An Adventure to Regain My Sense of Humor

East Coast,USA

Virginia Civil War bike tour in October

Back on the East Coast, my uncle, Louis Oberdorfer, his daughter Kathryn and her husband Joel and I set off for a week’s tour of Civil War sites in Virginia accompanied by 4 fancy bikes, a bike guide named Mike and his sagwagon helper, a history teacher named Bob

We had fresh air, exercise, learned a lot of history, and ate lovely meals. We stayed in some of the most wonderful bed and breakfast inns. The first night was at the Littlepage Inn, once a plantation with 200 slaves.

We enjoyed gourmet meals and the wonderful antiques which were actually made on the property.

This is us at one of the information boards at Chancellorsville

We also visited John Marshall’s home. He was the first supreme court justice of America.

Marshall House

This is the fabulous Civil War Museum which makes the war come horribly alive.

In Richmond, we stayed along the wide boulevard with a grand monument at each crossing. This is Jefferson Davis, the president of the south.

We found this enormous stick figure at the edge of town

Finally we stayed in Charlottesville where Thomas Jefferson built his home, Monticello and the University of Virginia. We stayed at a lovely combination B&B and vineyard called High Meadows.

I had the most outrageous bedroom with a round bed!

One of the things which struck me the most about touring these sites is that there are no blacks around. This was the center of slavery and seeing how different people lived is very sobering. The Civil War was a particularly brutal one – lasting years and killing over 600,000 men. 2/3 died from disease. It all seems so senseless now. The sites have been beautiful kept and are well marked with informative boards or information centers.

West Coast, USA

California in September

I first flew to San Francisco where my friend Mike O’Reilly met me. Mike lives in San Jose and is retired from Hewlett Packard. After retiring, he had the same idea that I did – get on a plane and travel. We met earlier in the year in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He was incredibly kind and took me on a fantastic tour of the best of California. We started by driving down Highway 1 along the Pacific Coast.

We stopped at the home of the artichoke and sampled their speciality – fried artichokes – yummmm… then continued onto Monterrey and 17 mile drive which we biked to Carmel. Monterrey.jpg This is the Carmel Spanish mission.

Hearst Castle

In the afternoon of the 2nd day, we arrived at San Simeon where Randolph Hearst built his castle at the summit of the family ranch. Hearst Castle is simply “OTT” – OVER-THE-TOP! It has the most exquisite wood paneling, antiques from Europe, artifacts etc. but it is all in pristine condition and somehow too perfect.

One of 3 swimming pools

Yosemite National Park

The next day, we went to Yosemite National Park which has some of the most magnificent mountains formed by glaciers.

The famous Dome

I then had a few days in San Francisco with my friend from college, Ben Miller and his wife, Linda who was heavily pregnant. The baby arrived a few weeks later. On that trip, I also went to Santa Monica to visit my cousin Adrienne Rich and her friend, Michelle Cliff.

From San Francisco, I flew to LA and visited another college friend, Jeff Auerbach and his wife Nancy, both college professors and their adorable daughter, Dahlia. We spent a fun 24 hours in Las Vegas. It was a hoot!

Back in LA, I Rodeo Drive with my cousin Elizabeth Loeb. I was so impressed with the downtown kids library, I had to take this photo. Instead of a quiet mausoleum type place, the teenage section is a hiphop place for kids to hang out and listen to loud rock music while study.

Washington State

After LA, I flew upto Seattle, Washington. I visited the most charming town on the Puget Sound called Port Townsend.

It is the town where An Officer and a Gentleman was filmed. This is an exquisite Bed & Breakfast called The Ann Skerrit House.

This is the local barbershop

This is the “Nifty Fifties” dinner on Main St.

Normandy

Normandy in August

In August, my friend David and I decided to have a quick break over the Bank Holiday. We waited so late to book, there were no flights available at any reasonable cost to anywhere we wanted to go, so we took the car on the overnight ferry from Southampton to Le Havre. This is a great way to travel. It leaves around 11pm and arrives around 6am. You can book a cabin and get a fairly good nights sleep. However on arrival, we had to wait for the sleepy French to open their cafes in the charming town of Honfleur. It seemed all the early morning patrons were English fresh off the boat. We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast of fresh croissants and caf

Hamburg/Hanover

Hamburg August 14-18

I happened to see an offer for cheap flights to Hamburg and decided to visit some friends. This is the famous Alster waterway.

The town hall.

