May 7 - May 8 (Day 1)

My long journey to China began on Monday, May 7. The flight from New York to China took 13.5 hours. The plan was to fly from Charlotte to New York and from New York to Beijing. Instead of flying across the U.S. and the Pacific Ocean to China, we flew over the artic circle. I had a window seat, but unfortunately, I was asleep when we crossed the artic cap so I didn’t get to take pictures from the plane. Some of the people in our group took photos and they came out surprisingly well. It was a pretty cool photo from the plane.

The flight from Charlotte to New York via Jet Blue was great. I knew the carrier had received some bad press. Do you recall? The plane was stalled on the runway and the crew would not allow passengers to leave the plane. All was forgiven as far as I was concerned. Direct TV was standard on the plane and each passenger had a personal monitor to watch whatever channel he or she chose. Jet Blue also advertises the most legroom of any airline in the industry. I couldn’t disagree. The flight was very comfortable. I wished we’d flown Jet Blue the 13.5 hours to China.

We made it to New York and found our gate. At 4:00 p.m, we were thirty minutes away from departure. I couldn’t wait to finally be on my way to China. Then we got the bad news. An official with Air China announced a delay while mechanics fixed a problem with the plane. We’d killed about three hours at this point and this delay added two more hours. I was bummed, but I made the most of it. Van, Andy, Ben and Susan taught me how to play Texas Hold ‘Em poker. I had a blast. We were playing the high stakes variety with Starbursts candy as chips. It was a lot of fun especially after I caught on and even won a hand or two. Believe it or not, I really raked in the candy pot on one hand with a high pair. I became a pro at killing time. Three hours behind our scheduled departure time, we finally lifted off. It was China or bust for our group of 25 from Winthrop University!

I passed the time on the flight by reading Grisham’s novel, A Time to Kill, watching a movie, talking, eating and sleeping. I managed to sleep a solid 6.5 hours during one stretch, which I preferred to cat napping. During my long flight, I got to know Alex, who sat beside me. He attended Duke and was a rising sophomore. He was Chinese and was returning home for the summer. Luckily, we hit it off which made the trip a little more bearable. After we touched down in Beijing, he commented on the delay in New York. He said that he had been a little concerned that the plane was fixed properly because the China Air pilots always had problems communicating issues to the tower and ground crew in America. He said they always caused problems on U.S. flights because they didn’t speak English. I was glad he waited to share that information until we were safely in Beijing. The flight was long enough without the added concern of mechanical incompetence. Unfortunately, Alex had an unexpected stay in Beijing because he missed his connecting flight. I felt bad for him, but he didn’t seem too concerned and was in good spirits.

Beijing is beautiful at night. The city appears to be very clean. It's just a hunch, but it could be related to the Olympics coming to the city next year. They are putting their best foot forward and the world will be impressed. There are so many skyscrapers, neon lights and billboards as we make the thirty minute trip from the airport to downtown Beijing. I saw a number of elevated highways that cross and intertwine. The tour guide explained them as the rings of highways or beltways that circle the city. The city has seven rings of highway currently and expect to be up to nine within the next three years. The city is growing at such a rapid pace that new outer loops are constantly being built. So they're building two outer beltways in three years and it's going to take us how long to complete I-485 in Charlotte?

May 9 (Day 2)

Wednesday morning we go to visit Lovell’s International Law firm. I can’t believe the number of bikes. There are separate lanes for the bikes and it isn’t unusual to see a man dressed in a suit or a woman in business attire and heels pedaling a bike to work. Traffic was very congested. I’d learned that the Chinese people were docile and avoided conflict. I honestly can't tell by their driving behavior. They are very aggressive behind the wheel and I witnessed more near misses between pedestrians, bikers, cars and buses than I can count. Everyone seems to think they have the right away so chaos prevails on the streets. I just know that I will witness a crash before I leave China.

Mike, an attorney at the law firm, gave us an overview of China’s history. He particularly focused on the capital, Beijing. He was very knowledgeable on China and its customs and practices. All of his responses were consistent with what I learned in Dr. Yang’s class. He discussed the importance of "face" and guanxi when conducting business in China. "Face" is essentially maintaining your reputation and respect. Guanxi is loosely translated as relationships and refers to the networking that is essential to doing business in China. Gift giving typically goes along with the relationship building . I was saddened, however, to learn that Beijing is losing a lot of its heritage at the cost of modernization. The city is very contemporary but pays a high price that it can’t reverse. Once the history is destroyed, there is no way to retrieve it. Some critics complain that the new buildings being constructed in Beijing are dressed in a Western business suit with a Chinese hat.

