Urban Design Study Abroad in China

Trip to China travel journal

We had class for a couple of days before the class. I felt like there was a lot of information to absorb and all the names of places seemed to blend together, I was starting to worry about being able to take in everything Dr. Shen was saying. Also I was worried about having to eat Chinese food for the better part of two weeks since I don’t even like Chinese food. So I was starting to get nervous and wonder if I made a mistake obligating myself to a trip half way around the world. I resolved myself to making the best of my decision, I was going to suck it up and make the most of the trip. I thought it would be best to forget about being nervous and remember that for someone from Shawnee, Oklahoma something like a trip to China was like something out of a dream and the trip would be a wonderful adventure that I would remember the rest of my life and not to be scared.

My friend and neighbor, Jill took me to the airport. She kept trying to give me money the whole way to the airport because she had some special requests for me. While I was in China I was supposed to do some shopping for her. She wanted some fake designer purses. Like everyone, she had heard about all the fake purses, watches and designer goods available in China. Specifically Jill wanted a fake pink Prada, Coach or another designer brand and if possible a black purse too. She told me at the last minute just to get her anything I thought she might like, so my friend Jill had just given me a license to shop, which I really didn’t need.

When I got to the airport I ran into a girl, Destiny whom I recognized from class. We chatted some and ended up talking a lot during the first leg of the journey which ended up being longer than anticipated because we had a layover in San Francisco. It wasn’t too bad though. I ate, took pictures and tried to read for a little while. I had taken a book with me for just such and occasion. Unfortunately I ended up hating the book and found myself struggling to keep my train of thought. Later Dr. Shen saw me reading the book and asked me about it because it is touted by many planners and teachers of planning. I told him I thought it was too wordy and idealistic for me. I was relieved to find out that he doesn’t look at the book as a pattern for planning.

We finally boarded the plane from San Francisco to China at about 8:30 p.m. Since we had been delayed I was so glad to be on my way to China I wasn’t even nervous about the flight. I just wanted to get there and start my adventure. I actually had to remind myself to relax since we were going to be in the air around twelve hours. I convinced myself that twelve hours on a plane wasn’t really that long and settled in. I tried to sleep but didn’t have much luck. I tried to read but kept getting distracted. The flight attendants served the first meal of two that we ate on the flight, and to my surprise, it was great. I got the beef and it was really tender. I decided my concern about the food was probably irrational and was more optimistic that the food could possible end up being one of the highlights of the trip.

We finally landed in Beijing. I was tired before we landed but once we were really on the ground, I was so excited to actually be in China that I didn’t know if I’d be able to sleep when we got to the hotel. With the help of Bill, our national guide for the trip I had a roommate and room at the Beijing Huadu Hotel. Our room was really nice and clean. I got to the room and passed out.

Destiny and I decided that she would shower at night and I should shower in the morning for the entire trip so there would be no conflict over the bathroom and headed downstairs for breakfast. At the Huadu we always had a buffet breakfast with a big selection of Chinese dumplings and such, and American breakfast food like scrambled eggs. I always enjoyed the breakfast there. They had lots of different breads to pick from and bacon that was thick with a lot of meat, almost like thinly sliced ham.

After breakfast we changed some money, which ended up being one of our preoccupations in China. The rate was around eight to one. After everybody gathered around we got on the bus for our first day of sightseeing in Beijing. As we drove to the Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City and The Summer Palace, I looked out the window. Everywhere I looked there was something or someone. It was incredible. Being from Oklahoma where everything is spread out and the population is somewhat sparse I was overwhelmed. Everywhere I looked there were elements of the past, pagodas, ornate bridges and lots of fences and light fixtures that incorporated design elements from the past and nature. It was like a visual flood.

The whole time I was trying to look everywhere at once, we were all being introduce to Angela, our local guide for Beijing. She was fantastic. She was very beautiful and smart. Angela told us not to drink the water, talked about the exchange rate in China and then gave us a preliminary over view of Beijing. She told us Beijing has 14,000,000 people. It is about 16,000 square meters and made of five rings. The second ring was built around The Forbidden City where the walls were. The walls had been put up for protection later they were torn down by the government in the 1980’s. While we were in China there was a sixth ring under construction. I tried to listen, look and when possible, take notes because I knew I would never remember everything Angela was saying. I was really impressed with her knowledge of Beijing and history in general. She knew so much more about her surroundings and its history.

