How do I describe this vast land that is moving at breathtaking speed toward the 21st century? China is ancient with Buddhist temples and houtongs -- with small, one-room dwellings on narrow, twisting alleyways dating back centuries. China is contemporary with the neon lighted shopping district of Nanjing Road in Shanghai and the Peace Cinema showing King Kong.
The Chinese urban environment is the same with smog dulling the picturesque skyline and buses and taxis whizzing people everywhere. Its urban environment is different as the city center is teaming with people and commerce at most hours of the day -- it doesn't surrender to nightfall and individual concern for safety.
China is a land that is economically free in which every price is negotiable. It is a land of wealth and stark poverty. Street after street teeming with small shops selling pearls and silk and t-shirts and almost everything for sale under the sun. It is a land where teens and "20 somethings" wear western-style clothing and hang out in McDonalds. Street billboards of NBA players hawking Adidas shoes compete with signage depicting traditional Chinese icons. Deep within the walls of the Forbidden City lays a Starbucks coffeehouse.
China is Tiananmen Square where the Monument to the People's Heroes has served as a lightning rod of political dissent, where Mao Zedong declared the People's Republic of China in 1949 and students were massacred in 1989. Tiananmen Square is a place of patriotism -- no matter how one defines it -- from flag waving at the Flag Raising Ceremony on the Chinese New Year and military maneuvers to student protests.
China is the places where the tourists go: the Great Wall, the shopping district of Wangfujing Road, the Ming Tombs and the Summer Palace. China is also the place where the Chinese people live in houtongs, rows of high-rise apartments, and rural walled communes in mountain valleys passed that streak by on the way to the Great Wall.
China is a land of many possibilities. It is also a land of many challenges. It is a land of ancient civilizations. Some say it is the land of the future. China is a wonder to behold. |
