The new Nanjing , is not the old Nanking

Wednesday, June 22 Greetings from Nanjing. Before coming here it was hard to think about this city without thinking about the foreign assaults, first in the opium wars and then with the Japanese in World War II. As a result of all of that, there are not as many ancient temples, etc.., and much of what there is has been rebuilt sort of Williamsburg style. We arrived at a brand new, largely empty airport, just what Beijing needs! The ride into town was dramatically different. Whereas the ride to the wall was through a rugged hillside, here we are in the Yangtze delta, the most fertile part of China, and there are flat, open rice paddies, not the arduous terraced affairs one associates with China. The city streets are wide and all of downtown is lined with sycamore trees. It has such a different feeling -- like going from New York to Philadelphia or Boston, a quieter, gentler city. Right outside our hotel is a traffic circle (the first I have seen) with a statue of Sun Yat Sen, who came from here. On the traffic lights are digital displays which count down how much longer you have to wait, or how soon the light will turn red. An interesting innovation. I wonder if it makes drivers more calm or more tense. We are staying in another five-star hotel which had the sense to put the e-mail office right next to the swimming pool for all in-one entertainment. There is a revolving restaurant on the top of the 37 story building. Hard to imagine they could fill this place, but we are content! This afternoon I went out for a walk by myself to work on my Chinese. I bought a CD of a local rock group after getting all the employees to join in a discussion of which one American high school students would like most. My Chinese is not great, but it makes for great entertainment and laughter and I keep at it. I went into one sign store and ordered a sign in Chinese that will have my name in Chinese with the word teacher following. I wonder if I put it on my office door, if I well get more respect... On the way home I wandered through tiny neighborhood alleyways where everyone was in the street, making dinner, fixing bicycles, playing with pets, etc. It is hard to imagine how long these neighborhoods with their low tech infrastructure can last just blocks from hotels and department stores, or where these people will go. Somehow I imagine it will be to air conditioned high-rises where television will replace the street community. Speaking of television, we get CNN, CNBC and BBC here, so maybe the hotel in Beijing was right when they said there was a local problem, and it was not the national government that took CNN off the air. Are people more afraid of reactions in Beijing? Some of our group went this morning to photograph our embassy. Ironically, just after they left one of our group had her "fanny pack" stolen at breakfast. She put it over a chair and it got swiped even though someone was sitting at the table the whole time. This is my worst travel fear-- lose everything. Luckily, because we are a tour, the CITS people escorted her to get a certificate of loss, required to get a new passport, and then to get photographs, and then the passport. But the photos were not regulation size, so back for more. Poor Ruth missed our plane to Nanjing, arriving tonight at 6:30. I resolve to be more careful... Off to the revolving restaurant.