Coming off the plane kept looking for the thing that makes this look like China. Like something different. But there wasn't a big difference. People spoke English. The hotel is like any big hotel. And the city is filled with high-rises and lots of cars and construction. It is a big, busy city. It wasn't until walking down one of the hutongs (residential alleys mixed with commercial storefronts) that the China I guess I had in my mind came into a view: the picture is only in my mind since it seemed so obtrusive to take photos. But the picture was this: a boy, age 7 or 8, crouched on the ground by his home, a ramshackle shed like thing, behind a tree ostensibly for privacy. He held a mug of water in one hand and was brushing his teeth with the other. Steps away was the main street--high-rises, and commerce. And behind the gate was this kid.
The other China I've been looking for: Communist China it took a while to find. There is a robust market here. A lot of selling. A lot of capitalism. A lot of Starbucks coffee shops, and KFC, and McDonald's. But as I was watching CNN this morning, the video suddenly shut off when a video of an incident between Chinese soldiers and Tibetan pilgrims at the border. I can't tell you more than that because the screen went blank for a two minutes until the Chinese minister spoke and said whatever It was was alleged. The announcer was going back to the video and the screen went blank again until the next story about Korea came on. That was wild. It shook me up a little bit.
I continue to find China --the real thing as much as I can experience of it . . . hopefully photos up soon.
