9th-12th-Lancers - Year 1985 - Page 0111
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| Regiment | 9th/12th Lancers |
|---|---|
| Year | 1985 |
| Transcription |
scenery while the “Old Testament prophet from Nam” seemed just the suit of person the Intelligence Corps NCO was warning me against. So I went alone. The lakes are very beautiful, there are summer houses, pavilions, bridges, and the lakes them- selves are covered in lilies. A crowd of assorted Chinese converged around me after about 30 minutes and a young man and a woman asked me if I was American. On replying in the negative they asked me if they could all talk to me since they had never spoken to an Englishman before. For the next three hours they questioned me on every conceivable topic. from birth control in the West to Mrs Thatcher, and from Charles (not Hughl) Dickens to my views on Russia. This was the first occasion on which I had met Chinese people within China and one's abiding impression is of a friendly, civilized people who are patriotic, simple but also not very materialistic. They are also extremely friendly to the West and paranoicly afraid of the Russians. After a day in Hangchow we departed by train to Shanghai. The Americans taking copious notes, filled pages of diaries, the former colonial: altemative- ly ”doe eyed" and American baiting with the Naru lunatic quoting from Elijah. inaccurately. I moved into a separate carriage. first class, read a book and looked at the scenery. Shanghai. the great industrial port of China is immense, sprawling, noisy and bustling. We were taken to a school. an exhibition of crafts, yet mother school, a carpet making factory and a hospital which would have shocked the Regimental Medical Officer. It was interesting to watch acupuncture. We were also taken for Iboat ride on the Yangtze River. The next five days were the climax of the tour. We spent them in Peking. 0n the first day we paid a courtesy visit to Chairman Mao‘s mausoleum. THE 9TH/ lZTH ROYAL LANCERS REGIMENTAL JOURNAL Chinese infant \ehtml mining the clmrux ot’thc "Blaydon Races" I was delighted to be ushered through to the inner sanctum and to see the Great Dictator lying in a glass coffin. Those with weak stomachs should visit after breakfast. The Chairman is no Sleeping Beauty. The embalming of the octogenarian was carried out at the wrong temperature and I fear that I offended the guide by informing her that over the next decade the Chairman’s face would turn black, unless extra formalin was inserted. During the five days, we saw the Forbidden City, a 250 acre complex, of Palaces from which the successive dynasties governed this vast Empire. the Temple of Good Harvests, The Great Wall of China, the four miles at Badallng are heavily restored, one of the Ming tombs, the Summer Palace. most efficiently burnt by the British in 1862 and the Peking Zoo. We were also taken to yet another school and lo a collective farm on which there were 10,000 people and one tractor. China was then, and still is, in a period of transition. People seemed pleased to talk and meet foreigners. The overriding concern was never to let a ‘Gang of Four' type of Govern- ment happen again. The guides, all former members of the Red Guards. were informative but propagandist. most anxious to show the outstanding qualities and achievements of their political masters and, with nothing to compare China‘s rate of progress, almost naively boastful of the amazing incompetence and lack of technology. If you think Britain has problems. then visit China. After five days in Peking we flew to Canton. then took the train to Hong Kong. I! had been a most interesting and inexpensive holiday approximately MO per day. The Americans returned to their mid-West cities to spread the good word about the People’s Republic, the Australian and Canadian returned to their wives and their secretaries to their offices, the lunatic from Naru returned to the Old |
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