China Journey
Beijing in 1982, when I lived there, was a shadowy city of pale yellows and greys, over which filtered the hazy sunlight of the North China Plain, diffused by billions of dust particles borne on prevailing winds from the Gobi Desert. It only rained in July and August and during winter the air was heavily polluted by fumes from burning soft brown coal for cooking, heating and industry to support the well over twenty million inhabitants. This was the early period of the “Four Modernizations” and I was privileged to watch for two years as China introduced reforms to speed up economic development through foreign investment, a more open market and access to advanced technologies and management experience. My participation in this amazing endeavour was to interview in English Chinese Government-selected candidates for individual work study programmes in Canada and administer the process to send them there.
For my family, it was a never to be forgotten or repeated experience of living in a Communist controlled country with little freedom of speech or movement. We were allowed to travel without a pass and guide for only a radius of ten miles. We were supposed to shop only in the Friendship Stores, exclusively for foreigners, using special currency only obtainable with a foreign passport. So, I missed out on being able to buy a pair of magnetic shoes I once saw being sold in a Chinese department store with promises of health, happiness, sexual prowess and even the restoration of youth!
Our furnished apartment was located in a grim, grey, fourteen storied, Russian built, cement building with metal window frames. The front room balcony overlooked the main road, which was a great source of interest, making up for the horrendous daily noise of traffic, the ringing of bicycle bells, and the bone rattling thump of the farm tractors, cleverly adapted to double as family transport, driving by. On the road, and sometimes right in the middle of it, I saw men wearing white coats and bright red armbands, emblazoned with bold Chinese characters. These would-be professional drivers have to spend one month studying the traffic before taking any driving lessons. No doubt only the courageous pass that test! I needed to have a Chinese driving licence to drive to my office, but only had to pass a health test to get one as I had an international drivers’ licence. My blood pressure was taken on both arms, to my surprise, but the doctor explained that the readings could be different. I passed the test and was issued with a small, red, folded cardboard document written in Chinese characters, including my surname, which literally translated as “drinking soup in the forest”!
Another balcony, on the other side of our apartment, overlooked the compound and we were high enough up to see over the wall into the Chinese area, where the occasional boxing match took place. Across the road in an open field, there were sometimes PLA (People’s Liberation Army) training exercises, with and without guns, to be watched. The guns were never fired, fortunately, as the soldiers took their turn with soccer teams. Sometimes the turns got confused. It was quite a sight to see a PLA group advancing, with guns at the ready, right through the middle of a soccer game in full progress! Occasionally the local children joined in, lining up in straight lines like the soldiers. By afternoon, the ground was empty and here and there the grass struggled to take hold. With so much footwork and so little rain, this was scarcely possible.
There was a marvelous park near our apartment, in which there was a very small Ching dynasty palace, which had a flower-filled and most peaceful courtyard, a restaurant, handicraft shops, small hill-top pagodas, fountains, ponds and a pavilion. There were lots of lovely trees and winding paths to follow. Very early in the morning, people came to the park to perform Tai Chi, practice their singing and shouting and walk their birds in cages. The birds seemed to enjoy this outing and get together with all the other caged birds as they sang themselves silly. They also got swung upside down a few times inside their cages to strengthen their tiny ankles on the perch!
I was taken to the theatre to see an acrobatic and magic show for two superb hours in the ancient Erqi Theatre off an alleyway in an old part of the city. Not only were the acts amazing, but the fact that they could be performed on such a tiny stage was incredible. The audience was mixed, relaxed and stared unashamedly at we foreigners as they ate bags of sweets, threw peanuts on the floor, talked throughout the performance and seldom applauded the incredible acrobatic feats requiring great skill and courage. I also attended an evening of Chinese opera, dramatizing ancient legends with music, song and very skilful acts, including throwing various war-like weapons across the stage. I was not comfortable sitting in the front row for that part of the performance!
My office was in a new building at the Beijing University of Foreign Languages, the opening ceremony for which I attended. After the speeches, firecrackers went off with loud bangs and a hose was taken up on the roof, and turned on to pour copious amounts of water down all the outside walls – an ancient tradition to ward off evil spirits. I hoped no-one had forgotten to close a window! The room I was allocated to administer the project was furnished with two desks and chairs, a chesterfield and coffee table, red (for good luck) curtains on the two windows and an ancient manual typewriter for the Chinese secretary, Mrs. Rui, to use.
