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| the Great Wall in 1987 |
Don and I first visited China in 1987, exactly 30 years ago. We returned on May 5 for our 20th visit to China and saw yet again that the transformation from 1987 is nothing short of astonishing.
In 1987, there were no private cars in China, only vehicles belonging to the top echelon of the political elite and military. Virtually everyone wore dark gray or blue Mao jackets and baggy pants. If a family had a refrigerator, which was extremely rare, it occupied the prized place in the tiny living room, draped with a Chinese flag or piece of red cloth. There were no TV's, cameras, electronics of any kind. Instead, there were tens of millions of rickety bikes clogging the narrow roadways, hauling people and goods. Overloaded hand carts strained many a back.
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| one of many banquets--1987 |
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| moving goods by handcart--1987 |
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| bicycles were used in place of trucks--1987 |
China had decrepit airports, no highway infrastructure, dilapidated rail systems. Today, multi-lane highways sweep across the landscape, jammed with private cars that make movement very slow; airports are huge and modern with more being built all the time; train service, though very crowded, is modern, convenient and often very high speed.
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| chef carving Peking duck--2017 |
In 1987, we could not get bottled water. The only drinks were warm orange soda and beer and the hangover-inducing maotai that was extremely popular at the many banquets. Each morning, the hotel maid would leave a jug of boiling water outside your door for brushing your teeth or making tea. The hotels were crumbling and dirty, with awful food and service. Today, every major international hotel chain has gorgeous hotels all over China, with good service, English-speaking personnel, lovely rooms and great restaurants.
In 1987, we brought Polaroid cameras and stacks of Polaroid film cartridges. Other than Chairman Mao, there were no photos of people or families. When we took a Polaroid photo of a child in a park, soon there would be hundreds of families crowding around demanding
a photo of themselves and their children (one child per family, so they were very precious). Today, every Chinese person we see has at least one cell phone. Many have 5 or 6 electronic devices, all working round the clock.
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| young men with their Polaroid photos--1987 |
On our first visit to the Great Wall, there were almost no other people there because it took 3 hours each way and there was no public transportation. Today, the Wall is crowded with visitors who get there by private car or public bus along a wide, modern highway.
China's air pollution is infamous, and deservedly so. The government had planned to build 1700 new coal-fired power plants over the next 10 years, but, thank goodness, has cut that in half (it needs to be cut out altogether) and is building solar and wind farms across the country. We passed 3 large wind farms in the Gobi Desert between Jiayuguan and Dunhuang.
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| Gobi Desert wind farm--2017 |
On our first visit, we flew an ancient DC-3 from Beijing to Changsha, but were delayed for hours because it was raining and China didn't have instrument landing systems. On this trip, we flew 6 legs on brand new Boeing 737's and Airbus A-120's. The food was bad, but the service was very pleasant. Before, our check-in was by hand with hand-written boarding passes. This time around, everything was on-line and electronic.
You can get excellent cell service just about anywhere in China today. Internet access is available for free in every hotel. But, you can't get Google. China has blocked Google in favor of Baidu, it's principal search engine. You can, however, access the internet with Bing or Firefox, though you can't get on Facebook or thousands of other sites. The iron hand of censorship continues to be strong. Thirty years ago, access to any information was very restricted. You could get only what the government wanted you to see. So, that's pretty similar today except that with VPN, tens of millions of Chinese (and we tourists) can get on many prohibited sites.
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| high speed train--2017 |
On our first several visits to China, you could only enter the country if you were invited by an official, so our first trips were at the invitation of the People's Bank of China. The People's Bank hosted us at banquets every night (or we hosted them with exactly the same food and protocol), organized our touring and put us up at their guest houses or hotels. Now, of course, millions of Americans visit China every year. All you need is a visa, which you can now get for 10 years. You can travel by yourself, stay where you want, eat where you want in one of the countless restaurants and go just about everywhere except militarily sensitive zones.
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| farmers' market--1987 |
All commerce was government-owned. Farmers had only recently been allowed to sell excess produce on the "open" market, a move which doubled agricultural production in just a few years. Farmers' markets lined the streets as farmers made a little money off their extra produce. Today, there are large, clean, colorful markets everywhere.
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| kindergartners bowing to teacher--1987 |
The one child policy, in place for decades to tamp down China's population growth, was lifted about a year ago. Still, most families have only one child, so children are adored and pampered, the focus of parents and grandparents. In 1987, most children lived at their schools and visited their parents only on weekends. This policy helped the government control the political education of children. We visited several schools to see the dormitories and classrooms. Now, parents have choices of public and private schools, but most can't afford the private schools.
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| children dressed up at the Summer Palace--2017 |
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| Pudong's skyscrapers--2017 |
Shanghai's financial district was only farmland in 1987. In the last 20 years, thousands of buildings have gone up in Pudong, on the east side of the Huangpo River. It's hard to imagine today that there were no lights at night, no buildings over 1 story, no traffic, no subway, only farmers and animals populating Pudong.
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| Suzhou's main canal--2017 |
It's certainly easier and more comfortable to visit China today. The lives of most people are vastly better. What China has accomplished in the 30 years since our first visit is remarkable, an economic miracle. There's no political miracle, however, as China remains repressive and closed to any political change. While there are many dissidents and thousands of protests, which few Chinese know about, most of the people we talked to are happy with their lives and not willing to rock the political boat.
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Suzhou's main canal--1987
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| women singing at the Temple of Heaven--2017 |
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| musician at the Temple of Heaven--1987 |
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