We also visited a Hutong neighborhood by pedicab, which was a lot of fun. The driver took us through the quadrangles and the narrow alleys of the neighborhood. The Hutong neighborhood is more than 700 years old and is located in old Beijing. We visited a Beijing resident’s Hutong home and learned about life in Beijing.

Day two of the trip and I'm already a little aggravated with the street peddlers trying to seel me souvenirs. They are relentless! You are constantly barraged by someone trying to sell you something. They know the area is a tourist haven and they are determined to sell you something whether you want it or not. I believed this was the first place we learned to make frequent use of the term, boo-yaw. It means, “I don’t want.” I had the feeling we would get plenty more opportunities to use the phrase during our trip.

That evening I attended a Kung Fu show. Unfortunately, pictures and video weren’t allowed inside so I have neither, but it was an excellent show. The show was performed by about 40 monks with shaved heads. They were an awesome sight. They had chiseled physiques, but the discipline that they exhibited was even more impressive. The martial art feats and acrobatics were literally death defying. One monk balanced on three spears held by his fellow monks. The spears were real because they split a melon prior to the monk’s balancing act. One spear was placed on each shoulder and one spear was placed at the belly button. The balancing monk was face down with arms and legs outstretched as his body weight precariously balanced on the spears. If he didn’t remain rigid, the spears would impale his body. Unbelievable! Another feat included breaking slate bars on the outstretched arms, legs, torso, and head of the same monk that balanced on the spears. He was the Kung Fu Master by the way. The story was his ascension to the rank of Kung Fu Master and the training that he underwent in the process. This guy had a body of steel!

May 10 (Day 3)

Today’s agenda included Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven. I still couldn’t get over the size of Beijing. Skyscrapers were everywhere. If you didn’t see high rises, you saw high rise cranes that dotting the sky and no doubt constructing what would one day be a high rise. Someone mentioned that 70% of the world’s high-rise cranes are located in China. You can see economic growth all around you.





Our first stop was the Temple of Heaven. It was basically an altar for the past emperors. Sacrifices were performed and prayers conducted, but this wasn’t your average layman’s temple. I’m not sure how big the emperors were, but I doubt they needed an altar the size of 2 football fields, which is an approximate size of the temple. It also was very elaborate so it wasn’t as if you had this huge, plain temple.



The area around the temple was very lively. We walked through a park area and Chinese people were dancing, playing games, singing and having a great time. I wanted to join in on the fun. They did invite us to join in one game they were playing. I didn’t get the name of it, but it’s like playing hackey sack with rackets. You had to catch the ball on the racket in a sweeping motion that absorbed the energy of the ball and allowed it to remain on the racket. I was able to pick it up pretty quickly, but others in the group had a tougher time. It was the first time that I saw the Chinese people relaxing and displaying some emotions. Normally, they are hard at work or bustling to and from work. Most Chinese, especially the older generation, were raised to conceal their emotions. They value harmony. Therefore, they tended to wear a stoic mask-like expression that hides their feelings. The expression tends to be neither joyous nor sadness, but somewhere in between. In my opinion, the expression tends to lean more toward the serious or stern side as opposed to happy.



The next stop was the Forbidden City. This was where the emperors lived and only their family and friends were allowed inside this fortress. It's complete with a wall on all sides. The entryway was designed to be awe inspiring and the architects succeeded. The threshold of the entry es raised and men are supposed to cross the threshold with their left foot and women with their right. I forgot the reason, but I think it was for good luck. The entryway is massive and succeeded in making you feel insignificant. You definitely know that you're visiting someone of high stature when you walk through the entryway. It empties into a wonderful courtyard garden with multi-century old gnarled trees and stone statues. So this is how the emperors lived. Walking through the city, you get a sense of the country’s rich history. No other place on earth can offer this kind of experience.




