The Thing About Icebergs Is...
Here's 10% of the email travel journal S Wo kept during his recent trip to Beijing. Just landed in my inbox... and now, excerpted for your reading pleasure.

May 21... En Route to China
On-plane entertainment is an odd mix of Tom and Jerry cartoons, a Chinese documentary about Peking duck (can’t wait to try that), and a movie that is in Chinese with English subtitles, but strikes me as being of German origin—don’t ask me why. I decide to forgo all those choices and watch Master and Commander on my new PowerBook. Good choice.

May 22... Lecturing on TV News at the Beijing Broadcast Institute
George (my host) has the task of entertaining me. He has passes to allow me to use some of the campus recreational facilities. He at first suggests swimming or a massage, but I reject both of those because I don’t really feel like getting naked with him. So we settle on bowling instead.

May 24th
Add to my new food list today—chicken feet, frog, whole fish (head and all), and something that might have been monkey. I remarked to my one hosts who will come to study in Missouri for a year starting this fall that she is going to be VERY bored with the choices of beef, pork, and chicken.

My reactions on campus are mixed. I think I’m surprised at how many of these students walk right by me without a second look (aren’t I the only chubby, bearded, bald, white guy they’ve seen in person for a while?), while there are those who stop and stare at the strange spectacle of a white guy leading all these Chinese reporters around.

May 27th
We saw our first white people since Sunday. The Americans were whiny, the Germans were loud, and the French were sort of in the way.

What did surprise me is that news of what goes on in Taiwan is cut off from the Chinese people. When we were talking about tall buildings, I imagined there would be some pride in my interpreter that the tallest building in the world is now under construction in Taipei, Taiwan. After all, they see that as part of China. But instead of being proud of the feat, she knew nothing about it. She had a total blank look when I mentioned it, and then went on to say that the tallest building in the world was in Malaysia. I told her yes, it is now, but the Taipei tower will surpass it when complete. She was completely clueless. All I can figure is that the government has effectively blocked news of this to the mainland. (See my pics from Taiwan Here.)

May 29th
There is so much more I can write, but I’m not sure how much more you can read. China is a remarkable place—so different from here and yet so the same in many ways. I highly recommend travel to Beijing, and hope to see more of the country the next time I visit. You can be sure I’ll write you about it.

So long from 33,000 feet over the Pacific.