After a 12 hr. overnight train journey from Taizhou, we arrived somewhat fatigued at the trainstation in Beijing. This time there were no lines for a taxi, and the ride to the hotel took only 30 minutes. For the most, the streets in Beijing are wide, separating pedestrians and bikes and mopeds and rickshaws from car and truck and bus traffic. Trees and landscaping provide shade from the oppressive summer heat on both sides of the roads. Preparing for the Summer Olympics in 2008, the police is vigilant in preventing the bad and dangerous habits of past traffic-behavior, when "each person [View Full Entry]

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Upon arrival at one of the 6 trainstations in China's Capitol, it was obvious that a mega-city was emerging. Beijing has been described in thousands of ways and over thousands of years, but a personal visit is the only way to experience a city, which overwhelmed Marco Polo, the Venetian explorer, "...in its size and opulence." Sadly, many of the ancient monuments, city walls, and palaces have been torn down and their materials and stones set for other uses. When exploring this ancient city, it is still possible to imagine Beijing being developed and constructed by the Great Kublai Khan a [View Full Entry]

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The documentation as a legal resident in China has now been resolved, and we have learned, that " red tape" in China is just as complicated and cumbersome as it is in America, especially when it comes to immigration-issues. After several visits to their office, Taizhou's local authorities have been quite helpful in issuing the new resident visa, with some slight penalties. It permits my stay in China until the summer of 2007. Once again, we will depart for Beijing this coming Monday evening on the overnight train, leaving at 6 p.m. from the new Taizhou train station. We will arrive [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday evening arrived very quickly, and two small suitcases were packed, one for Beijing and the other for Tibet. The college van dropped us off at the Taizhou Railway-Station, and a blue sign pointed to the "Soft Seat Lounge" of this impressive new building. In the West, we call it First and Second Class and even Business Class. Here, a train ticket is purchased as a Soft Seat or a Hard Seat, and for overnight trains it is Soft Bed or Hard Bed. The more private Soft Bed Cabins have 2 comfortable bunk-beds for four passengers, while the Hard Bed Cabins [View Full Entry]

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The extra-ordinary has become the ordinary, and the adjustment to life in China is no longer so shocking. Visitors come to China not to find luxurious indulgence or a serene retreat, but as Janet Carmisky explains in one of her essays: "We go to China because we want to be surprised, to access the inaccessible, to ponder the opposite, to observe the alternate, and to go home perhaps understanding more about where all we've seen fits in the larger scheme of things. We come to China to observe our reactions to China. Will its otherness perplex, irritate, or humble us? Will [View Full Entry]

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For the students of Taizhou Teachers College in Jiangsu Province, China, the long awaited summer holidays have arrived, and let me tell you: "These are indeed HOT and HUMID summer days"! The graduates are receiving their diplomas and wonder, what will await them on the outside world, now that their undergraduate-studies are successfully completed. I see them walking the school-campus excitedly, wearing their holiday best, bound document in hand. None look much older than one of our typical high school students, and it is difficult to think of them as new teachers. It will now be the [View Full Entry]

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Quiet birthdays are the best. Cancers prefer calmness, and July 9th was going to pass, and not be noticed on the other side of the world, in Taizhou, China. At 62, it is now official, Senior Citizenship and Social Security have become partners in my life, and the occasion was going to pass peacefully. Not many phone-calls reminding me on amounts of birthday-candles. Before I left Miami, one of my gentlest friends made it clear, what she thinks of the prospect of growing older, (she is the sweetest and wisest "lady" at 82). In her kitchen I casually asked, ... and [View Full Entry]

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Taizhou's economy is almost totally dependent on agriculture, and rain is an important part of the next successful harvest. Over the last 2 weeks, down-pours have been very heavy in the district, and much of the farming region is now underwater, threatening the crops and lifelyhood of its farmers. I see them standing, their pants rolled up, as have peasants over the centuries, in their water-soaked parcels of land, looking in dismay and helpless. Driving through the very fertile but flat country-side, I was left speachless by the waters across the fields, and the amounts deposited by t [View Full Entry]

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Another train-ride of a life-time has been offered to thrill-seeking travellers. A train-journey into the highest altitudes and along some of the great vistas, on its way to the "roof of the world", from Beijing to Lhasa, commenced on July 1st. The celebrations and the first impressions were televised throughout the day, and some photos from my TV-monitor give some impressions of what I hope will become a personal journey. Please excuse the quality of the photos and remember, they are taken from my television-screen: My father was a train-engineer, and I have memories as a child, when [View Full Entry]

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The customs from country to country are never quite the same, but in China there are additional surprises to ponder. To a new resident and "virgin-observer" from the West, the medium sized city of Taizhou, Jiangsu Province, offers challenges not known to a three-week tourist, who is securely insulated from true-daily-life of China's 1.4 billion. Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong are no more China than New York, Los Angeles, and Miami are America. To understand America is to look beyond the city-sprawl, to imagine China is to visit beyond its mega-cities. Opportunities to experience these l [View Full Entry]

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