It was also at the Forbidden City that I witnessed a forbidden act by American standards. However, I'm in China and it is perfectly acceptable here. In the Chinese culture, pampers aren’t popular due to their cost. As a result, most toddler’s don’t wear them. Instead, pants are designed with a split along the inside seam. Whenever a young child has to answer nature's call, they simply squat and relieve themselves on the sidewalk, gutter, etc.. Well, this was precisely what I witnessed before we entered the Forbidden City. On a crowded sidewalk, a little Chinese boy squatted down and urinated on the sidewalk close to our group. An Asian friend prepped me for this possible occurrence, but the rest of my group wasn’t prepared. They parted like the Red Sea, and the poor youngster immediately lost his human privacy screen. There he was exposed to the masses, but he didn’t seem to mind as he continued to sprinkle the sidewalk. The Chinese culture is sometimes very different from our Western culture.

Since I jumped to the subject of relieving oneself, I should mention that some toilets in China are different from Western style toilets. These toilets are in the ground and your bottom doesn’t touch the toilet. I would describe it as the U-shaped toilet lid over a hole in the ground. To use this type, you have to squat over the toilet. I wasn’t adventurous enough to try the Chinese toilet, but some women in our group mastered it. The men’s restrooms have standing Western style urinals as an option. Unfortunately, the public restrooms for women didn’t have Western style options in some cases so the women were forced to do as the Chinese.



As you leave the Forbidden City, it empties into the infamous Tiananmen Square. The world knows so much about this Square because of the student protests and bloodshed that occurred in 1989 and were broadcast worldwide. Ironically, I learned that the world probably knew more about the Tiananmen Square massacre, as some dubbed it, than the Chinese citizens in the country where it took place. Our tour guide, Sarah, brought this to our attention. Sarah is probably in her early twenties since she said she was very young at the time of the Tiananmen Square incident. Consequently, she only has a general understanding of what happened at Tiananmen with the student protests. Since China is a Communist country, the government controls the media and the nation isn’t exposed to the full details of the tragedy unless they witnessed it or got the details from someone that did. People that were young or born after the tragedy don’t know the full details of the event and can’t get information pertaining to it because the government doesn't allow it.


Speaking of Communism, I was constantly reminded of the government’s presence when I talked to my wife, Crystal, each morning on the phone. I sometimes heard a clicking sound on the line, which reminded me that although my hotel room could’ve been in the U.S., I was definitely not on U.S. soil, and didn’t enjoy freedom of speech. Initially, I didn’t know what the clicking sound was, but the expatriate attorney, Michael Lovell, confirmed that the clicking was wire tapping from the government. I had to admit that it made me a little paranoid. I also started noticing cameras, but I didn’t know if I was paranoid at that point or if they were routine security cameras. I saw some cameras in the hotel elevator and in Tiananmen Square, but I didn’t recall seeing them in other public places. It probably was paranoia. It did give me a new appreciation for the freedoms that I take for granted. Even with my newfound patriotism, I don’t feel that a democracy is necessarily best for China. With such a large population, the government has a huge responsibility to maintain order and stability in the country. For the most part, this has been accomplished through central planning. Of course, everyone isn't happy with the current form of government. Likewise, there would be Chinese citizens unhappy with a democratic government. Since you can't please everyone, you have to do what's best for the majority. A balance between socialism and democracy is where the country is headed and probably will work best.



That night I tried a Chinese massage. It was a great experience and a real bargain. A one hour, full body, deep tissue massage was 140 yuan or roughly the equivalent of $17. That was ridiculously inexpensive when compared to massage fees in the U.S. that can cost a $1 a minute. I went with a small group and we found a place around the corner from our hotel. It was an upscale and professional outfit. In fact, the masseuse didn’t touch me directly except for my head massage. The majority of the massage was performed through thin pajamas that were provided. The pajamas did not degrade the effectiveness of the massage by the way. The next day I had some mild muscle soreness, but overall, I felt great.

Later, I went with a small group to club Banana. I wanted to experience the club scene in China, but since I don’t frequent clubs in the U.S. anymore, I felt a little like a “fish out of water”. It didn't help that Club Banana is a techno dance club. I never frequented that type of club even when I went to clubs back in the day. I could've adjusted, though, if I were ten years younger. There were go-go dancers suspended on platforms above the crowd; foam falling from the ceiling; and a provocative pole dancer that performed on the main stage. For a Thursday night, the place was packed. Everyone was shoulder to shoulder and you could hardly move. For some reason, the lack of space didn’t stop the young crowd from dancing wildly to the techno trance music. Arms, torso, head, and hair were whipping around to the techno beat. This was definitely not the place for the claustrophobic. I was surprised that more people didn’t get injured by a stray elbow or arm. On the dance floor, the dancers managed to keep their free flowing expression of dance confined to their personal space and no one got hurt. A guy behind me at the entrance wasn’t so lucky. As I paid my cover at the club entrance desk, I backed away slightly from the desk and turned to walk into the club. I think the guy behind me moved forward to pay at the same time. Anyway, we had a slight collision. He got the worst end because the back of my head hit him in the lip.

