To China With Love

For pictures, click here.

China isn’t a country – it’s another world. I’ve never set my eyes or feet on a place so old, full of history and tradition, yet on the edge of a new paradigm. My parents, sister and I started in Beijing then traveled west to begin a Silk Road tour in Urumqi, slowly making our way east to Shanghai. Our 17-day trip took us through five provinces, one autonomous region, three municipalities and eight cities (or close to it. I lost count). And we barely tasted the fullness of the massive place. There are 56 or so ethnicities in China and somewhere around 200 different language dialects.

So forgive my recap if it seems scattered but the vastness of our experience there makes it difficult to organize thoughts in a linear way.

We learned about the Monkey King, the influence of religion on the Chinese people and their traditions, and endless fables and bedtime stories. We met a Uigur woman who took us to the restaurant that serves the greatest kabobs this side of the universe. I rode a camel in the sand dunes of the Gobi Desert and sledded down a sand dune. Then I ate camel paw. We received stares from locals who couldn’t figure out why we looked Chinese but didn’t speak Mandarin. I almost stayed in China to be a local TV newscaster and have never seen so many silk carpet factories in my life. The best potato chips in the northern hemisphere can be found in the streetmarkets of Dunhuang.

Staring at relics from the third century B.C. baffled my brain, touching walls from the first century B.C. teased my imagination, standing beneath 20th century Feng Shui skyscrapers inspired me and the confluence of the ancient, the old and the new made me just plain dizzy. We went from a high mountain lake to a low desert basin; from the Gobi to the Yangtze; from ancient mountains and gorges to modern day city and modern day toilets.

I chose my favorite dynasty – the Tang Dynasty brought peace, prosperity and diversity to the Chinese culture, opening its trade borders to neighboring countries and allowing women liberties such as attending school and riding horses. And the women of the dynasty were chubby too.

People are also crap. Westerners learned about China’s riches and did not hesitate to pillage and plunder, breaking into sacred grottos and ripping off chunks of murals painted in the 4th century, stealing ancient manuscripts and gold-plated Buddha statues. The Red Guard wreaked irreparable damage on their own country, setting fire to national landmarks, destroying history’s clues. Chairman Mao still holds his own in China – his face looks out onto Tiananmen Square from a painted wall in the Forbidden City. Some locals we spoke to think he lifted up the poor and kept discipline in the country; others think he was a murderer and did nothing but harm a prosperous country. You decide.

But people are also kind and funny and entertaining. They desire health, prosperity and happiness for their family, no matter if they live in Boston, Ypsilanti or Urumqi. We met extraordinary folks along the journey and I thank them for adding depth to my memories of China. I could go on for pages but I best stop there. I hope you enjoy the photos and have the opportunity to experience your own China….