China: Beyond the Great Wall radio documentary airs on WILL-AM

The full radio documentary produced by the Destination China team aired on WILL-AM this week.  You can listen to both Part One and Part Two here:

Title: China: Beyond the Great Wall

Part One (57:06): RealAudio archive  |  MP3 download

Part Two (57:19): RealAudio archive  |  MP3 download

China: A Look Back

As the eldest student on the Destination China adventure, I didn’t anticipate the trip would have the significant impact on me that it did.  Sure, I expected to see and experience many things—new food, new culture, architecture, history.  I didn’t realize that I’d feel so differently about my perspective on China.  In fact to me, the bottom line of this adventure and course has been that most Americans don’t see China for what it really is—a growing, vibrant and historic country with interesting people and places that is definitely finding its way in the new world. 

I fear China is underappreciated.  Far too many Americans see it as backward, communist supressed-nation with a Great Wall and slow economy.  Indeed, there is a Great Wall and communist leaders still rule, but there is little evidence of that regime to a visitor.  The economy is definitely not slow and the people are not as backward or slow as many might think.  China may be considered a developing nation and economy, but it is finding its way quickly. 

Like most of us on the trip, we were anxious to return to Illinois to our families and friends and more familiar food and faces.  However, I think we’d also agree China has a great many stories to tell to the world.  During our two week visit, we saw just a tiny part of this gigantic, heavily populated country.  Parts of all of us wanted to stay in Shanghai and Beijing to explore the big cities more, to meet more people, to tell more stories. 

Three places I visited had a great impact on me:  The Bund in Shanghai and its magnificent view of the Pudong district; the Great Wall of course; and journalstically, the NBC News Bureau in Beijing.     

Busy producers and researchers at the NBC News bureau in Beijing, China

My most surreal China moment

I’ve been told that it happens to many westerners, especially in the smaller Chinese cities that don’t get many tourists, But even the focus of my main story, kung fu student Demitri Daniels, says this has never happened to him to this extent before.  Before last week, that is.

As we were walking down the street in Dengfeng, a group of teenage and twentysomething girls waved wildly at us and motioned us into their place of business, a foot massage shop. (Now before I continue, I have to say that the place looked legit, and as far as I know we were not offered anything beyond a massage - in fact, I don’t think they even mentioned foot massages.)  They just wanted to take pictures of me and Demitri because we were non-Asian.  Many, many pictures, with one girl or with a group of girls, usually with them holding up their hands in a “V for victory”-type pose that I’ve seen many other Chinese photo subjects do.  And as you can hear in the audio clip below, they were pretty happy to see us. 

I had my camera with me, but I was so overwhelmed I didn’t take any snapshots of my own, darn it.  I’m amazed that people can be so fascinated by people who don’t look or speak like them.

Audio of our chance encounter:
Click to experience this media file | Right-click to download

A good meal...an unfair price?

On this last day of our trip, we’re regretting that we didn’t learn about this restaurant much earlier. 

Michael Koliska discovered this place a couple of days ago, and I ate there for the first time last night.  It was so good—and much of our contingent agrees—that a group of us ate there again tonight.  It sits smack in the middle of the Beijing Institute of Technology campus, amid a group of similar small eateries and stores.  You could call it a Chinese Campustown.

Here is a bit of what we ordered:

Four entrees (a fifth arrived soon after) plus two Cokes, a bottle of water and a 600ml bottle of beer.  Tea was complimentary, and Chinese custom discourages tipping.  The tab: 43 yuan.  At today’s exchange rate: $5.62.  That’s $1.41 per person.  It’s the most egregious example of a pattern: food prices in China are nowhere near US prices, except for the bars and restaurants in tourist areas.  This is a story we did not cover.  It’d be an interesting one to pursue.

The food was excellent, even though the menu is written only in Chinese and we limited our choices to the items that have pictures on the menu.  We’d have never gone there without Michael’s snap decision because it’s a real hole in the wall.  So real that the wall has a hole.

The name of our favorite greasy chopstick?  Well, we don’t really know.  Below is the name as written by the waitstaff.  If you know Chinese, get us a Pinyin name and a translation! 

NBC News Beijing

Several of us toured the NBC News Beijing bureau on our last full day in China.  The bureau is located on the diplomatic compound in the heart of the city.  Eric Baculinao has been the bureau chief since the early 1980s. He oversees two producers, one correspondent and three or four researchers.  Correspondent Mark Mullen spent a good half hour with us, talking about covering China and the rest of Asia and a little bit about the News division plans for the 2008 Olympics.  Mullen told us the bureau feeds most stories back to the states via a broadband connection, not satellite.  Using a satellite requires use of the nearby CCTV facilities, which are state run.  Mullen produces pieces for the Today Show, NBC Nightly News, CNBC and MSNBC.  He said China recently approved press freedoms opening many previously closed doors for international journalists.  For example, foreign journalists previously had to seek permission or approval for some interviews and to travel within the country. 

UI students at NBC News bureau in Beijing. L-R, Sam Unger, Ted Land, NBC News correspondent Mark Mullen, John Paul, Tom Rogers of WILL-AM 580, Liz Murray and Bureau chief Eric Baculinao.