Why visiting China is a journey through history
From Great Wall to Temple of Heaven, it has a long and fabled past
2mon agoJosephine MayuyaBig-read
Right in front of our hotel is what looks like a dam, fenced by rusted white wood with Chinese architecture.
As I take stock of this day, the eve of our departure, I’m gripped with a mixture of sadness at parting with colleagues and excitement at reuniting with people back home.
Against the non-stop rumble of planes departing Peking International Airport every two to three minutes, I sit by the wooden bench facing the dam, lost in thought. The bench is dotted with white bird droppings and golden yellow leaves.
Glorious memories of Beijing districts, gleaming cultural centres, splendid film studios, the assaulting heat of the Olympic Park, the discomforts of the language barrier and the smoothness of translation apps all come to mind.
“I know all of us may never again meet at once, but these are memories you will live long to tell your children and grandchildren,” Jack Zhao, the director of the base, tells us on the eve of our last seminar.
TRANSPORT SYSTEM
When I departed Kenya for China on July 7, I only had a rough idea of the giant leaps of development the country had undergone over the decades.
I was travelling for a two-week seminar for journalists from ‘Belt and Road Countries’ — those covered by China’s sprawling global infrastructure project.
My understanding of China was long filtered through fragments of childhood memories of famous movie stars: Jackie Chan (in the classics Drunken Master and Rush Hour), Jet Li (Romeo Must Die and Cradle 2 to the Grave) and Bruce Lee (Enter the Dragon, Game of Death and Fist of Fury).
These action films offer glimpses of an old China but also have clues of what it intends to become in future.
They are a cultural window into a country that had been battered first by the West during the infamous Opium Wars of the 19th century, and then by the brutal occupation by the Japanese between 1937 and 1945 — but refused to surrender.
To step into the China of today is to encounter an economic miracle. The sleeping giant has finally awoken.
The seamless transportation sector is a true testament to this transcendence from rural simplicity to prosperity.
Unlike in Kenya, China’s roads are not only built for motorists. Ordinary citizens have clearly marked sections that allow them to cycle from one point to another.
Parked along the streets, bicycles are considered a convenience for those keen on exercising and getting to their destination affordably. This alternative mode of movement ensures that the city is not choked with traffic.
On the first day of our seminar, David Gao, one of our trainers, assured us the bikes. “China is very safe. You can drop your wallet today and still find it tomorrow in the same place,” he said in Chinese-accented English.
Those of us from Kenya giggle quietly in deep embarrassment.
Meanwhile, in Nairobi and other parts of the country, while people cycle to work, it remains a gamble with death because of poor road designations and a lack of discipline among motorists.
There are also scooters, a much cheaper and quicker transport means. While riding inside a bus in Beijing, it’s easy to spot individuals on scooters weaving precariously through traffic at high speed.
Sometimes, a woman and a child. Another time, a man and probably his wife.
The scooter drivers have their driving lanes. Interestingly, just like Kenyan boda bodas, scooter driving in China is increasingly becoming a menace on the roads, and the government has even banned them in some cities.
The Beijing subway takes the cake. The city is a complex network of districts. With a population more than five times that of Nairobi, it needs a rapid transport system to ease navigation.
That’s where the metro comes in. The first time my colleagues and I decided to explore the city on our own, we walked into the belly of the city to a subway station, paid for our tickets and jumped into the train, headed to Tiananmen Square.
Tiananmen, a place heavy with historical significance, has today been turned into a recreational spot for families. People ride bicycles and eat ice cream with little care for the world.
Upon seeing our group, a young girl of four or five dashes from the grip of her father and runs toward us, the black delegates. She offers a small hand to greet us.
“Can we take a photo, please?” the father, who has finally caught up with the daughter, pleads. We agree.
Then it’s the turn of a teenage boy, who confidently approaches us, stares at us for several seconds and says, “Welcome to China.” He then disappears into the teeming crowd.
“We must be such a marvel here in Tiananmen,” a fellow delegate says. All of us laugh.
CONCRETE AND TREES
Riding through the cities of Beijing and Xi’an, one is mesmerised by the orderly planning of their buildings.
With trees nestled between apartments and the colour green competing with grey, green landscaping here is not just another buzzword spoken in conferences and air-conditioned offices; it’s a lived reality for the citizens.
While two weeks is not enough to understand the intricacies of such policies, such as whether China’s 1.4 billion people are actual beneficiaries of proper urban planning, the two cities hint at something beautiful.
Today, humanity is living in the troubled age of climate change. Declining air quality, rising sea levels, heatwaves, droughts and floods are not just the conspiracy theories of jobless scientists and publicity-hungry environmentalists, but a humbling reality affecting billions on the planet.
Therefore, to witness firsthand China wrestle with the monster is also to signal to other developing countries, such as Kenya, that it can be done.
However, to understand China’s economic transformation, one also has to contend with its politics, especially on the idea of having a disciplined party.
In the book, Quotations from Chairman Mao, the chapter titled ‘Serving the People’, the controversial revolutionary and philosopher makes quotable remarks.
“Our point of departure is to serve the people whole-heartedly and never for a moment divorce ourselves from the masses,” he says.
“To proceed in all cases from the interests of the people and not from one’s self-interest or from the interests of a small group, and to identify our responsibility to the people with our responsibility to the leading organs of the party.”
GUARDIAN PARTY
Founded in 1921, the CPC has been the guardian angel of the Chinese people. Over the years, despite the setbacks and tragedies that have befallen it and its leaders, the party has not deviated from Mao’s vision of putting the people first.
The idea became a reality after the harrowing decade of Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, when party cadres, such as intellectuals and teachers, were harassed, tortured and killed over charges of being counter-revolutionaries and agents of imperialists.
The lessons of that decade birthed a modern China that abandoned ideological dictatorship for a market-oriented economy.
The economic model was guided by the principle of Four Modernisations spearheaded by Mao’s successor, Deng Xiaoping, and brought to reality by the current President Xi Jinping.
The four focus on agriculture, science and technology, industry and national defence. A tour of China today is to witness the high speed of industrial development, with electric vehicles and robots becoming an everyday reality.
During my five-day visit to Xi’an, I was amazed to see a 5’4” robot programmed to take deliveries to people’s hotel rooms.
Placed strategically at the hotel lobby, a delivery man would simply place the orders inside what looks like a box in the chest of the robot, press a few buttons and then it would begin the march to the lift. With its sophisticated sensors to detect when the lift is open, it hops inside, joins humans on the way up, arrives at its destination and hops out. It’s a marvellous scene to behold.
“Xi’an is not just one of China’s oldest cities, it’s regarded very highly,” Jack tells me and my Kenyan colleague, Augustine, one evening.
As one of the oldest civilisations in the world, it’s not unusual to find Chinese cities that have been in existence for more than 1,000 years.
To prove Jack’s point, on the second day, we tour China Western Film Group, with its magnificent film studios and well-kept archives of production materials.
Here, the old meets the new and vice versa. An assortment of masks, old cameras and costumes, all compete with state-of-the-art digital technologies that play the role of projecting China’s image to the world.
ENGLISH AND GOODBYES
“Do you speak English?” is a frequently asked question when trying to communicate with Chinese citizens.
The reply most of the time is characterised by bewildered stares, then the screen of a smartphone is swiped and thrust into your face like a microphone. The back-and-forth exchange happens until there’s an agreement.
“Will these people ever learn even a little English so that we can communicate?” I wonder. “Or maybe I should first learn Chinese.”
Thank you, China. Or, as the residents say: xiexie.