At the end of the night, five people, Alex, Van, Brianne, Nashae, and myself, piled into a small cab designed for three passengers (two in the backseat and one in the front). Apparently, the cab driver wasn't paying attention to the number of people that climbed into his cab. We had four crowded into the backseat and one sitting up front. The driver became a little animated once we got to the hotel. We didn’t know what he was complaining about, but Van, whom is Vietnamese and can speak some Chinese, translated for us. She said that he wanted to know why there were so many people in the back of his cab. We kind of shrugged and gave him a pitiful “I’m sorry” expression. He seemed upset that he unknowingly transported so many people in his cab. I couldn’t believe he didn’t notice until we got to the hotel. The look on his face was priceless, though. It wasn't as if we tried to deceive him. We instinctively piled into the cab the same as we do in the U.S.. Maybe they frown on that type of behavior in China because he seemed a little pissed off with us. We didn't cover China cab etiquette in my Chinese business course. Anyway, the damage was already done at that point. We paid the cab fare and had a good laugh about it later in the hotel lobby.

May 11 (Day 4)

I was excited about today because I was finally going to see one of the seven wonders of the world, the Great Wall of China. I’d seen and heard so much about it that I couldn’t wait to finally see it for myself. Fortunately, the structure did not disappoint. It was truly awesome. It is the only man made structure that can be seen from outer space. It spans 4000 kilometers across the country and is a marvelous spectacle. Only a fraction of the wall was open to the public. However, that fraction took a while to climb. You could take two routes. One route was less steep and took about seventy five minutes. The other route was steeper and took about 40 minutes. I chose the steeper route and paired up with Nashae and Van. The incline was unbelievable in places. It had to be at least a 50 or 60 degree incline in the steeper portions. It finally dawned on me that I was actually climbing a mountain even though it was cleverly disguised with steps. The wall rises and falls along the geographic plane of the mountain which adds to it’s beauty. About twenty minutes into the hike, I realized that poor Van wasn’t going to make it. She became so frightened halfway up that she had to turned back. It turns out that she is afraid of heights and the steepness was more than she could handle. Nashae decided that she’d had enough too and went back with Van. I caught up to Maria and Wanda and we continued to the highest point of the wall that was open to the public. They were content to reach that point, but I wanted to hike to the end. I couldn’t persuade them to go further so we parted ways and I continued the trek on my own. Maria and Wanda could’ve easily made the rest of the climb. The climb to the highest point, which is where they turned around, was the hardest. The rest was mostly downhill and only another 10 - 15 minute hike. I was glad that I continued to the end. It gave me a feeling of accomplishment.

In addition to overcoming the physical challenges of climbing the wall, I also faced a gauntlet of peddlers hawking their arts and crafts all along the wall. I couldn’t believe it. Is anything sacred? Here I am on the Great Wall and commercialism is alive and thriving. Can you say “boo-yaw”? Every few feet you would find an artisan selling something. From what I could tell, they hiked up the wall each day to set up shop. It's not like the thing was equipped with elevators. Needless to say, I boo-yawed my way to the top and tried to enjoy the scenery as much as possible. As I came down the wall, however, I hatched a better plan. I had my mp3 player on me so I stuck my ear buds in and enjoyed some musical bliss on the hike back down. It worked like a charm. The peddlers didn't bug me at all on my return trip down. They knew they couldn't compete with the music. Why didn’t I think of that earlier? The Great Wall is a must see but be sure to take your mp3 player.