Angela gave us a Chinese lesson. I took notes and concentrated on the sounds. In the morning when I saw her I was supposed to say “nee how.” If someone asked me how I was or how I liked something I was supposed to say “ding ding how”, meaning excellent. A popular expression in China sounds like chill a ma, Angela said literally it means, “Have you eaten yet?” but Chinese people use the expression as a greeting, just like, “How are you?” How you doin’?” She thought that the expression was used in that sense because China had been a very poor country in the past and many of its people had gone without food, so if one had food or had eaten gradually became synonymous with one’s state of being. Mai dong shi means going shopping, I thought I would probably need to know that! I got a little confused when she told us that in China the last name comes first, so now I don’t know if Jet Li is Jet Li or Li Jet.

All the way to The Forbidden City Angela talked. The whole time she was giving us information about archways and gates, mainly I remember the south is the gate/direction for ceremonies. The archway/gate is looked at as representative of the person; it’s like the person’s face. It’s important to have a nice archway. Dr. Shen pointed out some nice archways, one was at a university. He said the archway signified an important and prestigious place. Angela explained that he was right and that the gates at the also have to be symmetrical, if there’s one big gate or entrance with gates beside it there must be equal amounts on each side. There must be three, five, or seven gates total so there is balance. She tried to explain the significance of colors and numbers and how Feng Shui fits in to the lay out of the built environment. She said the Chinese like red and gold they are good colors and that all the elements-fire, earth, water, etc. are all represented by colors.

Angela explained how the cabs, buses and subways work so we could get around on our free day. She said cabs were abundant, 75,000 in Beijing. But most of the cab drivers don’t speak English so we needed our desired destination to be written down somewhere, like the back of a business card from the hotel. The best part was that the cabs were very affordable. There are buses to anywhere and everywhere in China, there are over 1,000 routes. The fees are different amounts for air conditioned buses and buses without air, two yuan with and one yuan without for the first ten stops. She said there are three subways in Beijing right now, one going north to south, one going east to west and then one looping the city. There were ten more subway lines already under construction to be completed by 2008 when were there.

Angela, Bill and Dr. Shen explained that there is so much construction going on because the 2008 Olympics to be held in Beijing. They showed us the Bird’s Nest under construction for the Olympics. I took a picture but I didn’t feel like it looked very good because there was too much smog. Dr. Shen said there is a lot of pollution in Beijing. The Chinese have been concentrating on industrialization and making money not conservation and using renewable resources.

Dr. Shen spoke to us about design competitions because we were all curious about the Bird’s Nest design and where it came from. Any time there is a project of any type in China a competition is held. People from all over the world enter the design competitions. After the initial entries are judged some are chosen to expand their design and paid a fee for the work. From the runners up a winner is selected. The competitions inspire people and firms to be involved in the design process. It sounded like a good way to get public participation in the future built environment.

The first stop was Tiananmen Square. It is the biggest square in the world. Bill told us that Tiananmen Square holds 1,000,000 Chinese but only 500,000 Americans because we’re big people. It was the first real day with Bill and I found out that he likes to joke all the time. He was funny, nice and made sure we were safe and always having fun the whole trip. There was a big huge picture of Chairman Mao and Bill said he was in the Red Guard when he was a young man.

Right before we entered the Forbidden City Destin and I asked Dr. Shen about the policy on the number of children a couple is allowed to have in China. We had always heard that a couple can only have one child in China. As sometimes happens, we were misinformed. Chinese citizens who are designated as urban dwellers, which he explained at that time there are only two designations, can have one child per couple but farmers the other designation can have two children.  A couple would not necessarily be forced to terminate the pregnancy but there is not the stigma about abortion in China that there is in the U.S. The government will demote someone who has more than the allowed number of children. From that story I decided that China and the Chinese people are very practical. It makes sense to try to control the growth of the population when there over a billion people there. Dr. Shen told Destiny and I what Reagan was told when he tried to discuss abortion with the leader of China - if Reagan didn’t mind he could send all the extra Chinese to the U.S. I thought that was a great reply and probably shut Reagan up.

We entered the south gate, which was the gate the emperor has used and walked through the Forbidden City. We were told it would take a couple of hours but it took us longer and we were late to lunch. Nobody cared though. We just kept looking around and taking pictures of everything and each other. I kept getting left behind because I was taking so many pictures. Once Daniel and I were the left behind because we were taking pictures and he said that someone was going to have to drag him away because he was so amazed and wanted pictures to remember everything.

