yellow Star!
So what the hell am I doing bound for the Orient? Serendipity takes me there, in the form of various loved ones stationed there for work. So I thought why not visit Tiananmen Square, and see if it is still surrounded by cyclists rather than cars, as it was in Chairman Mao's days? Will there be a paucity of shops to peruse, as it was back in the early 70s when a friend of mine visited the Chinese capital?
A lot has happened to China in four decades and now people are talking. I plan to read "When China rules the World" on my way over to Shanghai, which is my first stop in this vast Marco Polo region. I'll be off to the French Quarter almost immediately to check out the last vestiges of a bygone era... I believe a new skyscraper goes up in China's mainland cities while you blink!
More of all things Oriental in due course, for now I am simply ripe with expectation!
So what the hell am I doing bound for the Orient? Serendipity takes me there, in the form of various loved ones stationed there for work. So I thought why not visit Tiananmen Square, and see if it is still surrounded by cyclists rather than cars, as it was in Chairman Mao's days? Will there be a paucity of shops to peruse, as it was back in the early 70s when a friend of mine visited the Chinese capital?
A lot has happened to China in four decades and now people are talking. I plan to read "When China rules the World" on my way over to Shanghai, which is my first stop in this vast Marco Polo region. I'll be off to the French Quarter almost immediately to check out the last vestiges of a bygone era... I believe a new skyscraper goes up in China's mainland cities while you blink!
More of all things Oriental in due course, for now I am simply ripe with expectation!
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