Top of the Great Wall after a incredible hike to a section not on the tourist trail and led by Tony
The bride and groom and I
Three of my favourite chicas and I in the Forbidden City
The last time I was in China was February 2001 which was during my last year in undergraduate degree. My initial visit had been the summer of 2000 during which I taught English for 3 months and carried out my undergraduate thesis on women and marriage. My main memories from both these trips but particularly the extended 3 month stay, is SHOPPING! I was 20, young and naive, and I found the world in which I was both confusing and difficult. I left in February 2001 contend that my thesis was going to be interesting and different, a cupboard full of new clothes, but no real inclination or thoughts of return. Since then my life has taken several interesting courses and has certainly been very full of interesting places and people. In 2004 a friend and I went to visit some other friends in Hong Kong and a seed was planted that maybe I should one day return to the mainland and revisit my experiences of 2000.
The best days of the past 10 years were predominantly in a very small over-populated country in Southern Asia, and in this country of Bangladesh I met some of the most amazing people I have come across so far in my life. Charlene Wang was one of these and this May I had the great pleasure of being invited to her wedding to Tony Chen in Beijing. As well as being one of the most amazing heart warming wedding I have been to the 2 week holiday gave me the opportunity to re-experience China and the immense changes that it has gone through in the past 10 years.
A friend asked my upon my return if while in China I felt that I was in the world's next superpower and my answer was a very emphatic yes! It is hard to put into words why I am so certain of this except to say that the country gave me an overwhelming feeling of taking the 'best' of Western culture but making it overwhelmingly Chinese. People seem so confident in their country and identity, something which I sense slipping away more and more each day in Ireland. The economy is certainly booming and economic success oozes from all angles. The efficiency of the three cities I was in as well as the transportation infrastructure between them was impressive. The environmental awareness, at least on the surface, was outstanding and could teach us in Western Europe a lesson or two.
I left China with a new found thirst to learn more about the country, the people and the language. I know there are many political, labour and human rights issues that cannot be ignored, but at least in my opinion it is not as simple as to say they have got it all wrong because there is so much that works and that is most importantly the Chinese way of doing it. In an increasingly uniform world I found this refreshing and intriguing.
The trip involved three cities and several events and specific posts on each will follow......
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