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China

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China it is!

I must confess that I have never been to Japan, but have recently returned from an amazing trip to China. During the 12 days that I was there (on a regulated tour) I was awed by the natural beauty of the mountains and countryside, charmed by many of the young people that worked in their tourist and service industries, amazed by the rapidly growing cities with their huge office and apartment buildings and irritated by the need to bargain for everything and still coming away feeling that I had paid too much for things that were not necessarily of the best quality.

China is in a race to catch up with the 21st Century and closing in on the finish line. This finish line must be reached before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. If I were a betting person, my money would be on China to reach that finish line well before 8/8/08, the date of the opening ceremonies. (8 is a very lucky number for the Chinese so the opening date was set for what is seen as the luckiest date of this century.)

China's population is diverse. While we were in the cities the young people could have been mistaken for any of my children's friends. (I live in Hawaii where there is a large Asian population.) They dressed and acted like any young person of Chinese-American ancestry. The only difference seemed to be the language, although many understood and spoke English, as well as several European languages.

The population in the countryside seemed to be much poorer and more like what I have read about in various books on China. The homes tended to be old and many in disrepair. While the 'allowed' number of children (one in the city and two on the farms) receive a free education, it appeared to this visitor that the city students advanced higher than the rural ones. I may be dead wrong in this perception but it is the perception that I came away with.

China has an exciting history, which is beautifully displayed in the various museums and tourist sites that I visited. Places like the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, and the many pagodas have been or are in the process of being restored and refurbished. The parks are beautiful and well used. Walking on Tienanmen Square was a highlight for me and I tried to visualize just where the students stood fast against the tanks. I was walking in the footsteps of history with each step I took on the Great Wall, where I visualized the workers as they cut and placed each stone block. What could the hills

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