Tiananmen Square with Chairman Mao's picture hung on the wall.

Dear Friends and Family,

I've probably forgotten most of the facts and figures since we've returned from China, but I still have the wonderful memories of all the great people we met there and saw what a long way they've come since emerging from the Cultural Revolution in 1976. In 1966, China under Chairman Mao, embarked on a campaign to reject anything old, or western, and move towards a farming and controlled future. Families were broken up, with members sent to different farms. It was only towards the end of that ten year period, in 1976, that life as Chinese people know today, began.

What progress they've made in these past 30 years! The government is communist, but this lifestyle is a far cry from the communist life I saw in Russia when I traveled there in 1979. About the only outward signs of government control on ones life that I saw are: The one child policy per family; all land is owned by the government; and no promotion of religion in the media or in public places.

The Great Wall, just outside of Beijing	A sign on the hill at the Great Wall with their 2008 Olympic slogan
Flowers outside of one of the temples	A canal outside of the Forbidden City in Beijing

Education is held in utmost esteem. Families work continually in hopes of raising their child to the top of the class. As opposed to life in the Cultural Revolution, when education was frowned upon and those that were educated were considered suspicious characters, parents now work very hard to improve their child's education, even to the point of paying around $15,000 for their child to get "a chance" to get into the best elementary school. If they pass the entrance, they're in. If not, they're out and no refund in the "donation".

We had, what had to be, the best tour guide possible for a wonderful three-week trip throughout China. Gary, from Beijing, is about 40 years old, married with no children. He graduated near the top of his class from a Chinese University and is working in the prestigious field of tourism. He answered all questions, whether about the culture or government in a straightforward and honest way. We also had local guides and tour bus drivers in each of the cities that we visited: Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuhan, Wanxian, Chongqing, Xian, Guilin and Hong Kong. The trip included five nights on a river cruise ship up the Yangtze River from Wuhan to Chongqing, through the Three Gorges Dam Project, which is displacing 1.3 million farmers and residents, due to the 130 foot rise in water level.

Standing at the "Bund" alongside the river in Shanghai	undefined undefined Shanghai at night
Outstanding acrobat show in Shanghai	Grand Canal in Suzhou
Our hostess pouring tea at our Hutong home visit. Notice the ping pong table along the wall	A happy shopper in a Suzhou market
Debbie exercising with ribbons in the park	Dancing in the park

Gary showed us all the typical tourist sites, such as Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Great Wall, Terra Cotta Soldiers, Grand Canal and such, but he also took us to see life in China. We visited a kung-fu school, senior citizen center, elementary school and had tea with a relocated family (from the Dam project), a middle-class family, and another family from the Hutongs in Beijing. These are up to 100 year old houses where it isn't uncommon for several families to share bathrooms and kitchens. The government is trying to get the people to move out of the Hutongs, in favor of apartment living, but they like their life there and the closeness of their friends.

We hiked along the Great Wall (not all 4,000 miles) and we boated on the Grand Canal (not all 1500 miles). By the way, the Grand Canal, being the longest man-made canal in the world, taking 300 years to build and employing 2,000,000 men working on the project. We also saw the Peiking Opera, a Tang Dynasty Show and an acrobatic performance that was second-to-none. We also took boats on the Yangtze River to see a Shanghai-by-night light show and also on the Li River where we saw water buffalo cooling themselves along the banks and the most interesting rounded-top mountains I've ever seen. We also visited parks, where in the morning, locals congregate to ballroom and line dance, tai-chi, wave long ribbons and play various ball games, all in the interest of exercise. Finally, we visited a zoo in Chongqing where we saw both adult pandas and a six-month old "baby".

Probably the highest points for me on our trip was visiting the senior center in Suzhou and the Hou Kou elementary school in Xian. We Americans, were warmly received in all of our stops. The Chinese people love getting their pictures taken alongside us, and Gary taught us enough Mandarin to get along. The kids of the schools were just super. They were attentive, talented and energetic children that we just couldn't get enough of.

Our lunch group and hosts in their home in Suzhou	Visiting the senior center in Suzhou
A worker at one of the factories that we visited	A grandmother spending time with her little princess
Chicken feet for sale at the market	Gary showing us a 1,000 year old egg
Lots of wonderful food	undefined undefined and beautiful presentations of the food
Happy vendors at a market	Making a silk comforter requires placing about 100 layers of stretched silk pieces
Sampan on the river in the fog	One of the many temples along the Yangtze River
The relocated family we met with	One of the "hanging coffins" that we saw along the river. These were used by the "Ba" people of China to place their ancestors closer to the heavens
One of the typical ships we saw on the Yangtze	One of the pits and some of the 8,000 terra cotta soldiers found on a farm in Xian
Detail work on the soldiers	undefined Six month old Panda at the Chongqing zoo
These raccoon/fox looking creatures are actually called Lesser Pandas	Debbie learning the art of painting inside of a bottle
Inside a silk factory	Interesting transportation found on the roads
undefined undefined At the Tang Dynasty show	Fishing along a muddy Yangtze
Typical downtown scene	undefined undefined On the beautiful Li River near Guilin
School kids at the school we visited	Happy kids
Leaving school with my new friends	Picking tea leaves at a plantation
Kung fu student	Well loved General Stilwell at his museum in Chongqing

High rises are being built in huge numbers in all the big cities. And actually, only Guilin was a small city, with a population of about 600,000. Beijing and Shanghai were both around 18 million each and Chongqing, the largest city in the world, is at 33 million. Thirty to forty story apartment/condo buildings are going up by the dozens, probably hundreds!

I've tried to narrow down the 1,000+ pictures onto this web site. Hope you enjoy them as much as we did taking them.

Happy trails,
Bill and Debbie