Going to China ...

Tomorrow (8 Oct) I will fly to Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, at the invitation of the Sun Yat-Sen University as a Visiting Scholar for a week to exchange perspectives on contemporary international and regional relations. According to the 2005 Chinese University Ranking published by The 21st Century Business Herald, the university was ranked in 10th place.

Open up to world trade and other contacts as early as the late 16th century, the people in Guangdong have always been very knowledgeable about the West and Southeast Asia. Guangzhou also has some very old mosques and churches. In fact, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen who inspired the 1911 Revolution and has since been respected as the Father of Modern China by both the Communists and Nationalists, was a Christian.

I have already put Edgar Snow's Red Star Over China, carelessly left in my house by my Chilean Australian friend Lucia, into my hand luggage so that I can read it during the three-hour journey and while I stayed there. Very slowly, I have almost finished re-reading Part Four of the magnum opus of probably the most famous, admired and respected American journalist in my grandparents' and parents' generation of Chinese.

The last time I went to China was in September 1992 when I spent the seven-day honeymoon with my wife Po Chin in Beijing. We visited many historical places like the Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Monument to the People's Heroes, Chinese Revolutionary Museum, Chairman Mao's Memorial Hall and Ox Street Mosque.

On 18 September, we toured the Great Wall of China at Badaling.

China Radio International (CRI) Online
http://www.chinabroadcast.cn