Traveling in the New China
TUNG, TIMOTHY
NOTES OF A NATIVE SON Traveling in the New China BY TIMOTHY TUNG Beijing When I asked a young Dutch assistant banquet manager in training at the new China World Hotel why he had come all...
...Perhaps even more pathetic was my experience in a washroom of one of Shanghai's fancy hotels...
...This, plus the instant gratuities in foreign currency that no one is shy about accepting, makes their employees rich individuals...
...My intellectual friends regretted the whole incident...
...What the Chinese say is true: The farther away you are from Beijing the less you are tugged by the reins of the central government...
...NOTES OF A NATIVE SON Traveling in the New China BY TIMOTHY TUNG Beijing When I asked a young Dutch assistant banquet manager in training at the new China World Hotel why he had come all the way to Beijing to learn the job, he replied: "I want to see the world, especially this part of the world...
...Several rebuffs later she learned that, like other foreign firms, the bank would have to pay the ticket agent a monthly retainer of 300 yuan in foreign exchange certificates (about 5.5 yuan to one U.S...
...My group stayed in Beijing's newest hotel, The China World, a joint venture with Hong Kong's Shangrila chain...
...He wanted to be a martyr, my intellectual friends maintained, to attract the attention of the world...
...During an eight-hour gathering with my five nephews, their wives and their teenaged children, "June 4" was not mentioned...
...Also corruption, as my friend's daughter found...
...But they all concluded that it was clearly provoked by Shen and Terrill...
...A white-haired old man, trying to be helpful, proffered a towel...
...The topic of conversation inevitably turned to the recent expulsion from China of American writer Ross Terrill, and the detention of Shen Tong, a student leader of the Tiananmen demonstrations...
...The hotels add a 15 per cent service surcharge...
...Terrill, after being detained in his hotel room, soon was sent packing...
...What jolted me and my fellow travelers most was seeing a postcard-size portrait of Mao Zedong hanging near the driver's seat in virtually every tour bus we were on...
...Making money has become the foremost aim in life...
...Illustrations of how the prosperity brought on by economic reform affects the lives of ordinary Chinese abound...
...In just four years Shanghai has undergone great changes...
...In Dalian, a beautiful Manchurian city where the flavor is Russian, we were taken to Stalin Square on Stalin Boulevard...
...Currently Chinese everywhere, speaking among themselves, often refer to "before June 4" and "after June 4." The date serves as a watershed for recalling events in their lives—much like "before Liberation" and "after Liberation" in the past, or the "before the War" and "after the War" (World War II, of course) that we oldsters still use...
...When questioned, the guides readily acknowledged the revival of a Mao craze among the young, especially vehicle drivers—if only for superstitious reasons...
...For four weeks, Shen had been meeting with dissidents, scholars, even officials...
...His daughter arrived by taxi from her office in a foreign bank, where she is employed as secretary to the Western manager...
...But human sentiment being what it is, on September 9 this year, two days after my 70th birthday, 1 once more embarked on a journey to my birthplace...
...They all said they were quite content...
...This is her first job since finishing college, and her salary is slightly more than the combined income of her father and hospital-administrator mother...
...Some of them easily compare with the best in New York, Dallas or Hong Kong, and their daily rates and restaurant prices are just as high...
...their only complaint was the housing shortage...
...And I shall miss old China...
...A certain aura of arrogance is apparent among these people...
...Taxi driving has become one of the most coveted occupations...
...It is the main tourist attraction...
...Within the scope of my vision there lies a modern city no different than any other, a tall forest of concrete and glass structures...
...Yes, Friendship Stores, where the salespeople are still indifferent or plain rude, have become passe...
...Individuals in such strategic positions, and their wives and children, are the ones who frequent hotel shopping arcades, searching for the latest designer fashions at prices intended for foreign tourists...
...The official fixed taxi rates are so exorbitant for ordinary Chinese that one of my relatives refused to ride in a taxi even when I offered to pay for the trip...
...Imitations of clothes by Pierre Cardin et al...
...None of them wished to witness another "June 4." They were largely detached, acting as if they were an island unto themselves...
...There, the attraction is a monument to Soviet soldiers killed in World War II...
...Standing in the enormous, highceilinged banquet hall of the monstrous ultra-modern complex known as the China World Trade Center, I found myself lamenting the loss of Beijing's innocence...
...It seems that some time ago there was a major traffic accident in which all drivers involved died, save for one bus driver who happened to have a Mao portrait in his window...
...In fact, to fulfill a childhood fantasy this time I traveled in style and comfort on a cruise ship sailing from Hong Kong: Standing on the Bund (waterfront) in Shanghai at the age of 11, watching a huge ship discharge foreign visitors, I had dreamed of someday walking down a gangplank myself into the arms of my relatives...
...Politics seemed to be the last thing on their minds...
...I don't want them to make any money from me...
...From the window of my 15th-floor hotel room I can see no trace of the distinctive roofs of centuries-old buildings...
...Forme, June 4, 1989, marked the day I decided never to set foot in China again, agonizing though the decision was...
...The situation is very different in the capital...
...They [the government] give us a Chinese salary but charge us foreign fees," he protested...
...Shen, too, eventually was sent back to the U.S...