My friend Ruth is currently appearing in Phantom of the Opera in Hamburg. It was very exciting to go backstage and see all the costumes and makeup and to stand on the enormous stage.

I had always wanted to see a World Expo. The Hanover Expo 2000 was only a few hours drive away. It was a fun day out.

This was the Finnish contribution – one of the best pavillions. It featured the innovative product designs from Finland as well as children’s drawings animated with Nokia phones disguised as different birds

The Dutch pavillion was also very interesting.

Flight on the London Eye

August 11, 2000, 10pm

I had the most wonderful experience tonight. I had a “flight” on the London Eye, the largest ferris wheel in the world. It towers over the South Bank and it is said that on a clear day, you can see Heathrow airport.

The ride is called a “flight” because it is sponsored by British Airways. Tickets are like gold dust. Once you “board”, there is an announcment telling you there is a sick station which was rather amusing. The wheel rotates continously and slowly. The full rotation is about 1/2 hour. While the idea seems simple, it is pure magic.

It’s very difficult to get a clear picture without a tripod. I couldn’t hold the camera still enough. The South Bank and St. Paul’s

The Thames and Parliament

One of the capsules in the moonlight.

Charing Cross Station, The Post Office Tower and north London

My good friend Jo from Covent Garden, the talented watercolour painter who handpaints all my Christmas cards, accompanied me on the “flight”.

Vienna

July 23-August 6, 2000

I am in Vienna for 2 weeks. As I lived here for 2

France in July

Paris, July 4-7, 2000

In case anyone is wondering where I disappeared to, I’m in the center of France in the Auvergne. I went to visit a friend in Paris for 3 days and got stranded at Charles de Gaulle airport by bad weather. It must have been fate because I had seen a brochure in a music store for a 2 week choral course starting the day after I was supposed to depart. The airline couldn’t get me out that day, so it seemed to make sense to just hop on a train for Claremont-Ferrand and join the course. I had no idea where Claremont-Ferrand is, but 3.5 hours train ride later, I arrived with 4 days worth of clothing and some shopping from Paris which consisted mainly of lovely French mustard, olive oil and walnut infused vinegar – all very nice but not quite what one usually packs for a 2 week singing course!

I think Paris must be the most elegant city in the world. My friend Janet invited me to stay in her stunning apartment (with high ceilings, mouldings, wood paneling etc. that took 8 months to remodel) near the exclusive shopping street of Rue de Faubourg St. Honore and easy walking distance to Place de la Concorde. In the early morning, the light over the Seine and Tour Eiffel and Musee D’Orsay was breathtakingly beautiful. The buildings are grandiose but perfectly proportioned and the Parisians have such style. I even found them friendly – perhaps it’s because I recently returned from China! The metro is convenient and easy to use although a bit too crowded. I walked through all my favorite neighborhoods like Le Marais, St. Germain des Pres and around the Louvre and Tuilleries. I popped into Fauchon the exclusive delicatessen and Maille, the specialty mustard and vinegar shop where a photographer was shooting photos for an article on boutique shops for Elle Decoration. Tr

Back to London via Hong Kong and Singapore

Traveling tips:

When in China, have someone with you who speaks Chinese. Or have detailed instructions written in Chinese. One night, the hotel wrote the name and address of a Peking Opera house. The taxi driver looked at the piece of paper and scratched his head. Nevertheless we set off and 40 minutes later, I realized that he was crawling along completely lost and we had passed the same corner 3 times. Needless to say, I did not get to the opera that night. There are 2 kinds of drivers in China – those who drive like maniacs dodging and darting through the traffic and those who are timid, have not learned how to use their gears, drive at 25 kph in 5th gear and jump and at every bicycle. I did get to the opera the next night as I knew exactly where to go!

Also take your own toilet paper EVERYWHERE, hold your nose and get over being shy!

Stay in cheap hotels at the beginning when you are still starry-eyed about the adventure of it all. Upgrade to nice hotels as you start feeling a bit homesick for home comforts.

Don’t eat by yourself in a Chinese restaurant! Chinese food is made for sharing. Even if you are alone, they bring you portions large enough for 4 people. When I ordered dumplings, I received a plate with 20 of them!

And that with an enormous noodle soup and vegetable was still only $3!

Stick to local food in China. Their version of Western food never quite tastes right.

