China and the White Devils in Beijing

great visit to China many years ago

I recall my first visit to China in the mid 1990's with great excitement. Since a child I had dreamt of standing on the Great Wall of China and this dream was just about to become a reality. </br></br> I flew from Edinburgh to Beijing and I remember chatting to the girl next to me who was on route to China to visit her brother and this was her first ever trip on an aeroplane!! I landed at Beijing airport and on advice from friends who were living in China and with whom I would meet up with later I went outside of the airport to get a taxi. </br></br> The journey from the airport to the hotel was memorable to say the least - hundreds of cars and bikes all jostling for space on the road. This was the days before car insurance was available and if you were unfortunate enough to be in an accident you had to pull over at the side of the road and barter with each other on the cost of damages and who was at fault. I made it safely to the hotel, which was fantastic, a Japanese – Chinese joint venture which when you looked around was, at the time, height of luxury!! The sky scrapers that now fill the skyline were nowhere to be seen and probably hadn't even been thought of yet. Excitedly I headed towards Tiananmen Square which was just a walk away. The air in the city in mid-summer seemed to hang with a mist over it. Walking to Tiananmen Square was in itself an adventure. </br></br> These were the days before Westerners had come to China in the great numbers that there are today. Being tall and very fair skinned everyone stopped to stare at me. Children would very nervously approach me and touch me or simply scream in horror at my presence. They were all recalling the stories that their parents had told them about the 'White Devils' that existed but they had never seen. </br></br> I soon got used to the stares and the screams and the never ending requests to photograph me!! I stopped in Tiananmen Square to watch the old men effortlessly flying their kites in the seemingly still air. Then a hush descended on the square and the huge doors to Tiananmen Square opened and the Red Army in all it splendour marched out as it did every evening amid the cheers of the awaiting crowd – was this really the actions of an oppressed nation?

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