Besides the architecture and great colors of all the buildings (they were red with gold roofs, except for the library, it had a green roof), there were some things that Angela talked about that were new to me. As we entered the south gate there were no plants anywhere, which was the opposite of how it usually is. She said there were no plants anywhere because trees and shrubs would have provided a place to hide for those wishing to attack the emperor. I had never thought about but it made perfect sense. And I thought again about how practical the Chinese people are. I loved all the big pots sitting around but I didn’t know what they were for. When I asked Dr. Shen told me they weren’t just for decoration but they were used to collect rain water. The water was used in the event of a fire. The pots were beautiful and practical. In every doorway there were thresholds. The thresholds were supposed to keep the water out. The higher the threshold the more important the building was. The way one passed over the threshold involved some superstition: Men were supposed to pass over left foot first and women were to pass over right foot first and the threshold represented the shoulders of a person’s ancestors so it was never ok to stand on the top. The threshold also kept out the bad luck and kept the good luck inside.

Angela told us about the nationalities of people in China. There are 56 nationalities but two main categories - the Man which makes up the vast majority of the population and the Han. Most people being one nationality was weird to me because the U.S. is such a melting pot. I grew up seeing American Indians, African Americans, Asians, every ethnicity. In China everybody is the same color, I have always been around people of every color, the human rainbow. I hadn’t been to the Great Wall yet but I thought maybe everybody was one color because China chose to be disconnected, (and protected from invasion) in every way by building the Great Wall and maybe the philosophy behind the manifestation of the Wall stuck with them. In America the philosophy has always been to connect and be open not closed.  

We went to the Summer Palace. It was beautiful and lush. The architecture and landscaping were phenomenal. We took a ride on a boat and just soaked everything up.

We went to lunch, we were late. I was really surprised. It was good and I ended up eating too much. Before going on the trip a former planning student, Umit Zamudio had said she knew someone who went on the trip before and he nearly starved because he hated the food. I was so relieved. After eating lunch we were on our way to the pearl factory.

At the pearl factory one of the employees showed how they get the pearls out the oyster. The pearls are fresh water pearls and there are more than one in an oyster. She never said if it kills the oyster to get the pearls out. It looked pretty painful to me. I ended up buying some pearls. The pearl factory we went to was government owned so all the pearls come with a certificate of authenticity. They’re beautiful but kind of expensive compared to the pearls that are sold on the streets, everywhere. I paid the least for pearls in Suzhou, I bought a pearl ring there for $2.25 compared to the pearl ring I bought in the pearl factory which was $38. on sale.

We went to the Beijing Opera that evening. It sounds terrible but it was most God awful screeching I have ever heard in my life. I couldn’t imagine what the auditions were like. I’m sure it sounds good to a Chinese person but it was worse than a cat in heat to me. The people were beautifully made up and costumed though. And one bonus was that there was a marquee with the English translation. After a little while I started getting tired from sitting too long so I went downstairs to the lobby and bought some more pearls for my friend, Jill. Adrian and Destiny went with me and they didn’t care for the opera either. I think it must be an acquired taste, maybe if I listened to it for 20 or 30 years I would start to like it. Any opera would be foreign to me because I was raised on Rock and Roll during the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, so I just don’t have an ear for it.

The next day we went to the Great Wall of China. Before the trip that was one of things I was really excited about. I kept thinking that I would get to go see, touch and climb something on Earth that could be seen all the way from the moon. I thought, and still do think, that will be one of the coolest things I ever get to do. Destiny and I climbed the Wall together. We laughed and took lots of pictures. I kept trying to get a picture of her that looked like she was placing this sign that said “One World One Dream” but I never did get it perfect. As we climbed the Wall and looked back where we had been, it looked like an ant farm. There were people everywhere. I really liked watching all the people climbing the Wall. After we got to the top we walked back down beside the Wall and picked up some rocks to bring back home for paperweights. When Destiny and I got to the bottom a bunch of Chinese people were laughing at me and asking me how much I wanted for the rocks. They thought it was hilarious that I was taking rocks. I took out some papers to try to show them what I would be using the rocks for because they didn’t speak much English, just “How much?” They understood what I wanted the rocks for but still thought I was goofy. After that Destiny and I stopped to get more t-shirts for everyone back home. I was on a mission; I wanted t-shirts for $2.50 or $3.00 because Dr. Shen had told me I paid too much for a t-shirt when I paid $4.00. I was trying to hone my bargaining skills for our free day because I knew I would do some shopping. After buying some t-shirts for $3.00 each I ended up buying a fake Gucci watch while Destiny was getting a North Face jacket for her brother. When we walked out of the store Dr. Shen and Bill were looking for us. I had to apologize for holding everyone up, once in the middle of a shoppinggasm, it’s kind of hard to stop, it’s better not to fight it. Plus as I was finding it is really fun to bargain with the Chinese when you’re shopping. It’s kind of like a contest to see who wins and gets their price, the seller or the buyer. I loved it, I would be in so much trouble if I lived there because I would spend too much time shopping and bargaining.

