[This and the following reports on China were sent to our sons Kerwyn and Lyndon a week after we arrived in Guizhou where I was hosted by the Academy of Science. - Sept to October 2005]
Here is our tentative schedule in SW China.
Sept 21: Fly to Chongqing.
Sept 22: Give talk at Southwest China Uni, CSD.
Sept 23: Give talk at Chongqing Uni, Math/IT Dept.
Sept 24: Visit Three Gorges Museum in Chongqing.
Sept 25-28 Go on Three Gorges (Yangtze River) cruise.
Sept 29: Fly back to Guiyang
Sept 30: Give talk at Guizhou Academy of Science
Oct 1-7: (Chinese National Holiday) visit a fewplaces, three days away from Guiyang, including Zhijing underground cave, Tenpu town (Ming dynasty stronghold), ancient Qingyue town.
Oct 8: Give talk at Guizhou Uni.Oct 10: Fly to Shenzhen, take bus to Hong Kong.
They are giving us a lot of time to do things on our own. So I haveime to think and mom is doing her needle work. When we get back to Guiyang, we will be staying again in this Royal City hotel
http://www.sinohotel.com/hotel/hotel.html?hid=1336
which we are told is one of the two 4 star hotels in the city, there being no 5star hotels. The rate you see in the web page is higher than what the Academy of Science is paying -- the special rate for our stay is RMB380 per day. [I later found out that the average wage for a week is around RMB400, so my guilt set in ... ] It is very comfortableand clean, and has broadband that I am using now. The hotel has 28 floors above ground (3 under, for parking) but the top floor is numbered 30 because there is no 13th or 14th floor. The former is a concession to westerners and the second is to the Cantonese tourists, 14 being a bad luck number for them.
We spent the last weekend in Zheng Yuan, a town built 2350 yearsago, and went on a river cruise near it. The views were magnificent.The real China was in that town and the surrounding villages. Thehotel we stayed in overnight before the cruise was, shall I say,very basic. The day we got there after a 5 hour train trip wevisited the restored ancient houses, three enormous family homesbuilt into a cliff and hillside, dating back to the beginnings of Zheng Yuan which is situated in the banks of the river. One of thefamilies was the Yu family, descendants of Confucius. The poverty today was unknown back then, but now it is a bit upsetting for momand me to see. But we are grateful to have been shown it. I now have a personal understanding of what drove our ancestors to leave China. Neither mom nor I have experienced any emotional surge that many overseas Chinese report feeling when they visit China. There is too much difference between us and the people here now, and that is starkly revealed by the constant dissonance between our frames of reference and presumptions when we interact with them. But we wish them well, for a prosperous and strong China is, from the evidence of its history, is likely to be peaceful and non-expansionist. I gave a talk at the downtown branch of Guizhou Uni yesterday, and the senior faculty hosted us to dinner after that. They were very considerate hosts, but we were clearly foreigners to them. One ofthe professors even asked me, "Norman, do you like Chinese food?" Hmm, if I was cheeky I would have replied, "Yes, particularly thedog stew you cook so well!" But I said we actually eat Chinese foodat home 50% of the time.
Here is our tentative schedule in SW China.
Sept 21: Fly to Chongqing.
Sept 22: Give talk at Southwest China Uni, CSD.
Sept 23: Give talk at Chongqing Uni, Math/IT Dept.
Sept 24: Visit Three Gorges Museum in Chongqing.
Sept 25-28 Go on Three Gorges (Yangtze River) cruise.
Sept 29: Fly back to Guiyang
Sept 30: Give talk at Guizhou Academy of Science
Oct 1-7: (Chinese National Holiday) visit a fewplaces, three days away from Guiyang, including Zhijing underground cave, Tenpu town (Ming dynasty stronghold), ancient Qingyue town.
Oct 8: Give talk at Guizhou Uni.Oct 10: Fly to Shenzhen, take bus to Hong Kong.
They are giving us a lot of time to do things on our own. So I haveime to think and mom is doing her needle work. When we get back to Guiyang, we will be staying again in this Royal City hotel
http://www.sinohotel.com/hotel/hotel.html?hid=1336
which we are told is one of the two 4 star hotels in the city, there being no 5star hotels. The rate you see in the web page is higher than what the Academy of Science is paying -- the special rate for our stay is RMB380 per day. [I later found out that the average wage for a week is around RMB400, so my guilt set in ... ] It is very comfortableand clean, and has broadband that I am using now. The hotel has 28 floors above ground (3 under, for parking) but the top floor is numbered 30 because there is no 13th or 14th floor. The former is a concession to westerners and the second is to the Cantonese tourists, 14 being a bad luck number for them.
We spent the last weekend in Zheng Yuan, a town built 2350 yearsago, and went on a river cruise near it. The views were magnificent.The real China was in that town and the surrounding villages. Thehotel we stayed in overnight before the cruise was, shall I say,very basic. The day we got there after a 5 hour train trip wevisited the restored ancient houses, three enormous family homesbuilt into a cliff and hillside, dating back to the beginnings of Zheng Yuan which is situated in the banks of the river. One of thefamilies was the Yu family, descendants of Confucius. The poverty today was unknown back then, but now it is a bit upsetting for momand me to see. But we are grateful to have been shown it. I now have a personal understanding of what drove our ancestors to leave China. Neither mom nor I have experienced any emotional surge that many overseas Chinese report feeling when they visit China. There is too much difference between us and the people here now, and that is starkly revealed by the constant dissonance between our frames of reference and presumptions when we interact with them. But we wish them well, for a prosperous and strong China is, from the evidence of its history, is likely to be peaceful and non-expansionist. I gave a talk at the downtown branch of Guizhou Uni yesterday, and the senior faculty hosted us to dinner after that. They were very considerate hosts, but we were clearly foreigners to them. One ofthe professors even asked me, "Norman, do you like Chinese food?" Hmm, if I was cheeky I would have replied, "Yes, particularly thedog stew you cook so well!" But I said we actually eat Chinese foodat home 50% of the time.
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