Take time out between intense sightseeing periods to digest what you’ve seen and to get psyched up for the next adventure

June 12, Hong Kong

As I was checking in for my flight from Beijing to Hong Kong, I bumped into my new cousin. Chris married Vicki Weil last year and is a China expert. He was also flying to Hong Kong so we met for an elegant breakfast at the timeless Oriental Hotel. Service was impeccable, the food was delicious and Chris who is a wonderful storyteller recounted stories of his many years living in Asia. What a treat!

The Hong Kong skyline is such a breathtaking sight. While I know hundreds of thousands of expatriates have left and the economy is supposedly suffering since the return of Hong Kong to the Chinese, I could not tell the difference. People seemed to be shopping like mad and the streets were full. The Star Ferry has not changed at all. I still remember the gangways from when I was 5 years old and I visited Hong Kong with Mom and my nanny, Ivy

June 13, Singapore

However, 24 hours in Hong Kong was enough after all my traveling and 24 hours in Singapore was more than enough. Singapore sits almost on the equator. It’s the southernmost place I’ve visited this year and is hot and sticky. I have never seen so many shopping malls in one place in my life. It’s like a copy of the United States gone out of control. And it’s not even cheap. Singapore Airlines is putting on huge promotions to get people to spend time in Singapore instead of just flying through. Shop til you drop! And what did I buy? Nothing

In an attempt to see the more interesting sights of Singapore, I went to the Muslim quarter and Chinatown. The nice thing about Singapore is that there are at least 5 different races and 8 different religions peacefully coexisting.

I also went to the Singapore equivalent of Disneyland where I met a pink dolphin

and a saw an exotic Sea Dragon.

Having been rather anxious to get back home for the past week or so, when I got to the gate, my feet starting dragging. When I started the trip, I had a fat pile of tickets about 1 inch high and a seemingly endless journey in front of me. The Star Alliance round-the-world ticket was going to whisk me to 25 different destinations not to mention all the internal flights in China. I was now down to the last ticket and it seemed so mean. I just wanted to keep going.

The best thing about Singapore is its airline. The cabin staff address you by your name and the seats are so comfortable, I actually got a good night’s sleep on the flight back to London. At 5:30 am when I arrived in London, I was well rested and bouncing around dying to tell friends I was home.

As I had been warned by my travel magazine, it’s a real let-down coming home. I was looking forward to some familiarity after constantly tackling one new place after the next, but it’s a shock when you realize that home hasn’t changed and no matter how many wonderful things you’ve seen and done, home is still the same.

When in Beijing, we met a number of photographers, 4 of whom will feature in Julia and Ludovic’s June show. Cang Xin, who photographs his tongue touching various objects from the Great Wall to coins, wood, silk etc. arrived in London a day earlier than expected. Julia and Ludo didn’t have any space for him, so he came to spend 1 night in my flat. His English is limited to a handful of words and my Chinese is non-existent. I was in a panic about what to feed him but after going through the cupboard and fridge, he created a fine Chinese noodle soup from some Linguine (he refused the Italian tomato sauce) and soy sauce! In the morning, we had a few hours before he was to be picked up. Conversation was impossible and it seemed silly to sit there and stare at each other so at 7am we went for a walk around Hyde Park. He was delighted to find some plaques on the ground and immediately lay face down with his arms outstretched and had me photograph him with his tongue sticking out touching the plaque. Honestly – what people do in the name of art!

Meet Mariam and Jono: London-Beijing antique car rally

See the full report from Mariam & Jono on the “Guest Section”

Mariam and her father will arrive in Beijing on June 8 after driving from London starting May 1

www.carnet.co.uk/rallyoffice

June 5-8 Waiting for the Rally

After Julia and Ludovic left, I had a few days in Beijing to wait for Mariam and her family to arrive with the car rally. I took a tour of the hutongs by rickshaw, met with Sunny who had been my tour guide, visited the Ming tombs and went to the Peking Opera.

My rickshaw driver was the receptionist’s “grandpa”! When I asked if the reception could arrange a tour for me, he whispered that he would guide me and his grandpa would drive. So the next morning they arrived with a fancy bicycle rickshaw with red velvet cover and tassles. They took me around all the alleys and we ended up in his home only a stone’s throw from the bell and drum towers (which used to tell people the time) where his grandmother invited me for lunch of rice and vegetables

They each have a room a few metres square with a bed, table and chair and a very few possessions. These are the Hutong Roofs as seen from the Drum Tower.

