CHINA – Truly Great Leap

“You godam’, murderous S.O.B.”, was in my mind when I first stood on Tiananmen Square in Beijin and looked dejectedly at the line-up waiting to enter the mausoleum of Mao Zedong.

And make no mistake, this was before the Tiananmen Square massacre and I could not help thinking of Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” and its estimated 20 million victims. Soon, I figured that that estimate could have been even higher as I talked to those who lived through it.

I was in China several times – first even before China opened up its “enterprise China”.  All was drab and uniform at that time and I got almost chopped apart in the rivers of bike traffic flowing quietly in both directions on main streets. China was a crowded country then and I could not imagine how this all would work out now as they were all just dreaming of having a car.  It has been getting crowded by automobiles ever since then.
Also, color was brought to the street as people immediately dressed up when they were allowed to.
The whole Chinese world immediately lit up in impeccably clean shiny colors

I was always living on a university campus, lecturing and getting our joint research ventures started. So I got to talk to people – who all wanted to practice their English. And I learned quite a bit from our discussions. I also learned quite a tasteful bit about Chinese food, especially when in the Province of Sichuan.

There I was a host of the University President which led to an interesting experience. We had a formal meeting together, attended by all the university dignitaries – quite a staged and stiff event.  We were seated next to each other like some statesmen and quite formally went through the agenda. What a surprise later on when we met informally – he was very warm and cordial person who even spoke English rather well.

Always, no matter where I was, I had a personal translator, who was often a guide and a “minder”. He facilitated not only live translation of my lectures but he also accompanied me on most interesting touristic trips as well as local exploratory outings.

My constant companion Sichuanese translator in Chengdu showed me then all kinds of things other foreigners probably have no idea about. An Engineering PhD student, he also divulged his desire to come to Canada. But he would have to know computers, I insisted. An impossible condition since computers were not accessible to students there at all.  OK, he cheerfully agreed. Gradually, we developed a collaborative project with his university and that could make it possible for him to join us in Montreal. In less than 2 years, he not only mastered “computers” in China – he became an expert, teaching all of us. No doubt, there are brilliant people everywhere in the world. Their concentration around that University President – carrying out quite active research in Chemical Engineering at the same time – was somewhat higher as he could select the top talents for his group.

On several occasions, I insisted on trips on my own – realizing that it was not easy at all in a country where one cannot even read the street name. An experience of the Beijing railway station confirmed that. It was totally crowded, I did not understand a single sign, public announcements seemed to have directed the streaming of people in all directions and I did not have a clue just how it happened that I arrived in Tianjin where I was supposed to go.

Similar experience I lived through when I was visiting the terracotta warriors then recently discovered buried outside of Xian. On a big square, buses were departing left and right to different destinations. Some good-soul drivers pointed me to the right one and I did get to see this uniquely  non-sensical archaeological site. Burrying a whole terracotta army ! Apparently, the emperor at the time could not come up with a more sensical idea –

And I even caught the right bus back.

China is truly huge and awfully crowded. I will not even mention its Great Wall, everybody knows it. When I was visiting there, China barely started to open up and develop and I am sure that I would not even recognize it nowadays.  

 

Guilin is renown for its unique karst topography with steep hills sticking up like stretched fingers everywhere. And water is all around. We took a trip down the river Li to see more. Of course that my pleasant minder was also with me there. Another trip we made to mountains in Western Sichuan, they reach 6,000 meters - we did not.  

Sichuan is renown for its flavorful and hot dishes. I have fond memories of fantastic and not necessarily peppery-hot meals, coming out of dark cave-like eateries surrounding the university campus where I was. We liked testing all of it with my highly cooperative guide.
Thank you, Jinbai, I trust that you are doing well now and I am really proud of your accomplishments.
 

The students, milling around at the chow-time on the campus, were stuffing themselves quickly from their rice bowls held high at the mouth level. And then some time for ping-pong, everywhere on campus on improvised tables. They beat me any time they wanted - but they were also polite -



Underground beverage fermentation pits are family treasures that take decades for developing the right microbial flora to produce very special alcoholic drinks. Their production is still a mystery to me, despite my advanced fermentation background.
Not a drinker, I hesitatingly tried some at Sichuanese markets. Well, different !  Those markets were a special treat - I barely recognized half of the stuff being sold there.