Adventures In China

In Conclusion: “China?”, with a scrunch of the face is the reaction I get from most about this trip, before and after. I am certainly glad I went. Every corner yielded something intriguing. Asking for a favorite site, while all the destinations were compelling in their own ways, it would have to be the everyday things- street markets, a bundled up kid, a wooden cart piled high, the graceful architecture of a pagoda or the pride of a farmer in his produce.

Communism: Communism has failed every time it is tried. Condemned behind this atrocious ideology for 6 decades we can hope one day the Chinese can learn the wonders of democracy and free enterprise. Only by tossing aside the stifling controlled society can the rewards of self-reliance and initiative be fully realized.

Communism can stifle but not vanquish the human spirit of a quest for betterment. Patriotism is held in one’s heart, not forced by a central government.

Those into politics or social commentary know that those defined as poor in the U.S. are far better off than the balance of the world’s poor. The worst I’ve seen in the south, NYC or LA live much better than the squalor I saw in China. Very sad.


Pollution: It was horrible. I thought the haze constantly covering Beijing was bad until getting out of that city where visibility is a quarter mile, half at best. It was days before seeing a patch of blue sky.


The People: What was behind that emotionless façade so often seen? On the trip over I noted Air China employees were effective yet detached. This observation was repeated over most of the trip. Some folks in our group were awesome at engaging the locals and eliciting smiles and even laughs.