May 12 (Day 5)

We bid farewell to Beijing today and headed to the next stop on our tour, Xi’an. The flight was bumpy, but we reached our new city with no major miscues unless you considered my groups near death by stampede. Apparently, we were riding on the plane with a Chinese celebrity. We had no clue because she looked like an average Chinese punk rock teen. She's the one in the center that's wearing black. She departed the plane and rode the escalator to baggage claim with us. At first, I was so impressed with the turnout of Chinese teens on hand to welcome us to the city. Then, I noticed the huge crowd held posters that didn’t contain any of our faces. Not to mention, they were chanting a name that didn't belong to anyone in our group. The crowd behind the barricade started snapping photographs of her and getting autographs. She quietly soaked up the adoration of her fans while someone in her entourage got the luggage. Our group, on the other hand, pulled our own luggage and gathered on a wall away from the action. We found our new guide, Lily, and as she pulled us together to explain the plans, the barricades came open and the frenzied fans rushed in the direction of the the Chinese Idol or Super Girl as they call her. The fans rushed toward us screaming and yelling while the idol made her exit down a distant corridor. Unfortunate for us, her exit path was away from the fans. Her raging river of admirers had to come through our group to follow her. They weren't about to let a little group of Americans stop them from getting to their Super Girl. We quickly assessed the situation and retreated to another wall that granted us safety from the stampede. Luckily, no injuries or deaths from our group were reported.

On the drive into Xi’an from the airport, my first reaction was regret over leaving Beijing and it wasn’t because of the near stampede. I surveyed the faces in our group and I knew I wasn’t the only one. The landscape was rural and dry. Lily, our new tour guide, lacked the energy and fun personality of our Beijing tour guide, Sarah. Things did not look good. Lily taught us some history on the city and we visited the city wall, which turned out to be really cool. The city has a huge wall around it that is well preserved and fully intact. I learned that all Chinese cities had walls around them at one time, but most had deteriorated and/or been torn down. Xi’an had the best-preserved city wall in China. We began seeing signs of modernization as we approached the city wall in the form of skyscrapers and public transportation. Xi’an is a smaller city, by Chinese standards, of 8-10 million. It's relative because the larger cities such as Beijing have 19 million residents. I decided to give the city a chance. If I could make it in Beijing, I could make it here. It turned out that Xi’an was a contemporary city with plenty of character and traffic. Traffic was horrendous as we approached downtown during the rush hour. That gave me plenty of time to notice the cars and I concluded that Xi’an residents drove nicer cars than the Beijing residents.

Another observation on this day was that Chinese people had physical characteristics specific to their region. The Chinese in the northern region, where Xi’an was located, have Mongolian influence and tended to be taller and bigger than the Chinese people in Beijing. They also have elongated facial features. In my opinion, they are more attractive and trendier when it comes to fashion than the people in Beijing.

May 13 (Day 6)

Today, we visited the terra cotta warrior exhibit. What a fascinating exhibit! It was amazing to think that a farmer digging a well in 1974 stumbled onto this amazing treasure. Some consider this to be the 8th Wonder of the World and it made me wonder what else lies undiscovered below this great country. The dynasties and ancient history that I've learned are very intriguing and I've never been a history buff.

For the terra cotta warrior exhibit, over 2000 warriors have been unearthed and the sight of the detailed ceramic statues lined up in their trenches left me awe struck. What’s more amazing was the fact that these intricately detailed soldiers were never intended for public display. The purpose of the terra cotta army was to protect the emperor's tomb upon his death. Therefore, they were placed in trenches and then covered with earth. The emperor ordered the creation of the soldiers and they were modeled after real live soldiers in the emperor’s army. The detail on the soldiers is unbelievable especially for them to be buried underground. One kneeling soldier has treads carved onto the bottom of his boots. Another has his hair in a ponytail. You can actually see the carved strands of hair that compose the ponytail!




That night, we attended the Tang Dynasty show. It was like a dinner theatre. The food was great and our table was at the very front of the stage. The costumes were so elaborate and colorful. The women looked beautiful in their traditional Chinese regalia. I really enjoyed the show. There was one weird guy in the show, however. He played a special pipe organ looking flute. Apparently, it is an ancient instrument and not many players exist that can play it so he's special. Anyway, he really thought he was hot stuff. He was such a drama queen. I can see him now whipping his mouth across the flute from side to side with all this flare. He was so caught up with himself that he gave an encore performance at the end of the show that no one requested! He was so weird. His expressions and make-up reminded me of the joker from Batman. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of him. I wish I had.