For dinner we had Peking Duck. I was excited about the prospect but it was the one meal I didn’t care for. I didn’t like it at all; it was greasy and too pungent for me. I felt like I had been eating too much anyway so it was probably a good thing that we finally had something I didn’t like.

We had our free day. Destiny and I went to breakfast and then armed with our business card that had several destinations written in Chinese on the back. We went to the pedestrian shopping area. As soon as we got out the cab tow Chinese girls stopped us. They said they wanted to practice their English, which was excellent, in reality they wanted to sell us something - artwork. They took us to the forth floor of this building close by. There was a ton of artwork and of course Destiny and I ended up buying some. Destiny bought traditional stuff and I bought modern works. They told us the meaning of a lot of the traditional artwork seen all over China; pairs of things, like cardinals or cranes mean happy couple, three or more of something means happy family. Destiny ended up buying a work with two cranes, I told her she bought that because she’s in love and when you’re in love it consumes all your thoughts and you think of happiness and have a positive outlook on life. The girls told us about the Chinese word for love; the top part of the word represents the family, the middle represents the heart the bottom part represents your friends - love family and friends with all your heart. We both thought it was a wonderful thought and a beautiful way to think about love. After that she wanted to look for the Chinese word for love. Everywhere we went people stared at us because we were different and especially Destiny, since she’s 5’10” and blonde. Some people took pictures of us. Finally, we went to the mall and bought clothes and tried to bargain when it was appropriate. We ate some sushi. I don’t think Destiny was too crazy about it even though she had lived in Japan previously. We went out on the streets to shop after eating and then the bargaining began. I had fun bargaining and looking around at everything. Destiny didn’t seem to take to it like I did. She said she thought all the people were just trying to rip you off and they were beggars. I told her beggars have nothing to offer and the Chinese people were selling something not begging. I told her I liked it because you could make your own price, maybe they’d go for it maybe not, and the people were just trying to earn a living. She said she couldn’t believe how patient I was with the people and it wasn’t for her.

At the end of the day we ran into some of the other students in front of the hotel. We all talked about our day. It was fun and like running into an old friend. That night I had a hard time sleeping. I kept thinking about the city of Beijing how it was in such a stat of transition and everything was changing so quickly. It seemed like everywhere I looked there was something going on and something being built.

After breakfast we headed to the airport. Angela told us some of the differences between the north of China and the south. In the north it is dry and mountainous, the food is spicy and the people are quick tempered. In the south it’s hot and humid, the food is lighter, less greasy and spicy and the people are not so quick tempered – they are considered to be intellectuals. Also, she said the people sound different when they speak, in the north sometimes the people sound mad but not in the south.   We were off to Suzhou via Shanghai next. Flying to Shanghai, I sat next Dr. Shen. I felt like I was really lucky to get to sit by him so I could chat him up …which I did. Hopefully he didn’t mind but even if he had, he would not have let me know because he was a very gracious host in China. One of the most interesting things we talked about was the early age of retirement of the people in China. He said all the people there save their money so they can go do something else when they retire. It was just another example of how practical the people are; save money instead of being in debt to their eyeballs like in the U.S., retire early enough to enjoy it instead of retiring with an oxygen tank and if you save money you have the ability to go do what you really want. We also talked about all the change going on in China. He said China has gone through a lot of change in the last 25 years. China is in the process of industrializing and the economy is booming. Everywhere I looked there was construction going on, the streets were lined with cranes. The cranes kind of reminded me of all the oil wells during the oil boom of Oklahoma. In Beijing where many of the buildings we saw were 600 years old there was all this construction going on and much of the new construction was very state of the art and had a lot of western influence. Dr. Shen said the Chinese want western things. I told him I had noticed a lot of the advertising had lighter skinned people and even mixed people in the ads. I didn’t know if the people typically liked lighter skin or it was part of their affinity for westerners. He said a lot of the Chinese women protect their skin from the sun, they like the lighter skin. We also talked about a lecture we had both gone to back in the spring semester, Dana Cuff. I was surprised to find out that, like me, he wasn’t impressed with the lecture. He thought Dana Cuff just criticized suburbia in America and didn’t offer any solutions and she just stood up at the podium and read instead of speaking to the audience. On the flight there was guy sitting behind me who made me think of what Angela had been saying about the way people from the north of China speak, high pitched and angry sounding. He sounded mad but wasn’t, it’s just the way they sound. I have thought Chinese people were being short with me in the states, but realized after what she said that it’s just the way they talk. I thought maybe that’s why the opera up there was so terrible to me, it sounded like wounded animals to me but to the people in the northern part of China it sounds normal.