I flew off to Hong Kong to spend project funds on two electric typewriters for myself and Mrs. Rui, two photocopy machines, in case one broke down, and an air-conditioner that doubled as a room heater. I was given a used carpet for the cement floor, which was freezing cold in winter. The air-conditioner cum heater needed to be installed in the wall, which caused a problem of some magnitude because the wiring system in the building was not suitable for the amount of wattage required. This task took one year to accomplish and on days when the temperature fell below freezing and I could not move my fingers, I took my work home to the well heated apartment. On other winter days I bundled up my body in silk lined woolen slacks, sweaters and a feather-filled, quilted ski jacket. I also wore boots, mittens and a cashmere scarf to the office.
Workers in the building were all members of a Chinese unit or Communist cell. They followed instructions from their leader, but demonstrated a democratic process when an attempt was made to remove our project driver, Mr.Hu, from duty in favour of another driver. Mr.Hu stood his ground and won his case to remain as the project driver. I was never privy to the reasons for his dismissal or restitution, but glad to see the right to protest upheld. I had a Chinese counterpart, co-project director, Mr. Wang, who I picked up on my way to the office every morning and drove there in the project car. Mr. Hu drove the other Chinese project workers, including Mrs.Rui and my Canadian project assistant, Sheila, in the project mini bus.
It was very difficult not to hit a cyclist on the roads as there were literally eleven million of them, mostly proceeding along designated bicycle paths but, without any warning, such as hand signals, they could swerve suddenly into the traffic. The vast majority of cyclists seemed to have no idea of what a car could or could not do, like moving sideways to avoid collision. Sadly, some were injured every day, but none by me, I’m glad to say.
As a Beijing resident I had to be “gonged, walled, tombed and ducked”! That is to say, visit the Gugong (Forbidden City), the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs, and dine on Peking duck. The three most famous duck restaurants in Beijing are affectionately known as the Big duck, the original restaurant, the Sick duck next door to the capital hospital, and the Super duck, located in a multi-storied building seating 2,500 people in 41 dining rooms. All 10-20 course banquets were washed down with the infamous Maotai (liquor with a very high alcohol content), by male guests at the end of every toast. Women could choose to drink beer, mineral water, orange pop or sweet Chinese wine. We sat around a large circular table, in the middle of which was a “lazy Susan” on which the dish for each course was placed. The host always served the guests from this dish with chopsticks, stretching out an arm and not dropping the food before reaching each person’s plate. This required skills I had to learn fast for when my turn came. In order to get through all the courses, the trick was to eat very small portions. Not sampling every dish would offend your hosts. Those banquets were a wonderful way to surmount the language barrier as not much conversation was required and everyone had a good time.
Foreigners visiting Beijing on official business were greeted with overwhelming hospitality, escorted to their hotels, welcomed and farewelled with lavish banquets, shown over the local sights with interpreter-guides, (still dressed in their Mao suits, as was every Chinese seen in public at that time), and generally treated with paternalistic care such as they never experienced before! For those of us fortunate enough to have lived there for two years, it was a never to be forgotten experience.
Kaixin - This is not the China of today! It is the China of 1982 just 3 years after Deng Xiaoping started to open China to the world. The difference between the China that Kaye experienced and now is stark. It shows just how far China has progressed in terms not just of economic progress but in particular social progress. Beijing is now a modern world city, there are no restrictions on movement and the city bustles with colour.
The one thing that has not changed is the genuine welcome and hospitality of the Chinese people.
China Journey
Explore Kaixin
The Cultural Revolution through my eyes
A Selection of Chinese Classical Music available on YouTube
China and Tibet - Xi Zang 西藏
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that," Dalai Lama
Contemporary China in Photographs Kaixin's Daily OpEd
GREEN CHINA Yuan Revaluation & Internationalisation 艺术 Chinese Zodiac Jewellry China's Top 10 Leisure Spots 
]]>
