china makes me feel creepy

...and i don't know why, but perhaps it's that i just finished teaching (and learning...just ahead of the kids) about the cultural revolution, the long march, the 5 year plan, and the fact that mao killed more of his own people during that time than all the casualties lost during world war ii, combined from all countries involved! ...some 40 million are the estimates. but, all that aside, i've never been in a country that censors its people. i had never been blocked from facebook and my blog before, but now know what it must have felt like...albeit on a grander scale...when the journalists were being blocked during last year's olympics. the city of beijing is beautiful, but it's all so new and fresh and clean that it felt artificial. i can't say enough niceties about the people, however and that's what gave me the best feeling. people were friendly, polite, hospitable and unobtrusive. a friend i made while working in nepal...wenddy house elementary school...now lives in beijing. her name is miao...like the cat sound...and her fiance, well, we never did figure out his name, so just called him 'yo' and later gave him the english name of 'jackson'. but they came to our hotel 2 different nights to pick us up and take us out. the first night we ate at a local joint and the first thing plopped on the table was tripe...eww, but i ate some anyways and with the sauce it wasn't bad...reminded me of namibia and the goat 'parts' i was 'honored' to sample for my birthday. we had delightful conversation and once you get them out of public ear shot, they will tell you that they would like a democracy and more freedoms. people from one province cannot travel to another province without great difficulty. even miao...she lived in the province beijing is in and she had to get special permission to come into the city. seriously... i guess it's to try and control everyone flocking to the cities and creating kathmandus all over the place, but still. for her to have gone to nepal is a really big deal...most chinese never leave their district. the second night they researched and took us to a beijing duck place. peking style food which was delicious. we enjoyed our time with them, but it was short cause she just got a new job and works till past 6. she has an hour and a half bus ride to and from work every day so we didn't want to keep her out late, but she made such a nice effort getting together with us. she is really a sweetheart and we adore her fiance...very cute. i wish i could post photos, but am having trouble condensing my files. while in beijing, we also did a lot of sight seeing. beautiful architecture from the ming dynasty was fun to imbibe, but once again, the creep factor rolled in with tiananmen square and mao's mausoleum. we walked forever just to get in the line to see his corpse lying in state...i'd say a few miles by the time we followed the hordes around the building and through the well roped off and watched area. people were like fanatics pushing and running ahead any chance they got. it was crazy like a rock concert...but it shows how the people revere mao and there's still such a cult following as china continues to progress at the expense of some of its people and environment. everywhere you went there were souvenirs of the place, but also tons of mao items. don't get me wrong, i'm not naive and understand the u.s. is no angel either and has its past...trust me... eventually though, we headed out of china and are now in hong kong for a few days. it's refreshing and alive and enjoyable. hope your days are too. gotta run. love, j