Initial Reflections on China

As I begin to post thoughts, reflections and images about China, I want to make two small disclaimers: first, I loved the trip - so anything seemingly negative I seem to write is not really negative, it is simply a darker color. Two, the reason we all traveled - the adoption - is something I cannot show pictures of. I want to respect the privacy of all the families that were with us. However, I am sure that in my more than 2000 pictures, I can find something to show and I'm sure I can find some words to put with them!

We arrived in Beijing first to an enormous and amazing airport! It has been newly built for the Olympic games and it is pretty impressive. We also arrived to a thick blanket of air pollution (which never fully left us our whole time in China) and a definite smell. Yes, China has a smell. Not bad, not great...but a smell.


My next impression was the amount of people! Everywhere we went in China there were people, people, people. I am not sure how many live in Beijing, but in Chongqing (the second city we were in), there are 30 million people! The country I was born in only has about 33 million for the WHOLE country!

The sense I got was that of being in an ant hill. If you've ever been digging in the dirt and you've dug up an ant hill, you'll understand what I'm talking about. The ants start to scurry and spread and seem to multiply on the spot, until you are sitting in a full mound of ants. That was what China was like - a constant anthill of activity, movement, busyness, and tons of people!


Along with the people come the bikes. There are thousands (actually probably millions) of them - except in Chongqing, which evidently is one of the only Chinese cities with no bicycles. They line the street, people load them down with goods, stack boxes on them and ride them everywhere. (Of course , there were a lot of cars too - and if you were lucky enough to have played Frogger (the video game) during your younger years, you had a small chance of avoiding being hit. (Evidently, the person with the biggest vehicle has the right of way in China!)




My last "first impression" of China I'll share with you from a journal entry I wrote (although I wish I had a better picture to share):

I am struck by the constant buzz and busyness here in China. Traffic is always moving, bikes are always peddling, vendors always selling. The consumerism here is appalling!! Everything can be bought in the markets for almost any price. There is stuff...stuff....stuff...

What makes a society run like this? Has communism so annihilated any spirituality that the new "religion" is materialism? Is there such a void that only more stuff - such fine and rare trumpery - can fill it? (Although perhaps we are on our way to the same "religion" in America!)