The People’S Republic of China: Beyond Research

By Lin Sartori

Luxuriate in five star hotels and walk down glamorous boulevards in huge cities where fashionably dressed citizens chase the yuan and where glitzy high rise projects dominate the skyline, as the author, Lin Sartori, shares the stories and photographs of her trip to The People's Republic of China. Transport back in time, in a slow train, through one of the minority provinces, passing pastures of river buffalo, majestic mountains, and farming communes that look, from a distance, like the terraced hills of Italy's countryside.

The casual traveler can witness China dealing with food quality, environmental issues, basic hygiene, education, and routine medical care for those who have in the past taken a back seat to huge government projects. In this land of dichotomy, of the haves and the have nots, meet the new emerging middle class who lives in hope, watching proudly over their only child.

View the world from the heights of the Great Wall and be amazed at an Emperors audacious army of Terracotta Warriors. Immerse yourself in the beauty of Chinas culture and landscapes. Join the adventure as Lin Sartori shares her daily experiences in her travel journal of The Peoples Republic of China, Beyond Research.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 31, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468584646

Lin Sartori

Lin Sartori taught English at high schools in New England and is a former banker. Her first novel, The Nanchang Connection, drew audiences who wanted to talk about their experiences in China, as tourists, businessmen, and teachers of English. Her youngest daughter's Peace Corps assignment to The People's Republic of China finally convinced the author to make the trip. Share her stories as she travels through China as a tourist and then a guest at a Peace Corps sight. Lin Sartori resides with her husband on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where there is a flourishing art and political scene. Instead of retiring to Florida in the winter, she, her husband and daughter share half of a Victorian, commune style, in Boston, with cats.

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© 2012 LIN SARTORI. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 05/07/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4685-8464-6 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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HOW I GOT TO WANT TO GO TO CHINA

April 7-26, 2011

In 1997 I had ended a career in banking and was looking forward to teaching English in a small Catholic high school in New Britain, Connecticut. The experience was more than I expected. Part of the love of being a teacher, for me, besides working with bright and engaging teenagers, was the renewed love of literature and an invigorated sense of curiosity.

As part of my morning ritual, I read the newspaper where I noticed there were frequent stories about the People’s Republic of China. My curiosity was aroused. Knowing little about a country that seemed to be having more and more global influence, I began to read books about its history, and political structure. I read novels so that I could get a feel for the Chinese psyche, articles for topical issues, travel guides for an understanding of their land and culture, and watched Chinese movies with subtitles so that I could hear the language. I became fascinated with the era from the Revolution to the present.

About a year later, I started a novel. Playing with story ideas had enabled me to survive many less than erudite staff meetings at work and characters and plots would emerge as I drifted to sleep at night. One story in particular was begging to be put to paper. It was The Nanchang Connection. What English major can resist the idea of writing a novel? The background, I decided, would be set primarily in China and New York City’s Chinatown. But, alas, teaching, planning lessons, correcting papers, and advising on various extracurricular activities, along with the responsibilities of home and family, were easy distractions. I envy the writer with self-discipline. I put the fifty or so pages aside.

My interest in reading about China continued over the next decade and I would occasionally pick up the manuscript of The Nanchang Connection and add a character, or a scene. In 2009, I completed the final draft, edited with the help of my husband, and self-published it. To recoup the cost of printing, I began a book tour the following summer. I don’t know that anyone in the audiences actually read my book, but I suspect by the conversations that followed, they saw my presentation as an opportunity to talk about their own trips to China. Inevitably, someone would ask if I had ever been to China and I had to admit that my only experience with the country was through research. I compared absence of first-hand knowledge of China with the romance writer who researches and writes a story set in the 17th century without actually having been there. It was a weak statement as I could visit China, whereas time travel, as far as I know, is not possible.

However, the impetus for finally making that grueling fourteen hour flight to the other side of the world was not in fact to verify my research, a frightening notion as the book was already out there. It was not even to get street creds for my book talks. Rather, it was because in 2009, my younger daughter announced that she was tired of part time jobs in Boston and wanted something more challenging. A friend who had served in the Peace Corps suggested that she look into this organization. Doubting that she had the background or skills they needed, she went on a whim to the recruiting office where she was told that China was inviting the Peace Corps to send volunteers to teach English literature and writing at their minority colleges. The assignment required a Masters in English, which my daughter had recently completed.

It took almost a year to get through the bureaucracy and begin her assignment. During this time, she tutored adults in Chinatown in Boston. Finally, it was June and she flew off to Chengdu, the Peace Corps’ training center in the People’s Republic of China. After three months learning basic Mandarin, she was sent to Duyun in the province of Guizhou where the locals speak a dialect. Oh, well. My daughter loves her job and her students and is traveling in her spare time to other countries in the East, like Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia.

I send my daughter packages of goodies to remind her that her home is still here and we talk via Skype. But, you can’t hug a computer. So, when my husband and I drew up a list of places we wanted to visit in our retirement, we put China on the top of the list and visited it this year. We toured Beijing and Xi’an, stayed with our daughter in Duyun, sharing her Peace Corps experience and meeting her support group, and completed our tour in Guilin and Shanghai. We saw sights of awesome human endeavor that pictures can never capture, though we took over one thousand. Throughout our travels in this vast country, we were surrounded by the hospitality and friendship of the Chinese people who have shed their Mao uniform, but not a lingering awe of the man. We felt their zest for life and saw the hope for the future in their faces. I’m especially glad we were on our own in Duyun as we experienced China from a vastly different perspective than when we restricted ourselves to fancy hotels and guided tours in premier cities.

Note: For reasons of privacy, I will refer to my younger daughter as PC (Peace Corps) daughter and my older daughter as TC (Traveling Companion) daughter.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6: FROM CAPE COD, MA, TO NEWARK, NJ

I, my husband and our older daughter share a journey and see the People’s Republic of China, stopping to see a special Peace Corps volunteer along the way, my younger daughter. In this journal, I will share the experience.

Today has been a dry run for the time when we are no longer able to drive and still want to travel. We leave the car behind and take public transportation whenever we can. We know that cabs on the Cape and in Boston will be expensive, but they are also convenient and pleasant. Michael and I take a taxi to the P&B bus at the Route 6 Burger King stop to South Station in Boston. I love the P&B because it is the bus line that has in the past brought both our daughters for visits from Boston to Cape Cod.

From South Station, we take a taxi to our daughter’s apartment in Boston. As we have an early morning flight, we decided to stay in Boston overnight. Our driver is a sweetheart who indulges me with lighthearted conversation. At our daughter’s apartment, we are directed to her bedroom where we dump our bags. Our daughter will take the couch. What a great kid. We walk to a neighborhood pizza joint for dinner and conversation. When we return from China, we will be looking for an apartment in Brighton. Just the walk to a local bistro reminds us of how much we love city life.

Note to self: Pack less on next trip.

THURSDAY, APRIL 7 AND FRIDAY, APRIL 8: GETTING TO BEIJING

We take a taxi to Logan for our connection to Newark and the straight flight to Beijing. At the airport, we do not experience any