China: Peoples Republic

China is vast and complex – the world’s most populous country, the second-largest in land area, with nearly 300 living languages, and seven megacities with over 10 million inhabitants. In 2012, we visited two of them – Shanghai and Beijing on our way back home from Australia.

Shanghai

In Shanghai, we were on our own and explored the city centre, strolling along the Bund and savouring Britain’s Imperial past, the Jade Garden and Nanjing East Road.

Hangzhou

We visited an ex-student in Hangzhou and spent a day in the rain on a skiff on West Lake and had our photo taken on ‘the most romantic bridge in China’ –the Duan Bridge.

Beijing

Steve had been invited to give a lecture in Tsinghua University by Yingying, a PhD student he supervised. We had a meeting with Professor Yin Zhi, President of the Urban Planning & Design Institute of Tsinghua and Yingying’s new boss. While we chatted, he took an ink brush and tore a long strip of paper from a roll and wrote a salutation to us.

We were also fascinated by China’s imperial past and wanted to see the sights. Professor Yin Zhi lay in a chauffeur-driven car to take us to see the Great Wall of China at Muntanye. We had a frosty day wandering through the Summer Palace and a sunny day in the Forbidden City.

Published 22 Aug 2022, 56 pages, ISBN 9781912460106