PSU Magazine Winter 2001

AUMNI ASSOCIATION N E W S Amazing contrasts seen in China on alumni tour Pat Squire (kneeling, second from right) led friends and alumni of PSU on a tour of China during November. They enjoyed the music played by the man pictured below, in an area that was once forbidden to most people. By Pat Squire China is a country of great beauty and contrasts. That's what a PSU alumni tour group of the People's Republic of China discovered during a three-week trip in November. I led 34 alums and friends of the University on a journey that started in Beijing and ended in Hong Kong. We covered over 3,000 miles by plane, bus, boat, and train. "Tianan– men Square looks so lively, with kites flying next to bright red Chinese flags. It's hard to believe it was a place of protests and violence," said Susan Mattson Delaney '69, '75. Next to the public square is the For– bidden City, now swarming with tourists, but once a very private place 20 PSU MAGAZINE WINTER 2001 for emperors and their familie . And the Temple of Heaven, where emper– ors prayed in seclusion, is now an area where the elder generation gather each morning to socialize, play cards, make music, and trade storie . Visiting Chinese people in their homes and students in their schools was a favorite part of the trip for Bev Pratt Miller '74. "We felt very wel– come in our host's home. She was gra– cious and charming and pleased to share food and tea with us. And the children were delightful, just like ours." "We marveled at the ancient tombs housing the Terra Cotta Warriors," said Bill Long '71, '79. Buried near Xian as part of Emperor Qin Shi Huang's tomb in the second century B.C., and discovered by farmers in 1974, the site was excavated to show– ca e the life-size warriors and their horses and armor. The mausoleum is now a major tourist site and consid– ered an eighth wonder of the world. Justifiably so, thought Long. Life on the Yangtze was different from the big cities. We enjoyed a leisurely pace as the riverboat cruised up the brown river, which would remain shallow until summer's rainy season. We were awed at the Three Gorges Dam project, designed to solve navigation and flooding problems and to deliver much-needed water to northern China. The Three Gorges are more graceful and le s geometric than our beloved Columbia Gorge, and seem perpetually shrouded in mist and fog. Their beauty is captured in countless Chinese drawings, watercol– ors, illustrations and scrolls. Dirce Toulan liked the Lesser Three Gorges. While smaller and less fre– quented, they are stunningly beautiful and have the remnants of remarkable ancient towpaths carved into the rock face of the gorge. With the dam pro– ject, we all pondered what would hap– pen to the scenic beauty and archeological sites, ome of which would be permanently altered and ub– merged by the high waters from the dam. Our boat stopped at city after city, each one registering millions of peo– ple, and each having its own contrasts: farmers' markets overflowing with fresh vegetables and a KFC just a block away, and vendors hawking cheap wares down the street from stores with designer jewelry and cloth– ing. Nearly every day on the journey we were warmly welcomed by the people we met amid the triking contrast of old and new resulting from rapid growth and change. "A once-in-a-life– time trip," said Bob Rawson '58, "and part of it was a re ult of a great group of traveling companions." For information about future trips of the Alumni Office, call 503-725- 4949 or see our Web site at www.alumni.pdx .edu. (Pat Squire is director of P U Alumni Relations. This was her second visit to China.)