When we flew into Shanghai it looked like a never ending city. As we drove to Suzhou the farm houses we were passing seemed to never end. They were lined up one after the other. The farms were small compared to the big acreages in the U.S. And one big difference besides the size was that I saw people actually working the farm. In the U.S. you never really see anyone working the fields or doing anything manually because everything is mechanized, if you do see someone they’re operating a machine. I liked the style of the farm houses, they were several stories high with brick facades and lots of windows, many have pitched roofs but some look Spanish with a flat roof.

We drove through the Chinese Silicon Valley and went to the lake there. It was very clean and new with beautiful landscaping and street furniture that was designed not just functional. There were lots of sculptures that were fun to pose with. There was a wedding party in the park. They let us take pictures of them. The bride was dressed in white like and American bride would be. Dr. Shen told us that brides used to wear red and marriages used to arranged. He said the face was covered and could not be seen by the groom before they were married. I liked the red idea because it’s such a happy color but that hiding the face thing was a little spooky and seemed like entrapment. Dr. Shen told us that up until about a year ago a person couldn’t get married while being a student in China. And in China everyone gets married twice, once at the government office and then a wedding. If couples aren’t married at the government office the marriage isn’t recognized.

That night we ate and then Destiny and I roamed around. We went to the internet café and shopped some. It amazed me how cheap and busy the internet cafes were. It was almost like a bar or some place where people could go hang and meet other people or not, depending on your predisposition. After we roamed around looking at everything we went back to hotel so we could get up early because we had a busy schedule the next day.

We went to the Garden of the Master of the Fishing Nets, the silk factory, the planning exhibit and the Embroidery Institute. It was a really busy day. The garden was incredibly detailed; Dr. Shen told me every window was different. The craftsmanship involved in all the details was just unbelievable. In the U.S. it’s not that old and there is not the level of craftsmanship that there is in China. When we went to the silk factory as we had been told at the other factories there was no bargaining because the factory is government owned. We went through the factory and the process was explained. It seemed like a really crappy job. It was labor intensive. It hitnhome with me that things in China can be detailed and labor intensive because China is like the U.S. was prior to books like “The Jungle” by Uptan Sinclair were written. There are no labor laws or unions to protect the workers in China, there’s no workman’s comp or OSHA or anything. When we went to the planning exhibit I forgot about the people at the silk factory and had a good time. Like everything else in China the planning exhibit was very detailed, there were boards, displays and models for every aspect of planning Suzhou. I was the most impressed with the transportation planning, but I had been struck by how differently the Chinese looked at transportation since I had arrived. Many times pedestrians, cyclists and autos are separated, mass transit is common, all the ideas touted in the U.S. but not practiced. We went to the Embroidery Institute next and I felt really sorry for the people there because Dr. Shen said the job is really hard on your eyes and short-lived. The women didn’t seem very happy. Anna, an architect who was on the trip with us and sat behind me, said you don’t really have a choice about your job like you do in America. In America we all think we should have the job that makes us happy and we feel fulfilled and that’s a freedom we take for granted.

Once we got to Suzhou we were supposed to say Hung how instead of Nee how as a greeting. Suzhou was the ancient capital of China and known as the Venice of the East. That name was given to Suzhou by Marco Polo. The people of Suzhou were the first to use tin and bronze. The area was known for its silk and the manufacture of weapons. Suzhou had a strong military. Now Suzhou produces one quarter of all the laptops in the world and one third of the mousses in the Chinese Silicone Valley. There are 8,000 investors in Silicone Valley. In the last three years the population has doubled, it was three million.

