And home again, a few final thoughts

---

We are back home in the US after 21 hours total from leaving the hotel in Beijing to arriving home. We were stuck in Friday afternoon traffic both in Beijing and north of Seattle on the same day, but otherwise all went smoothly.

In reading through the entries, I am tempted to go back and correct typos and minor errors of fact and to add some stuff that was left out. But I think it's better left as written originally. The typos do reflect my lack of a typing credential and laziness in proofreading to be sure, but there is also a correlation between the smokiness of the internet bars, the degree to which the letters on the computer keyboards were unreadable and the number of typos. To go back and correct that now using a well functioning machine, that gives prompts in a language I can read in the comfort of home, would make this no longer an on-the-scene report. I did add a few photos here though that weren't included in the previous posts.

The map shows where we actually went, not greatly different from what we had planned. The main differences were some modification of the places visited in western Sichuan, not being able to work in a climb of Mt Hua or any other holy mountain, and the substitution of a few days in Beijing at the end.

Some impressions we are left with are the amount of change in China between our last visit in 2003-04 and today. More cars (and quite a few expensive ones), fewer bicycles, more electric scooters, more affluence in the cities at least, an incredible rate of building, 30-story apartment houses with elevators replacing 6-story ones with only stairs.

We will never forget seeing Tibetan Buddhists prostrating themselves, body length by body length, along the highway towards Lhasa. Or the incredible scenery on the road from Ganzi to Litiang, the nomad tents, the Tibetan songs (not the ones in the dance hall in Kangding, though), yaks on the streets of Litiang, chanting in the monasteries, the bright colors of the new prayer flags, the horse riders, the newly painted temple at the Litiang monastery, and talking about NBA basketball with the Chinese cops in remote Xinlong who knew all about the Seattle Supersonics moving to Oklahoma City. Seeing riot gear (shields, helmets, and batons) at the ready in that police station, the museum in Urumqi, and elsewhere will also be a lasting memory. Vegetable growers in Kangding using both the ancient method of fertilizing with human waste and modern insecticides to keep everything very green. The openness of the Tibetans, especially the monks, and the friendliness of the Uyghurs, is also unforgettable. Also, being guided through the back alleys of the Urumqi market to where the bread stamps were. We will also not forget how a small mob, not acting in their own best interests it seems, kept our airplane from flying from Urumqi to Xi'an late one evening.

The mountain scenery in western Sichuan was more incredible than we imagined it would be, as were the mountains north of Urumqi. And I will never forge the barrenness of the desert and the contrast between that and the oases.

The two most lasting impressions, though are the strong presence of the army and police throughout the Tibetan and Uyghur areas and the incredible quiet on the streets of the south part of Urumqi as people waited for sunset to break their daylight Ramadan fast. In China, a country with about 26 million muslims, the celebrations of Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, will extremely tightly controlled by the government, where it is permitted at all. While religion is now allowed in China, all religious facilities, places of worship, etc., must be licensed, display certain propaganda signs, etc. China's incredible rate of progress continues to be coupled with centralized command-and-control over religion, ethnicity, and political thought. This much has not changed from the Communist days.

Our experience in the US tells us that governmental efforts to control these fundamental aspects of our lives will eventually fail. Unfortunately, our experience also tells us that democracy can produce a tyranny of the majority (or of the loud minority) that at times can be extremely repressive, like a police state. Today, September 11, in the United States, many celebrations of Eid al-Fitr will be toned down or cancelled because of the political climate. Fortunately, in our country, we do have the opportunity as individuals to seek the facts, analyze them according to our own world view, and act according to what we learn from this process. Those of us with the means to do so also have the opportunity to seek out people whose lives are very different from our own and listen to their stories. We are very fortunate to have been able to do this in China this year.

This has been fun to write and will be a nice personal record for us. Thanks for reading it.

---

Photos

Where we actually went.
I added the Xi'an - Beijing segment since we changed plans and had a few days in Beijing at the end.

Kangding meat market
The yak hair attached to the meat was the tail. Maybe this was to show that the cut was from the rump, or maybe it was just to show it was a yak.

Houses on the road from Ganzi to Litiang
The toilets stick out from the second story so they can be used without going outside and the products can be collected, presumably for fertilizing the garden. (photo by Jacob)

Red hat and yellow hat Tibetan monks compare calendars
(photo by Jacob)

Fire extinguisher box at White Cloud Temple, Beijing
The time is long past to make fun of translations of Chinese signs into English. Most translations are very good these days. But this one baffles me. There were about 8 of these things on the temple grounds, all with the correct English painted over and this exact phrasing written in.

Comments

[Carolmae Enchermanj]

Appreciation
I have enjoyed reading your blog from beginning to end. It was as if I were with you and sharing this inccredible trip. I was in China in 1987 and am impressed by how much has changed, and yet how much remains the same. Besides the usual big cities, I went to the western end of the Great Wall. I was on the silk road, but didn't get as far as Urumqi. I live at Kendal, directly across the hall from Connie. I miss her and will be happy to see her back in her apartment.