...but not until he announced that ill-fated press conference was he picked up...
...But some revealing impressions have stayed with me: In Qingdao, a German-influenced city and one of the most livable places in China, local guides took us to a Germanbuilt church...
...That quickly became apparent at a luncheon with old friends—aging intellectuals, writers, editors, retired professors—all of whom receive a government salary or pension and have no relationship to the glittering tourist and foreign business world...
...But unless they are labeled as foreign-designed, it is said, they have no takers...
...To appreciate its antiquated architectural character, one must go to the Temple of Heaven or the Gate of Heavenly Peace or the Forbidden City, all tourist attractions...
...Despite its air of prosperity, 1 found the city unbearable because of the unavoidable human body contact wherever 1 went...
...In five years China will not be at all like it used to be...
...No wonder...
...Many of the latter are private business operators or representatives of different levels of the bureaucracy concerned with foreign businessmen...
...Such pitiable servitude, it will be recalled, was supposed to have disappeared with the triumph of the Communist Revolution...
...Affluence seems to breed aggressiveness and greed...
...On September 19 I did just that, except that waiting to meet me at the pier was only one nephew, the rest having been prevented from entering the restricted area...
...Not for a moment did 1 feel 1 was in an oppressive, Communist world...
...Moreover, 1 could hardly recognize my hometown...
...I myself felt isolated traveling in a tourist group, surrounded by service people...
...I could not help noticing my friends' cynicism...
...Even Tiananmen Square, whose image during the 1989 student demonstrations is vividly remembered by television viewers throughout the world, has been converted into a vast, flower bed-lined playground for schoolchildren and foreign sightseers...
...Shanghai and Beijing are full of fancy lodgings for tourists and business executives, all proudly labeled as "four star" or "five star" hotels...
...It is four years since 1 was last here...
...As for Terrill, they observed that the publicity surrounding his expulsion would help sell his new book, China in Our Time (see my review, "Two Views from Inside," NL, September 21...
...Shen, who had been in exile in the United States, returned to Beijing voluntarily last July, accompanied by Terrill...
...Her job included obtaining airline tickets for the Western bank manager's business travel within the country...
...Timothy Tung, a retired research professor and China specialist at City College, City University of New York, is a frequent contributor to the NL...
...I was merely a privileged "foreigner...
...The resentment of the majority, who feel left out of the new-found prosperity, contrasts sharply with the glee of the lucky few now able to frequent luxury hotels without restrictions, mingle with foreigners, and pay $3 for a cup of coffee or $25 for a Western meal...
...On the streets the population explosion is palpable...
...But now 1 have come to realize that Beijing has been so transformed it is practically unrecognizable—especially the east end, where glittering, starkly modern skyscrapers stand side by side, threatening to obliterate all the ancient charm...
...Leaving aside official circles, there are now two classes of Chinese in big cities: those in the service sector—who work in joint ventures, tourist hotels, etc.—and everyone else...
...Later, I was to find that it was common for beggars seeking sympathy to exploit their deformed children...
...I returned to my native country for the first time in 1978, after 31 years in the United States, and through 1988 I visited this ancient capital almost annually, each time sensing the excitement of change...
...They seemed resigned to the political status quo...
...Without a word, he repeatedly made deep, humble bows to me—all for a tip worth a few pennies...
...Speakingabout the flashing world of extravagance accessible only to the powerful and the nouveau riche, they expressed bitterness but not envy...
...He is only partially correct...
...He was watched and warned...
...One dress reportedly was sold only after its price had been revised upward twice—to ensure customers that it was a true Western creation...
...dollar, compared with the regular rate of 7.5 yuan) to reserve seats on scheduled flights...
...Another shock occurred when, making our way through a busy free market, we were suddenly confronted by a barechested, armless boy, thrust at us by his begging mother...
...A bank car picks her up in the morning and takes her home in the evening...
...The Monument to the People's Heroes, where the students set up their command center three years ago, is today encircled by lines of thousands of orderly young people waiting to pay homage at Mao's mausoleum (officially called Chairman Mao Zedong Memorial Hall) nearby...
...New construction is pervasive...
...My cruise ship stopped at several ports for short excursions...
...are made by enterprising Communist officials who set up factories in neighboring towns...
...My childhood fantasy was shattered...
...For the "socalled democratic elements" exiled in foreign countries they displayed contempt...
...She is all of 23 years old and has a good command of English...
...Upon first going to the airline office, she was told no seats were available for the date he wanted...
...On September 1, shortly before a press conference Shen had called to announce the formation of the Beijing chapter and to solicit members, he was arrested...
...Shanghai residents have regained their reputation as aggressive, shrewd operators...
...Most Chinese, for instance, earn an average of less than 200 yuan ($35) a month, while a tour guide who takes a bus full of Americans on a day's outing along the Great Wall can make some $30 in tips...
...A good friend, despite his position as deputy editor-in-chief of a publishing house, had to spend an hour and a half on a crowded bus in order to get from his home in the west end to my hotel in the east...
...No traces remain of the bloody massacre that ultimately took place there...
...He wanted to open a chapter of the Democracy for China Fund, an organization he established in America...
...China, physically, already is not what it used to be...
Vol. 75 • November 1992 • No. 15
