China:
The most populous country in the world, and one of the most interesting, China has long been a popular tourist destination. Travelling around independently of a group, however, can still present some trials. Unless you speak a Chinese language you will be constantly flummoxed by that huge communication gap, as away from tourist facilities, few people actually speak English. If you go to China, try to learn a few Mandarin words, including the written forms. This will go a long way in helping you feel less like a creature from another planet. The Chinese can be frustratingly obtuse, and often have no conception of customer service. At the same time, you will probably encounter some of the warmest, nicest people in the world in China.
China seems to be economically and industrially advanced in many ways, but in other ways it's primitive. For example, the pollution in the cities is incredible. Then there's the human rights issue. The government still executes people for crimes such as robbery, and political activists are persecuted or jailed. In fact, China is still a communist country, in spite of its ostensible embrace of many elements of the market system. Most Chinese are still farmers, and the millionaires who have benefited from more liberal economic policies are the exception. In the west of China, there are active separatist movements, and of course Tibet is a major sore point.
Industrialization has brought a lot of environmental degradation. About 80 per cent of China's rivers are so polluted, they are devoid of fish. And the government is still plowing ahead with megaprojects to dam more of the rivers (with help from Western donataions...) These dam projects are spurred by worries about China's impending disastrous water shortage. Still, there is some good news among all this bleakness. The Chinese government plans to create more than 200 new nature reserves from 2000-2005. As of December, 1999, there were 776 parks sheltering 85 per cent of China's animal species and 65 per cent of its plant species. As well, in July 2000, officials announced that the giant panda population had increased in the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan province.
Tourist hot spots include the city of Xian, where in 1974 7,000 terra cotta warriors were found buried in the ground. Tourists also visit Xian to see the Ming Dynasty wall, mosques and temples, a 6,000-year-old stone age village, and a museum of Chinese history.
This page last updated August 4, 2000.
Books: Cathay: a Journey in Search of Old China, by Fergus Bordewich; Red China Blues, by Jan Wong.