The Rally Arrives! June 8, 2000

I found out from the rally website that the cars would all be arriving at the Great Wall on Thursday June 8th at noon and that a bus was meeting the British Airways flight with other relatives and friends and driving directly there. I was determined to be there to meet them but Sunny warned me that if I couldn’t hook up with the official bus, they might close the roads and not let me in. So in the morning, I got a taxi to the airport to try and find the group. My taxi driver was a chatty man and I tried to explain that I was meeting friends so I want to be dropped off at arrivals not departures. He nodded knowingly and said “I love you”! Oh dear. Wrong message. But in the end I figured out that he was trying to ask if I was meeting my husband at the airport. The flight actually landed early and the incredibly efficient new Beijing airport retrieved their bags in no time, so they had left by the time I got there. I negotiated with a taxi to drive me the 50km or so to the Great Wall at Badaling.

When we arrived, the rally advance crew was just driving in.

I found Jono, Mariam’s husband who had driven from Tower Bridge to Kashkent with Mariam’s father, Aziz and had flown out from Dubai to meet everyone. Soon enough the cars started pouring in.

Mariam took over from Jono in Kashkent and drove the rest of the way to Beijing with Aziz and David, the mechanic.

Everyone, including the policemen wanted their photo taken with the heros!

We had just enough time to climb up the Great Wall.

And then we set off for Beijing in police-escorted convoy with me riding in the back of the Rover!

More China with Contemporary Chinese Art Gallery

May 24-25, Beijing, China

I arrived back in Beijing on May 24th. This time instead of traveling with a tour group, I would either be on my own or with my friends Julia and Ludovic. They had booked a room for me at LuSong Yuan Hotel which is a charming hotel in the old hutong area with narrow alleys and courtyard houses formerly belonging to Ming dynasty courtiers. My room had traditional Ming furnishings – the chairs look lovely but are rather uncomfortable. A lovely alternative to the 500 room tour hotels which dominate the city. I ventured out for dinner and chose a restaurant which was full of locals. No one spoke English and there was only a Chinese menu. Using a phrase book and sign language, I ordered a mystery meal which turned out to be absolutely delicious and which only cost $3.

In the morning, Julia and Ludovic arrived. They are friends from London who have an art gallery specializing in contemporary art from mainland China. It was fabulous to see familiar faces after traveling alone for so long. They have a wonderful gallery next to the Anthony d’Offay Gallery where they show a mix of the most famous Chinese artists as well as some of the up and coming young ones. Thanks to their efforts, a number of artists have gained an international reputation as well as becoming quite wealthy by Chinese standards. They are passionate about the art they sell and dedicated to their artists. More often than not when you visit their home or gallery, you find they are hosting an artist in their home who they have sponsored for visas and for whom they are cooking special food which will agree with stomachs used to eating only Asian food.

Our first artist visit was to see 2 photographers who will share the next exhibition opening in June. One generally takes photos of various objects (from old coins to the Great Wall) touching the tip of his tongue. The other takes photos of traditional landscapes painted on body parts or bones.

In the evening, we had dinner with their Beijing representative, Sabine and Liu Ye. Liu Ye is one of their most popular and famous artists. He has an angelic round face and an impish sense of humour. His paintings are bright and colorful, often with a darker image such as a plane falling out of the sky in the background. Sometimes he paints wings on little soldiers or businessmen marching across the canvas. And sometimes he pays homage to his favorite artists Mondrian or Vermeer by putting a mini painting somewhere in his painting.

May 25-29, Shanghai

We visited the abstract artist Qin LiFeng in his apartment and met his wife and teenage daughter as well. He is an antique furniture collector and proudly showed off his latest acquisitions. At dinner I was impressed by their daughter who seemed so different from 15 year olds in the West- confident, mature, but socially innocent. It was a real treat to meet such a lovely family.

On Qin LiFeng’s recommendation we visited the “antique market” spread over 4 stories near the famous YuYuan Garden. It was a wonderful mixture of junk, real and fake antiques of all sorts. There were Mao watches, old communist posters, ceramics, fabrics etc

In the evening, I was delighted to meet Shen Fan. I fell in love with and purchased a Shen Fan painting about 2 years ago when I first met Julia and Ludovic. He is an intense, intellectual man who paints variations on an abstract style of seemingly random lines on rice paper.