May 14 (Day 7)

Halfway into the trip and I officially admit that I'm sick of Chinese food. It isn’t that the food is bad. In fact, the food is good, but after a week of eating it for three meals, it all starts to taste the same. By the way, it is nothing like the Chinese American cuisine that we eat in the U.S.. As my cravings for cuisine other than Chinese increased, I found myself eating less and less at each Chinese meal. I craved variety and the food began to taste monotonous. This is ironic because you have a choice of so many dishes for each meal. We sit at a round table with a lazy-susan turntable in the center and the food always comes out as soon as we are seated. How's that for service? An average meal will have 2-3 vegetable dishes, 7-8 meat dishes, rice and/or noodles, 2 soups, and fruit for dessert. The 8 people seated at the table will share the meal family style. I was glad I practiced with my chopsticks before the trip. I was able to master them in China because we ate all of our meals with them.

I remembered Dr. Becton telling us before the trip that there was a McDonald’s across from our hotel in Xi’an. He mentioned how happy we would be because we would be sick of Chinese food by that point in the trip. At the time, I thought, “Yeah, right. I'm going all the way to China to eat some Mickey D’s. I don’t think so. I was planning to fully immerse myself in the culture and I wouldn’t cheapen it with some American fast food”. Well, I was soon faced with my aforementioned reality and reality told me I needed a change. What could I say? I caved and thanked god that Pizza Hut and McDonald’s had reached this country. McDonald’s has never been my fast food restaurant of choice in the states, but beggars can’t be choosy. I enjoyed a Big Mac combo for 17 yuan or $2.25 and it was the best Big Mac and fries that I’d ever tasted.

Today, I saw the new technology industrial zone for Xi’an. It was huge and the master plan was amazing. I couldn’t believe the growth and development of the area in the last 15 years. We saw before and after photos and it did not look like the same place. I learned that Xi’an was spurred by the high technology sector in the area. Xi’an was also home to a number of universities. As a result, the incomes were higher than in larger cities, but the cost of living lower. That explained the high fashion and nicer cars. The high tech region of this technology zone was like a miniature Silicon Valley.

I also witnessed a loss of face today during the technology sector presentation. “Face” is very important to the Chinese people. For Westerners, “Face” is like your reputation or image. If someone embarrassed you in public, for example, you would lose face and they would lose face because they caused the embarrassment. Great care was taken in the Chinese society to not lose face or cause someone else to lose face. Well, as I mentioned, it happened today. Before the presentation, the host put some attending engineers and support staff from the Dalong company on the spot and asked them to introduce themselves in English. The employees didn’t speak strong English and were clearly caught offguard. You could tell it was unexpected of them and they were very uneasy trying to give an impromptu introduction in a second language. Because they were embarrassed, they lost face and the host lost face by placing them in that situation. I felt so bad for the employees. It was painful to watch them struggle through their introduction and the loss of face was magnified because it occurred in the presence of foreigners.

I guess I hadn't really thought of China as a developing country because of all of the economic growth I've witnessed in the large cities. After viewing the living conditions of the general population and the predominate use of bicycles as a mode of transportation, I realized that it is a developing country although it's developing at a very rapid pace. The bicycles are a necessity because most Chinese can not afford a car. We are visiting the more affluent cities and there are still a ton of bicycles. I’m told that they are even more abundant in the rural areas. The area and population in the rural part of the country far outnumber the residents living in the city. People have wondered why or how China fell behind the rest of the world in some aspects. Especially when its ancient civilization was so much more advanced compared to the rest of the world at the time. The reason is that China endured some civil wars and external conflicts that set the country back. The opium wars ravaged the country and soured it so badly against Western trade that China essentially became self sufficient and shut off its borders to the rest of the world. So while the rest of the world industrialized and grew, China continued to isolate itself and missed out on that growth and development. After the cultural revolution, leaders implemented the open door policy and resumed trade with other nations. After decades of isolation, the country is still trying to make up for lost time.

Our final stop of the day was to Northwest University. We met with the dean and some students. Although we required a translator to facilitate communication, I thought it went very well. The translator did an excellent job comprehending and conveying the information to both sides. I learned that there were many similarities in college life and the duties of the professor in both the U.S. and China. One difference, however, was that most of the college students in attendance wanted a government position after graduation. I don’t think that ranks high on American college graduates list of dream jobs. In China, government jobs are still held in high esteem. Teaching was also popular among the young women. We also learned that the government no longer paid for college. Parents were responsible for footing the bill and many had to save a lifetime to afford it. Graduates were also no longer guaranteed a job. It is a competitive job market so they have to sell themselves in the marketplace. Is it me or do the perks of living in a communist nation seem to be dwindling?