We went to Tongli, another water city. There we went on a gondola ride. It was very beautiful and old. While we were on the gondolas people would come down to the water and wash their hands or wash their dishes. The water was really polluted. It was sad to me that a place so beautiful and rich in culture didn’t even have clean water. I always feel like I’m so fortunate to have grown up in the United States where running water that’s potable is available. I grew up very poor but we always had water.  On the water there was a lady in a boat with a bunch of birds. The birds all had strings tied around their necks. The birds were used to catch fish. Once the birds caught the fish they were stuck in their throats because of the string and could be removed and then eaten by the people. It was a prime example of how industrious people can be so they can eat. I thought it sounded pretty gross but creative. And I thought the person who thought it up had to have been really hungry to take food out of another living creature’s mouth.

We rode the bus to Hangzhou, lots of people slept, I took pictures and looked at the farmhouses. The hotel at Hangzhou was absolutely gorgeous. I loved it and would have liked to stay there a little longer. We went to Westlake and took another ride on a boat. There were lots of pagodas on hilltops around the lake. The area was very lush and green. We saw the Flying Peak and looked all the Buddhas. Dr. Shen told us at the beginning of the trip that most people in China don’t believe in anything, there are some Christians, Buddhists and Muslems but the vast majority is not religious. I had not known that before. Since I was raised in the Bible Belt and had religion shoved down my throat my entire life, that concept was very foreign to me. I wondered what Chinese people think happens to them when they die. All I have heard my whole life is that you want to live a good life so you can go to heaven when you die. I asked Dr. Shen later and he told me that most Chinese don’t think anything happens when they die, they’re just dead. I asked if that’s why Chinese people work so hard because they think this is all there is and this is your shot at whatever you’re going to make of yourself. He said maybe and that he could see why people use religion to instill morality and he also sees the good behind thinking this is all there is so you should do your best while you’re here. I thought it would be great to live somewhere where people don’t use blackmail to instill morality, which is what religion is to me. While we were in Hangzhou I decided to quit writing in my journal so much and just enjoy it. It was so beautiful I didn’t want to ruin it by thinking about what I was supposed to be getting out of it and just experience it without any ulterior motive other than just soaking in every moment of it.

We drove to Shanghai. Shanghai was very modern and there was construction going on everywhere I looked. The first night there we took a night cruise to look at the city. The city was old and English looking on one side and very modern and high tech on the other. The guide told us that the West side was older and had been thought to be the good design according to Feng Shui but the East was thought to be bad until recently. The east side is the more modern side with lots of younger, educated professionals. Now the yin and yang are balanced and the city has good Feng Shui. Shanghai’s population is seventeen million. The growth in Shanghai had been slowed by the natural barrier of the Yellow River but now there is development everywhere. There are over 4,000 high rises in Shanghai. We went to the top of Jen Mao and looked out over the city; from the eighty eighth floor the city seemed never ending. Jen Mao is the fourth tallest building in the world. I thought it would bother me to be that high but it didn’t. I had a bird’s eye view of the construction of what will be the tallest building in the world. All the new buildings in Shanghai are real modern designs with design that isn’t like a tall rectangle, but some of them look like they have on hats. Some of the buildings are more curvilinear and some are more linear at times it seemed like the buildings were a little incongruent because the designs are all so different but maybe the modern theme caused that.

Later we went to the planning exhibit. They had the biggest model in the world. It was a model of Shanghai but even include all of the perimeter. I really like my last few days in Shanghai. I got to eat with Bill the national guide every morning the last three days. He was a very nice man who thought very highly of his wife spoke of her like she was his best friend …it was great to be around someone like that. He talked about his life in the Red Guard. I asked him if he ever regretted being in the Red Guard and he told me he doesn’t regret anything about his life or anything he has done.  He said that he felt someone should not live a life based on regrets because all you have is now - don’t worry about the past and don’t count on the future. I thought he had a great outlook on life. The grossest food I saw in China--Bill ate every morning for breakfast--it was these nasty looking brown eggs, they looked rotten. He said they don’t make them at home in China, he doesn’t even know how they prepare them but he likes them and eats them when he’s working. Also Bill had gone to make sure I could find a cheap suitcase to take stuff back to the U.S. I thought it was so sweet of him to go to so much trouble for me.

I didn’t write anymore in my journal the rest of the time I was in China. I wanted to just enjoy myself.