He used to paint in colors but found that the purity of monotone black, red or white works better for him. Through his latest work you can see how he thinks about ways to develop his work. He has taken his very individual style and applied it in different medium – this time using paint enclosed in Perspex which when lit properly throws a series of shadows on the wall. He also has a completely different work which is a tongue-in-cheek photo installation. He took photos of the sky in 8 different European cities as well as Shanghai. Each photo is blue and has a date in the bottom corner. When you hear what it is, you just have to laugh.

The next day, we wandered around the new area called Pudong checking out some of the galleries in Shanghai. This has the newest skyscrapers. The Hyatt Hotel is the tallest in Asia with its reception halfway up on the 54th floor.

Pudong skyline.

Julia and Ludovic were eager to meet some of the new young artists and 7 of them were waiting to meet us in an apartment. The guys sported trendy long hair while the girls were shy and modest. Most were photographers and some also had videos. The biggest impression was made by a twisted guy who made a video of himself with a dead cat that he smashed to bloody bits in a 1 hour long video. We declined to watch the whole thing. The irony was a little kitten sleeping peacefully on my lap while we watched. Poor little mite. They seem to be trying hard to copy some of the Western avant-garde artists and shock the viewer. There was also a video of an EKG reading of a man masturbating. The graph was then overlaid on a staff of music and the soundtrack was based on this meandering line.

Another of their best selling artists is Xue Song. He uses mixed media to create art with a message. Sometimes it’s a silhouette of Mao’s head made of cuttings from communist youth pictures with burnt and torn edges or Coca Cola bottle silhouettes representing capitalism and consumerism. His work is still too controversial for the Shanghai Art Museum which has recently put together a collection of 20th century Chinese art including just about all of the artists Julia and Ludovic show.

Tuesday, May 30, Suzhou

We split up for the next 3 days. Julia and Ludovic went to visit the famous artist Guo Jin in Chongqing while I made a side trip by train to visit the classical gardens of Suzhou.

There is very little time or space for beauty in the daily life of China now. However, these gardens are under the protection and sponsorship of UNESCO. They were created at a time when poets and intellectuals needed a place to meet, think and create. They work wonders with space, creating the illusion of endless views. They use walls, rockeries, water lily pools and pavilions to do this.

And they have wonderful names like Humble Administrator’s Garden or Master of the Nets Garden.

Unfortunately the one day I had allocated to visit all these gardens it poured rain all day. It was the kind of day when you feel like curling up with a good book and not going outside at all. But when you’re in town for only 1 day, you have to get out there. So I trudged around soaking wet and told myself that I was lucky it wasn’t 90 degrees and boiling hot.

Wed-Thurs, May 31-June 1, Hangzhou

The next morning, I traveled to Hangzhou which is known for its large lake in the middle of town peppered with islands and temples and hills in the background.

It’s a peaceful place to stroll around and enjoy the views. There are mostly Chinese tourists here although I did meet an American couple whose son, a derivatives trader, had left Credit Suisse in London to go fishing in Florida at the age of 35. Atta boy!

There’s a park in Hangzhou where there is a “heartlock”. You’re supposed to go there with a loved one and write a wish on a little piece of paper which you place inside a lock. Years later, you can go back and open the lock to see if your wish came true.

Traveling in China without speaking Chinese is very difficult. Hangzhou and Suzhou are easy train rides from Shanghai. At the train station, you are herded into rows to wait for your train. Somehow I got into the wrong row so when everyone in the next row started to file out to get on the train I wanted, I climbed over the seats to join them. At that point, all hell broke loose. An official by the gate started yelling at me and waving her arms madly. Everyone was staring and I just wanted to sink through the floor. After about 5 minutes of ranting and raving and a complete lack of comprehension from both sides, I figured out that if I handed over 20 Yuan, she would let me through. For the next hour I sat on the train and steamed over my treatment and wondered what terrible deed I had committed. I presume I was fined for stepping over the seats but I’ll never know for sure!

June1-11, Back in Beijing

I flew back to Beijing from Hangzhou and checked into the LuSong Yuan hotel again. It was like coming back to an old friend. The staff smiled at me (which is very rare in China) and told me that Julia and Ludovic were also back. This was my 4-poster bed in room 502.

And this is the courtyard.

We were joined by Celia, a trendy Spanish woman who is the curator for an avant-garde museum in Sweden. She was particularly interested in the performance artist Ma LiuMing. The next evening, we went to visit Ma LiuMing at his studio. At his recent performances, he has been sitting naked in front of a camera and inviting the audience to have their photos taken with him. In different countries, he gets different reactions. The Swiss stripped off to join him. There is a photo from the London performance at Chinese Contemporary Art Gallery of a naked Ma LiuMing, Howard and me with my motorcycle helmet on which has apparently been used as part of the catalogue for the Korean biennale. Ah, fame!

There is a graffiti artist in Beijing named Zhang Dali. He used to spray his signature silhouette indiscriminately around Beijing walls calling the work “Dialogue” which represented his anger at the old culture being torn down and faceless concrete blocks replacing it. This is me, Julia, Sabine, their agent and Celia the curator with one of Zhang Dali’s heads.

One of the first things I saw when I arrived in Beijing in March was one of Zhang Dali’s heads outside my hotel. It seems he has now come to an understanding with the authorities and restricts his art to walls or buildings which will be demolished anyway. Although he continues to get regular visits from the thought police, they allow him a certain amount of freedom. From photos I had seen, he appeared a tough hooligan type but he turned out to be the most gentle, conservative, clean cut man you’ve ever met! He lives in a courtyard house in the hutongs with his Italian wife and 2 gorgeous little daughters. He has featured on the front of Newsweek and his photos sell for thousands of dollars.

There is a farming village about 40 minutes outside of Beijing where a number of the more established artists have set up residence. With their international financial successes, they have built themselves enormous studios and indulged in fancy Range Rovers and VWs – a most incongruous sight in a country where most people don’t know how to drive – the majority of cars are taxis or government cars. Here we met Yue MinJun, whose work I had first encountered at an exhibition in Vienna many years ago, Fang LiJun who is the best known of all contemporary Chinese artists and a 3rd artist who was formerly a policeman whose work is dark and who says he wants you to feel pain when you look at it. I was amused to see that each of them has a girlfriend and dog to match their personalities. Yue MinJun paints raucously laughing faces with rows of sparkling white teeth.

He has a very nice, intelligent girlfriend and a rather cuddly furry dog which he actually pets (unusual treatment in China!). His 5 statue sets sell for $35,000!

Fang LiJun is a charming flirt and is apparently just coming out of a period of licking his wounds after a failed marriage with a European woman. He has a big German Shepherd type dog who was reasonably friendly while the last artist had snarling mean dogs and a dolly-bird girlfriend who was studying herself intently in the mirror when we arrived. When I looked around his homes, I only saw a few possessions – mainly a computer, TV and fancy stereo equipment. What does dolly-bird do all day?

Coming back from the town there were no taxis so we hopped on the local transport to get to the buses on the main road.

Another artist who will feature in the gallery this year is Ji DaChun. He has chubby cheeks and a bubbly personality. His paintings are actually pencil on canvas with tea stains. He takes his inspiration from such varied sources as bible stories and Chinese history.

The most unusual thing about all these avant-garde artists is that they seem so mainstream. Most smoked and had either very long hair or shaved heads but were not wild or drug addicts. None of them were gay. They were obviously the intelligensia of today’s China. They were polite, well groomed and very thoughtful about their work. This is quite a contrast to English avant-garde artists who create installations from rubbish (this year’s Turner Prize finalists) and dirty bedsheets (Tracy Emin, last year’s Turner Prize finalist) or childish imbeciles like Jake and Dinos Chapman.

Perhaps the artists were rebels in the sense that they were not like the people you encountered on the street. After a total of almost 6 weeks in China, I do not grow used to some of the customs but instead become more annoyed with them. You are constantly accosted by sounds of bodily functions – slurping food, snorting, spitting, grunting. It always makes me jump because I’m not sure if the spit is going to land on ME. So many Chinese in China have had all courtesy and manners beaten out of them by the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. Politeness was considered elitist and therefore anti-communist. The men strut around with their shirts tucked under their armpits exposing their bellies and trousers bunched around their knees. They snort and spit everywhere – usually outdoors but I even saw a man spit on the beautiful carpet of the 5 star Kunlun Hotel. Few people smile at you and service is practically non-existent. Even staff at the most expensive hotels are generally indifferent. The magnificent ancient culture has been beaten into communist bureaucratic rudeness.

I now truly understand and appreciate the concept of the American melting pot. In Asian countries, everyone looks at you and judges what race you are from. There are many minorities in each of the countries but they are pigeonholed by their features. For instance you are only considered truly Chinese if you are of the Han Chinese race. In America, you are “American” if you are a citizen. You may be a minority and a different color or religion but you are first and foremost an American.